Baltic Cruise Passport Question

[ChevyCruiser]

Question for you experienced Baltic cruisers on Royal.

 

Does Royal confiscate your passport during any portion of the Baltic itinerary? Specifically, do they confiscate your passport and then send you ashore without it - such as in Russia?

 

Here's what the appendix to RCI 2010-2011 Travel Agent Guide says about your passport (my bolds):

 

"Royal Caribbean International strongly recommends that all guests travel with a valid passport during their cruise. This greatly assists guests who may need to fly out of the United States to meet their ship at the next available port should they miss their scheduled embarkation in a U.S. port; guests entering the U.S. at the end of their cruise; and guests needing to fly to the U.S. before their cruise ends, because of medical, family, personal or business emergencies, missing a ship's departure from a port of call, involuntary disembarkation from a ship due to misconduct, or other reasons.

Guests who need to fly to the United States before their cruise ends will likely experience significant delays and complications related to booking airline tickets and entering the United States if they do not have a valid U.S. passport with them."

The way I read the above, it looks like RCI is telling me to keep my passport on me in case of emergency, but then they try to confiscate it prior to some ports. I am reluctant to turn over my passport to ship's personnel and then go ashore without it. I've put up a fuss on board and have been told that it's OK to go ashore with a COPY of my passport - to which I replied "Great, how about I settle my sea pass account with a COPY of my money?"

[uksimonusa]

Question for you experienced Baltic cruisers on Royal.

 

Does Royal confiscate your passport during any portion of the Baltic itinerary? Specifically, do they confiscate your passport and then send you ashore without it - such as in Russia?

 

Here's what the appendix to RCI 2010-2011 Travel Agent Guide says about your passport (my bolds):

 

"Royal Caribbean International strongly recommends that all guests travel with a valid passport during their cruise. This greatly assists guests who may need to fly out of the United States to meet their ship at the next available port should they miss their scheduled embarkation in a U.S. port; guests entering the U.S. at the end of their cruise; and guests needing to fly to the U.S. before their cruise ends, because of medical, family, personal or business emergencies, missing a ship's departure from a port of call, involuntary disembarkation from a ship due to misconduct, or other reasons.

 

Guests who need to fly to the United States before their cruise ends will likely experience significant delays and complications related to booking airline tickets and entering the United States if they do not have a valid U.S. passport with them."

 

The way I read the above, it looks like RCI is telling me to keep my passport on me in case of emergency, but then they try to confiscate it prior to some ports. I am reluctant to turn over my passport to ship's personnel and then go ashore without it. I've put up a fuss on board and have been told that it's OK to go ashore with a COPY of my passport - to which I replied "Great, how about I settle my sea pass account with a COPY of my money?"

 

It's not RCI, it's the immigration dept of the countries concerned, that regulate how passports are presented to them. If you do happen to miss the ship, they will leave your passport with their port agent so that you can fly on and meet the ship. They will not leave you stranded without a passport

[pcur]

This happened to me cruising in Australia: they kept our passports. I was not happy with that, since my passport was my only form of ID with me. I always take two now, but keep the passport with me at all times unless they have to keep it for the local authorities.

 

But, if I don't have the passport with me I also keep a color photocopy of the photo and identification pages. Actually, the copy is always in my travel purse, so it's there no matter what. It's not good for any official purpose, but to get the real one from the port authority if I missed the ship, or get a replacement from a US embassy somewhere, it's a handy way to prove the passport is mine.

[CCJack]

For our rcl cruise that stopped in croatia and slovenia, they did confiscate passports for one of the stops....i think it was croatia.. There was also a difference on when it was returned based on your citizenship. U.s. Citizens got them returned sooner than others. Perhaps one country required confiscation for all passengers and another country required confiscation only for non u.s. citizens

[MS52]

We cruised the Baltic last summer and we were in possession of our passports at all times.

 

We cruised the Greek Islands the summer before and the cruise ship kept out passports. When it came time to give them back we were told to go to a lounge and pick them up. They were on a table for you to claim yours. No one was checking to be sure you picked up the right one. I wasn't too happy about that. But all ended okay.

[joandian]

We sailed on Celebrity to the Baltic in 2010 and never had to hand over our passport. The only place we had to go through immigration was in St Petersburg and it was quick and painless. We also had to show our passports to leave the terminal in Dubrovnik (RCI Cruise) but there was no formal immigration process.

 

Expect for the instances above, where we were told we needed our passports, we always leave them locked in our cabin safe when we go ashore. We do have colour photocopies we keep in our wallets in case of an emergency.

 

Actually in all our cruises, the only time our passports (Aussie passport) have been held is when we cruised in the Caribbean.

[Pumbaamd]

We stopped in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on Voyager this fall, no one requested our passports.

Rick and Deirdra

[ChevyCruiser]

Thanks for all of your replies and information. I travel with a color copy of my passport and I've emailed myself a copy of it as well, but just as backups. Nothing works better than the real thing when Murphy's Law kicks in.

[tactic]

Never had our passports taken from us, the only place we have had to show them to immigration was in St Petersburg and as someone said earlier it was a quick process, basically just to stamp passport- however, we had a ship shore excursion booked - know there are issues regarding visas if you don't take a shore ex from ship - we have UK passports

 

We never carry our passports with us as a rule, however in Amsterdam last weekend whilst we were on a cruise (not RCCL) we had Dutch immigration on the ship to check passports as we boarded after day ashore. The ship did tell us this would be the case and to take passports with us

[SargassoPirate]

I've had my passport confiscated by ship's personnel prior to docking in Ireland. I was told by the ship staff that it was OK to go ashore in Ireland without my passport. I told the staffer that was odd, since I needed my passport when I landed in Shannon airport two weeks earlier.

 

Apparently, the ship gathered all of the passports and then Ireland immigration officials came on-board to do whatever they do with them. Makes ZERO sense to me. What good does it do to "examine" a passport without the person present and already ashore? I suspect the immigration officials prefer this way since the ship treats them to a free lunch in the Windjammer instead of having to sit in a booth on shore all day and look at the passports as people disembark for the day.;)

 

I think next time I'll hand over an expired passport and see what they do with that.:eek: