Private excursions..do you take your passport ashore

[pzbz]

When you go ashore on a private excursion overseas do you take your passport ashore with you?:)

[Jane2357]

Always.

[Azulann]

Never.

I keep my passport in a safe either in the hotel or in my cabin. In Europe many times the ship takes our passport for most ports. I always have a copy of the main page in my purse and my family at home also have a copy.

[Lois R]

I remember when I sailed Equinox to the Med in 2012. The ship took

our passports......so there is no way you can always take it with you.

[keesar]

Just follow the instructions in your Daily. It will have all the information.

 

If you get to keep your passport, then you generally leave it in the safe. You typically take the SeaPass card and another form of identification such as a driver's license.

 

Make sure you bring a copy of your passport on the trip.

[knittinggirl]

Also, bring a copy of Celebrity Today with you when you go ashore. It contains the port authority information that hopefully, we'll never need.

[jelayne]

Only time we take passports ashore is if the daily says to do so. Otherwise just sea pass & photo ID.

 

Just noticed on our cruise last month that the daily contained a toll free # to contact Celebrity in case of an emergency. It may have been in the daily before & I might not have noticed it. Adding that number to my phone which always goes ashore with me.

[PoppyandNana]

From day in in the early 90's we have taken our passports ashore regardless of where we are. With some minor exceptions (Caribbean) you are in a foreign country. That alone should scare the hell out of you to be ashore with only a drivers license.

 

Americans tend to think that because they are on a ship they boarded in Ft. Lauderdale it is entirely ok to go to Columbia without a passport.

 

To the local authorities you are not a passenger on a cruise ship you are simply someone who is in foreign country, THEIR country, without sufficient documentation.

 

Think accidents, arrests, medical emergencies, need assistance from the embassy and more. Your drivers license from Kansas won't impress the locals.

[Lois R]

From day in in the early 90's we have taken our passports ashore regardless of where we are. With some minor exceptions (Caribbean) you are in a foreign country. That alone should scare the hell out of you to be ashore with only a drivers license.

 

Americans tend to think that because they are on a ship they boarded in Ft. Lauderdale it is entirely ok to go to Columbia without a passport.

 

To the local authorities you are not a passenger on a cruise ship you are simply someone who is in foreign country, THEIR country, without sufficient documentation.

 

Think accidents, arrests, medical emergencies, need assistance from the embassy and more. Your drivers license from Kansas won't impress the locals.

 

Hi....I don't doubt your post but I know when I sailed to the Med they

took passports......they gave them back to us on the last sea

day. I remember distinctly turning over my passport and going back

to get it much later in the cruise.

[Gracie115]

Hi....I don't doubt your post but I know when I sailed to the Med they

took passports......they gave them back to us on the last sea

day. I remember distinctly turning over my passport and going back

to get it much later in the cruise.

 

 

Hi Lois!

We had the same happen to us during a portion of our Med cruise in 2011. We always make color copies of our passport and take those with us but don't remove passports from ship unless advised to by Celebrity or whatever line we're cruising on....

[Lady Chew]

Always ... unless the ship is holding them, in which case we take colored laminated copies ...

[rahrah50]

We just returned from Baltic Silhouette cruise. We were told to always have our passports with us, no matter what country we were in. You are in a foreign country, you should have your passport with you.......

[PoppyandNana]

Hi Lois!

We had the same happen to us during a portion of our Med cruise in 2011. We always make color copies of our passport and take those with us but don't remove passports from ship unless advised to by Celebrity or whatever line we're cruising on....

 

 

Interesting. Wonder what the circumstances, politically, were at that time. We have been to the Med three times and have never been asked to submit our passports. Regular, U.S. Citizen passport?

[davekathy]

Never!

[Btank]

When you go ashore on a private excursion overseas do you take your passport ashore with you?:)

 

I've never been on a cruise before - but when we go to Mexico every year, I leave the passports in the safe and make sure that I have scanned copies of our passport pages stored with the pictures on my cell phone. If you don't have a scanner, a good photo might work. I also email copies of the images to myself so that I can get to them from a web browser.

 

I also carry our US Global Entry cards; but if you're not signed up for Global Entry, that's kind of a moot point.

 

--bruce T.

[ClaudiaB]

Always.

[sloopsailor]

From day in in the early 90's we have taken our passports ashore regardless of where we are. With some minor exceptions (Caribbean) you are in a foreign country. That alone should scare the hell out of you to be ashore with only a drivers license.

 

Americans tend to think that because they are on a ship they boarded in Ft. Lauderdale it is entirely ok to go to Columbia without a passport.

 

To the local authorities you are not a passenger on a cruise ship you are simply someone who is in foreign country, THEIR country, without sufficient documentation.

 

Think accidents, arrests, medical emergencies, need assistance from the embassy and more. Your drivers license from Kansas won't impress the locals.

