Passport check before leaving cruise ship.?

Question

Last year i went on my first cruise.We were on the Freedom of the seas. The night before we were to depart ship (coming home) The people who check passports came to the room of two people who were part of our travel group. I was told by a friend that this is part of a random check that the cruise/passport officers do and that they pick people at random (go their rooms) and check their passports before exiting the ship. Is this true?

Answer 1

Of all the cruises that our agency books I have never heard of this from one of our cruise passengers.

Answer 2

If you were member of a group that traveled form it leaves from that group

I do not believe that they check inside outside necessary that his check passport that it must make immigration before entering inside the cruise.

In my case it was not member of a group of tour so nobody check me already being inside of the cruise.

Answer 3

I have been on many cruises, including at least 3 cruises each of the last 3 years and I have never seen or heard of any such procedure.  In fact, there is absolutely no reason for this because the cruise line officials check every passport (of people who have them as ID) when you first board the ship.  The only other time that I have seen passports checked while on the ship was when our Caribbean cruise departed from Puerto Rico, went to Aruba and Caracao, then stopped in St Thomas on the way back to Puerto Rico.  AND, since St Thomas is US territory Customs and Immigration came on board the ship and checked everyone's passports because technically we were re-entering the  U.S.  

US Customs and Immigration officials are the only ones who would do an official check and they do not cruise with the ship but are in US ports.  Even when I have cruised in Europe no officials boarded the ship to check passports.  They did in some ports check passports when you exited or enter the ship.

My guess is that the persons whose passports were checked has a specific problem that was being addressed.  I certainly have never seen or heard of this on any of the cruises I have bene on.

Answer 4

random passports checks are a good idea, but they need to be aware that everyone should be at random, there cannot be racial profiling, just think of a passport as your free ticket to get through somewhere, saves you explaining things in detail, say there you, are anything else?