Do we retain Passport whilst onboard?

[bigpeewee]

We travel on Australian Passports.

 

My wife and I will be on the Diamond Princess in May of next year from Beijing to Vancouver.

 

Will we retain our Passports in our own possession or will the Princess staff try to take them from us when we board the ship?

 

If the Princess staff do take possession of the documents is it usual the my wife and I can get them back so that we have possession of our passport when we go ashore in foreign ports of call etc.

 

Thanks......\\

[Pam in CA]

Passports will be held only if required by the authorities at your next port. When you enter another country, it is customary to produce your passport and go through Immigration. Some countries require the cruise line to have all of the passports on hand for the authorities to review. Sometimes, the ship will collect or keep them because it's more efficient and a better passenger experience. Wouldn't you prefer to have the officials review all of the passports en masse than have each passenger wait in line as soon as they disembark the ship? It would take hours to disembark all of the passengers. Sometimes, the officials board the ship at the port before theirs so they can review the passports and passengers can disembark efficiently as soon as the ship docks or anchors. If you are asked for your passport upon check-in or during the cruise, it's not optional. Bring a copy with you onshore if the ship has kept it.

[beg3yrs]

Pam is absolutely correct on this one. We were on the Diamond this year from Singapore to Beijing to Vancouver. Passports were taken (as Yoda said, "There is no try") when we embarked. We did see our passports once in a while (Japanese and US officials wanted to see each passenger on the ship with their passports) but for the most part, officials did embark at the previous port and spent lots of time using the Wedding Chapel as their office to review the passports of the passengers collectively.

 

Also as Pam said, keep a copy of the information page of your passport with you on shore. That, along with your cruise card (which seems to be some kind of legal document as well) will suffice if there are any questions on shore. We scan our information pages and print them out credit-card sized on photo paper. Fold it in two and it looks pretty official!

 

Now, that said, if there's an accident which prevents you from making it back to the ship in time, I've heard the ship will attempt to leave your original passport with the ship's agent or local authorities before departure. This is not first-hand information so YMMV.

[Loonbeam]

Correct. If you do not reboard before departure, your passport (if held and sometimes even if in your safe) will be left secured onshore. Whether its the port agent, local authorities or your local consulate will vary based on port and legal requirements.

 

Pam is absolutely correct on this one. We were on the Diamond this year from Singapore to Beijing to Vancouver. Passports were taken (as Yoda said, "There is no try") when we embarked. We did see our passports once in a while (Japanese and US officials wanted to see each passenger on the ship with their passports) but for the most part, officials did embark at the previous port and spent lots of time using the Wedding Chapel as their office to review the passports of the passengers collectively.

 

Also as Pam said, keep a copy of the information page of your passport with you on shore. That, along with your cruise card (which seems to be some kind of legal document as well) will suffice if there are any questions on shore. We scan our information pages and print them out credit-card sized on photo paper. Fold it in two and it looks pretty official!

 

Now, that said, if there's an accident which prevents you from making it back to the ship in time, I've heard the ship will attempt to leave your original passport with the ship's agent or local authorities before departure. This is not first-hand information so YMMV.

[caribill]

Yes, on many itineraries Princess will collect the passports and return them when they are no longer needed.

 

If Princess has your passport and a port requires you to have a passport, when ashore (such as in Russia), Princess will return the passport to you and collect it again when you reboard.

 

If you really want to have your passport ashore when it is not required by law, Princess will let you get it back and have you turn it in again when you reboard the ship.

 

In general, your passport will be safer on the ship than if you bring it ashore. If it is lost or stolen while on shore, you may not be allowed to continue on the cruise. I have seen this happen on a Princess cuise.

[tommycha]

In our recent Alaska cruise, our passports were not collected as we were in USA territory for our cruise. We then need to carry our own passports to show to immigration officers when we went on our Yukon shore excursion into Canada when we were at Skagway.

 

I remember the last time when we were on royal Caribbean on our straits of Malaga cruise, our passports were retained by the the ship and were only returned to us one day b4 disembarkation.

[PunkiC]

We have both passports and passport cards. We also took color photocopies of our passport identity pages and laminated them. When we go ashore without our passports, we take the laminated color copies.

 

On our transatlantic last spring they collected our passports to turn in to the customs authorities in Dublin. Due to route changes to avoid ice burgs and rough weather we didn't actually have enough time to disembark in Dublin, but we do have a stamp in our passport. :p

 

I always ask for a customs stamp in my passport. I have found that as the years pass and my memory fades, the stamps are a very good way to help me remember when I went where.

[JLC@SD]

Recently when we had our passports taken on embarkation ......our room steward returned them to us later, during the cruise.

[caribill]

Recently when we had our passports taken on embarkation ......our room steward returned them to us later, during the cruise.

 

And if you do not have them taken at embarkation and Princess needs them later in the cruise, the room steward will collect them.

