Celebrity Holding Passports

[winslow050]

We are going on the Constellation on Sunday 11/7/21... Just noticed in the APP that Celebrity is going to hold our Passports for the cruise, has this been done on any previous cruises since the restart?

Edited November 4, 2021 by winslow050

[Gist Ducky]

I have never been required to do this on a cruise ship before. I once had my passport “held” on an Italian train traveling overnight from Austria. It was a bit of a mess trying to get it back, but I blamed that on the disorganization of the train crew.

[winslow050]

3 minutes ago, Gist Ducky said:

I have never been required to do this on a cruise ship before. I once had my passport “held” on an Italian train traveling overnight from Austria. It was a bit of a mess trying to get it back, but I blamed that on the disorganization of the train crew.

We have been on many cruises and this is a first for us.

[okiedrifters]

11 minutes ago, winslow050 said:

We are going on the Constellation on Sunday 11/7/21... Just noticed in the APP that Celebrity is going to hold our Passports for the cruise, has this been done on any previous cruises since the restart?

They have always been held on European /foreign cruises...they will return them to you the day before you depart the ship. A suggestion... make sure to make copies, have a copy in your phone and also email a copy to yourself.  After being robbed in St Martin (yes, passports) I never travel without multiple ways to access a copy of my passport! 

[jelayne]

We have had it happen frequently.  It speeds up the immigration process rather than all passengers lining up to have the passport checked. 

[canderson]

42 minutes ago, winslow050 said:

We are going on the Constellation on Sunday 11/7/21... Just noticed in the APP that Celebrity is going to hold our Passports for the cruise, has this been done on any previous cruises since the restart?

The tips section for that cruise are still a bit hosed.  The passport notice is leftover from the previous silly description in the tips that talked about navigating customs when disembarking in Singapore on the last day. That itinerary does require holding passports, but this ain't it.

 

The tips section for the subsequent 11/12 Connie cruise still talks about your day ashore in DUBAI on day 6.

 

In short, no holding of passports for Caribbean cruises.  Just your typical X IT foul up.  See you aboard. 

[canderson]

31 minutes ago, okiedrifters said:

They have always been held on European /foreign cruises...

Not most of them.  A notable exception are the Baltic cruises porting in St. Petersburg.

[canderson]

Pretty sure I plan to be in St Kitts on Day 6:

 

[Loracpin2]

2 minutes ago, canderson said:

Not most of them.  A notable exception are the Baltic cruises porting in St. Petersburg.

I agree. While we have not cruised Asia, we have been on 21 European cruises and the only time I can recall our passports being held was for St. Petersburg. 

 

[mom says]

Yes, this is undoubtedly a holdover from Connie's previous cruises from  the UAE and Singapore. It's safe to disregard this for Caribbean cruises. 

 

Not sure why Americans are so freaked out about requests to surrender their passports when required. Its not that unusual. And some cruiselines will hold passenger passports on the majority of their cruises, since it can simplify immigration clearances. The passports are held securely, and are returned before disembarkation.

[winslow050]

Gist Ducky, okiedrifters ,jelayne, canderson, mom says, thanks for all your info...

 

 

Edited November 4, 2021 by winslow050

[LadyBerard]

As we are also on the 11/7 of the Constellation, I did call and they did say that they would indeed be holding the passports.  I find it very odd too.  It doesn't bother me either way though.

[mom says]

8 minutes ago, LadyBerard said:

As we are also on the 11/7 of the Constellation, I did call and they did say that they would indeed be holding the passports.  I find it very odd too.  It doesn't bother me either way though.

I wonder how experienced your agent was. Since most of these cruises are US based closed loop cruises, there will be many US cruisers boarding with no passport at all. 

[hcat]

Ours were not held... we recall they were scanned in at some point.

[canderson]

17 minutes ago, LadyBerard said:

As we are also on the 11/7 of the Constellation, I did call and they did say that they would indeed be holding the passports.  I find it very odd too.  It doesn't bother me either way though.

Classic mistake:  ask a 'support' person any question that isn't included in their 'script'!🥴 

 

Seriously, it's a holdover from the previous pre-shutdown itinerary for Connie, same as the silly Dubai stuff in the 11/12 Connie app "hints", where they were holding passports, too.  IT just still hasn't cleaned up their mess.

[NCHPcruiser]

We had to turn in our passports at some point during a Baltic cruise.  Celebrity kept them for a period of time before they were returned.   It’s an uncomfortable feeling but evidently not uncommon on some itineraries.  

[llawrence]

We are on the 11/7 cruise also……have not been told that by our agent.

[mahdnc]

5 hours ago, winslow050 said:

We are going on the Constellation on Sunday 11/7/21... Just noticed in the APP that Celebrity is going to hold our Passports for the cruise, has this been done on any previous cruises since the restart?

 

We had to surrender our passports at check in on embarkation day during our Valparaiso - Buenos Aires cruise (Infinity, Dec 2016).  We were given a passport receipt in return.  My understanding was that immigration officials were on the ship processing our passports some where in the middle of our 15 night cruise.  We received a notice in our stateroom instructing us to go to a conference room on the ship to get them back nine days later.  

[rotoal]

We had our passports held for Ireland on an Ireland/Iceland cruise a couple of years ago.   If I recall the instruction sheet had a typo - the day and date didn't match up and the pickup time/date was very confusing.  

Giving up our passports was a bit stressful.

 

[nocl]

5 hours ago, winslow050 said:

We are going on the Constellation on Sunday 11/7/21... Just noticed in the APP that Celebrity is going to hold our Passports for the cruise, has this been done on any previous cruises since the restart?

I have had it happen on several cruises.  It largely depend upon the ports the cruise is visiting and the requirements each country has for immigration.  In some countries they literally check the passports so either the ship has to collect them, or the passengers would have to bring them to meet with the immigration officials.  Have had this happen  in Greece, as well as a few Asian and South American ports.

 

What ports is the Constellation visiting?

Edited November 5, 2021 by nocl

[canderson]

32 minutes ago, nocl said:

What ports is the Constellation visiting?

None of consequence in this context.  Belize and Cozumel on 11/7.  The 11/12 ports are equally innocuous (hmm, interesting times and places for that word!): Puerto Rico, Sts Maarten, Thomas, and Kitts.

[nocl]

1 hour ago, canderson said:

None of consequence in this context.  Belize and Cozumel on 11/7.  The 11/12 ports are equally innocuous (hmm, interesting times and places for that word!): Puerto Rico, Sts Maarten, Thomas, and Kitts.

Maybe one of the locations wants to make sure the vaccination information matches up to the passports.  Do not think any of them actually checked the passports prior to Covid.

[woodsmiths]

We have been on several Celebrity and Azamara cruises prior to Covid 19 and depending on the itinerary our Passports were collected onboard and held for certain periods for immigration clearance to be undertaken before arriving at the port.   It depends greatly on the countries being visited.  In 2019 we undertook a cruise from Hong Kong to Shanghai via ports in South Korea and China.  Our passports were collected and returned to us twice during this cruise.  In 2012 we took a Celebrity cruise from Barcelona to Singapore via the Suez Canal.  Our passports were collected from us on a few occasions on this cruise.  The process of collection and return has always worked seamlessly.  

[NutsAboutGolf]

It isn’t X, it’s the ports immigration, they want to stamp them in mass

[sanger727]

This is nothing new. And yes, it's about immigration. We took a cruise in the med that had a stop in Turkey. Because it had a stop in Turkey, Celebrity held out US passports for the cruise. I have since noticed celebrity holding non-US passports on some Caribbean cruises. It all has to do with the port stops and the nationality of the passport holder.