Surrender The Passport

[Oceans&Rivers]

What about passengers on other lines like Princess and Holland America? Do they also surrender their passports?

 

I have never surrendered my passport to a cruise line yet, including Holland America (last summer) and Princess (not as recent) and not even on Celebrity (the line that tried the hardest to hold on to documents) and I am not looking forward to doing so in the future, especially since all the new US passports have an RFID chip in them and store huge amounts of personal data that older passports did not have. If you cruise to Canada or Mexico or the Caribbean, you still have some time before the 2009 deadline before you absolutely must use a passport for ocean travel to nearby foreign ports. If you take your certified birth certificate with you (and supporting documents and picture ID), you don't absolutely need to take your passport with you this year for those ports of call in the Western Hemisphere.

 

However, we have not cruised in or to distant foreign ports so far, though we have travelled independently on land abroad. I have had foreign hotels ask to hold onto my passport even years ago, but I said they could see it, but not store it, and they have complied.

 

I know, the days are numbered, but I prefer to hold on to my own passport, too.

[sunlover12]

We were on a Princess cruise to Scandinavia, Poland, Estonia and Russia. The cruise line did not take our passports EVER. We were told to carry them with us in each country.

 

We were on the Regatta in August of this year and Oceania did collect our passports. It was because the St. Petersburg immigration officials requires each passenger to present his passport AND a copy of it (which they keep). Oceania made a copy of everyone's passport just to make sure we all had it. Before we got to St. Petersburg, we got our passports back and kept them ourselves for the rest of the cruise. Don't worry - Oceania takes good care of your passport!

[gr8aunt]

I don't know if Oceania now gives a receipt when you surrender your passport, but maybe you should request one. On my last voyage with O there was a mixup at the desk and the woman swore she didn't have my niece's and my passports. They did eventually turn up, but if they didn't, it would have been my word against hers. Every other cruise line gives a receipt when passports are surrendered. I can certainly appreciate whey you have to turn over your passport, but I do think, since they are soooo important, a receipt should be given. Just my thoughts.

[PurpleCow]

I've not been much concerned about letting the purser hold my passport, but now that I've had the experience of having to put our passports in the mail in order to get visas, and worried almost daily until they were returned I'm REALLY not concerned. At least they're on the ship with me and not out there somewhere in an envelope . . .

[meow!]

Perhaps we are missing something. For our cruises, be it Oceania, Celebrity or Silversea, to Alaska, or Panama Canal, or British Isles or West or East Mediterranean, we gave the respective cruise lines our passports, didn't get any receipt, and took our passports back the day before disembarkation! Nobody told us otherwise, was there something wrong?

 

P.S. Unless the cruise line told us to take them back because some ports might require them in order to go ashore.

[ClaudiaF]

You have ti9me now to get extra pages put into your passports. Go to the post office and ask them for the form for added pages to a passport. Fill it out and send it and your passport to the address given; ask the post office for the best way to send it to protect it and you. If you do it now, you will probably get your passports back within 2-3 weeks. This isn't their busiest time of year!

Also, I carry 2 copies of a passport picture in my money pouch in case I need a new passport; some people I know had their passports stolen while we were overseas. It was quicker getting a new passport.

Judy

 

 

If you check online there are companies that can add pages to your passport with a rush , so you can get it back in a day or two.

 

Check out rushmypassport.com

If you are out of the country and run out of pages you can be denied entry into some places..so wise to check out adding pages. I read that if you are out of the country you can go to the American citizen services desk at a US embassy or consulate. Fill out a short form, and in about 30 minutes you'll have additional pages added to your passport..but I for one wouldn't want to have to do that.:o

[ClaudiaF]

I have never surrendered my passport to a cruise line yet, including Holland America (last summer) and Princess (not as recent) and not even on Celebrity (the line that tried the hardest to hold on to documents) and I am not looking forward to doing so in the future, especially since all the new US passports have an RFID chip in them and store huge amounts of personal data that older passports did not have. If you cruise to Canada or Mexico or the Caribbean, you still have some time before the 2009 deadline before you absolutely must use a passport for ocean travel to nearby foreign ports. If you take your certified birth certificate with you (and supporting documents and picture ID), you don't absolutely need to take your passport with you this year for those ports of call in the Western Hemisphere.

 

However, we have not cruised in or to distant foreign ports so far, though we have travelled independently on land abroad. I have had foreign hotels ask to hold onto my passport even years ago, but I said they could see it, but not store it, and they have complied.

 

I know, the days are numbered, but I prefer to hold on to my own passport, too.

 

 

The ship will hold your passport.

[meow!]

ClaudiaF: So nice to see you reappear on this board. We hope you can find time to read our thread http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=869685 Any comments?

[Suzanne92677]

They always have taken our passport. They need it at the different ports. I always make copies of my passport and place it in different luggage, just incase something gets lost. I did not need my copy at all of the trip. When we entered Monaco they let us pickup our passport as we would need it to go into the Casino. Then we returned it upon returning. Hope this helps.