Passports needed in port?

[wowzz]

What cruise line told you that?

Princess, P&O, NCL, Celebrity,Holland America, Costa, etc. Shall I continue?

 

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[biker@sea]

And in ten+ years of cruising, I have never had an issue where I needed my passport in any port of call.

 

Just because YOU don't think there is a Black Market for passports and that it is not a lucrative business doesn't mean it isn't. And being a safe island with very low crime is no excuse for not keeping your guard up as a tourist - not doing so is what makes you a victim.

 

http://www.vocativ.com/news/241487/fake-passport-prices-black-market/index.html

 

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131622&page=1

 

 

Both link's have nothing at all to do with BERMUDA ?

 

.

Edited April 19, 2018 by biker@sea

[wowzz]

"People who claim vast travel experience and say they've never encountered a need for a passport probably haven't gone anywhere interesting or done anything worthwhile. Perhaps they are so stricken by the fear of losing their documents or that thieves are around every corner in foreign countries that they stay in their hotels for the entire trip so they can be safe and sound with their passports."

 

How patronising and sanctimonious can you get!

 

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

"People who claim vast travel experience and say they've never encountered a need for a passport probably haven't gone anywhere interesting or done anything worthwhile. Perhaps they are so stricken by the fear of losing their documents or that thieves are around every corner in foreign countries that they stay in their hotels for the entire trip so they can be safe and sound with their passports."

 

How patronising and sanctimonious can you get!

 

 

 

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About the same as those calling me names for taking my passport?

 

 

The exception is that he pointed out very good reasons why you might actually have to have your passport with you. Like I said, I completely forgot, your passport is how you prove you don't pay the VAT in Japan.

 

Pretty much the number one reason posted NOT to take your passport has been "OH MY GOD YOU MIGHT BE ROBBED!"

 

And yet, not a single person has mentioned that they were robbed.

[bigwally]

Completely forgot I needed the passport in Japan to not pay the extra VAT taxes. Honestly I am more careful of my international DL, that thing is flimsy and easily damaged.

 

You need to carry your passport in Japan, period. That would be the documentation expected if you're stopped by the police and don't have a residence card.

[wowzz]

You need to carry your passport in Japan, period. That would be the documentation expected if you're stopped by the police and don't have a residence card.

Which is completely correct. So obviously in that particular country, that is what you should do. But Japan is the exception, rather than the rule.

 

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[DarkJedi]

Princess, P&O, NCL, Celebrity,Holland America, Costa, etc. Shall I continue?

 

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Really, you asked all of them? What exactly, was their policy on this, in writing?

 

 

And again, at what point do they decide to go to your room and look for these things? When do they turn them over to the port?

 

If you are running late and might just make it, do you try for the ship or check to see if they left your passport with the port authorities and miss the ship? Because the stories online seem to indicate that a lot of people get left ashore with no passport. Seems odd, even a family where the two parents made it to the ship and the 3 adult kids didn't make it on board. They never had anyone come to the room to check. You would think that would be the case if they always did this.

 

Or maybe you could direct me to a link where it shows this is the policy of any of these cruise lines? As opposed to people just saying that is how it is.

 

Now, I have no doubt if they know they are going to leave you behind, like if you call ahead well in advance, that they will do this for you. But for those that didn't call? I doubt that they wait until they are ready to pull everything in, then go through and check for missing passengers, then go to the rooms and look for passports, then take them down and to the port authority. And then they go back and pull everything in and get underway. Because by then the people are probably back.

[DarkJedi]

Which is completely correct. So obviously in that particular country, that is what you should do. But Japan is the exception, rather than the rule.

 

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But it might be stolen!

[biker@sea]

And in ten+ years of cruising, I have never had an issue where I needed my passport in any port of call.

 

Just because YOU don't think there is a Black Market for passports and that it is not a lucrative business doesn't mean it isn't. And being a safe island with very low crime is no excuse for not keeping your guard up as a tourist - not doing so is what makes you a victim.

 

http://www.vocativ.com/news/241487/fake-passport-prices-black-market/index.html

 

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=131622&page=1

 

 

If you REAly think hot passport's are worth So Much.

 

Go to the sleaziest bar you can find and try to sell your's for $200.

 

Pay the hundred for a new replacement put $50 in your pocket and send ME the other $50.:evilsmile:

 

.

[wowzz]

Really, you asked all of them? What exactly, was their policy on this, in writing?

