Surrender Passport?

[SunFunCruiser]

My GF just got back from a Med cruise on Costa. They had to surrender their passports for the entire week. They were given copies to use in the mean time. I'm not sure I would be comfortable with this.

Do all cruiselines do this on Med cruises?

[luv2cruise450]

They did this last fall on Oceania's Nautica when we cruised from Athens to Rome...so I don't think that it is unusual for a Med. cruise...

Happy sailing!

[hylasgirl]

I have been on 3 European cruises and have never had to surrender my passport. I do know that they collected the Canadians passports but not any of our US passports. Maybe because Costa is a European cruise line? We have sailed RCCL and Celebrity.

[SunFunCruiser]

hylasgirl I was thinking the same thing. What is the point though?

[Napi's Mom]

I have been on 3 European cruises and have never had to surrender my passport. I do know that they collected the Canadians passports but not any of our US passports. Maybe because Costa is a European cruise line? We have sailed RCCL and Celebrity.

We had to surrender ours on the Nautica (Oceania)...ALL did, a matter of clearing through immigration...especially at Egypt...makes it faster processing. This was NOt the first cruise we had to do so. Might depend on where you land.

[ChrissyUK]

Just returned from an Eastern Med cruise on the Galaxy. Our passports were collected at check-in and a copy delivered to our stateroom the next day. When we went to collect them towards the end of the holiday I heard someone else ask why they had been held. The answer given was that when officials from the different countries visited came on board they sometimes ask to see the passports and it saves time by not having to collect them each time. I don't know why you can't just show them to immigration officials when you leave the ship, but then on the other hand I don't remember seeing any officials when we went ashore. I suppose it could also reduce the risk of people losing their passports during trips and holding up departure!!

 

We also had to complete a `Turkish Landing Card` in Istanbul which had to be surrendered before the ship left port. However, no such request was made for our call at Kusadasi.

[Moeve]

They do it to speed up the immigration process which can be extremely tedious (see St. Thomas) because there are always a few passengers who think this just doesn't apply to them and they hold up the whole ship.

 

However if you are a stickler about not giving up your passport don't do it loudly but rather take the Purser to one side and explain why you don't want to do this - the answer is very simple once outside your country this is your ONLY ID!! It is also the only ID that will get you into your Embassy should you need to. Besides since my passport has this B****dy RFID chip with bio metric data my passport is not going anywhere with out me!

 

In return however you will have to make sure you appear on time for any immigration process AND you will be at the mercy of any immigration official

[kannna]

I'm quite sure it depends on your ports visited. We just returned from Summit Venice to Barcelona and had to surrender our passports just for the Greece and Turkey ports and then they were returned. It's set by the country involved. THey like to LOOK at them. It's a power thing.

 

K

[dutchess43]

Have done 6 european cruises & we had to surrender our passports twice. Depends on the countries that you visit.

[CathyCruises]

Last year we only had to surrender them for Corsica. I always bring a copy with me on shore x's anyway.

 

Another tip I learned is to scan in your passports and drivers licenses (and cc's) and email them to yourself--worst case scenario, you can bring them up on line if you need to!

 

Cathy

[hylasgirl]

Well, it has to have more to do with several things, and not just the countries you visit. On every cruise I have taken, everyone that was NOT U.S. Citizens had to surrender their passports for the entire voyage. It seems really inconsistent to me. We had friends from Wales and from Canada and they both said they had to surrender at the time of boarding, but we did not. We didn't even have to surrender in Russia and that was a gaggle! We had to present ourselves and our passports to officials... they gave us a card to stick inside of it, and when we returned to the ship, we gave the card back. Never have we surrendered in Greece. St. Thomas was more of a mess than Russia! I am so happy that we aren't sailing there in December!

[SunFunCruiser]

Interesting.

 

BTW, they did go to the purser's desk to see if they could keep them. They are temporarily living in another country and it would have been aweful if the CL had lost the passports.

 

Thanks for your responses.

[Lsimon]

We've never had to - that based on one Med cruise last year (Barcelona to Venice) and our Trans-Atlantic from Barcelona this year which stopped in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. And of course various Caribbean cruises.

 

But what I've read on these boards before is that it depends on the current immigration clearing procedures of the countries you'll be visiting. If they need to see passports for all cruisers, then the ship will collect them to present to the immigration officials when clearing the ship. If not then they will not collect them. I don't think the cruise line has any interest in spending the time and effort collecting and processing these, then returning them, if they were not required by the officials at the upcoming ports of call. Note my use of the word "current" as I imagine these procedures change from time to time and may depend on where the ship is coming from, both embarkation port and prior ports of call.

[JinxyB]

We had to surrender our passports when we checked in on the Summit for our Barcelona to Venice cruise in Sep. They had huge boxes of everyones' passports and I saw Canadian, UK, Spain, etc. passports, besides US ones. We picked them up the last sea day of the cruise. The passport was stamped in Pireaus (Athens), so someone was looking at them!

[Denny01]

Cathy gave us a great tip to scan the passport and ID, and I'll scan the cruise contract and travel insurance form also. Great way to keep them in case there is an issue. Think Ill add my charge cards (just figured out what the cc was in her post!) to cover if they are lost - both sides for contact info also.

 

As to taking passports, we've been on cruises where they have announced certain cabin number/last names to get people to come down and check in/out and it becomes a real hassle and hangs everybody up. And of course the people who cause the issue always have an excuse, usually lame.

 

Denny

[red knight]

I have in the past had to surrender my Canadian Passport on Caribbean Cruises. It always seems a little strange, clearing US Customs/Immigration to get to the ship, then having my PPT checked and taken from me. Then again clearing US Customs/Immigration in St. Thomas (Surely they {C+I} know by then who is on the ship?) and then a couple of days later doing the same thing to disembark in FLL, where they have to know who is on the ship as they found out 2 days ago!

[kitty9]

A lot depends on the cruise line. I've had my passport taken for Alaska cruises on Crystal and Regent. Those two lines, along with lines like Seabourn, Silversea and Oceania always take everyone's passport regardless of where you're cruising. Seabourn took my passport for a Canada/New England cruise. So, it's a matter of either the area/country you're cruising or the general policy of the cruise line.

[Blanco-Grande]

On Century last May, Scotland required our passports to be taken, even tho they are part of Great Britain and the EU, they have their own immigration laws. They were returned after we left Scotland for Northern Ireland

[Moeve]

Blanco you are a little mistaken the UK is a very special case (Scotland belongs to the UK) are not full members of the EU in form of Schengen Membership! Ireland on the other hand is. To make it easier to explain the UK participates only in certain parts of the EU - immigration is not one of them.