MSC keeping passport at embarkation?

[thinfool]

the chaos on disembarkation day when 2,000 folks need their passport returned.

 

This will not happen.

 

You will have your passport in your possession long before you reach your final destination.

 

Leaving your passport with the ship personnel is far safer than carrying it around a foreign port that you are unfamiliar with....risking loss to the local pickpockets.

 

Leaving your passport with the ship personnel will result in -0- days lost on your expensive overseas cruise. Losing your passport while onshore will result in 1-2 days (maybe more) traveling to a US consulate or embassy to acquire a replacement. Easy choice for us.

[CruisingFox27]

We've had our passports retained on a couple of occasions, it's never been an issue and I've never considered it to be an issue, there really is no reason to consider it is. They are always returned to your cabin prior to disembarking .

[riclop]

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.

Not in the USA.

[wetwash]

We've had our passports retained on a couple of occasions, it's never been an issue and I've never considered it to be an issue, there really is no reason to consider it is. They are always returned to your cabin prior to disembarking .

 

 

 

On Seaview now out of Barcelona. MSC did not retain our passports nor did we need them disembarking/embarking in Marseille. I guess it is all done electronically now since they and the passport info from when we got on yesterday in Barcelona? I felt weird having no id (so I brought mine) but sign and sail card is all we needed!

 

 

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[SirWolf]

I guess it is all done electronically now since they and the passport info from when we got on yesterday in Barcelona?

All countries of your itinerary (Western Med) are in the Schengen area. No passport needed when travelling within these countries. ...and no stamps in passport :(

[wetwash]

All countries of your itinerary (Western Med) are in the Schengen area. No passport needed when travelling within these countries. ...and no stamps in passport :(

That explains it - thx SirWolf!

[pukekolive]

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 !

 

 

I travel on a British Passport but am a New Zealand Resident and my partner travels on a New Zealand Passport. When we did Venice to Istanbul on Viking Star in 2016 we had to hand in our passports the night before we docked in Athens as the customs officials came on board to stamp them.

[wetwash]

I travel on a British Passport but am a New Zealand Resident and my partner travels on a New Zealand Passport. When we did Venice to Istanbul on Viking Star in 2016 we had to hand in our passports the night before we docked in Athens as the customs officials came on board to stamp them.

 

Looks like the Schengen countries don’t care about checking passports even for non-EU citizens (at least in our expertise on Seaview). No need to show our passport yesterday in France or today in italy. We are from the USA and they did check them on embarkation in Barcelona but we have held onto them (in our safe) as we don’t need to take off ship so no worries about losing them 😉

[Beamafar]

I travel on a British Passport but am a New Zealand Resident and my partner travels on a New Zealand Passport. When we did Venice to Istanbul on Viking Star in 2016 we had to hand in our passports the night before we docked in Athens as the customs officials came on board to stamp them.

 

That's because Turkey isn't in Schengen.

[Hlitner]

Looks like the Schengen countries don’t care about checking passports even for non-EU citizens (at least in our expertise on Seaview). No need to show our passport yesterday in France or today in italy. We are from the USA and they did check them on embarkation in Barcelona but we have held onto them (in our safe) as we don’t need to take off ship so no worries about losing them

 

When you are cruising between Schengen countries with no non-Schengen intervening ports the procedure is normally simple. Your Passport is checked by your initial Schengen country (in your case it would have been at your arrival in Spain) and then you are free to move between the Schengen countries without further checks. However, if your itinerary included a stop in England (a non-Schengen country) you would have been subjected to another Passport check (often with a face to face interview). And if you later returned to Spain (or another Schengen country) you would have again been subjected to a Passport review. When we do extended driving trips in Western Europe, moving between Schengen countries is generally akin to driving between States here in the USA.

 

This is why anecdotal posts (i.e. "they never take our Passports:) is not relevant unless one is on a similar itinerary. Each country or treaty group (i.e. Schengen) has their own unique procedures. In Europe we have found the UK and Russia to generally be the most intrusive when it comes to checking documents. In Russia they will check your Passport every time you leave or return to the ship. In the UK they will sometimes have officials board your ship several days prior to arrival...and actually conduct face to face meetings with every person (passengers and crew) on the vessel. Other countries around the world might simply review all the Passports while they are under the control of the Pursers Office (this is when passengers would be required to turn-in their Passports to the Pursers Office).

 

To make matters even more complicated, countries will often change their procedures (this drives the Pursers nutz).

 

Hank

[Beamafar]

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 !