 

 

And again, at what point do they decide to go to your room and look for these things? When do they turn them over to the port?

 

If you are running late and might just make it, do you try for the ship or check to see if they left your passport with the port authorities and miss the ship? Because the stories online seem to indicate that a lot of people get left ashore with no passport. Seems odd, even a family where the two parents made it to the ship and the 3 adult kids didn't make it on board. They never had anyone come to the room to check. You would think that would be the case if they always did this.

 

Or maybe you could direct me to a link where it shows this is the policy of any of these cruise lines? As opposed to people just saying that is how it is.

 

Now, I have no doubt if they know they are going to leave you behind, like if you call ahead well in advance, that they will do this for you. But for those that didn't call? I doubt that they wait until they are ready to pull everything in, then go through and check for missing passengers, then go to the rooms and look for passports, then take them down and to the port authority. And then they go back and pull everything in and get underway. Because by then the people are probably back.

Standard cruise line SOPs.

 

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[lisiamc]

We are currently on the very end of a transatlantic cruise. We disembark and fly home tomorrow. Before we got to Funchal in Madeira yesterday, we all had to turn in our passports so that passport checking could be done for entering Europe. Today we were in Lisbon, and the passports were given back this evening. So that’s twice we’ve been in port and had to go ashore without our passports. There was no choice of take them/don’t take them. Obviously the Portuguese authorities had no problem with all of the passengers going ashore with no passports.

 

Our cruise director told us at the beginning of the cruise that if anyone missed the ship in any port, the passport would be turned over to the port agent if it was in our safe or in the care of cruise line as it was yesterday and today. That’s good enough for me.

[SantaFeFan]

There is a new thread about a shore excursion that went awry resulting in the tourists returning an hour late and almost missing their ship. This thread is not about the which is better - taking or leaving passports on the ship - but asking if what they experienced when returning is standard procedure.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=55879343&postcount=1

 

What should be noted, especially by the doubters, is this one line in the post that started the thread:

 

"....as we boarded the head of security told me that if they had had to leave they would have left a crew member ashore to assist us and also offloaded our passports."

[DarkJedi]

Standard cruise line SOPs.

 

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http://www.epinions.com/review/trvl-Cruise_Lines-Norwegian-Norwegian_Star/2234129/548785786500

 

 

Then, his cell phone rang, our son Kris on the other end & asked "Where are you guys @, Are you safe?" My husband replied, "Of course we are & why wouldn't we be safe? We're here at the Mall across the Port." "Well, the ship called & said, they left without you" Kris added. Just as my husband finished repeating the news to me, we both looked at each other then screamed, "nooooo" & started running like we had never ran in our lives before but just the same we saw the ship sailing away!!!

 

 

The ship finally contacted my husband & instructed him to get some assistance from Javier, the Port Agent for all the Cruise Liner. Javier was very polite & helpful & he pleaded for us via text to the Ship's crew to try to get us back to the ship as he had witnessed it several times @ the discretion of the Ship's Captain,to actually take place with other Cruise Liner but to no avail. He said, NCL is the most difficult Cruise Liner to deal with when it comes to similar situations such as ours, which by the way, according to him happens quite often if not every week. He also tried to convince them to at least send our passports, diabetic medicine & insulin via helicopter since they were still very close but again to all our dismay, they denied all the plea again & again!!! Needless to say we tried to salvage our disastrous vacation & decided to stay in Puerto Vallarta & figure out how we can get back to the US without a Passport. A little bribe here & there to the Mexican Immigration Authorities, which we were asked blatantly for cash only by the way, that we made it through the border in Tijuana, Mexico.As expected,we had to purchase some clothes, medicines & toiletries from the local Wal-Mart which to our surprise were a bit more expensive than our local Wal-Mart here in America.

 

 

 

 

Seems someone forgot to tell NCL that their SOP says for them to go hunt the person down, check their room, remove their passports and medicines, and leave those with the port.

 

 

BTW, they also say that if you book their excursions that they will never leave you behind. And we know that that is a lie.

[sloopsailor]

http://www.epinions.com/review/trvl-Cruise_Lines-Norwegian-Norwegian_Star/2234129/548785786500

 

 

Then, his cell phone rang, our son Kris on the other end & asked "Where are you guys @, Are you safe?" My husband replied, "Of course we are & why wouldn't we be safe? We're here at the Mall across the Port." "Well, the ship called & said, they left without you" Kris added. Just as my husband finished repeating the news to me, we both looked at each other then screamed, "nooooo" & started running like we had never ran in our lives before but just the same we saw the ship sailing away!!!

