Experienced cruisers: did you have to surrender your passport?

[coastgirl]

I just got my DCL Passporter, and it mentions foreign nationals have to surrender their passports on embarkation? Is this so? If yes, don't you need your passport for the ports of call? Ok, ok, I know hotels have been collecting guests' passports for years, but not MINE, you know? I'm feeling a little leary of this...

 

[erin1998]

Hi coastgirl...
I have sailed three times, once on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Disney. All three times I had to surrender my passport at check in. They gave us receipts for our passports and they held on to them until we went through immigration at the end of our cruise. Then they gave our passports back to us. I was leary about this the first time too. I make photo copies of our passports and have used the copies for the ports of calls. We've never had an issue with the copies.
Erin

 

[coastgirl]

Seems weird after all the trouble that a photocopy will do! But I'm not looking to complicate things... Thanks for the feedback, it's very reassuring!

 

[LindaM]

I have cruised with Royal Caribbean and did not have to give up my passport, that would make me nervous. Why would you have too?

Enjoy your cruise.

 

[SeanK]

Hello,

The reason you have to surrender you passport is the customs officers come on to the ship really early and look over the passports of people from other countries.

The cruise company doesn't want to inconvenience their passengers so they hold on to the passports and let the customs officers look at will.

I have been on a couple of cruise and i have not had any issues with this.

 

[bluedaisy1974]

that would make me totally nervous!

i thought you didn't have to surrender your passport to anyone ever!
(unless it was the government of your own country)

 

[101DalmFan]

Please read this:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1550758

especially post #13

We had to surrender our passports last year; this year I'm hoping we don't. But this is what happened last year: We got a receipt for our passport, and super-early (like, 6 am) on the last day, we Canadians all shuffled down to the theatre to retrieve our passports and see the nice Homeland Security man

When getting on and off the ship while in port, I had my driver's license and birth certificate, and of course my KTTW card

 

[SAGE]

Hi,
Just off the Wonder 09/02 - 09/06. We did not have to surrender our passports AND there was no early customs call for Canadians!!

 

[coastgirl]

Thanks everybody, I'm really hoping the "pilot" sticks, it does seem silly in this day and age...one thing if you're travelling into a remote or underdeveloped region to have a secure document, but you'd think they really could do it all electronically in a huge tourist transit point.

Again, thanks for your generosity in sharing information and experience.

 

[Shelebeen]

When we cruised with Princess in Tahiti this summer, they took our passports at the start and gave them back to us after we had been to the Cook Islands...I didn't think twice about it. we too made copies and carried each others with us.

 

[NAB]

We have been on the Disney Magic three time and every time we had too.

 

[drag n' fly]

We have been on the Disney Magic three time and every time we had too.

This is what we were told too. This was for the Disney Cruise.

 

[surfer_ed]

I also heard that they no longer require a different process for Canadian. I will let you know in 2 weeks

 

[101DalmFan]

I also heard that they no longer require a different process for Canadian. I will let you know in 2 weeks

Surfer Ed, the new process is just a trial/experiment -- and it could expire and revert to the old way in October or November. If you go through the new process, perhaps you could ask how long the experiment is expected to continue? We'd all appreciate it