Passport Stamping

[AuntyBrat]

Well, we got our passports and are ready to cruise!!! But the kids want to know if they will get their passports stamped when we get to the islands? Can anyone out there help??

Thanks!!

Laura

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Nope....I was hoping to as well, but you only flash them for a minute and that is it....

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

You really only need them while checking in at the port, and during the immigration check at St. Thomas, if you're going there. You don't go through any kind of passport control on the islands. That's all taken care of by the cruise line. I believe that local immigration officials just check the passenger manifest against some kind of watch list. Mostly, the list is probably filed away somewhere, like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[outahere]

I don't know which itinerary you'll be on, but you could check with the Immigration folks on whichever islands you're visiting. They may be able to stamp your passports if you go to their offices.

 

[ChibiJones]

We went to Germany & Austria when I was in high School. It was the summer right after the Berlin Wall fell so technichally it was still West Germany & East Germany.

No stamps for us when we landed in West Germany, the East German border facilities were still up, but not manned, and Austrian officials justed waved us through their border, barely glancing at our passports.

The US customs agent couldn't believe that we had been to 3 countries & no one bothered to stamp our passport. She took pity on our poor jet-lagged souls and stamped our passports for us.

 

[Doctor P]

I have now been in or through 8 foreign countries (France, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany, Grand Cayman, Mexico, and the Bahamas) with my passport and have yet to have it stamped with the exception of U.S. INS when I returned to the U.S. from Europe.

 

[Favorite Auntie]

Whenever I have traveled to London I have always had my passport stamped....?

But, if I am not mistaken, on the cruise (the eastern anyway...) the only time you see customs it is US costoms...They come onto the ship the morning of St Thomas, and you walk by them as you disembark......no stamping.

 

[hilltopfamily]

we went to 4 countries on our trip 8 years ago and were looking forward to getting our passports stamped. Sadly, came home with only a stamp from London Heathrow! Oh well, I guess we're lucky it's not empty!