I thought that the immigration information for the SE Asia cruise deserved its own page for easy reference to new cruisers or cruisers new to this itinerary. Rest assured, Celebrity is very transparent of the requirements needed for all the countries on the schedule. In our e-documents it was stated that we needed to bring photos for a Vietnam Visa that Celebrity would arrange for a small fee, but turns out that the photos were not required (policy changed, but e-documents not updated) and that Celebrity has arranged with the Vietnamese authorities that the photo taken upon embarkation can be used to arrange our visa documentation.
Here is a brief summary of our immigration process experiences:
Singapore: passports were required for each time we left and returned to ship. Guests went through immigration control each time we returned to ship (overnight stay). Upon our last day in Singapore, all guests were required to hand over their passports to guest relations as a requirement for the ship’s outboard clearance. After returning from the Singapore Botanic Gardens, we simply handed over our passports to the guest relations team who were collecting them at the gangway.
Thailand: passports were not required to enter Thailand *unless* you were staying overnight in a hotel, if you were visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok, or if you were visiting Cambodia. We were not staying overnight, however, our tour in Bangkok did include the Grand Palace, so we needed our passports. We did not however, have to collect our passports, they were kindly delivered to our suite by our Butler, Sebastian. If you had collected your passport, you were required to hand it back to the Ship’s Officer upon return on Day 3, or to the Guest Relations desk for the ship’s outboard clearance. We were gobsmacked that at 17:30 hours, there were *multiple* announcements requesting people to immediately return their passports and then 5 minutes to the hour (departure to be at 18:00 hours), individual names were called out asking them to report to Guest Relations immediately. I wouldn’t want to be one of those people!
Vietnam: as mentioned earlier, we were under the impression that we needed to provide passport photos, but the procedure has changed and our passport photos are now in the safe for … uhmmm souvenirs?
Celebrity arranged our Landing Cards (fee of $6 USD per passenger) and they were delivered to our suite on January 8th (day prior to arrival in Vietnam). On the provided immigration information sheet, it clearly states that we will need the landing card to exit the vessel. Immigration officials would stamp the card and the card must be kept on you at all times when ashore. The same landing card will be used at our second port of call in Vietnam and at the end of that day, the card must be returned to the ship’s officer or guest relations desk for the ship’s outboard clearance.
It is noted on the information sheet that after Vietnam (next day at sea), all passports will be returned to guests.
Hong Kong: on the information sheet it states seapass card and photo ID, however, if visiting Macau, your passport is required.
Baskey Travelogues 