Passports on European cruises - do you have to surrender them?

[Charliesmom]

On the Oceania board, they say that you have to turn in your passports for a European cruise. Is this true on Princess as well?

 

Roberta

[can786]

I have been on five European cruises with Princess and I have had it both ways. I suppose it all depends on the countries being visited. I always bring a color copy of the main page of my passport to have as a backup in case I have to surrender my passport.

[FritzG]

I sure hope not. It would make me pretty nervous to have my passport out of my possession. I remember having to turn it in at hotels in Europe in the early 70's, but I didn't think much about it then. In today's times with identity theft etc. I'd be much happier keeping it in my room safe.

[Casshew]

Usually they collect them just to have them stamped (at certain ports) and then give them back to you within a day or so.

 

Your steward collects them, gives you a receipt and returns them to you.

[paul929207]

We were on the Royal Princess in November. 10 ports in 12 days and we did not turn in our passport.

[UT-Volsfan]

On our cruise out of England a few years ago on the old Royal Princess, we had to surrender our passports when we checked in and picked up our cruise ID cards. They didn't return the passports until the last full day of the cruise.

 

That's the only experience we've had with cruises in Europe so far. Guess we'll find out in 29 days on our TA cruise to the Med what they do now.

 

As somebody else said, we always carry a color copy of the ID page from our passports - while it can't be used for travel, it can help with getting another issued thru the US Embassy. We also leave a copy of the scans posted to an email that we could access if we had to.

[F19810]

I have been on 3 european cruises, some going to morocco and turkey in addition to italy, spain and france. The cruise ship never took my passport (other than checking them when we checked in). Having a copy of your passport will only help you for your passport numbers, it is not a legal document. It will help you no more than having the numbers written down on a piece of paper. When I lost my passport in Switzerland, having a copy would not help me very much. This was pre 9/11 (9/10 to be exact!) and I am sure things didn't get any easier since 9/11.

[Pam in CA]

On the Oceania board, they say that you have to turn in your passports for a European cruise. Is this true on Princess as well?

It depends on the country you're visiting. There are some that require that the passports be stamped so that to expedite the process, Princess collects the passports and the local officials stamp them quickly. Much better than waiting on a line for an hour or two just to get off in port.

 

I sure hope not. It would make me pretty nervous to have my passport out of my possession. I remember having to turn it in at hotels in Europe in the early 70's, but I didn't think much about it then. In today's times with identity theft etc. I'd be much happier keeping it in my room safe.

If the country requires it, you're not going to have a choice. You won't be allowed to board without handing over your passport.

 

I've been on several cruises where I had to surrender my passport upon boarding. My Royal Princess cruise in November was an example. I have stamps from Patmos, Israel, Port Said and Alexandria just from this cruise and I have stamps from quite a few other ports from previous cruises.

[weberman]

Last October we flew into Rome and our passport was stamped by Italian Immigration. Never had to show it again. We boarded the Emerald Princess in Venice and in addition Italy we were in France , Spain and Portugal. Once you enter a European Union country or a non European Union country that is part of the Schengen area you will probably never have to show your passport again.

 

The name "Schengen" originates from a small town in Luxembourg. In June 1985, seven European Union countries signed a treaty to end internal border checkpoints and controls. More countries have joined the treaty over the past years. At present, there are 15 Schengen countries in Europe.

 

The 15 Schengen original countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. All these countries except Norway and Iceland are European Union members.

 

On December 21, 2007 Latvia, along with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, joined the Schengen border-free zone. The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across the area, now embraces 24 nations.

U.S. citizens do not need a Schengen visa to travel to the Schengen countries if their stay does not exceed 90 days in a half year, counting from the first day of entry. You may, at some point, be asked to show your passport to verify you are in the 90 day window, but it is unlikely you will ever have to surrender it. As a matter of fact I would be leary of surrendering my passport in the Schengen area.

[caribill]

As with one of the other posters, we have had it both ways. Sometimes we have had to turn them in when checking in, sometimes we did not have to.

 

Also true on other continents.

[dforeigner]

I sure hope not. It would make me pretty nervous to have my passport out of my possession. I remember having to turn it in at hotels in Europe in the early 70's, but I didn't think much about it then. In today's times with identity theft etc. I'd be much happier keeping it in my room safe.

 

You could always bring your old US passport as a backup.

[Chesie]

I have been on five European cruises with Princess and I have had it both ways. I suppose it all depends on the countries being visited. I always bring a color copy of the main page of my passport to have as a backup in case I have to surrender my passport.

 

We too carry color pages along with an extra set of photos and US Embassy address/phone numbers. Didn't think about email attachment. THANKS for that idea!!!

 

We had our passports taken during our Panama Cruise with MSC. Not a warm fuzzy feeling getting off in Columbia South America without a passport!!

