MSC keeping passport at embarkation?

I have read on several posts that MSC requires you to provide your passport when checking in at embarkation and keeps it for the duration of the cruise for US passengers or maybe all? Can anyone confirm if this is true and if so should it be a concern? I always thought you were never to leave you passport of out of your possession when traveling. What would happen if you were to miss the boat at a port and needed to travel to the next port to pick it up and did not have a passport? Maybe it should be a non-issue, but just wanted to hear what others have to say about this.

What is your itinerary? If it is the Caribbean, they will not collect passports, because you may not even need a passport. If in Europe, it will depend on itinerary. If the ports are all Schengen ports, they won't need your passport. If they take it but you need it for a port, they will give it back for that port. If you screw up and miss the ship, chances are you wouldn't need it to get to the next port if both are Schengen ports. EM

MSC did this on our Venice to Dubai trip which was no problem as we also carry a photocopy of our passport photo page which is laminated, used it in Europe and USA as a back up.

I have read on several posts that MSC requires you to provide your passport when checking in at embarkation and keeps it for the duration of the cruise for US passengers or maybe all? Can anyone confirm if this is true and if so should it be a concern? I always thought you were never to leave you passport of out of your possession when traveling. What would happen if you were to miss the boat at a port and needed to travel to the next port to pick it up and did not have a passport? Maybe it should be a non-issue, but just wanted to hear what others have to say about this.

We have been on the Divina 5x and the Poesia 3x and they have NEVER kept our passports.

Not sure what the heck a "shengen" port is, so perhaps you can enlighten me on that? I will be cruising the Mediterranean and have read of this on some reviews I from other travelers on similar cruises.

The Schengen Area encompasses most EU States, except for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania and the United Kingdom. However, Bulgaria and Romania are currently in the process of joining the Schengen Area. Of non-EU States, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have joined the Schengen.

They have abolished passport and any other type of border control at their mutual borders. It mostly functions as a single country for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy.

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It's not really an MSC thing but more resulting from the countries you may be visiting. We had this happen to us with MSC on a med cruise that visited Egypt. It was all explained and done professionally & we never felt our passports in danger of getting lost, etc.

We have also come across this on an RCI ship where India port of calls were included.

So it is fairly normal depending where you are cruising to, as immigration officers from affected countries will board the ship before cruising to such countries and scan/stamp all the passports & this is why you have to surrender them once on board.

Ye on each of my MSC med cruises they kept the passports so I would suggest taking with you a photocopy just to be on the safe side.

We did a western MED and they took our passports, gave us a claim check like the dry cleaners, on our eastern MED we kept our passports,

As the others have said, it depends on the countries being visited. I boarded in Barbados, visited Spain, Madeira and France and got off the ship,this morning on Italy and had my passport throughout the cruise. On others, I've had to surrender it because there was a physical inspection by immigration officers from one or more countries.

I have an MSC Mediterranean cruise covering Spain, Greece, Italy, Malta, and France. Do you think they will hold onto our passports with that itinerary? We have U.S. passports.

I've been researching this for days, and it's surprising to me how many people simply say, "Yes, just give them your passports for a week and they return them." I'm sure some folks think nothing of it, but I'm from the school of "Never ever let the passport out of your hands. Ever. It's way too important to trust a ship employee in a foreign country to "hold onto it for me for a week."

I've read a lot about how it's not MSC's policy but international law depending on the country, etc. Any ideas? thanks !

On our cruise last year (Sep 2017) with MSC Preziosa in Northern Europe (Germany, France, U.K., Belgium, and Netherlands), MSC collected our (Canadian) passports upon embarkation. The explanation wasn't clear when they collected it. We found out later that non-UE and non-Schengen countries required it. Before we left the ship on those ports/countries, we lined up to pick up our passports and presented it to the border officers of those countries near the gangway.

MSC returned our passport when we arrived in Zeebrugges (Belgium). It was confusing and gave us a weird feeling during our cruise until we got our passports back on the 3rd day.

