Do you take your passport off the ship in the Baltic?

[courtneyMC]

Hello,

Have only cruised in the Caribbean before. We have never had to take our (US) passports off the ship in any ports there- a Drivers License and ship key card was sufficient.

 

Doing a cruise in the Baltic this summer- do we need to plan for being able to carry our passports off the ship with us? I was thinking in terms of needing one of those 'necklace' style wallets or something?

 

thanks!

[OCruisers]

We only take ours off the ship in ports of call if were are told to do so by the ship.

[BritinSoCal]

Photo ID will usually suffice for Countries within the Schengen Visa countries if you are requested to show ID for whatever reason (for example by the Police).

 

However, if you are visiting St. Petersburg you need to clear Russian Federation immigration so you'll obviously need to carry your passport. Also you might need a passport to enter the port of call after Russia since will be re-entering the EU.

 

Remember that your cruise card isn't "Government issued ID"

[GradUT]

We did a Baltic cruise last year. The only port which required we have a passport to disembark was St. Petersburg. That's the only port where we carried our passports.

[OCruisers]

We did a Baltic cruise last year. The only port which required we have a passport to disembark was St. Petersburg. That's the only port where we carried our passports.

 

Same with us. St. Petersburg was the only one that required our Passport Book.

[cruisemom42]

On our Baltic cruise, our passports were held by ship personnel for most of the trip. We had them returned to us for St. Petersburg, but that was the only port.

[Jonza]

Photo ID will usually suffice for Countries within the Schengen Visa countries if you are requested to show ID for whatever reason (for example by the Police).

 

However, if you are visiting St. Petersburg you need to clear Russian Federation immigration so you'll obviously need to carry your passport. Also you might need a passport to enter the port of call after Russia since will be re-entering the EU.

 

Remember that your cruise card isn't "Government issued ID"

Clearing misunderstandings on the Schengen rules has become a bit of a pet peeve of mine as these come up at least yearly. The Schengen Area consists of European countries that have agreed to abolish regular internal border controls and harmonized the external border controls. All EU members are not Schengen members (E.g. UK, Ireland, Croatia) and some Schengen members are not EU members (E.g. Switzerland, Norway, Iceland).

 

The Schengen rules abolish internal border controls but not the need to carry valid travel documents when crossing national borders. Thus, the law requires you to carry your passport when traveling from one country to another. Spot checks and risk analysis based checks are still allowed. In practice this means that if you alert a detection dog or match a general description of someone the authorities have profiled for a spot check, you will be asked for ID, and as you are crossing a border the ID must be an official travel document, i.e. a passport or an EU National ID card. The establishment of temporary border checks on internal borders due to extraordinary circumstances is also allowed. Recently this has happened as result of the migration crisis and the Paris attacks.

 

On a Baltic cruise, there is also an interesting exception to the rule of external border controls. As Russia is typically the only non-Schengen country (unless the cruise originates in the UK), you will be exiting and then re-entering the Schengen zone before and after St. Petersburg. Most of these entries and exits take place in Helsinki and Tallinn. Normally you would have a passport control and an exit stamp from the first when returning to the ship in the port prior to St. Petersburg and a passport control and an entry stamp when getting off the ship in the port after St. Petersburg. However, the Schengen rules allow these border checks to be carried out only on the passenger manifest and not in person if risk is deemed low. If risk is not deemed low for your ship, there will be a passport check affecting every passenger at these ports.

 

In practice your passport will likely be checked only by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg and not at all by authorities of the Schengen countries after your first arrival into the zone. From the ship newsletters, I have seen here, most if not all have said you need your passport ashore for every port on a Baltic cruise. However, there was emphasis on the requirement only in case of St. Petersburg. I remember a few cruisers mentioning Schengen exit checks being performed in Tallinn prior to Russia and the ship giving advance notice of those.

 

Technically crossing a border without valid documents is a crime, but as you have your passport on the ship it falls into a gray area. If you left your passport on the ship and you were stopped in a spot check and asked for ID, you would likely be detained until the ship brings your passport and your identity and right to enter can be verified. I would guess that you would get off with just an inconvenient wait and maybe a warning. Spot checks on cruise ships are also quite rare and you are more likely to see those in airports and ferry terminals.

 

You may also need an ID ashore for a multitude for reasons. You may want to prove your age for a discount or you may be asked for an ID if making a large credit card purchase without a PIN. Your driver’s license is likely good enough for those situations, but as driver’s licenses are much easier to forge and not subject to same identity verifications as passports, your passport is the only legal ID that foreign officials must accept.

 

In the end the decision is of course up to the individual traveler, but in my view the risk of your passport being lost or stolen ashore is lower than the likelihood of you needing it.

[Desdichado62]

I'll go a step further then Jonza and say that drivers license is generally not accepted as a travel ID.

The Swedish police writes the following on their website:

 

När du åker utomlands behöver du alltid pass, eller inom EU, ett nationellt id-kort som utfärdas av polisen.

Det nationella id-kortet gäller även för resor till Norge, Schweiz, Island och Lichtenstein.

 

When you are going abroad on a travel you will always need a passport.

If you plan to travel within EU a national ID-card will suffice.

The national ID-card, which is issued by the police, will also suffice for

travels to Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Lichteinstein.

 

 

Trots att passkontroll endast sker i undantagsfall inom EU, måste du kunna legitimera dig under vistelsen utomlands.

Passet och det nationella id-kortet är då de enda giltiga dokument som styrker identitet och medborgarskap.

 

Despite that a passport control only occurs in exceptional occasions, you have to be able to prove your identity during the trip.

The passport and the national ID-card are then the only valid documents that proves your identity and citizenship.

