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I am UK resident who spends as much time in Schengen area (Tenerife) as I'm allowed. When we are not in Tenerife we often take cruises. I understand fully why if a cruise begins and ends in a Schengen country the whole cruise would count - however can anybody explain or confirm what happens when a cruise commences and ends in the UK and there are just a couple of days spent ashore on Schengen countries during the cruise?

This related answer mentions that the 90 days start as soon as my passport is stamped at the port of entry. As far as I can determine from the cruise company there are no procedures in place to submit passports for stamping either on arrival or departure. I assume they may submit some a passenger manifest, but how would I know if any days have been reduced from our 90 day limit?

Saaru Lindestøkke
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Terry
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    I am confused: you mention that your passport will not be submitted, but at the same time "a couple of days" is spent in Schengen countries. Do you go ashore in any of those Schengen countries or do you stay on board in the waters of those countries? Welcome to Travel.SE by the way! If you're new to this site feel free to take the [tour], it can help you get the most from this site. – Saaru Lindestøkke Jan 06 '22 at 16:47
  • Prior to Brexit we went on a number of cruises both in and have never needed to show passports (though it is always recommended to carry them) - clearly this was not a problem before change of visa requirements for UK following Brexit. As mentioned although where flying to a port in Schengen area I'm aware that the whole cruise is recorded as within Schengen even if some of the countries visited are not I have not been able to confirm what happens when a cruise starts and returns to UK - whilst visiting some countries in the Schengen area. – Terry Jan 06 '22 at 18:03
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    Just to be clear: when you write "whilst visisting some countries in the Schengen area" you mean that you will board the cruise in the UK, sail to a Schengen country, spend a few days/hours ashore, sail back to the UK and alight there (ending your journey)? – Saaru Lindestøkke Jan 06 '22 at 18:06
  • Thats right - On same cruise we will also be spending visits to countries that are not part of Schengen area - for example we spend two days in St Petersburg – Terry Jan 06 '22 at 19:02
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    You should keep a record of the cruise itinerary. This can be used to correct an erroneous/incomplete record. We have cases on this site where the Schengen exit was not recorded because of some error, but the traveler substantiated date of exit with airline records. – Andrew Lazarus Jan 09 '22 at 17:51

2 Answers2

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I think the best course of action would be to contact the cruise company and clarify how this works (or wait for someone knowledgeable to answer on here).

I want to stress that I am not an expert, have never dealt with Schengen visas and just pieced this together from information online:

The Schengen Border Code has a part on cruise ships in Annex VI (article 3.2.1-3.2.3).

Article 3.2.3(a) states:

where the cruise ship comes from a port situated in a third country and calls for the first time at a port situated in the territory of a Member State, crew and passengers shall be subject to entry checks on the basis of the nominal lists of crew and passengers, ...

Passengers going ashore shall be subject to entry checks ...

That seems to suggest that your passport will be checked when you go ashore in a Schengen country, starting the Schengen "counter".

Article 3.2.3(d) states:

where a cruise ship departs from a port situated in a Member State to a port in a third country, crew and passengers shall be subject to exit checks on the basis of the nominal lists of crew and passengers.

This seems to suggest that exiting the Schengen area will be registered as well.

To determine how many days you have left on the 90 day limit on any given date, you can use the Schengen calculator and fill in the entry/exit date(s).

Saaru Lindestøkke
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  • Hi Saaru - many thanks for your answer - if passport checks (arrival and exit stamps in passports) occur at Schengen Country ports - that would be sensible and actually resolve any issue we had. In fact this is specifically what I had asked to be confirmed by the cruise company but was unable to obtain clarification from them. I guess I will need to go back and try again. I do currently use a Schengen calculator - I think trying to keep track of numerous visits without one would be very difficult. I will update the site with any information I can obtain. – Terry Jan 06 '22 at 21:15
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To follow on from the question of which days "count" towards the 90/180 on a cruise in and out of Southampton with day trip stops in the Schengen area, I was just advised by P & O Cruises that any day in a Schengen area port counts, whether you get off the ship or not.

Also any sea days that are between 2 ports of the same country also count. So for example if you were in Tenerife port one day then had sea day the next en route to, for example, Cadiz, then all three days would count: the Tenerife port stop, the Cadiz port stop and the sea day in-between.

However ... from personal experience on her own cruise, the P & O person I spoke to said there are no passport stamps at all. I asked them how anyone would know to count these days at all then...she advised well I assume as P & O have your passport number and the trip itinerary that this is recorded somewhere.

In this example, a 14 day trip, Southampton to Canaries including Portugal and mainland Spain and back to Southampton, I therefore calculated that 7 of the 14 days would count.

Maybe P & O or immigration somewhere record this ... no idea? I guess to be safe we should therefore count them but I'm struggling to see if there is an official system that does keep track of this with no stamps or scans of a passport.

Azor Ahai -him-
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Jo Swales
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  • It is not just a question mark that makes something a question, your first comment shows that you still want to ask this as a question (and I expect people to either edit it into a real answer or to want it deleted again. (It is reinstated and was such before your last comments.) – Willeke Jan 13 '23 at 18:53
  • This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review – mdewey Jan 14 '23 at 11:22