Passport stamp Mediterranean cruise

[Anyislandwilldo]

Going on a Mediterranean cruise.  Does anyone know if the Greece ports have a place to get your passport stamped?  Santorini, Athens, Turkey

[Mike45LC]

I'll follow this thread to see the answer, but 35 years ago, on my first cruise, I tried to track down officials in the various ports to get a passport stamp in my virgin passport.  I think I got only two entry stamps, and it cost me too much time in the various ports.  And I finally gave up when I almost missed an excursion because I was looking for someone with a stamp.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

 

2 hours ago, Anyislandwilldo said:

Going on a Mediterranean cruise.  Does anyone know if the Greece ports have a place to get your passport stamped?  Santorini, Athens, Turkey

Just be sure that any stamps are done ONLY by authorized officials of the United States or a foreign country, not a novelty tourist stamp.   I had one done at the Yukon Suspension Bridge while on an excursion into Canada on an Alaskan Cruise.  About a year later a friendly United States Customs and Border Protection pointed out the stamp and told me (with a smile), that it technically makes my passport invalid.  Luckily, he just let it go and I have gotten a new passport since then.  

 

 

 

[jimbo5544]

We did all three Kudasi for Turkey, and never got a stamp.

[Anyislandwilldo]

Thanks everyone!!  Good to know I won't be wasting my time looking for a stamp.  

[SHIP_ME_OFF]

What cruiseline?  In 2008 I did a Med cruise on Royal Caribbean and we were able to get our passports stamped at each port.  From what I remember, the cruise line held onto the passports and when we got them back at the end of the trip they were stamped.  I am hoping that the same can be done on my upcoming Med cruise on NCL.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

4 hours ago, SHIP_ME_OFF said:

What cruiseline?  In 2008 I did a Med cruise on Royal Caribbean and we were able to get our passports stamped at each port.  From what I remember, the cruise line held onto the passports and when we got them back at the end of the trip they were stamped.  I am hoping that the same can be done on my upcoming Med cruise on NCL.

Back in 2008 almost every port stamped passports.  Now very few stamp anymore.

[roddy good boy]

On 4/15/2024 at 3:38 PM, Old Fart Cruisers said:

Back in 2008 almost every port stamped passports.  Now very few stamp anymore.

 I cruised on the NCL Jade in 2015 to Croatia, Greece, and Turkey and didn’t have one stamp to show for it! 

[Old Fart Cruisers]

In many countries now nobody looks at your passport, or even touches it.  You hold your own passport on a scanner, look into a facial recognition camera, and if everything checks out the gate swings open.  There are agents overseeing the process, but in many cases you might not interact with an agent at all.  So unlikely you will get very many stamps in the future. 

[Hambagahle]

Greece (not Turkey) is a member of Schengen which has passport-free travel between the member states.  If you are arriving in Greece from, say, Italy - you will not even have to show your passport unless you are using it as your ID when you check in for your flight.   Arriving in Turkey - either the key card from the ship is accepted or the ship's clearance officer will do the necessary paperwork.  I don't know if Turkey will stamp a non-Schengen passport.  They might.  

[CruiserBruce]

On 4/22/2024 at 10:51 PM, roddy good boy said:

 I cruised on the NCL Jade in 2015 to Croatia, Greece, and Turkey and didn’t have one stamp to show for it! 

Where did you enter and exit the EU at? You should have had stamps at that location. That should have been the only stamps.

[roddy good boy]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

Where did you enter and exit the EU at? You should have had stamps at that location. That should have been the only stamps.

I embarked in Venice, but also flew into Venice. I was reacting to posts that stated cruisers had received stamps from all countries visited during a cruise. Apparently, that was the case in years gone by…

[Hambagahle]

A few posts ago someone warned about "touristic" passport stamps - those not done by government officials.  Do NOT get one of those.  It will invalidate your passport.  The only people who should stamp passports are Immigration officials (could be from the Police as here in Switzerland) at airports or sea ports.    Since Greece is in Schengen unless you are arriving in Greece from outside Schengen (US, UK etc) you will not have your passport stamped...and not even looked at if you come from another Schengen country - like Italy for example.