 

 

The ship finally contacted my husband & instructed him to get some assistance from Javier, the Port Agent for all the Cruise Liner. Javier was very polite & helpful & he pleaded for us via text to the Ship's crew to try to get us back to the ship as he had witnessed it several times @ the discretion of the Ship's Captain,to actually take place with other Cruise Liner but to no avail. He said, NCL is the most difficult Cruise Liner to deal with when it comes to similar situations such as ours, which by the way, according to him happens quite often if not every week. He also tried to convince them to at least send our passports, diabetic medicine & insulin via helicopter since they were still very close but again to all our dismay, they denied all the plea again & again!!! Needless to say we tried to salvage our disastrous vacation & decided to stay in Puerto Vallarta & figure out how we can get back to the US without a Passport. A little bribe here & there to the Mexican Immigration Authorities, which we were asked blatantly for cash only by the way, that we made it through the border in Tijuana, Mexico.As expected,we had to purchase some clothes, medicines & toiletries from the local Wal-Mart which to our surprise were a bit more expensive than our local Wal-Mart here in America.

 

 

 

 

Seems someone forgot to tell NCL that their SOP says for them to go hunt the person down, check their room, remove their passports and medicines, and leave those with the port.

 

 

BTW, they also say that if you book their excursions that they will never leave you behind. And we know that that is a lie.

 

You certainly are scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to prove that your opinion is actually worth something!

 

This was a closed loop cruise. A passport wasn't even necessary to take this cruise. Most people on the cruise probably didn't even have their passports with them. The people would have had no problem getting back home if they could prove they arrived on a cruise ship. THAT is SOP for these Mexican Riviera cruises. People missing their ship happens so regularly on these cruises that everybody, especially the Mexican officials and US immigration, knows the how to quickly handle such situations.

 

Quite amusing how desperate you are getting trying to defend your passport obsession. How many hours of searching the internet did it take to find this one incident that doesn't even prove your point at all?

 

Oh, and they weren't on a ship excursion that got back late, as you claim. They were shopping in the mall at the port after spending time in the ship's spa. You are making inaccurate assumptions again.

 

One more thing that you got completely wrong - no one said the ship staff will "hunt the person down, check their room, remove their passports and medicines, and leave those with the port." What was explicitly explained to you, and very patiently, too, was they will retrieve the passport and turn it over to the shore rep if you don't make the ship. No one said anything about medicines or hunting people down.

 

Amazing, simply amazing, how many facts and details you are ignoring.

Edited April 20, 2018 by sloopsailor

[DarkJedi]

Oh, and they weren't on a ship excursion that got back late. They were shopping in the mall at the port after spending time in the ship's spa. You were making inaccurate claims again.

 

Actually I just Googled it. Seems the cruise lines say what they will do, but the only first person stories seem to say that it is otherwise.

 

And I never said anything about them being on a ship excursion. What I said is that the cruise lines tell you that they will not leave port if a cruise ship excursion is still out. Which is a lie, we have seen that happen directly.

 

 

 

So, I will end this argument with simple advice. Do what you want. If you are worried about being robbed and want to hope that if something happens the cruise ship leaves your passport on shore leave, it on the ship. Me, I will worry about something happening and the ship not leaving my passport on shore, and not worry about being robbed.

[sloopsailor]

Actually I just Googled it. Seems the cruise lines say what they will do, but the only first person stories seem to say that it is otherwise.

 

And I never said anything about them being on a ship excursion. What I said is that the cruise lines tell you that they will not leave port if a cruise ship excursion is still out. Which is a lie, we have seen that happen directly.

 

 

 

So, I will end this argument with simple advice. Do what you want. If you are worried about being robbed and want to hope that if something happens the cruise ship leaves your passport on shore leave, it on the ship. Me, I will worry about something happening and the ship not leaving my passport on shore, and not worry about being robbed.

 

Nope, not worried about being robbed. I just don't take things I don't need when going ashore, so don't have anything important to lose. Pretty simple, really. And I never do as you admit you do - always worrying about something bad happening. Doesn't seem like a fun way to live, IMHO.:(

 

No worries!!! Life is good, and has been to me for a very long time. Why mess with success. (y)

 

Besides, I'm letting you do all the worrying for the both of us. ;p

Edited April 20, 2018 by sloopsailor

[SRF]

And this is during the equivalent of over four full years of time traveling around the world. The odds are just not worth the risk of losing, damaging or having it stolen when I am carrying it for the virtually zero risk of unexpectedly needing it.

