Chaos at the PR Port

[poohj80]

When did US citizens have to start leaving fingerprints and photos to re-enter the US? I've not traveled internationally (outside of a closed loop cruise) since immediately prior to my 3 year old's birth, but that seems like a very large change to protocol.

Read above post...it was only for WBTA where a lot of crew were not US citizens.

 

[woody73]

. . . Disembarkation in Barcelona in May 2013 was easy and efficient. . .

We were on that cruise, and disembarkation was a breeze.

. . . When 2000 passengers (my guess of this WBTA) and 1000 crew members have to be cleared, using 4 stations it will take time.

We were on the Sept 2014 WBTA. After waiting in a very long line, we entered the port terminal building at 9:50am. The line in the building eventually split into two lines, for "U.S. and Canada" and "other."

There were a total of four passport control booths, with two agents working in each booth (one on the left, and one on the right side of each booth) -- for a total of eight parties being processed at a time.

Once we entered the terminal building, it took 40 minutes (including wait time) to go through passport control. We left the terminal building at 10:30am.

Woody

 

[SillyInventor]

When did US citizens have to start leaving fingerprints and photos to re-enter the US? I've not traveled internationally (outside of a closed loop cruise) since immediately prior to my 3 year old's birth, but that seems like a very large change to protocol.

Can't comment on that. I'm not a US citizen and every time I enter the US I have to leave a photo and fingerprints at customs. Makes no sense as neither my face nor my fingerprints have changed, but must do it every time.

 

[SirDuff]

Read above post...it was only for WBTA where a lot of crew were not US citizens.

The "math" used in the post (for estimating processing time) included all the passengers, which made it sound like everyone needed to go through photo, fingerprints, passport, and questioning), which was confusing. Makes more sense when you point out it is only non-US citizens (and actually, not all non-US citizens, I assume, since, as a Canadian, I've never had to do the photo or fingerprints when arriving in the US, unless I'm doing the NEXUS/Global Access thing).

It is one of the reasons I used to hate landing in places like BOS or EWR if we landed right after a flight from Europe. The non-US lines (there isn't a US and Canada line) used to take forever. So glad I now have NEXUS/Global Access.

Indeed it was, sorry if that wasn't clear.

When 2000 passengers (my guess of this WBTA) and 1000 crew members have to be cleared, using 4 stations it will take time. Let's assume 2 minutes per person on average (photo, finger prints left and right, passport, questioning) then processing 3000 people will take 6.000 minutes, that's 100 hours of work, spread over 4 stations: 25 hours of processing time. Obviously they did a pretty quick job....

 

[Gonma]

Is there a liquor store at the port to buy water?? Thanks

 

[cris0809]

Water was available at the liquor store. Evian only, $2 for the large bottles. So $24 instead of $35 as charged onboard.

 

[poohj80]

Water was available at the liquor store. Evian only, $2 for the large bottles. So $24 instead of $35 as charged onboard.

So then did you have to carry the 24 pack on board?

 

[cris0809]

So then did you have to carry the 24 pack on board?

It was large bottles - so a 12 pack. And yes this was after having checked luggage so there was no other way to get it on the ship.

Yes, the rule of no liquids in your checked bags still apply too.

 

[RedSox68]

Sorry to sound like a blockhead here -- but after reading all the comments about the delays because this cruise transitioned from a transatlantic -- if we take the repo cruise from San Juan to Miami in 2016, will we run into this same chaos?

 

[jmb910]

Sorry to sound like a blockhead here -- but after reading all the comments about the delays because this cruise transitioned from a transatlantic -- if we take the repo cruise from San Juan to Miami in 2016, will we run into this same chaos?

We were just on the repo from San Juan to Port Canaveral and we had no issues. We walked off the ship at a normal pace, the same as any other cruise we have done that was a round trip from Port Canaveral. We left the ship around 8:45am and walked right off. I did see a lot of people waiting in the atrium with their suitcases, but not sure why.

 

[bobvb22]

Not a problem as san Juan is a US port.

 

[AquaDame]

I did see a lot of people waiting in the atrium with their suitcases, but not sure why.

Thats been the same for every cruise we've been on.... maybe a mix of being early to their breakfast seating, waiting on family members, picking up photos and having nowhere to be until later flights?