Passport Stamps

[Svein]

Most countries in Europe do not stamp.

[Terri R.]

Originally posted by Svein:
The surrendering of passports are done to accomodate the Immigration in an effective way on disembarkation day.

When you say disembarkation day, do you mean when the cruise is over?

I don't get it. Obviously, I am not in the field of international immigration and customs!

But I've never had an airline take my, and my fellow passengers', passports in order to accommodate the Immigration officials in an effective way.

I'm just tyring to figure out why it is effective for cruise ships and not air "ships"....

[Svein]

Well, honestly I've never been working on cruise ships in Europe, but the procedures is that the purser office keep the passports and prepare them for the US immigration during disembarkation day. They set up a place onboard where the guests go through, pick up their passports and the necessary papers and then disembark. I figure they do it the same way in Europe.

When a ship comes into port it needs to be cleared by officials, and in an airport this is being handled in the airport facilities, while the ships needs officials to come onboard.

If you are flying and lose your passport, it's your own problem, but if that happens on a ship it's the ship's reposibility. I guess the easiest way to keep track of all the passports is to keep them together.

[Terri R.]

I guess I'm still confused.

I've been on cruises that have departed from and returned to US ports and visited foreign countries and they never took our passports.

So maybe it is just when the cruise ship sails from and to non-US countries?

Well....no matter, really. The advice to make photocopies is a good one, and if the cruise ship takes our passports, then they do!

[Svein]

I'm not a purser so I'm really no expert here.

[f-mattox]

I think in addition to everything Svein said, it has to do with the visa stamps. Some countries require visas and it's just more efficient ot have all the passports in one place to be stamped instead of trying to get 3000 people to bring them to a particular location. We had visas affixed to our passports in Turkey and, I believe, Greece.

[DOLPHINLVR]

On our cruise last Feb. Carnival never took our passport - just looked at it and gave it back. Never got any stamps either - even when we got off ship it was not stamped. I agree I kind've wanted each stop so I could look back and see all the places I've been.

[tncruiseman]

Someone else may know for sure, but I believe you can go to the local customs or immigration office in each port and have your passport stamped as a courtesy.

[Hartster]

I tried to get passport stamps from the eastern Caribbean ports I was at (other than US territory, since I have a US passport.) Because I was on shore excursions, I didn't have time to track down the immigration officers save one in Tortola, who stamped my passport. (This was from the 18 Jan 2007 10-day cruise I was on.)

[Crusing_Fool]

The reason they take passports on some cruise lines in some parts of the world is because they clear the entire vessel through at the same time and often the ship pulls into a port very early in the morning while most people are still sleeping. I would rather let them keep my passport than wake me up at 5AM to go through immigration precedures. We are very lucky here in the USA that we have such a great relationship with the Caribbean nations and Mexico so that we do not have to do that. I think our procedures here are the exception and not the rule worldwide. I will also tell you that they keep the passports in a safe on the ship and there is very limited access. I did a river cruise through Holland, Belgium and Germany last April and was without my passport the entire time. I didnt even think twice about it. I do not generally carry my passport around with me when I am abroad anyway. I always lock it a room safe at the hotel. You should always travel with a few copies of your passport anyway. Carrying that and a photo ID is more than adequate.