[Hlitner]

On 4/25/2024 at 8:58 AM, roddy good boy said:

I embarked in Venice, but also flew into Venice. I was reacting to posts that stated cruisers had received stamps from all countries visited during a cruise. Apparently, that was the case in years gone by…

That is mostly going the way of Travelers Checks (have you seen one latety?).  Bottom line is that you will have your Passport stamped when officials want to stamp and not stamped when they do not :).  In Europe, we never know :).  Just got back from Europe 2 days ago.  I was surprised that the Croatian government insisted on putting an extra stamp in our Passport, and of course there is always the airports in Germany that seem to enjoy stamping at their Passport Control (which exists in most airports).

 

Hank

[roddy good boy]

Yes, we just got back from our Mediterranean cruise and had the passports only stamped in Athens, at the airport, upon departure. The cruise line gave us some sort of arrival certificate to scan while coming back and forth from the port in Istanbul. We never needed our passports (or the certificate) in any other of the Ports (Kusadasi, Turkey, Rodes, Crete, Santorini, Thessaloniki, Mykonos). It was all pretty seamless!
 

If it were not for bringing COVID back with us, it would have been a stellar trip. Be careful out there. People were hacking and coughing throughout the ship! 

Edited September 17 by roddy good boy

[Hambagahle]

Within Schengen your passport is not supposed to be requested, let alone stamped.  However last week Germany imposed a temporary passport check on all its borders.  A check - rather than a stamp.   Passport will be stamped if you are not from a Schengen country, when you leave Schengen. (If you have a Schengen passport it is neither stamped on arrival nor departure by Schengen authorities but of course will be stamped in countries that are not in Schengen...).  This surprises some.  To us it is normal.  (Plus we can travel anywhere within Schengen just with our ID cards in case of need...).    It is a great thing, Schengen!  (and so is FrontEx - border security).

 

Hlitner - when you arrived in Croatia did you come from another Schengen country ?  Or a non-member state?

[Hlitner]

On 9/19/2024 at 11:14 AM, Hambagahle said:

Within Schengen your passport is not supposed to be requested, let alone stamped.  However last week Germany imposed a temporary passport check on all its borders.  A check - rather than a stamp.   Passport will be stamped if you are not from a Schengen country, when you leave Schengen. (If you have a Schengen passport it is neither stamped on arrival nor departure by Schengen authorities but of course will be stamped in countries that are not in Schengen...).  This surprises some.  To us it is normal.  (Plus we can travel anywhere within Schengen just with our ID cards in case of need...).    It is a great thing, Schengen!  (and so is FrontEx - border security).

 

Hlitner - when you arrived in Croatia did you come from another Schengen country ?  Or a non-member state?

On this most recent trip, we flew into Dubrovnik via Frankfurt.  After spending a few days in Dubrovnik we took a 3 week cruise that returned to Dubrovnik....twice.  The first time we returned to Durbrovnik there was no formalities or Passport Stamp.  But when we returned a week later, to disembark our ship (for the flight home) the Croatian authorities singled us out (the only ones on our transfer bus to the airport) for a quick face to face and another Passport stamp.  

 

I will admit that having been traveling, extensively, for decades, we could care less about stamps.  In fact, the fewer the better since it is a real pain if one runs out of blank Passport pages.  In that case, you must get a new Passport (at the normal price) since the US State Department will no longer add extra pages to an existing Passport.

 

Hank

[Hambagahle]

Would love to see Dubrovnik (only time I have been on a ship that docked there I had the flu! so stayed on board).

You landed in Frankfurt from the US?  So Immigration on arrival at FRA.  Croatia is a Schengen member state - so no passport control on arrival from FRA.   Strange that you were the only ones checked on the bus to the airport though.  Normally all leaving Schengen go through Passport control and within S. it is unusual but can happen IF the Police or whomever suspect something.  You must have been looking very "devious" that day, Hank!!

[Hlitner]

7 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Would love to see Dubrovnik (only time I have been on a ship that docked there I had the flu! so stayed on board).

You landed in Frankfurt from the US?  So Immigration on arrival at FRA.  Croatia is a Schengen member state - so no passport control on arrival from FRA.   Strange that you were the only ones checked on the bus to the airport though.  Normally all leaving Schengen go through Passport control and within S. it is unusual but can happen IF the Police or whomever suspect something.  You must have been looking very "devious" that day, Hank!!

Correct that we cleared Passport Control at Frankfurt (upon arrival) and the flight from FRA to Dubrovnik was a domestic Schengen flight with no clearance issues at Dubrovnik,  What happened at disembarkation was strange (even to the staff on the ship).  Our Seabourn cruise was a series of 7 day cruises and all the passengers had either embarked from Dubrovnik (on either Aug 25 or Sept 8 with others having embarked fro Athens on Sept 1.  A day before we were to disembark in Dubrovnik (on Sept 15) we received a letter in our suite that said that those of us who had embarked from Dubrovnik on Aug 25 would needto do a face to face with Croatian authorities in the terminal.  The only explanantion was that this was a "requirement" imposed by the local authorities.

 

Upon disembarkation we boarded a Seabourn transfer bus that was close to the gangway, after we had made sure our luggage was loaded on the bus.  There were about 30 on that bus, but we were the only folks who needed to do the face to face (because we were the only folks who had boarded the cruise on Aug 25).  Our bus driver went about 1/4 mile to the small terminal and then the driver escorted us into the empty terminal where there were a few officials.  The only question from the authorities was "which ship?" and then he immediately stamped our Passports and told us we were good to go.  All very strange.  I had the feeling that even the authorities were confused.  The entire process took less than 1 minute. 

 

Hank

[Hambagahle]

Strange indeed!  The only thing I can think of is that they might apply this to their own Nationals for Customs purposes but even that doesn't make sense because you would have been in the EU (aside from Montenegro) ??  It is unlikely that your ship left Schengen during the entire cruise (unless you stopped in Turkey or Tunisia etc).  Anyway I hope you had a great cruise!

We are on Regent going from Athens to Istanbul and I am curious as to what Immigration etc we go through in Istanbul.  Plus normally we don't need passports to go to Turkey and certainly not any other Schengen country and Regent requires them!  I don't know how sophisticated the Turkish systems are but I think if they scan my passport on entry I had better leave on the passport and not the ID card!  Will be interesting to see.

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, Hambagahle said:

Strange indeed!  The only thing I can think of is that they might apply this to their own Nationals for Customs purposes but even that doesn't make sense because you would have been in the EU (aside from Montenegro) ??  It is unlikely that your ship left Schengen during the entire cruise (unless you stopped in Turkey or Tunisia etc).  Anyway I hope you had a great cruise!

We are on Regent going from Athens to Istanbul and I am curious as to what Immigration etc we go through in Istanbul.  Plus normally we don't need passports to go to Turkey and certainly not any other Schengen country and Regent requires them!  I don't know how sophisticated the Turkish systems are but I think if they scan my passport on entry I had better leave on the passport and not the ID card!  Will be interesting to see.

We did exit the Schengen area, twice, during the cruise.  Once to Albania and the other time to Montenegro.  But we had already returned, one time, to Dubrovnik for a turn-around day.  When it comes to the Eu and Schengen rules, we do not even spend any mental time trying to understand the Passport Checks.  While they want to act like a single entity, there are still some countries that follow their own rules (such as Germany).  

 

One cannot help but wonder how the upcoming ETIAS will impact the confusion of rules and Passport Checks.  We have previously mentioned issues, we had in Germany back in 2022 or 23 when we had no entry stamp for the EU/Schengen.  Apparently, that issue continues as the Portuguese authorities sometimes refuse to stamp Passports when folks arrive via a transatlantic cruise.  A friend has compared 29 European countries trying to work together as akin to herding cats...but thinks that is unfair to cats.

 

Hank

[Hambagahle]

As a Swiss I see it a bit differently - we are in Schengen and (being Switzerland) apply all the rules.  But in the original agreement was an "opt out" clause.  And it is that that Germany has invoked - temporarily because they can't just opt out forever - to put border controls back.   Portugal ?  They should have stamped your passport but...they didn't.

ETIAS will solve this because there will be a scan and a computer.  At least - I hope!