Do they still take your passport.

[CarolR]

For non-US passengers - do they still take your passport or birth certificate when you board the ship and then give it back on the last day. I know they used to do this and the concern of my group is identity theft if you are not in possession of your passport.

[big_duck]

No they don't.

[Maryutah]

Per Freedom posters: They do on the new Carnival Freedom, as Turkey requires visas, they give you a 'receipt' and then once they have finished the 2 Turkish ports, they give you back your passport.

 

My friend was from England, when we cruised they kept his passport for the whole trip, and he got back when he went through customs when we arrived back at Miami, this was quite some time ago, so not sure that still holds.

[Jlrymedic]

Per Freedom posters: They do on the new Carnival Freedom, as Turkey requires visas, they give you a 'receipt' and then once they have finished the 2 Turkish ports, they give you back your passport.

 

My friend was from England, when we cruised they kept his passport for the whole trip, and he got back when he went through customs when we arrived back at Miami, this was quite some time ago, so not sure that still holds.

 

On the first (9 day cruise) on the Freedom, they didn't take our passports until the day before Turkey, but I think I read now where they're taking them at the start of the cruise. The CD seemed a little surprised we had to surrender our passports, but he implied that Turkey just started doing that that week. I heard (hearsay I know) that at least one passenger was raising holy he!! with the purser over handing them in, citing maritime law, I don't know how that was resolved. I guess if a country wants to see your passport, you don't have much choice.....

[wtoms]

That guy was correct , it is against maritime law and most countries law including Canada. It is notable too that it is not corporate policy for NCL, Princess oe Carnival to remove passports from anyone, if they do its a weird policy of Turkey or somewhere and the only thing you maybe can do is carry a certified true copy of your passport to give to them ( thats what we do ), but if thats not good enough what can you do !!!, I would never surrender my passport to anybody except a consulante unless i had to .

[Jlrymedic]

That guy was correct , it is against maritime law and most countries law including Canada. It is notable too that it is not corporate policy for NCL, Princess oe Carnival to remove passports from anyone, if they do its a weird policy of Turkey or somewhere and the only thing you maybe can do is carry a certified true copy of your passport to give to them ( thats what we do ), but if thats not good enough what can you do !!!, I would never surrender my passport to anybody except a consulante unless i had to .

 

I wondered too if he refused and had to stay on the ship or if he had to give it up? Also, if he completely refused, would they turn away the whole ship? I admit, I'm not schooled on maritime law.

[PINEVIEW01]

Thank for this post. This is one us "old timers" learn from.

[Brian Raine]

Jlrymedic We had this problem on our only Carnival cruise, it is endemic on all Carnival owned vessels(Princess etc). I had a set too with the purser, we were in Carribean waters, mostly British Commonwealth Islands, and I was told it was US Immigration rules-- BALONEY. It is Carnivals own made up rules. The current goings on in the Congress reference "crime at sea" proves the point, outside of US territorial waters the ships port of registration law takes over.As most of Carnivals hips are registered "offshore" their argument re passports holds no water.

[dzcruisers]

I was told it is to clear passengers more quickly so you can disembark in a timely manner else there would be a line while customs in Turkey checked each passport while the line of waiting passengers got longer.

It has never bothered me to have to do this. It's totally for passenger convenience. Of course, if you wanted to meet individually with Turkish custom officials who speak little if any English, I'm sure Carnival could arrange that.

[Brian Raine]

As I have said before , keeping non US passengers passports by Carnival is baloney.There is no reason to retain anyones passport when cruisng the Med/Carribean/Canada.We visited Cuba on Fred Olsen cruises last year, all we did was present our Passports at immigration where we received a "card" which was returned on embarkation. On a cruise to Canada the US immigration boarded the vessel whilst still in Canadian territiorial waters, we as UK citizens were made to feel like criminals as we had to line up to have our passports stamped by them.

As for "it helps Carnival clear the ship at port of entry", everyone is on the ships manifest this is used by the local Immigration to clear the vessel.

Costa does not keep your p/rt , however they do tell US passengers and passengers with Isreali stamps in their passports that they will not be allowed ashore if they dock in Libya

[big_duck]

Some people like to rant on for no reason I guess. :rolleyes:

 

As I stated earlier, Carnival no longer does this and in fact has not done it for well over a year, the whys and wherefores are now irrelevant.

[Jlrymedic]

Some people like to rant on for no reason I guess. :rolleyes:

 

As I stated earlier, Carnival no longer does this and in fact has not done it for well over a year, the whys and wherefores are now irrelevant.

 

....But they did take everyone's passports on the March 5th sailing on the Freedom. We had to turn them in after our Athens port, and didn't get them back until after our Rhodes day. We recieved a reciept, and on debarkation in Turkey we recieved a green piece of paper (a visa) and had to keep that with us while ashore in Turkey. Upon returning to the ship, we turned in the filled out visa and left it with security. We didn't get our passports back until the next day when we left Rhodes.

 

So, yes in some cases, Carnival requires you to surrender your passport. I am American and had to follow the rules also.

[big_duck]

....But they did take everyone's passports on the March 5th sailing on the Freedom. We had to turn them in after our Athens port, and didn't get them back until after our Rhodes day. We recieved a reciept, and on debarkation in Turkey we recieved a green piece of paper (a visa) and had to keep that with us while ashore in Turkey. Upon returning to the ship, we turned in the filled out visa and left it with security. We didn't get our passports back until the next day when we left Rhodes.

 

So, yes in some cases, Carnival requires you to surrender your passport. I am American and had to follow the rules also.

 

A different set of circumstances, and obviously something required by Turkish officials. Like you said, everyone had to comply.

[Jlrymedic]

As I have said before , keeping non US passengers passports by Carnival is baloney.There is no reason to retain anyones passport when cruisng the Med/Carribean/Canada.We visited Cuba on Fred Olsen cruises last year, all we did was present our Passports at immigration where we received a "card" which was returned on embarkation. On a cruise to Canada the US immigration boarded the vessel whilst still in Canadian territiorial waters, we as UK citizens were made to feel like criminals as we had to line up to have our passports stamped by them.

As for "it helps Carnival clear the ship at port of entry", everyone is on the ships manifest this is used by the local Immigration to clear the vessel.

Costa does not keep your p/rt , however they do tell US passengers and passengers with Isreali stamps in their passports that they will not be allowed ashore if they dock in Libya

 

I'm sorry you were made to feel like a criminal. :(

 

I for one, would not feel safe in Libya anyway, so I probably wouldn't choose that itinerary. Someday when the world is safe, I'd love to see that part of the world though.