Amsterdam airport, customs, and Schengen. HELP! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
Hi! I have a layover in Amsterdam soon (Atlanta to Amsterdam to Prague) and I am trying to figure out if we will have to go through customs and re-check our bags and all that craziness or not. I've never had to do any of that until I got to my final destination country, but I was just reading online about the Schengen agreement (still not entirely sure what that is or between whom). It sounds like we might have to go through customs in Amsterdam even though it's just a switching point? I have no idea. We only have an hour and five minute layover, but Delta (KLM) said that was fine because their minimum changing time is only 40 minutes for that airport. I am starting to get a little concerned now however. I'd love to hear from someone who's changed planes at this airport recently. Thank you!!
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
I haven't changed planes there recently - we flew in there, but I will tell you it's a massive airport. However, the good news is if you're flying KLM, as far as I recall, they're the main operators there, so I'm sure the distances between your gates won't be much.
I'm not sure about customs - personally I'm more concerned about immigration. As far as I'm aware, you have to clear immigration to get into the European Union (of which the Netherlands is part) as soon as you land - you don't do it at your final destination. That's the question I'd ask them, as immigration can be the bit that takes the most time.
I'm not sure about customs - personally I'm more concerned about immigration. As far as I'm aware, you have to clear immigration to get into the European Union (of which the Netherlands is part) as soon as you land - you don't do it at your final destination. That's the question I'd ask them, as immigration can be the bit that takes the most time.
I think I was using customs and immigration interchangably (over here we just tend to call everything "customs."), so that's the part I am concerned about too. It is the whole "Schengen" treaty that is confusing me, because from what I read it seemed like only some of the EU countries were in the Schengen agreement, and only if your final destination was one of the Schengen countries did you have to go through immigration when you landed in your first Schengen country. (I hope that made sense) But all the info I find is worded really strangely and I can't even find an updated list of just who is or isn't part of the agreement. I've not seen anything that lists Czech Republic as being part if it, but the most updated thing I saw was 2009, so who knows if it's changed since then. I'm just hoping that with Amsterdam airport's "40 min change allowance" they are taking that into consideration. We do land there really early in the morning (like 5:00 something), so maybe that will help it not be too backed up? I have no idea.
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
If you're that early in the morning, then you should be OK - I'd also take faith from the fact you've questioned your airline and they've told you it will be fine. Do you have that in writing just in case - then if you do miss the flight and have any further problems, you've got a way of taking it up with them.
By the way, I'm 99.9% sure that the Czech Republic aren't part of the Schenegen arrangement. If I'm remembering right, that started out with just Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - i.e. the Benelux countries as they're otherwise known and that was it. I don't remember many others joining it?
If you're that early in the morning, then you should be OK - I'd also take faith from the fact you've questioned your airline and they've told you it will be fine. Do you have that in writing just in case - then if you do miss the flight and have any further problems, you've got a way of taking it up with them.
By the way, I'm 99.9% sure that the Czech Republic aren't part of the Schenegen arrangement. If I'm remembering right, that started out with just Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands - i.e. the Benelux countries as they're otherwise known and that was it. I don't remember many others joining it?
Yes, we had to reschedule our flights when they did away with our direct Atlanta to Prague flight () that we had originally purchased. They "re-routed" us originally on this ridiculous path that had us stopping and changing planes FOUR times. I don't think so. So we called them and said we wanted a more direct route, and this is what we got. They fully approved all of our changes though. I'm not overly concerned about it if we miss our Amsterdam - Prague flight...it's a short flight and there are many others during the day, so I know we'll be able to get on another at some point. I just want to be prepared that that might be something we have to deal with.
As for the Schengen thing - you may be right, because I have no idea who's involved or what's involved with that. The last time I had to change planes in one European country while actually heading to another European country was in 1995. Things are a bit different now, so I guess we'll sort of learn as we go.
It's starting to make me nervous though now for coming home. We have 1hr 40 min to change in Paris (Prague - Paris - Atlanta), but now I am wondering if we will have to clear immigration there instead of in Prague? In the US if you leave from one US destination (let's say you are going from Dallas to NY to Paris), they check your passport at your starting point and you are checked all the way through getting out of the US. Is that the same in Europe? If you check in at one European country, and are just changing planes at another until you get out of Europe, do they check you through at the first one or is the first one just treated like a domestic flight and then they do the international checking at the place you are actually leaving Europe from? Ok that sounds like it probably doesn't make any sense to anyone but me... but maybe someone can decipher it and knows the answer.
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
It's starting to make me nervous though now for coming home. We have 1hr 40 min to change in Paris (Prague - Paris - Atlanta), but now I am wondering if we will have to clear immigration there instead of in Prague? In the US if you leave from one US destination (let's say you are going from Dallas to NY to Paris), they check your passport at your starting point and you are checked all the way through getting out of the US. Is that the same in Europe? If you check in at one European country, and are just changing planes at another until you get out of Europe, do they check you through at the first one or is the first one just treated like a domestic flight and then they do the international checking at the place you are actually leaving Europe from? Ok that sounds like it probably doesn't make any sense to anyone but me... but maybe someone can decipher it and knows the answer.
Your passport should be checked before you board your flight in Prague, in the same way that you'd need to provide ID on an internal flight in the States. They will check it again when you board your Paris flight, but honestly, the checks are nowhere near as strict when you're leaving Europe as to when you arrive. We always find the longest waits anywhere - be it the States or coming home to the UK are always entering a country, not leaving.
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Your passport should be checked before you board your flight in Prague, in the same way that you'd need to provide ID on an internal flight in the States. They will check it again when you board your Paris flight, but honestly, the checks are nowhere near as strict when you're leaving Europe as to when you arrive. We always find the longest waits anywhere - be it the States or coming home to the UK are always entering a country, not leaving.
Thanks!! I've been lucky to not have long waits lately whether I am leaving a country or entering one...but I'm sure that luck will only hold out so long.
__________________
MNSSHP 2015: DH (Bane), Me (Batgirl), Genie, and our friends
I've never had any lines whatsoever at customs/immigration flying into Europe. It's only when I arrive at a U.S. airport that I encountered long lines. Well, then again, I'm a EU citizen so entering the EU is usually a breeze...
Sorry, not very helpful. But as you said there are several flights that day to Prague so I wouldn't worry too much.
About This Page: 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
However, the good news is if you're flying KLM, as far as I recall, they're the main operators there, so I'm sure the distances between your gates won't be much. 
) that we had originally purchased. They "re-routed" us originally on this ridiculous path that had us stopping and changing planes FOUR times. I don't think so. So we called them and said we wanted a more direct route, and this is what we got. They fully approved all of our changes though. I'm not overly concerned about it if we miss our Amsterdam - Prague flight...it's a short flight and there are many others during the day, so I know we'll be able to get on another at some point. I just want to be prepared that that might be something we have to deal with.
Linear Mode
