Passport Question

[producegirl]

Do you have to show your passport in every city? Does the ship keep your passport? Can you get your passport stamped in every country?

How does all this delay getting off the ship to make your tour reservation time?:confused:

This is my first time cruising the Med and I am really a "babe in the woods"!

 

Thanks

[Hlitner]

The short answer is that it depends on your itinerary and cruise line. It is pretty common for cruise ships to collect all the passports at the time you check-in for embarkation. They than return your passports at some point during the cruise (as late as the final full day). This is actually a good thing since it avoids having the passengers stand in long lines at ports. The pursers office handles all the work and you just go ashore and have fun. It is a good idea to make photocopies of the main page of your passport to keep in your cabin and carry when ashore. As far as countries stamping passports, there doesn't seem to be any standard these days. Sometimes when you get your passport back from the purser it will have several stamps..and sometimes it has none.

 

Hank

[Bill S]

I recall reading in a similar thread, that if you are entering a country which is part of the European Union, as long as your cruise will visit only other EU countries, your passport will be stamped only in the first country of entry. I'm not sure if this is true but it sounds plausible.

On our last two cruises in Europe, we did not need to show our passports in EU countries our ship visited, but we did carry copies of the inside cover and first page with us.

[Kindlychap]

You enter the EU rather than the individual countries, as long as they are part of the Schengen agreement.

 

I've never had my passport collected in by the ship, save for a nile cruise - as in Egypt you need to register with the police and the boat did it for us.

[DALSAL]

I read on a "tios for cruising" thread that if you give your passport to the ship,they will get it stamped for you in all the countries you visit.When they get all their paperwork done,they just get your passport stamped for you.But,I bet not too many ppl actually do this,or the cruiseline would be having to collect way too many passports,and then halt this..

[alinehu]

We were on the Grand last summer, the ship took our passports and they gave us back the passport the last day of the cruise, with only one new stamp from Santorini.In our trip we went to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Montecarlo and in our passport we only got two stamps theone i toldYou from Santorini and from Spain (where we enter the european Union) thats it.

[Globaliser]

I recall reading in a similar thread, that if you are entering a country which is part of the European Union, as long as your cruise will visit only other EU countries, your passport will be stamped only in the first country of entry. I'm not sure if this is true but it sounds plausible.

As Kindlychap says, this is true for the countries that are full members of the Schengen agreement - which also, technically, includes some countries that are not EU members (like Norway). There are no immigration borders between those countries, so any travel between them is just like domestic travel as far as immigration and passport controls are concerned.

 

When alinehu did a trip to Italy, Greece, Turkey and Montecarlo, there was a stamp from Spain (where alinehu entered Schengenland for the first time). I suspect that the cruise then went to Turkey, which is outside Schengenland (and outside the EU); and that the cruise then returned to Schengenland at Santorini, where the passports were stamped again for the second entry into Schengenland.

 

I read on a "tios for cruising" thread that if you give your passport to the ship,they will get it stamped for you in all the countries you visit.

I am not sure that this will work on a cruise that sails between countries in Schengenland. Because the travel is regarded as domestic for immigration purposes, there is unlikely to be any immigration interest in the ship at all, so there will be nobody to stamp the passports.

 

Moreover, the Schengen stamps (which are common format throughout Schengenland) officially record the date of your entry into or exit from Schengenland, so I imagine that officials will not be keen to put additional stamps into your passport recording you as entering Schengenland on a certain date, when that is simply untrue. This would be a bit like driving around the US, and asking CBP to stamp your passport as "arrived in the US" at every airport you drove past.

[Bill S]

Globaliser: thanks for the excellent explanation---now I understand! :)

[producegirl]

The short answer is that it depends on your itinerary and cruise line. It is pretty common for cruise ships to collect all the passports at the time you check-in for embarkation. They than return your passports at some point during the cruise (as late as the final full day). This is actually a good thing since it avoids having the passengers stand in long lines at ports. The pursers office handles all the work and you just go ashore and have fun. It is a good idea to make photocopies of the main page of your passport to keep in your cabin and carry when ashore. As far as countries stamping passports, there doesn't seem to be any standard these days. Sometimes when you get your passport back from the purser it will have several stamps..and sometimes it has none.

 

Hank

Okay, let me see if I get this...I will be on the BOS starting in Barcelona. then we travel to Villefranchie, Florence, Rome, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Kusadashi, Turkey, and Naples.

They keep my passport and I get one stamp?

[alinehu]

If that the order of the places you are going, you are going to get a stamp in Spain, and one of the place that you go after Turkey.That was the way with me last June on the Grand Princess.Yes the ship takes the passport.