Does Princess Really Confiscate Your Passports for Entire European Cruise???

[Oren]

I have seen sporadic comments about giving-up your original American passport to cruise check-in clerks on multi-country european cruises and NOT retrieving them until the END of the cruise. If this is true, can anyone comment on the obvious concerns (and I imagine arguments) 1000's of passengers must have about releasing this critical document. In time of need (e.g. indep. shore excursions, emergency, police questioning, etc...) or any other passport needed item, I can see these forgein officials laughing when you present a sea-pass laminated card with your name on it and demanding you present a passport.

[Host CJSKIDS]

I have seen sporadic comments about giving-up your original American passport to cruise check-in clerks on multi-country european cruises and NOT retrieving them until the END of the cruise. If this is true, can anyone comment on the obvious concerns (and I imagine arguments) 1000's of passengers must have about releasing this critical document. In time of need (e.g. indep. shore excursions, emergency, police questioning, etc...) or any other passport needed item, I can see these forgein officials laughing when you present a sea-pass laminated card with your name on it and demanding you present a passport.

 

When we cruised on the Golden on 7/11/05, Princess took our passports upon check in and we didn't get them back until about 3/4 of the way through the cruise. We did the Northern European capitals and there were countries that I guess required to see everyone's passports. We do have a couple of stamps showing that we came in via ship.

 

I tried not to stress over it since there was nothing that we could do about it. It was hard as the London bombings had just occured while we were in London post cruise, but nothing happened and we got them back safe and sound.

[crusdiva]

Princess kept our on the Grand Med in 1999 and gave us a card to retrieve it if we needed it on our own in port. They were delivered to our cabin the last night of the cruise.

However, our this past September on the Star Baltic we were in possession of our passports the whole time.

Perhaps it's itinerary that dictates this practice. :confused:

[BJS]

It is itinerary dependent. If the country the ship is visiting requires that they board the ship and inspect passports before allowing the ship to dock or disembark passangers then they collect them.

 

We have had them not collected, collected and returned during the cruise, had them returned at the end of the cruise and also had them returned and then we were required to turn them in again.

 

If you want to take the cruise you must do what the ship requires. It is always advisable to make several colored copies of the first and last pages of your passport and carry one with you at all times when leaving the ship.

[dakrewser]

The passport is available to you should you need it. But do take the port agent's name and phone number with you. Should anything bad happen, this is your contact.

 

In the event you miss the ship's sailing, the port agent will have your passport and will facilitate getting to the next port.

[shellbeachjim]

I really don't consider it confiscating. It's an efficiency thing. I couldn't imagine lining up at every port to have my passport inspected, compared to the manifest, stamped, etc so the ship can be cleared. Think of the uproar that would cause. We've been on a few longer "exotic" cruises and in many cases the immigration folks are put onboard ship prior to docking - sometimes at the previous port. Since they have all of the passports, they can get through their process fairly quickly.

 

Also, in some countries you are required to hand your passport over when checking into a hotel. The passport is usually returned the following day.

 

As the others have mentioned keep a copy with you when you're off the ship and you should be fine.

[Grego]

I really don't consider it confiscating. It's an efficiency thing. I couldn't imagine lining up at every port to have my passport inspected, compared to the manifest, stamped, etc so the ship can be cleared. Think of the uproar that would cause. We've been on a few longer "exotic" cruises and in many cases the immigration folks are put onboard ship prior to docking - sometimes at the previous port. Since they have all of the passports, they can get through their process fairly quickly.

 

Also, in some countries you are required to hand your passport over when checking into a hotel. The passport is usually returned the following day.

 

As the others have mentioned keep a copy with you when you're off the ship and you should be fine.

 

You are correct with your response. This should be a non-issue for everyone. The process for reclaiming the passport at the end of the voyage is also painless.

[Teeara]

We did NOT have to turn over our passports during our Scandinavia/Russia cruise last year. We did have to turn over a copy of the main page in Russia.

 

Theresa

[Juliadlf]

We did the Med in 2005 and the Baltics in 2006 and never had our passports taken (US citizens).

As another poster stated, the only place we had to provide a copy of our passport was when we left the ship in Russia for our tour.

 

So far, we've not had the issue come up.

 

Julia

[BBfromCA]

I have always scanned the first page of my passport (with photo), done a shrink to "business card" size and laminated it. That way, I always have a waterproof copy of it with me for identification purposes.

[hillslife]

We have done the Med cruise (2002) and British Isles( 2004) and never had our passports taken - US Citizens.

[PescadoAmarillo]

Temporarily relinquishing your passport (to a cruise line, a hotel) while traveling overseas happens fairly frequently. We've done it on several cruises (granted, our European cruises were pre:EU), in South America, in China, in hotels in Europe (again, pre:EU). We always get a receipt, we always keep a copy of the first page of our passport and any visa pages for the countries we're visiting. In fact, one of my fondest memories of our 28 night South American cruises was getting my passport back with all these interesting stamps in it. I would have hated to wait in line in every port to get that done.

[NAS-KARR]

Ours were asked for on the GOLDEN & on the GRAND and returned w/o a problem the day before the cruise ended.Simply keep a photo copy of your passport on you while ashore. Don't fret, this is standard procedure.

 

CIAO,

[muffydawg]

We were on the Aug 20, 2006 voyage of the Golden to Northern Europe / British Isles and were in possession of our passports at all times. We are US citizens. We kept the originals in the cabin safe and had copies in our backpack / handbag as we went ashore. We also scanned the front pages and stored them in our email account ..then deleted the email once we arrived home......

[Pam in CA]

As has been said, it depends on the itinerary and the countries you are visiting. Your passport isn't "confiscated" but rather some countries require seeing each passport and stamping it, which would make disembarkation in a port a very lengthy process with lots of disgruntled passengers. So, Princess (and other cruiselines) keeps your passport for you and submits it to the countries immigration officials. If you need your passport in a particular port, you can request it from the Pursar's Desk for the day but you'll need to return it after you return to the ship. When your passport is no longer needed, you will be told the day, time and place where you can go and get your passport.

[BobBeaSea]

It's not just a European thing either, there are Caribbean itineraries where non Americans surrender their passports to the ship. They are usually returned at the first American port (usually St. Thomas) after visiting a non U.S. port.

[Toto2Kansas]

Being US citizens, we have had our passports held on two occasions. Both on the Sydney to Singapore itineary. No problems giving them up or having them returned, the process goes very smoothly.

[Pam in CA]

On our recent Golden Princess cruise, our passports were taken at check-in in Buenos Aires and returned after we were in Chilean waters until the end of the cruise (i.e., we weren't going to stop at a non-Chilean port).

 

On our Manaus > Rome cruise a couple of years ago, our passports were taken and not returned until late in the cruise. I believe it was after Gibraltar but I don't remember.

[haley42]

As Americans we are very uncomfortable handing our passports to anyone.

What I always do is keep photocopies with me of the families passports if the ship has the passports. If your cruise keeps you within the EU they have your passports for immigration purposes. When we went into Turkey they gave them back to us and they were recollected that night upon sailing. I felt they had very tight controls over the passports and they were locked up.

[BobBeaSea]

As Americans we are very uncomfortable handing our passports to anyone.

What I always do is keep photocopies with me of the families passports if the ship has the passports. If your cruise keeps you within the EU they have your passports for immigration purposes. When we went into Turkey they gave them back to us and they were recollected that night upon sailing. I felt they had very tight controls over the passports and they were locked up.

 

You might be on to something. On a lot of the threads regarding passports it is mostly Americans who insist on taking them on shore with them. I've also read posts where Americans say they will absolutely not hand in their passport if requested on a cruise or some other type of travel where this is normal procedure. Is it maybe having passports is a relatively new experience for a lot of Americans? For example a far greater percentage of the European population have passports than do Americans. Same for us in Canada, until recently twice as many Canadians (per capita) had passports than Americans. Americans have not generally needed passports, until now :) as most travel was either inside the States or to Canada, Mexico and countries in the Caribbean where they aren't required. I wonder....

[happyscot]

I hereby claim pedant of the day with the following:

 

It's not your passport. It's the property of the US (UK, French etc etc) Government.

 

Da-dahhhhh!!

[sandancer]

We are UK citizens and as far as I can remember we have always been required to surrender our passports on boarding the ship for all of our cruises departing a US port. We then had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to immigration after collecting our passports from the purser on the day of disembarkation. We did a transatlantic with NCL last December and they did not keep our passports. Probably because we had no ports and went straight from Southampton to Miami. Still had to do the immigration part though.

[phillipahain]

We were on Golden Princess Antartica cruise Jan/Feb and Sun Caribean in Feb and on both cruises everyone had to hand in their passports irrespective of nationality

 

As usual in St Thomas Canadians and Brits etc were the very last to be dealt with by Immigration officials and thus last off the ship

[Pam in CA]

You might be on to something. On a lot of the threads regarding passports it is mostly Americans who insist on taking them on shore with them. I've also read posts where Americans say they will absolutely not hand in their passport if requested on a cruise or some other type of travel where this is normal procedure. Is it maybe having passports is a relatively new experience for a lot of Americans? For example a far greater percentage of the European population have passports than do Americans. Same for us in Canada, until recently twice as many Canadians (per capita) had passports than Americans. Americans have not generally needed passports, until now :) as most travel was either inside the States or to Canada, Mexico and countries in the Caribbean where they aren't required. I wonder....

I think the New Hampshire state motto sums it up nicely: "Live Free or Die"

 

Americans are very reluctant to have ANYONE tell them what to do for any reason, even if it's for their own health, well-being and benefit. I have a number of friends who refuse to use a seatbelt because they don't want anyone telling them they have to. I think Massachusetts has one of the lowest seatbelt usage percentages in the country. American sense of privacy and independence is out-of-proportion with most of the rest of the world where for decades, an identity card and/or passport is a requirement and a way of life.