Customs traveling to and from non-EU countries

[Playtennis]

Next summer we are taking a cruise that stops in 44 different ports in 13 different countries. Most of the countries are members of the EU and I'm assuming that there really isn't any customs process when going from one EU country to another.

The two countries that aren't EU are Albania & Montenegro.

My question - what is the time to get though customs (including the ship's inspection) when going into those two and also the next stop after leaving those countries?

A time delay would obviously impact the taking of a private tour as we so patiently found out in Murmansk.

[TERRIER1]

We have been on a ship cruise 3 times stopping in Montenegro and never noticed any time impact.

[Mura]

We haven't done either country (although will have a cruise stop in Montenegro next May) but it's generally much easier on a cruise ship than coming in by air or rail. That is one reason for the ship holding passports in certain ports. Yes, on occasion recently we've had to show up for a face-to-face but that's been VERY rare.

 

If you have other Russian ports, that might be a consideration! When we did St. Petersburg in 2001 we had our own visas so there wasn't a problem. In 2012 on the Black Sea cruise we had private tours in the Russian ports and it was not a problem -- we provided them with our passports and passport numbers, went through customs as a group and it was fine.

 

Albania? No clue!

 

Mura

[Hambagahle]

There are two things involved in landing in another country: Immigration and Customs. These two are not related. Normally the Clearance Officer on the ship handles the Immigration side which is why the ship retains your passport. Sometimes you have to show the passport to the local Immigration officials in which case you will keep it with you and the ship won't retain it. OR the ship gives you a copy of the face page. We were in both Kotor and Montenegro and there was no real formality to go through in either.

 

Customs - a best for the tourist coming off a ship for a day in port is very cursory. you might have to walk through a Customs area but are rarely stopped.

 

Where there IS a difference and passports are scanned when landing is if you come from a country outside Schengen to a country that is a member of Schengen. The UK for example is not a member. If your cruise involves a UK port and then a Schengen member port (Schengen is most of the rest of the EU plus Norway and Switzerland) then you have to go through Immigration. Lately these controls have been reinforced so if you are going from Albania to Greece for example you might find yourself in a queue to get your passport checked.

[Playtennis]

Thank you all for the information about customs/immigration realities when traveling between countries. IT looks like, for our trip, the potential for a significant delay after docking are slim