Question about Passports needed for port days

[petepie]

Hello,

Planning my first cruise Southern Caribbean on the Summit and have a question about passports. We are thinking of trying to go to Anguilla for the day on the St. Maarten stop, but need our passports to get to Anguilla. Does Celebrity take the passports? If so can I get them back the night before the port visit? If not, how do you get through customs & immigration for each port visit? If the ship pulls in at 8am, do you have to wait for 3000 people to go through immigration before you can actually get going somewhere?

[WALKER1313]

Your passport would not ever be taken, if you are a US citizen.

[WALKER1313]

SHOULD never be taken

[Gonzo70]

Whether or not your passport is taken depends on what countries your cruise is visiting and what country your passport is from. If you are a U.S. citizen, your passport is held by the cruise line for many European and Middle Eastern itineraries, but I do not believe it would be held during any type of Caribbean itinerary. The ship takes care of dealing with local officials at the ports of call and having everybody cleared in the vast majority of the port calls. In a handful of countries, officials board the ship prior to your arrival and have you meet with them for clearance in advance of your arrival (i.e. for Israel, officials boarded the ship at a prior port and you met with them during a sea day the day before arriving at Israel to receive a landing card).

[Hlitner]

As Gonzo said, US Passports are taken for many cruises in Europe and Asia but it is unusual to have passports taken for Caribbean cruises. But, even if a cruise line needs to hold passenger passports (we have had this happen to us on numerous cruises) it is possible to get your passport back if needed. On most ships its simply a matter of stopping at the Guest Relations/Pursers desk and asking for your passport (we have done this many times). The normal procedure would be to give you your passport and ask that you return the passport when you come back aboard. The reason they do this is because the authorities in one or more ports have procedures where the government officials will come onboard and review various documents including some (or all) of the passenger passports. As I already said, this is not a normal thing in the Caribbean but thought it might be helpful to clarify the various procedures.

 

Hank

[petepie]

Thanks for the quick replies. So in the Caribbean, when we get off the ship, we don't go through any kind of immigration or customs ourselves at each island?

[phoenix_dream]

Thanks for the quick replies. So in the Caribbean, when we get off the ship, we don't go through any kind of immigration or customs ourselves at each island?

Have not had to do this on the 25+ caribbean cruises we have taken

[ghstudio]

Please WOULD SOMEONE MAKE A STICKY out of this topic.

[Gonzo70]

Thanks for the quick replies. So in the Caribbean, when we get off the ship, we don't go through any kind of immigration or customs ourselves at each island?

 

I have been on five Caribbean cruises and never had to do this. Never had to show my passport anywhere in the Caribbean when exiting or entering the ship. The ship will have everybody cleared with local authorities in the Caribbean without you even noticing. Sometimes you will not be able to get off the ship for 10 to 20 minutes (give or take) after docking as the ship is in the process of obtaining clearance. They will make an announcement when everybody is cleared to debark.

[FunCruiser56]

We have never had our passports taken for any Carribbean cruise. Once we get on the ship we lock them in the safe. We are iffy about carrying them with us ashore so choose to make a color copy of the photo page and carry that with us.

You will need to carry some form of ID, drivers license or something and of course your seapass card.

 

Bev

[kitty9]

Some lines take, and keep, everyone's passports regardless of where you cruise or your nationality. I've had Regent take my passport for a Caribbean cruise, Seabourn took it for a Canada/New England cruise and Crystal did for a Caribbean cruise and two Alaska cruises. Even Celebrity has taken passports from family members who are from Eastern Europe when they cruised with us in the Caribbean.

[RuffinReady]

Have not had to do this on the 25+ caribbean cruises we have taken

 

Wow! Either you love the caribbean or cruising. For me, I love cruising, and ports!. :):)

 

RuffinReady

 

Bahama Star (long time ago, in the 50's!)

S.S. France (Transatlantic -1965)

S.S Atlantic (Transatlantic, Mediterranean - American Export Lines - 1966)

Europa (Caribbean - 1969 - North German Lloyd)

Statendam (Caribbean - 1973)

Sunward (Bahamas - c. 1980)

Song of America (Caribbean - 1988)

Crown Princess (Alaska - 1999)

Crown Princess (Baltic - 2001)

Royal Princess (B2B to South America - 2001)

Royal Princess (B2B2B; Transatlantic, France, Belgium, Holland; Gt.Britain-2002)

Celebrity Galaxy (Caribbean - 2003)

Prinsendam (B2B; Transatlantic NYC to Athens – May/June 2005)

Emerald Princess (Transatlantic, Denmark, Norway, Gt. Britain, Iceland, Greenland - 2009

Celebrity Mercury (Caribbean - October 2010)

[BillB48]

With apologies to Mark Twain...... Ports, a nice cruise interrupted;)!

[Lsimon]

We've never had to carry our passports in the Caribbean. The only time I've heard of this is when one is traveling from one island to another, if the islands are in different countries - basically the situation that petepie is contemplating.

 

We've never had to go through any sort of individual immigrations clearing at any Caribbean Island nor had to present our passport to any official at all after boarding the ship. The only exception to this has been St. Thomas. I can't remember if this is still required or not, but at least for several years we were required to show up at the ship's theatre at a certain time in the morning to present our documents (passport or Birth Certificate & photo ID) to U.S. immigration officials and get individually cleared before leaving the ship in St. Thomas. I don't think we had to do this in recent years but I can't recall for certain - only that it was required for a period of years.

 

Since we are usually doing water related activities involving swimming we never take our passports on shore in the Caribbean. This is a subject that is debated a bit on these boards. The only issue is that if you missed the ship by accident or due to an emergency it could be difficult to travel without a passport. On a recent thread some reported that they thought if you miss the ship the ship security will retrieve your passport from the safe in your cabin and leave it with the port agent. I have no idea if this is accurate or not.

[BillB48]

 

we never take our passports on shore in the Caribbean. This is a subject that is debated a bit on these boards. The only issue is that if you missed the ship by accident or due to an emergency it could be difficult to travel without a passport. On a recent thread some reported that they thought if you miss the ship the ship security will retrieve your passport from the safe in your cabin and leave it with the port agent. I have no idea if this is accurate or not.

 

Without trying to start the debate of "...that's why I NEVER leave my passport on the ship," I too have read this on these boards, that the cruise line will retrieve your passport. Probably what would help in this matter is if you have the port agent's name and phone number that certainly aid in getting your passport from the cabin safe should the need arise. Of course this is all under the assumption that we are talking about responsible individuals, I just have a suspicion that most people who need their passport retrieved are probably a victim of Carlos N Charlies, Senor Frog's or some other like establishment:rolleyes::D.

 

We have not had any immigration experiences you mentioned in any of our recent trips to the VI. Seems like a good formality to be rid of!!

[hancock]

We have had to go through immigration (on the ship)with our passports in St. Thomas when arriving after having been to other(non US) islands first. It took a lot of time and caused a lot of frustration. I don't remember if the process has changed in recent years.

[LeeBe]

Have been to St. Thomas a couple of times and St. Croix once in the last two years and the ship was cleared as a whole, just like in the other Caribbean ports. The shore security did want a photo ID and sea pass to return to the ship, unlike many other places just a glance at the sea pass will do.