[caribill]

On our transatlantic last spring they collected our passports to turn in to the customs authorities in Dublin. Due to route changes to avoid ice burgs and rough weather we didn't actually have enough time to disembark in Dublin, but we do have a stamp in our passport. :p

 

I always ask for a customs stamp in my passport. I have found that as the years pass and my memory fades, the stamps are a very good way to help me remember when I went where.

 

Or in the case of Dublin, remember where you really did not go.

 

Similarly we have a passport stamp for South Korea although the ship never made it to the port due to fog. However, we were for a while in South Korea territorial waters.

 

On the other hand, one time we had an entry stamp into the EU as we arrived by plane, but the ship had to bypass the last EU port on the itinerary, so officially, we have never left the EU.

[deedeetoo]

We didn't get any stamps this summer on our Grand Med cruise. In fact our entire trip including pre and post cruse was 6 countries and 18 days and the only stamp we got was when we flew out of Barcelona. I think they must not do it as much as they used to. Oh and our passports were collected by our cabin steward on the second day of the cruise and returned mid cruise.

[Sea Breezer]

We have both passports and passport cards. We also took color photocopies of our passport identity pages and laminated them. When we go ashore without our passports, we take the laminated color copies.

 

On our transatlantic last spring they collected our passports to turn in to the customs authorities in Dublin. Due to route changes to avoid ice burgs and rough weather we didn't actually have enough time to disembark in Dublin, but we do have a stamp in our passport. :p

 

I always ask for a customs stamp in my passport. I have found that as the years pass and my memory fades, the stamps are a very good way to help me remember when I went where.

 

 

How do you get them stamped when the ship has them? We did the Med in 09 and just got off the CB in the British Isles this past July and unfortunately didn't get any stamps in any of the countries we went to on either of the ships! Going to the Virgin Isles in 3 days and would like to get stamps. Thanks

[FritzG]

On the Emerald TA in Sept. our passports were collected during the cruise, and we had a face to face British/Scottish(?) customs inspectors. We had to go to the conference room to hand in the passports and to collect them. We had to wait in line, but it didn't take more than 15 min. each time. I'd be nervous having a bunch of passports given to stewards to distribute. There are too many opportunities for them to be lost or stolen.

That was the first time in 5 TA's that we had to turn in passports.

I remember European land trips in the early 70's where you would just turn your passport in to the desk clerk who kept them in a cardboard box at the counter. How trusting (and I guess stupid!)we were in those days.

[Gunner22aa]

When we did our Asia cruise on the Diamond our passport was taken from us day one and kept for the entire cruise to get visa's and alike put in it. It was returned to us the night before any port stop and then collected again upon out return to the ship. We never had a problem. The ship would pick up a customs/immegration official at the port before you stop in that country. For example we got the Chineese guys in Japan and they sailed with us. They would go through all of the passports onroute and do whatever it was they had to do. The only people that had a problem on our trip were those that showed up to fly to China without a valid visa. You must get one before you leave Canada/USA or you don't fly. We were told that the ship sailed with 18 less passangers for this reason. No fault of Princess as this fact is made known to all well in advance. All other visa's/entry permits were handled on board the ship.

[PunkiC]

Or in the case of Dublin, remember where you really did not go.

 

:) That's what I was thinking too. Fortunately we had previously spent a week in Dublin and the surrounding area, so missing one day was no great disappointment for us.

 

Sea Breezer writes:

 

How do you get them stamped when the ship has them? We did the Med in 09 and just got off the CB in the British Isles this past July and unfortunately didn't get any stamps in any of the countries we went to on either of the ships! Going to the Virgin Isles in 3 days and would like to get stamps. Thanks

 

The only time we have had them taken away was when we were heading for Dublin and in that case, the passport came back with a stamp in it. Of course, there are many points of disembarkation within the EU where there is no customs office available so we don't get stamps, but we always try.

 

My old passport has a beautiful Liechtenstein stamp. We had to go to the post office and pay one Euro each to get the stamps.

 

As I am writing this it occurs to me that I never thought about getting a Vatican passport stamp. Does anybody have one?

[caribill]

We didn't get any stamps this summer on our Grand Med cruise. In fact our entire trip including pre and post cruse was 6 countries and 18 days and the only stamp we got was when we flew out of Barcelona. I think they must not do it as much as they used to. Oh and our passports were collected by our cabin steward on the second day of the cruise and returned mid cruise.

 

You probably received a stamp when you entered the EU by plane. Visiting other EU countries does not require exiting and re-entering the EU, so no stamps until you finally left the EU to return home.

 

Still, some of the countries (Greece is usually one of them) want to see the passport which is why the ship had them collected.

[Pam in CA]

When cruising in Europe, whether your passport is taken or not has to do with the Schengen Agreement, not the EU. The Schengen Agreement countries essentially agreed to have a common immigration border so when going from country to country in the Agreement, you do not have to go through Immigration each time. Some cruise itineraries remain within the Schengen Agreement so you passport won't be taken. Some itineraries go to countries out of the Schengen Agreement and then back in so your passport will be taken.