 

And how many times in that 4 years have you had your cash and other belongings stolen or lost?????

[SRF]

My mistake on saying that official and diplomatic passports are the same. However that doesn't change the fact that neither are the same as ordinary passports issued to citizens for their personal or business travel. This web page from USCIS explains the different passport types:

 

https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/22CFR/HTML/22CFR/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-2898/0-0-0-2943.html

 

I also shouldn't have said "visa-free". I should have said "fee-free visa" as you don't obtain the visa yourself. The diplomatic and official passports are also fee free.

 

None of that affects my principal point...that holders of diplomatic passports are required to use and carry them, not their personal passport, for official government travel, and as those diplomatic passports are the only way to identify those individuals as US government foreign service employees on official government business, or as the dependent of a US government foreign service employee.

 

I never used the word "ANY" . Bad enough to misquote me...worse to put it in all caps.

 

So fee-free visa and fee free passports are such a huge advantage. :D

 

They are required to be used on official travel.

 

There is no rule that you carry them day in and day out, but most people do.

 

And they are NOT the only way to identify people on official USG business. Look up Diplomatic Carnet.

 

My capitalizing ANY was that is does not help with ANY gov official, not that you said it helps with any, It helps with NONE.

[sparks1093]

Do what you want. .

 

That's kind of what I said way back in the beginning, each person has to do what they are comfortable doing and what is right for one is not right for the other.

[sparks1093]

And how many times in that 4 years have you had your cash and other belongings stolen or lost?????

 

How many times have you missed the ship? We're all talking about something that can happen but very likely won't happen to any of us, either in any particular port or in our lifetime. For me it all comes down to not carrying something that I don't have to carry.

[Herfnerd]

If you REAly think hot passport's are worth So Much.

 

Go to the sleaziest bar you can find and try to sell your's for $200.

 

Pay the hundred for a new replacement put $50 in your pocket and send ME the other $50.:evilsmile:

 

.

 

 

Give it a rest already - you have your opinion, I have mine

[K32682]

Nope, not worried about being robbed. I just don't take things I don't need when going ashore, so don't have anything important to lose.

 

For someone who now claims he's not worried about being robbed or losing his passport you do seem quite obsessed with the subject.

 

It's entirely your choice what you decide is the most risky - having your passport stolen or lost, which happens more often than people realize,

 

I hear of many more people losing their passports than of people enduring difficulties because they don't have their passport with them.

 

The odds are just not worth the risk of losing, damaging or having it stolen when I am carrying it for the virtually zero risk of unexpectedly needing it.

 

Passports, especially US passports, can get up to $10,000 on the black market. They may not be valuable to you in a monetary sense, but they sure are valuable to someone selling them.

 

Plus, there is the repercussions to you if your stolen passport is used for criminal activities. You will certainly have to deal with the fallout from an investigation caused by your old passport being found during a crime.

 

We seem to have found common ground. Like you I am not worried about my passport being stolen or lost while ashore. That's why I carry it with me in complete confidence and don't have to be dependent on cruise ship "policies" if I can't make it back to the ship. Self-reliance is a good thing. You might want to give it a try.

[btobey]

And there you have it, OP. A lot of passionate responses on both sides because everyone thinks that way they do it is the best way (and as I said, it is, for them). So, figure out what works for you and do that since what others do doesn't impact you at all.

Haha, I think you are right--I didn't realize that a seemingly simple question would turn up such a controversy! ;p

[SantaFeFan]

Self-reliance is a good thing. You might want to give it a try.

 

Always have to include some snide comment in your posts, don't you? Can't even post a "common ground" agreement without tossing in an insult. Must be in your DNA to be an unpleasant person to everyone you encounter.

 

Plus, you are not practicing what you preach. If you can't venture out without relying on your passport in fear of the rare situation of unexpectedly needing it, you ARE not being self-reliant. :rolleyes:

[biker@sea]

Give it a rest already - you have your opinion, I have mine[/quote

 

 

:) Ha Ha Ha :D

 

D. W. has a sticker on her motorcycle helmet that sez

" Everyone is Entitled to My opinion ".

 

:cool: