Are passports Taken by Oceania?

[atraveldeal]

Can anyone tell me from their experience - Did Oceania take your passports from you when you embarked the vessel when doing check in?

 

Thanks

[RetiredFL]

In a word - Yes.

 

They are returned to you if you need them for a specific port. Other than that you are told your World Card is basically a replacement for your passport. Most people make a color copy of their passport info page and carry it just in case.

[CANDYAPPLE]

Yep, on the LA to Tahiti cruise. Oceania said they needed them for preclearance by the authorities before reaching Bora Bora (French Polynesia)

 

 

Cheers CANDYAPPLE

[LHT28]

It depends on where you are sailing

As non U.S. citizens we are use to the cruise lines "holding" our passports

However in some Countries in Europe you are REQUIRED to take your passports ashore with you

 

If they have held your passports they will instruct where & when to collect them

 

Lyn

[digby]

Which countries in Europe REQUIRE you to take your passports ashore?

[no fuss travel]

Last May on the Marina, they did not take our passports while cruising from Athens to Barcelona and for the first time I sailed in the Caribbean without having to surrender my passport this past holiday season.

[JimandStan]

The requirements come and go with the political situation(s).

I have been on cruises where we needed to carry our passports in:

Albania

Montenegro

Spain

Lithuania

Poland

-and yet on other cruises, to carry a passport was not necessary.

 

I learned long ago that arguing with a border guard is even less advisable than arguing with Stan.

 

I give in at the FIRST sign of provocation, and I have never been happier :D

[LHT28]

Which countries in Europe REQUIRE you to take your passports ashore?

From my limited memory we had to have them in the Netherlands, France & Belgium

Russia of course but cannot recall if required in Norway

I would just as soon leave them on the ship but if they tell me I need to carry them ashore i do

 

Lyn

[TERRIER1]

On our cruise in May/June from Barcelona to Copenhagan we had to surrender the passports but Oceania gave them back when we entered the French ports. France makes you have them with you.

[Mura]

That's interesting, Corsica didn't in October. Then again, maybe Corsica doesn't count as being French.

[TKS]

We kept our passports on our 12/11 Panama Canal cruise aboard Regatta. Currents published which countries we needed photo ID the day of docking, and we carried them with us those days.

[rjrcm]

Last August from London to Rome on Marina we kept our passports. Had to carry them in France.

[tropicalkerry2002]

in France in Nov.

In our 3 Med cruises, the last one ending in Brazil, we have only had to take it off the ship in one port, and I can't remember where that was!

[RetiredFL]

That's interesting, Corsica didn't in October. Then again, maybe Corsica doesn't count as being French.

Don't tell Napoleon!!!

I suspect some of the different experiences noted were the result of the whims/decisions of local port authorities.

We have been to French ports where we did not have to have our passports and others where we did.

In any event Oceania will let you know and picking up the passports is very easy.

[Mura]

Ed,

 

I was thinking more of Roberto Alagna at the time than I was of Napoleon, but I guess he (Nappy) would be even more upset at the thought!

 

Mura

[JimandStan]

picking up the passports is very easy

[Floridiana]

Oceania took our passports on the Amazon cruise. But in addition to the ship's card, we needed a government issued photo id for some places. We used our US driver's license. The stern lady at the port security in Hamilton, Bermudas checked the photo id. I don't remember anyone else doing so despite the fact that we were told to carry the photo id on shore in several ports.

[RetiredFL]

picking up the passports is very easy

But we are not is a suite so no butler:mad: Would you mind sending yours to our cabin on the next cruise????

[john2003]

I have never thought of this as a cruise line or individual vessel decision. I may be entirely wrong but I have assumed that the port agent negotiates the clearance process (or is informed) by the local authorities and this guides the process. Clearly there are other processes where a country may have its immigration staff onboard prior to arrival (Celebrity into Auckland as an example) and I assume this is negotiated and probably funded at a corporate level.

[Toranut97]

You can add Romania to the list. On Black Sea Serenade folks took them ashore. (We stayed on board, had been to Constanta before and were pooped on this port-intenisve tour!)

[Rickey 88]

I am getting a feeling from some of these posts that some feel the collection and retention of all passports is something akin to a seagoing sin!

While I won't comment of the practices on other cruise lines, I have been on Oceania enough to state that the storing of all passports by the purser has proven to be a god-send. At times, certain customs authorities have boarded the ship several ports in advance, and take a whole day to examine and eventually stamp these passports.

Can you just imagine the chaos involved if the opposite was true and passengers had to make a personal appearance along with hundreds of other people! For my part, I'd just as soon hand mine at the start of the cruise and carry a photocopy of my passport page, in the event of any question on going ashore.

[RetiredFL]

I am getting a feeling from some of these posts that some feel the collection and retention of all passports is something akin to a seagoing sin!

