Hi

My first posting but I have learnt and felt great support from this site and the members. We are looking to have a cruise to celebrate  retirement later this year. Are there any obstacles? I have travelled to Europe and faced brief questioning but on a cruise this might be difficult. Would be glad to hear of any experiences.

Thanks

It depends partly on which countries you would be visiting. For a start, you would be telling the police which countries those would be, and you need to be aware that your freedom of movement depends on whether you are visiting an EU country or a non-EU country. With the exceptions of Bosnia, Albania and Montenegro, all European Mediterranean countries are EU members and you would have freedom of movement. In other countries, it wouldn't necessarily be a problem, but the police may choose to issue an Interpol green notice if they think you are likely to commit offences there. Their risk assessment includes the destination country as well as you. If you make a point of not going ashore in non-EU countries, there shouldn't be any problems, other than that brief questioning by the border control agents at the point of entry. You might have no problems in non-EU countries, depending on the approach of your local police. If they see you as low-risk, that would help, obviously, but the officers who visit you might not be the ones making the decision, and an Interpol green notice is effectively an invitation not to let you into the country.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Thank you for the information  much appreciated 

Everything AB2014 says is of course correct. Not only are the other European Mediterranean countries EU members but also Schengen members (except Cyprus), so provided that your last port of call was another Schengen country, there shouldn't even be any passport control when you dock at the next place if it's also a Schengen member.

I have been to both Bosnia and Montenegro (both by car from Croatia) and the border control was lax - Montenegro quickly visually checked the passport but no scanning; Bosnia didn't even bother with that - saw that we had European passports and waved us straight through without even taking our passports, let alone looking at them. No idea if it's the same at ports though.

Hi
I wish you luck and be interested in outcome as I am looking at a trip around EU and non-EU but by camper van or train.
I am dual citizenship but not obtained a passport for the other country as yet.

Neither have I talked to my PPU as yet as I am high level planning - not booking- at the moment.
As I am a great believer in keeping the PPU onside, have you mentioned to them your are considering the trip.
At least then you would gain the knowledge of what they would expect and processes they would put in place - i.e. notifications. I would expect them to be honest as unless they have a habit of messing you about, they would not see / gain any benefit from you paying out monies or embarrassment as in the end it would be counter productive in your relationship with them. 

Let us know please.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.

Croatia is non-Schengen as well - I only mention that given it is a big sailing destination and Dubrovnik  is a favourite of the cruise ships. Regardless, most sailing/cruise companies are more concerned about ensuring their passenger list details are correct to ensure their insurance is valid.

My personal experience of Croatia:
1.  Getting through passport control when arriving at Split airport took longer than anywhere else I've travelled to, within the EU or beyond. The guy in the booth obviously hadn't seen a SISII alert before and kept going away and coming back. Didn't actually ask me any questions, just took 20 minutes to get through.  Similar, albeit slightly quicker when leaving - again, longest I've ever experienced.

2. In terms of sailing, passport details given to the boat skipper who logged his passenger list with the maritime authorities. Nothing flagged, no questions, no subsequent checks anywhere. Great holiday in the end.

Thanks for all the comments. I will be speaking with my officer in early April  and see what happens. At least this year travel will be the same after Brexit. Cheers  for now.