 

https://polisen.se/Service/Pass-och-id-kort/Fakta-*****-pass-och-nationellt-id-kort/

(italic text is my translation)

 

Case closed then (?), passport or some kind of national ID-card (in those countries that have such)

 

Also note that Iceland and Norway are a special case due to the Nordic passport union, abolishing the need for Nordic (Swe, Nor, DK, Fin and Ice)

citizen to carry a passport when travelling in the Nordic countries. I also think that Norway is allowing national ID-cards for EU-citizens

since they are a part of Schengen despite not being an EU-country. the United Kingdom is also not part of Schengen.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_Passport_Union

Edited February 2, 2017 by Desdichado62

[tidygirl]

We've never taken our passport off in the Caribbean, but while on 2 Mediterranean cruises took them off at all ports! Many of our days were DIY days and if we missed the ship definitely wanted them on me! I would just make sure to take it and have it secured well under your clothes!

In Florence we heard 2 couples looking for help as their passports were stolen. (By the way passports are valuable and the older ones are even better!)

[NCruiser2012]

On our Baltic cruise, our passports were held by ship personnel for most of the trip. We had them returned to us for St. Petersburg, but that was the only port.

 

We cruised on NCL. Our passports were in our possession the entire cruise.

 

I, too, worry about being left behind and needing documentation. We took our passports with us everywhere.

[Pet Nit Noy]

...In practice your passport will likely be checked only by Russian authorities in St. Petersburg and not at all by authorities of the Schengen countries after your first arrival into the zone. From the ship newsletters, I have seen here, most if not all have said you need your passport ashore for every port on a Baltic cruise. However, there was emphasis on the requirement only in case of St. Petersburg. I remember a few cruisers mentioning Schengen exit checks being performed in Tallinn prior to Russia and the ship giving advance notice of those.... In the end the decision is of course up to the individual traveler, but in my view the risk of your passport being lost or stolen ashore is lower than the likelihood of you needing it.

 

I'm a cruiser who did not to carry her passport on shore (except for St. Petersburg) during a 2014 Baltic cruise. I don't think I'd come to the same conclusion today. Relations between countries have changed. The inclusive arrangements among/between countries seem to be under some strain and I will keep my passport with me at all times in our upcoming travel. On the very, very unlikely chance that I need to present my passport, I'd rather be able to comply than to test the system.

 

Frankly, my husband wears a neck wallet any day we tour. We routinely keep an alternative credit card with us and we store cash if we've just made a stop at at ATM/cash point/bancomat. It's no big deal to add our passports to the neck wallet.

Edited February 8, 2017 by Pet Nit Noy

[Desdichado62]

I'm a cruiser who did not to carry her passport on shore (except for St. Petersburg) during a 2014 Baltic cruise.

 

Well to be honest, you did. The laws and rules were the same then as they are now.

The relation between the countries does not have anything to do with it.

[Pet Nit Noy]

Well to be honest, you did. The laws and rules were the same then as they are now. The relation between the countries does not have anything to do with it.

 

 

I'm not sure I understand your response, but I think you didn't understand my previous post either.

 

Of course, I presented my original, valid passport when I checked in for my flight to Europe. Of course, I presented my passport when I went through passport control at my touchdown point in Europe. Of course, I showed my passport when I boarded our ship in Southampton. Of course, I carried my passport when I went through passport control in St. Petersburg and in the city itself. However, I did not have my passport on my person when we visited any of the other ports on our itinerary despite the official recommendation to do so.

 

We'll agree to disagree on the topic of relations between countries and how that impacts ordinary citizen. In an era of increasingly frayed relationships between the US and other countries, going forward, I will choose to follow the strict letter of the law concerning passports.

[Desdichado62]

I'm not sure I understand your response, but I think you didn't understand my previous post either.

 

I did understand your post.

 

The point was that in 2014 you would still have needed either a passport or national identification card to be able to identify yourself

if you had been prompted to during any of your visits in the port cities. Just like you do today.

 

Some relations between countries may have changed but the laws and regulations for identification in situations that are not related to border crossings have not changed.

Therefore the relation changes are not relevant to whether or not you need a passport today but, according to you, not in 2014.

 

One example:

In 2014, you walk down the streets in Copenhagen when you for some reason are prompted by the police to provide your identification.

You present you drivers license since you left your passport in you cabin on the ship.

Strictly legally you would have failed to provide a valid ID despite that you have presented you passport at the airport,

upon entry into Schengen and when checking in on the ship.

That is because the policemen that stops you cannot know this and they cannot verify this since you don't have a valid ID.

 

So legally yes you DID need your passport (because the law said that you needed to bring it) but practically you were fine without it.

 

That same thing applies today you DO need a passport with you to prove your identity (because the laws says you do).

The possible change in relation between countries are still not relevant because that has not affected or changed the law between 2014 and today.

[Pet Nit Noy]

So legally yes you DID need your passport (because the law said that you needed to bring it) but practically you were fine without it.

 

I've acknowledged that.

 

The possible change in relation between countries are still not relevant because that has not affected or changed the law between 2014 and today.

 

The law hasn't changed but the potential enforcement in the law may be changing. Perhaps we're struggling so much on this point because the laws in your country are applied uniformly. That is not the case in the US and that colors my thinking. The expectation I once had about how I'd be treated as a US citizen -- assuming being onshore without my original passport is the only infraction we're talking about -- is not the same as my current expectation.

 

This is my last post in this thread.

[LondonTowner]

This question comes up a lot. In most European countries it is the law to carry official ID. In the U.K. we don't have ID cards, so that means a passport. Not a driving licence, photocopy, bus pass, library card etc.

 

However, there are so many contributors who think they are above the law and don't bother to carry them.

 

When I go anywhere abroad I always carry my passport. I think in this day and age with terrorist attacks it is more important than ever.