 

It's not up to the cruise line (I'm sure they'd rather not have the onerous task of taking care of several hundred/thousand passports every week). It facilitates the immigration policies of the various countries the ship will visit. Otherwise, you'd have passport control checks in every port, with the inherent delays that would cause. (Having recently experienced it when visiting Singapore, there's no way anyone would cruise if they had to face that at every POC!) All cruise lines hold the particular passports required for the different itineraries where necessary.

[pukekolive]

That's because Turkey isn't in Schengen.

It was in Greece that we had to hand them in, we obtained electronic visas for Turkey and went through immigration at Kusadasi for Turkey.

 

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[EssG]

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.

 

We also carry laminated copies (two sets actually to be very safe ;p) but just so I'm prepared...do you think they will do it on the UAE cruise on the Lirica we are booked on in Feb Dave?

[EssG]

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.

 

 

They accepted our laminated copy in Nassau Dave...we didnt take our passports off at any of the ports in the two weeks.

[8420PR]

We also carry laminated copies (two sets actually to be very safe ;p) but just so I'm prepared...do you think they will do it on the UAE cruise on the Lirica we are booked on in Feb Dave?

My guess is yes. We took a Middle East cruise last year, and had to hand our passports in upon boarding. We got them back a couple of days before the end of the cruise with some new stamps inside. At each port of call there were no passport checks, so it is much less hassle to hand the passports in than the alternative (queuing up for immigration with thousands of other people at each port).

[EssG]

My guess is yes. We took a Middle East cruise last year, and had to hand our passports in upon boarding. We got them back a couple of days before the end of the cruise with some new stamps inside. At each port of call there were no passport checks, so it is much less hassle to hand the passports in than the alternative (queuing up for immigration with thousands of other people at each port).

 

 

Thanks for that 8420PR ...I'm happy to hand over, if I know its what gets done :D

[notme2012]

On 6/20/2018 at 1:33 PM, GOLDENBONNY said:

 

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).

Be sure to have photo copies of your passport and probably the image on your smartphone as well!

[notme2012]

On 7/8/2018 at 7:56 AM, pukekolive said:

 

 

When we did Venice to Istanbul on Viking Star in 2016 we had to hand in our passports the night before we docked in Athens as the customs officials came on board to stamp them.

This is an example of a ship returning from a non-Schengen country-Turkey to the Schengen zone- Greece. But not every cruise line does it this way. As we were on Celebrity Equinox and Celebrity did not take passports at all.

[sidari]

On 7/9/2018 at 2:32 AM, EssG said:

 

 

They accepted our laminated copy in Nassau Dave...we didnt take our passports off at any of the ports in the two weeks.

Hi ESS ... The Nassau issue is part of the problem Worldwide, if every Country did the same thing re passports there would not be any confusion. Airports are the same, one says remove shoes, belts and watches while others don't! Stupidity rules it seems.

[awhcruiser]

Take a picture of your passport so you will at least have a copy.

[Nunagoras]

Oh!... This is a so old thread and... There remains some doubts? Let me to explain it in a very practical way:

 

1. If an itinerary includes a port for where your individual passport is needed to show that particular port's immigration authorities, MSC will collect your passport and it will to be stored at the big safe box at the Foreign Relations Marine Official ship's team. You won't hand your passport to an undifferentiated random 6 month contract ship's employee!... Your passport will eventually to be collected by guest services personnel with Foreign Relations supervision!... The MSC's Foreign Relations Officials are all of them dressed with a red jacket uniform and they'll to be available during the collecting procedure time for further information. All of them western European mostly Italians coming from the military. Usually at the previous day to your final stop they'll to arrange a similar process to return your passports.

 

2. If one is on a cruise whose all ports are Schengen Agreement ports, for border questions that cruise will to be considered a domestic cruise. Like if there was a New York to Miami cruise with no other stops on any non US port should have been!... That said; you'll only need to pass immigration control at your entry on the Schengen area and when you depart from it. On the mean time you are like if you were on the same country.

 

3. If you're on a Schengen domestic cruise, have your passport stored on your cabin's safe. Usually on those countries your cruise card is valid as your ID.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Nunagoras

[Motegi]

I’ve cruised on MSC four times in the Caribbean. Always presented my passport at check in but never was held.   Simply verified and returned.  

[candyman6189]

We went on an eastern Med cruise that included a stopover in Israel. During online check in we used our Canadian passport information

 

But we have dual Canadian and EU Passports which the agent noticed due to their different colour I suppose. So when we checked in she enquired if we are EU nationals as well and upon learning that we are, she scanned those, and handed the back to us. Non EU passport holders needed to surrender for Schengen exit clearance / re-entry clearance . 

 

At some point during the cruise i assume everyone got their passports back because, everyone had to meet with Israeli immigration officials personally.