 

Chesie

[bionicbeacher]

We were on the Royal Princess in November. 10 ports in 12 days and we did not turn in our passport.

 

We were on this same Cruise with Paul and totally agree...did not surrender Passport.

 

However, we stayed on the Royal Princess and continued on a B2B which took us to Senegal, and Fortaleeza, Brazil. On this leg we had to surrender our Passports to the Pursur's Desk until such times that the Brazilian Authorities had had a chance to view all Passports together with Visa's and proof of Yellow Fever Innoculation. Princess issued us with a receipt and shortly after leaving Brazil we were able to retrieve our Passport and other documents from the Pursur's Desk.

 

The operation took place while we were four days at Sea crossing the Atlantic.......both crossing and retrieving of Passport went nice and smooth.:)

 

Cheers

BionicBeacher

[phabric]

We will be on a Baltic cruise (Zeebrugge, Helsingborg,Copenhagne, Olso) Do we need to carry our passports off the ship or just a copy for the information if anything happens.

[johnmik1]

We were on Sea Princess last Sept. and only the Americans and Canadians were required to surrender their passports.

[8 Bells]

We were on a Med cruise last summer and did not have to surrender our passports. We took them with us when we left the ship to do the shore excursions.

[Plainsman]

We were on the Emerald, Grand Med last year and they took all passports for a couple of days, I believe while we were in Turkey. Main thing is to have a color copy of passport and have port agent's number when off ship.

[4x4bob]

We are off to the Med in two months. Since One Med traveler did not surrender passport to the ship and one Med traveler did I thought of a question.

If the passport is taken by ship employees, how/when do you get it back?

Does Steward place it in the wall mail box, drop it on the bed, carry it around in his/her pocket until they see you, or is there an announcement in the Platter to come to the Pursers desk to get passport back?

Also, if the passport is collected, do you get a receipt for it just incase the whoops factor strikes and you do not get it back?

Thanks

Bob

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

We were in the Med in 2006 on the Grand Princess and we had to surrender our passports. They were returned after we had visited Turkey. This past year we had to surrender our passports in Hawaii for our cruise to Tahiti. We picked them up after we left the Hawaiian Islands and then had to stand in a line during one of the sea days to have officials from Tahiti stamp them. I could never figure out why we had to surrender them since they were given back prior to visiting a foreign country.

[johnmik1]

We are off to the Med in two months. Since One Med traveler did not surrender passport to the ship and one Med traveler did I thought of a question.

If the passport is taken by ship employees, how/when do you get it back?

Does Steward place it in the wall mail box, drop it on the bed, carry it around in his/her pocket until they see you, or is there an announcement in the Platter to come to the Pursers desk to get passport back?

Also, if the passport is collected, do you get a receipt for it just incase the whoops factor strikes and you do not get it back?

Thanks

Bob

 

We were given a receipt and we presented it a few days later at the pursers desk and we got the passports back.

[caribill]

If the passport is taken by ship employees, how/when do you get it back? It will be announced in the Patter. When depends on how long Princess needs to keep them for where they are visiting.

Does Steward place it in the wall mail box, drop it on the bed, carry it around in his/her pocket until they see you, or is there an announcement in the Platter to come to the Pursers desk to get passport back? It may be the Pursers desk, another desk, or a unused (at that time) lounge, depends on the ship.

Also, if the passport is collected, do you get a receipt for it just incase the whoops factor strikes and you do not get it back? You get the receipt so only you can claim it.

Thanks

Bob

 

See red above

[4x4bob]

to

johnmik1

caribill

Thanks for taking time to answer my question

Bob

[Pam in CA]

We too carry color pages along with an extra set of photos and US Embassy address/phone numbers. Didn't think about email attachment. THANKS for that idea!!!

Unless you have the means of encrypting the file, do NOT attach a document with your personal indentification information to email. That's just asking for identity theft. A better idea is to scan your documents and put them onto a small keychain drive and bring that with you.

[UT-Volsfan]

Good point about encrypting the file. I forgot to mention that the file I save on email is a password protected Adobe PDF file.

 

Even if you put the file on a flash drive, it's a good idea to password protect either that file or the entire flash drive. Flash drives are convenient to carry, but their size makes them easy to lose or misplace.

[turbo46032]

On December 21, 2007 Latvia, along with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, joined the Schengen border-free zone. The Schengen agreement, which allows passport-free travel across the area, now embraces 24 nations.

U.S. citizens do not need a Schengen visa to travel to the Schengen countries if their stay does not exceed 90 days in a half year, counting from the first day of entry.

 

Just a reminder tho, that if you're not a US Citizen you may need a visa or three to visit ANY Schengen country. My officemats are Ukrainian & Indian (US Green Cards) and when we travel to Europe for business it's a mini adventure for them to get all the right visas.

 

I do not know if Schengen countries have any visa waivers for non US Citizen cruise passengers, but I'd check to be sure.