Surrendering Passports

[feather09]

Hello! I am going on my first Royal Caribbean Cruise in December. I called the help desk earlier to ask some questions about documentation. They lady informed me that we will hand over our passports when we check-in and that we will get them back when we get off the ship. Is this true? I have been on other cruises in the past with another cruise line. On those, we kept our passports. I'm just really confused. Thank you!

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 minute ago, feather09 said:

Hello! I am going on my first Royal Caribbean Cruise in December. I called the help desk earlier to ask some questions about documentation. They lady informed me that we will hand over our passports when we check-in and that we will get them back when we get off the ship. Is this true? I have been on other cruises in the past with another cruise line. On those, we kept our passports. I'm just really confused. Thank you!

Which ship and sailing is it?  I heard over the summer that happened on some European sailings....

[feather09]

Liberty of the Seas; Sailing to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

[Lovetocruise2002]

5 minutes ago, feather09 said:

Liberty of the Seas; Sailing to Mexico, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.

Hmm...that I don't know then.  Pinging @Michael Vitale as he was on Liberty recently.

[Mljstr]

That has never happened to me in 17 RCCL cruises including the Liberty. I have also been on cruises to Europe, Panama Canal etc.They hand the passports back so you can carry them to port. 

[SolariumSnoozer]

I have never experienced that.  Plus Matt is always preaching that you should  take your passports off the ship with you on excursions even if they are not required to get back on, can't do that if your passports are not in your possession.

[twangster]

What is your country of citizenship?  

Hotels in Europe have at times have done so, but I've yet to experience this on a cruise, especially one based from the U.S.  

[Boston Babe]

The only time in my life I was asked to give up my passport was in Egypt.  They are mistaken, you will have your passports, put them in your safe and take them when you get off for your excursions.  

[henrysea13]

I have never been asked to do this I know employees have to do this but not guests many don't have pass ports as there not required on close looped cruises it would not surprise me if a ship going to cuba did this but I have been to most all of the Caribbean multiple times and never ran into this even on my uncles island hopper to many ports but if an island nation declares an item contraband they will sieze it and hold it till you untie the mooring to leave this I ran into back in the 70s during the pirate days the local law made us hand over our shotguns till we left but they were very gracious about it ad waited for us at the dock to get ready to depart sail on and don't sweat the small stuff if you call royal 10 different times you will get 10 different answers 

[twangster]

41 minutes ago, henrysea13 said:

 it would not surprise me if a ship going to cuba did this ...

For my Cuba cruise a few months ago we did not surrender our passports, we kept them (after showing them during the check in process).

[melski94]

I sailed Liberty twice in 2016 and 2017 and did not surrender passports.  If you are a US citizen, you can cruise on Liberty with a birth certificate so it really doesn't make sense that your passport would be surrendered.  Clearly the lady you spoke to was wrong.