Customs check in Europe

[hillbil]

-do they have any kind of customs/security check when disembarking from ships to visit Mediteranean countries? Do folks normally take their passports at each port from Barcelona to Venice?

Thanks,

hillbil

[mahdnc]

We sailed in the other direction aboard Millennium in June, going from Venice to Barcelona. Celebrity always recommended that you bring your SeaPass card and a photo ID. So we brought our driver's license and left our passports in our cabin safe. Even then, the only ID check we encountered was at Dubrovnik where a policeman boarded our shuttlebus before we were allowed to leave the pier.

 

When we disembarked in Barcelona, we never had to clear customs or immigration presumably because our sailing was within the EU (Croatia notwithstanding).

 

We did not encounter any formal security checks that I can recall when getting off the ship. On the other hand you had to go thru security screens/checks when reboarding the ship.

[BurBunny]

Celebrity always recommended that you bring your SeaPass card and a photo ID. So we brought our driver's license and left our passports in our cabin safe.

 

Unless it's necessary to carry your passport, it's best to leave it in your safe. However, I carry my passport info with me as my picture ID.

 

A few years ago, I made a reduced black & white copy (67% - generally the biggest reduction on most average copy machines) of the front page of my passport. At that reduction, it's almost perfectly credit-card sized. Then I laminated it at Kinko's in one of the "luggage tag" lamination blanks (designed to turn a business card into a luggage tag" and voila! A credit-card sized picture ID with my passport info on it to assist if I need that info.

 

Over the years, I've used it without problem as my picture ID to reboard the ship, to cash traveler's checks, at banks for other transactions, as picture ID backup for credit card transactions, the required information for VAT refunds, etc. It has all the info they need, they can see it's me, and my passport and other ID stays safe back in the cabin.

[BILLP1]

Well if by chance you miss the ship and your passport sails with it oooops . Carry it or a copy with you.