 

While I won't comment of the practices on other cruise lines, I have been on Oceania enough to state that the storing of all passports by the purser has proven to be a god-send. At times, certain customs authorities have boarded the ship several ports in advance, and take a whole day to examine and eventually stamp these passports.

 

Can you just imagine the chaos involved if the opposite was true and passengers had to make a personal appearance along with hundreds of other people! For my part, I'd just as soon hand mine at the start of the cruise and carry a photocopy of my passport page, in the event of any question on going ashore.

I think many of us "older" travelers started traveling in a era when a Passport was considered a hard won document and the US Government always told people to never let them our of your sight. I can remember it was always a trauma for my parents when a hotel took them for an hour or so at the front desk. We couldn't leave the hotel until we got them back.

Now things are much more relaxed, in most countries, and European residents can travel over most of Europe with only an identity card.

A few years ago at a small crossing from Italy to France there was a booth where you could go and stamp your passport yourself if you really wanted a stamp. The French could not be bothered in having a guard there.

Just carry a copy of the info page.

[Mura]

Apropos of passports but not necessarily cruising, when we were visiting Israel in November 2006 we were taken around by my husband's cousin, Yafa, who is a licensed Israeli tour guide. One day in Jerusalem she decided that she thought we should go over to Bethlehem. She has a contact there (a Christian shop owner) who takes people around so it would be easy. (No charge, just please come in and look at my shop.)

 

As we were driving there it suddenly occurred to me that we didn't have our passports with us. We just don't carry them around with us since we started cruising, and we hadn't been planning on "leaving town".

 

Yafa called her contact who didn't think there'd be a problem because he would be with us.

 

Except he wasn't.

 

Going through to Bethlehem wasn't a problem, we just showed them our photo drivers' licenses. The guard there had no problem with this but suggested we might have a problem on the way back.

 

We should have listened!

 

On the way back we encountered a by-the-book Israeli guard who wouldn't even talk to us, let alone look at our drivers' licenses. She wanted a passport and nothing else. Our Palestinian driver was fuming, and I couldn't blame him. I figured this is the kind of thing they encounter on a daily basis. For us, at the very worst we could call Yafa and have her collect our passports from the hotel.

 

Finally Ms. Nose-in-the-Air suggested we go around to another border crossing, about a 10 minute's drive. The guard there just waved us on through ...

 

So there can be times when a passport is a handy thing to have on your person!

 

Mura

 

P.S. Bethlehem was well worth the visit despite the trauma of getting back to Jerusalem!

[Aruba]

So there can be times when a passport is a handy thing to have on your person!

Mura

P.S. Bethlehem was well worth the visit despite the trauma of getting back to Jerusalem!

On each of the 3 times I have been to Rome with Oceania, passports were distributed by ship's staff; we were instructed to carry them with us into Rome. That's one of the few ports I can think of, at least in the Mediterranean, where Oceania has returned the passports for the day. I've never understood why since we've never been asked to show a passport to anyone in Rome.

 

However when we went to Israel we were told by the front office that we did not need to carry a passport. WRONG, although the fault was mine, not Oceania's, for neglecting to add that we were spending the night at a hotel on the Dead Sea rather than returning to the ship. The hotel was adamant about not letting us check-in without our passports. Fortunately I carried copies and eventually a manager at the hotel relented, but I had to endure a stern lecture from her first about how "foolish" we were not to have our passports with us at all times. :o

[Mura]

From Aruba:

 

On each of the 3 times I have been to Rome with Oceania, passports were distributed by ship's staff; we were instructed to carry them with us into Rome. That's one of the few ports I can think of, at least in the Mediterranean, where Oceania has returned the passports for the day. [/i]

 

In Rome???? True, when we checked in to our Rome hotel last October they held our passports for maybe an hour, but nothing was said to us about carrying them on our persons and so we didn't. We DID have photocopies with us but the passports were safely locked in the safe.

 

However when we went to Israel we were told by the front office that we did not need to carry a passport. WRONG, although the fault was mine, not Oceania's, for neglecting to add that we were spending the night at a hotel on the Dead Sea rather than returning to the ship. The hotel was adamant about not letting us check-in without our passports.

 

It makes sense about the Dead Sea hotel. As I said, we didn't carry ours around with us on day trips, but we definitely needed them to check into hotels.

 

I won't go into detail regarding the difficulties I had getting back into Israel after our overnight to Petra. I'd gotten extra visa pages some time before our trip but I have to confess they did look suspicious.

 

"Who put these in?" I was asked. "The U.S. Department of State," I said. Then she wanted to know why Howard and I have different expiration dates. That could have something to do with the fact that I was in high school when he first traveled out of the country, and I myself didn't go to Europe until I was 28. But I didn't say that because that would have been confrontational!

 

All ended well.

 

Mura