 

I would go to any country without my passport unless it is specifically recommended to carry it. I leave it safely secured in my room safe, whether on a ship or in a hotel. If on a cruise and something happens to cause you to miss the ship, the ship's security will open your safe and retrieve it (if it is there) and hand it over to the port representative for you to recover when you do arrive at the port.

 

This simple courtesy is always done - period. This fact is not debatable. There have been way too times when the ship's staff, including captains and first officers at Q&A sessions, have confirmed this procedure for it to be a theory, a rumor, fiction, or whatever the doubters wish to call it. The doubters are allowed the make up their own opinions on the matter - but not to make up their own facts.

Edited June 8, 2015 by sloopsailor

[SantaFeFan]

We just returned from Baltic Silhouette cruise. We were told to always have our passports with us, no matter what country we were in. You are in a foreign country, you should have your passport with you.......

 

When we did our Baltic cruise, the only port passports were required was St. Petersburg, Russia. At all others, the dailies recommended we keep them secured in our room safe - too many pickpockets looking for passports to sell for a nice profit.

[Lsimon]

In Europe I've always carried my passport. I guess if the ship is holding it there is nothing you can do but if they're not. My reason is that if we ever miss the ship for any reason (late, accident, illness) the passport would be needed to catch up with the ship. I would imagine that one could go to the American Embassy and get a replacement but doubt it would be quick enough to catch the ship at the next port and you never know what else might come up.

 

Interesting. Wonder what the circumstances, politically, were at that time. We have been to the Med three times and have never been asked to submit our passports. Regular, U.S. Citizen passport?

 

The ship will not collect passports unless one of the countries on the itinerary has notified them that they wish to examine the actual passports rather than rely on the ship's check-in examination. A given country might do this as a matter of course or as a random check. As a result it more common that the cruise line does NOT collect passports on most itineraries but it is not too uncommon for it to happen.

 

I've never been on a cruise before - but when we go to Mexico every year, I leave the passports in the safe and make sure that I have scanned copies of our passport pages stored with the pictures on my cell phone. If you don't have a scanner, a good photo might work. I also email copies of the images to myself so that I can get to them from a web browser.

 

I also carry our US Global Entry cards; but if you're not signed up for Global Entry, that's kind of a moot point.

 

--bruce T.

 

The answer here is that if you are staying on a land based vacation then it is impossible for your hotel (with your passport in your room safe) to leave the town without you. But when cruising you could miss the ship for a number of reasons. While a scan or photocopy might help in some situations it is not going to get you across boarders or onto an airplane.

[minz56]

While I am very definitely in the NEVER camp (unless specifically advised to do so) this thread made me think of the scenario of not getting back to the ship in time for sailing. You are then stuck in a foreign country with no passport. It would be quite a hassle to continue your journey with no passport ...

 

Anyone ever had this experience, and if so what happened?

[Phxazzcruisers]

We are in the NEVER camp, unless the ship specifically instructs us to have it with us. It is either help by the ship or in our room safe.

[SantaFeFan]

While I am very definitely in the NEVER camp (unless specifically advised to do so) this thread made me think of the scenario of not getting back to the ship in time for sailing. You are then stuck in a foreign country with no passport. It would be quite a hassle to continue your journey with no passport ...

 

Anyone ever had this experience, and if so what happened?

 

Did you read post #17, just three posts before yours? It explains what happens in this situation, a procedure that has been documented, discussed, and reported on these forums many, many times.

Edited June 8, 2015 by SantaFeFan

[GottaKnowWhen]

 

When you go ashore on a private excursion overseas do you take your passport ashore with you?:)

 

 

Variation on the theme. An often discussed (argued) topic is whether a Passport is even needed to cruise. So, for those who chose not to carry a passport but rely on birth certificate + photo ID instead, do you carry such documents with you on excursions?

 

In my case, I have passport, sometimes carry it, sometimes not. (Always have a scanned copy on my phone and iPad.) Choosing to carry or not depends on weather, clothing (number of secure pockets), area to be visited, likelihood of being robbed vs. likelihood of being late and left behind.

[CathyCruises]

NEVER!!!! The likelihood of your passport, which is a highly desirable item for thieves, getting stolen is much greater than you needing it in a port of call. Unless specifically directed to by the cruise line we never ever take our passports ashore. We do bring other copies and we tear off the part of the daily that has the ships agent listed on it. Never have needed either. But if we were in the situation where we were stuck on shore, we would make a quick call to the ship's agent who would retrieve our passports from our cabin for us.

 

We are thankfully way past the days of 'Let me see your papers!' Among the thousands of cruise critic posts that I've read over the last eight years, I have never seen one post whete someone said that they wish they had brought their passport with them ashore.

Edited June 8, 2015 by CathyCruises

[SandG]

The ship kept our passports on this cruise we just left a few days ago. Otherwise, I'd have been on the "almost never" side. We had to bring them ashore at St. Petersburg. Otherwise, we keep them in the safe in the cabin and keep photocopies of our passports in my purse.