Passports - carry or not carry?

[cigloo]

Hello all,

 

Question for you. Do you carry your passport with you on all excursions or do you carry just a photo copy?

 

Not sure if we should be carrying it around with us at all times :confused:

 

Thanks,

Jennifer

[SoBaycruiser]

Hello all,

 

Question for you. Do you carry your passport with you on all excursions or do you carry just a photo copy?

 

Not sure if we should be carrying it around with us at all times :confused:

 

Thanks,

Jennifer

 

Princess told us which ports we needed to carry it and which we didn't. The only one that asked to see it was St Petersburg but there were a couple other Baltic ports in which they told us to carry it.

[LHT28]

I only take them ashore when required by the Country

 

I do have the copies I keep with me

[Ashland]

I only take them ashore when required by the Country

 

I do have the copies I keep with me

Agree...this is the advice most everyone would offer...My passport isn't something I would want to lose. The only place we have had to take it ashore with us was in St Petersburg.

[The_Big_M]

Celebrity requested that you take it with you in every port.

[hbb1504]

I did the baltic cruise last week and was told to carry my passport ashore in Berlin, Tallinn and St Petersburg. The only ports I was told my passport was not required to be taken ashore were Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm.

[John Bull]

There are pros & cons.

 

If you leave your passport in your cabin safe & miss your sailing from a port-of-call it is likely to cause complications catching up with the ship at the next port.

Not needed for playing catch-up between two "Schengen" countries - for a Baltic cruise that's every country except Russia & the UK. But you will need photo ID if catch-up involves a flight.

Theoretically if you fail to return to the ship when it's ready to leave, on most ships the crew will search your cabin - particularly the safe - and hand over passports to the port agent before casting off or via the pilot's boat. The port agent will also help you (at your expense) to arrange documentation/accommodation/travel to catch up with the ship. So carry the agent's contact details (in ship's newspaper). A photocopy of your passport isn't a legal document, but the information - number, issue date, etc will speed up an emergency document.

 

If you take your passport ashore & its lost or stolen you will have problems at any subsequent ports where it's required, & at the end of the cruise for travel home. If it falls into the wrong hands of course its an ideal tool for identity theft & can cause future problems for both you & your country's border authorities. Passports are bought & sold within the criminal fraternity for a lot of money.

 

The prospects of your passport going missing ashore are much more likely than missing your sailing (did some research on this a while back, lost/stolen passports outnumber missed sailings by something like 10 to 1), and the consequences are potentially much greater.

 

So I'm firmly in the camp of those who advise leaving passports in the cabin safe unless required.

This is also generally advised by cruise lines.

So The Big M's post surprised me. :confused:

Celebrity's advice is actually to take ashore a photocopy, not the original.

This from their website:

Depending on your itinerary, the ship may collect your passport to speed up the clearance formalities at each port of call. We suggest you bring with you a few photocopies of your passport's personal page which includes the picture, and that you carry one of these photocopies with you each time you leave the ship.

 

JB :)

[Keith1010]

Jennifer, often the cruise line holds your passport.

 

However if they don't my recommendation is to leave it on the ship. I truly believe that you have a far greater chance of losing or having your passport stolen than any benefit of having it with you.

 

Like JB said, I would carry passport photos and a copy with you. While the copy isn't valid it will help facilitate getting a new passport should you require one.

 

There are only a few ports where we are required to carry passports and obviously in those situations we do.

 

Keith

[dogs4fun]

We needed our passports for SPB & Tallinn (where they asked to see our passports before reentering the port area). Left them in our cabin safe in all other ports.

[The_Big_M]

So The Big M's post surprised me. :confused:

Celebrity's advice is actually to take ashore a photocopy, not the original.

This from their website:

Depending on your itinerary, the ship may collect your passport to speed up the clearance formalities at each port of call. We suggest you bring with you a few photocopies of your passport's personal page which includes the picture, and that you carry one of these photocopies with you each time you leave the ship.

 

JB :)

 

That may be on their web site, but we often see differences between the site and what you are told onboard.

[CruiserBruce]

Was just in the Baltic last month on Holland America. For the Baltic, the only time our passport left the cabin safe was for St Petersburg. None of the rest of the Countries- Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland or Germany required our passport.

 

For the Norway/British Isles portion, Scotland required seeing everyone's passport in person. For Ireland, passports were collected by the ship, and returned the last day we were in Ireland. We never took them off the ship, but, to our surprise, collected an Irish stamp.

[cigloo]

Thank you!!!!

 

All so helpful and much appreciated :D

[Jonza]

Here you can check the actual legislation regarding border crossings in the Shengen zone. Cruise ship specific rules are on page 27 of the document.

 

You are required to carry a valid travel document (passport etc.) even when crossing from a Shengen country to another one. As the rules state "an assessment of the risks related to internal security and illegal immigration" based on the passenger list and other info determines weather or not a Shengen state carries out border checks on passengers going ashore. The default is not to check when the last port is inside the Shengen zone and to check when it is outside the zone. However the current practice seems to be not check at all.

 

However this does mean that though extremely unlikely, cruise ship passengers going ashore (and back to ship when leaving for a non-Shengen port) may be subject to checks if customs or border patrol has reason to believe that someone onboard is trying to smuggle something into the country or is attempting to enter the country illegally.

 

I do agree that the passport is probably the most important document you have with you and you should take good care of it, but the reason you have the passport is to be legally able to enter a foreign country. Not to mention the fact that in case there was a check and you did not have your passport, unless let off with a warning you would be facing a hefty fine (or deportation if your right to be inside the shengen zone could not be proven). At least here in Finland people are occasionally fined 400 € for visiting Estonia on a ferry without a passport and hitting a spot check on the way home

[Ashland]

I did the baltic cruise last week and was told to carry my passport ashore in Berlin, Tallinn and St Petersburg. The only ports I was told my passport was not required to be taken ashore were Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm.

Tallinn :confused:

[Giantfan13]

So, I gather, we are different. We take our passports with us everytime we dissembark the ship in a port other than the US.

 

That's just how we feel. We feel more secure having them and not needing them then the other way around. We have a very secure place for them so they will never get stolen or lost. We feel that God forbid,, something happens, even getting into an accident, getting hurt, whatever, it's better to have this item with us than a piece of paper.

 

Again that's just us, and how we feel most comfortable. If others feel differently that's also fine by us.

 

 

Cheers

 

Len

[piper28]

We had a number of ports on our Baltic cruise that Princess specifically put in a note in the Patter saying that passengers were required to carry their passports in that port. I'd say it was about 50% of the ports on the cruise. However, the only ports where they were actually checked were St Petersburg and Amsterdam. (Amsterdam they actually checked getting back on the ship, not when we went on shore.)