Thank you. I just checked your list of countries, and it appears that UK is not Schengen, so maybe that is why they kept yours. The countries on my upcoming cruise are all Schengen, so I may not have to give my passport to MSC. I understand completely about that weird feeling you must have had. That is the exact feeling we're trying to avoid!

It was a complete surprise to us because when we cruised with MSC Divina on a Western Mediterranean (Italy, France, Spain) itinerary in Sep 2015, our passports were not collected.

No idea how someone can be upset about it. If you have ever encountered countries like the US, Israel, India or Russia where even on cruise ships you have to do a face to face immigration and out of your 10 hours port stay you might end up with 5 or 6 you will be glad that the cruise lines take care of that for you. We should be grateful as long as it is still possible in this messed up time.

Especially "nice" if some people try to get around that as the ship doesn't get clearance until all documents are ready so no one can leave the ship until then. A good way to make a lot of new friends.

No idea how someone can be upset about it.

Yes, a lot of people on the various forum boards here share your opinion. I just think it's a tremendous amount of risk/trust to place the most important physical document in your life into the hands of a young, foreign, seasonal-employee total stranger for a week, who's also filing the same type of document for 2,000+ people.

The ONLY thing that makes me feel a little more comfortable with the whole thing is that many frequent cruisers like yourself are saying that this is the norm, nothing to worry about, etc. I still will feel extremely uncomfortable about handing over my passport, but forums like these help ease my tension...a little.

I just think it's a tremendous amount of risk/trust to place the most important physical document in your life into the hands of a young, foreign, seasonal-employee total stranger for a week, who's also filing the same type of document for 2,000+ people.

The information on a US-Passport are limited to basically only name and date of birth.

Not even the address is in the passport and definitely no SSN.

I trust cruise lines in this matter, it is a routine thing and they take is serious.

off topic... talking about identity theft, it is much more risk to hand a credit card

to a waiter in the US while on a road trip ...end off topic.

it is much more risk to hand a credit card

to a waiter in the US while on a road trip

Oh, I agree on that point. My concern isn't that they can lift personal information from my passport. The concern is them losing the passport, or (from what I understand) the chaos on disembarkation day when 2,000 folks need their passport returned.

I have read on several posts that MSC requires you to provide your passport when checking in at embarkation and keeps it for the duration of the cruise for US passengers or maybe all? Can anyone confirm if this is true and if so should it be a concern? I always thought you were never to leave you passport of out of your possession when traveling. What would happen if you were to miss the boat at a port and needed to travel to the next port to pick it up and did not have a passport? Maybe it should be a non-issue, but just wanted to hear what others have to say about this.

Depend on your ports. Our passports got collected last year because of Kotor Montenegro and not collected this year for Spain-France-Italy cruise. nothing to do with MSC just country rules. you should not be concern at all (or take your passport ashore any way).

Nassau in May insisted that you have your passport with you, we have a laminated copy of the photo page of our passports which they were going to refuse to accept! Meanwhile St Thomas accepted them.

When we sailed from Venice to Dubai on Orchestra we had to hand in our UK passports for the ports not in the Mediterranean.

Not just depends on the ports also on your nationality. If all ports are Schengen then the will not keep any passport.

Nassau in May insisted that you have your passport with you, we have a laminated copy of the photo page of our passports which they were going to refuse to accept! Meanwhile St Thomas accepted them.

In Havana you also cannot leave the ship without carrying your passport.

Not just depends on the ports also on your nationality. If all ports are Schengen then the will not keep any passport.

I think that is true if you hold an EU passport. But a U.S. or Canadian passport sailing only to Schengens might require them to hold the passport.

Holding Passports is common across all cruise lines depending on the itinerary. There are some ports where the local authorities insist on seeing all the Passports before they will clear the ship. We have been on some HAL cruises where they Pursers Office would set-up on a meeting room and have all the Passports sorted for the authorities.

Hank

We are Americans traveling Seaview in 2 weeks and I plan on carrying photocopies the relevant passport page that will help if it gets lost. I’d rather leave it on the ship then have to carry with me. Also I trust MSC to not want to face a lot of bad publicity by messing with the passports [emoji6]

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