Eastern Immigration ?

[flexsmom]

We have not done the Eastern but are contemplating it for 2007. I have read about early wake-ups to assemble in a line to clear immigration at various ports....I think? Can someone expound on this, please? Does it put a kink in your vacation to have to get everyone up and report somewhere at the crack of dawn - if I remember that right?

Thanks!

 

[lbgraves]

You must be talking about St. Thomas. It really isn't as bad as some make it sound. If you have an early excursion, of course you need to get up earlier. We didn't have an excursion & didn't have to report until 8:20 am. We went at 8 because we were ready & Brett made an announcement that noone was in line at the time. It was later than they had us report on our 11/03 cruise so this time the kids weren't in their pjs.

 

[cristit14]

I didn't think it was that bad. It is probably worse for Non-US citizens. We didn't have to be down there until either 7-7:15 or 7:15-7:30 I can't remember which. I think that I got up about 6:45 and put contacts in and threw some shorts on and then woke everyone up. I am pretty sure that we were back in the cabin by 7:35 or so. We all went back to bed for a bit. I probably only slept another 30 minutes or so, but the kids we had to drag out of bed at 9:30. It probably took us longer to walk to the theater than it did to be in the theater.The people with early morning excursion had to be down there earlier and the people that had a higher catergory cabin go to down a little later than us.

 

[TheWog]

Some people will have you believe it is the worst thing in the world and their entire vacation is ruined. It isn't that bad. Would you vote to do it? Probably no, but since it is required, you get up and head down. Most stay in pjs and just wait. If you go earlier you can be done earlier and back in bed or getting ready for your day. They serve juice and pastries and coffee and try to make the best of it. IF you have an excursion booked, it gives you a reason to be up and showered and ready to go. Don't worry. It is pretty painless.

 

[flexsmom]

Thank you! We're thinking about Christmas 2007, and I see that St Maarten is on Christmas Day. I wasn't sure if we were going to have to say "nope, kids, ignore your stockings and Santa stuff because we get to go to immigration check-in instead!" I think we can live with it for just one stop, though and it doesn't sound too bad.....

 

[need_a_Disney_fix]

It is not a big deal at all and because you are in a state of grogginess, its done before you know it. DH and I are early risers anyway just to get to deck 4 to welcome the sunrise with our brisk walk. Go for it!!!!

 

[disnut8]

Oh boy - I can relate to this one. We went on the Eastern in early December. The in-laws, my husband and me. The other three griped and complained and well, griped more (won't use the word I really want to use) about having to be somewhere at 7:30 AM. It's the American law and everyone has to clear customs before anyone is allowed off the ship. Having everyone do this at a certain is the easiest way to process 2200 people.

Grumbling husband and I had a Mickey wake up call for 7:25. We shoved in the contacts and went down to the big Walt Disney Theatre where all we had to do was show our Passports (or other documentation, I found the Passports were much easier) and then get our hand stamped that we cleared. We were back in the room in 10 minutes. Painless. Yeah, it's early but it's necessary. This is the only time you HAVE to do something.

 

[suejmj]

Based on some of the posts, I was anticipating this awful experience...reality is, it was completely painless.
We got to the theater at 7:30 sat down and within a minute or so we got up and showed documents, they stamped our hand and we were on our way. Total of maybe 5 minutes. We went to breakfast and sat around for 15 minutes waiting for our 9:00 a.m. tour.

 

[D-Daddy]

I will offer a dissenting opinion: I thought the early immigration wake-up was obnoxious. We were not going on excursions, it was the morning after the Pirate Party, they started making announcements over the speaker in the cabin at 6:30AM, and at this point in the cruise my kids had gotten used to sleeping really late.

I chose to ignore the demands, but after the cabin announcements became more dire, I woke everyone up and we went down at 8:30AM. By 8:45, they were calling out the Immigration Roll of Shame by individual names -- those shameless dregs who had not yet shown up.

By the way, since everyone on board was required to get up early, all of the breakfast restaurants were overflowing with early diners.

Just my opinion, but DW, DS-9 and DD-11 also resented this ritual.

-Jeff

 

[aprilgail2]

I will offer a dissenting opinion: I thought the early immigration wake-up was obnoxious. We were not going on excursions, it was the morning after the Pirate Party, they started making announcements over the speaker in the cabin at 6:30AM, and at this point in the cruise my kids had gotten used to sleeping really late.

I chose to ignore the demands, but after the cabin announcements became more dire, I woke everyone up and we went down at 8:30AM. By 8:45, they were calling out the Immigration Roll of Shame by individual names -- those shameless dregs who had not yet shown up.

By the way, since everyone on board was required to get up early, all of the breakfast restaurants were overflowing with early diners.


-Jeff

I agree! That was the one night we all went to bed late since it was the morning after pirate night and then they started those darn room announcements by 630 am so you were awake then even if you wanted a few extra minutes sleep...good thing I only had one kid because I had to carry her down still sleeping...not sure how I would have done that if I had 2 sleeping kids!

 

[mark_story]

I am an early riser, but my two children (DS-5 and DD 2.9) who were going on shore excursions with me had stayed up WAY too late for the Pirate Party the night before and were exhausted all day after having to wake up and clear customs.

The process itself is not painful, it's just the timing of having the Pirate Party the night before and then having to drag the kids out of bed extra early on a day on which they really should be sleeping in. Cranky kids can derail a good vacation day pretty fast.

 

[Aisling]

For us, it wasn't a big deal. We would have preferred to sleep in that morning, but we were knew it was coming and so were mentally prepared. In and out of the Walt Disney Theater in probably 15 minutes, and back to rest a little more before our excursion. I just wish everyone would yield to a minor inconvenience and get there on time. No one is allowed to leave the ship until everyone has been seen by the immigration officials, so please don't hold the rest of us back because you don't want to get out of bed. I don't mean to be mean, just a humble plea.

If we didn't know about it in advance and were startled awake out of the blue by the early morning announcements, THEN we would have been annoyed.

 

[D-Daddy]

I admit to being one of the slugs who failed to show up for early immigration in St Thomas. I simply did not take it seriously. I'm a US citizen, St. Thomas is a U.S. territory, and I wasn't getting off the boat in St. Thomas. So, why do I need to show my passport!?

In fact, I wasn't going to show up at all until I saw people wearing U.S. Customs police uniforms walking the hallways!

Anyway, I can assure you that passengers WERE alllowed to get off the boat long before all of the passengers had gone through the immigrations check. I believe they gave the all-clear around 7:30AM (??) and after that announcements were made that everyone must go to the Disney theater, etc.... However, I saw people streaming of the Magic at 7:30AM while my family didn't drag our lazy carcasses to the Disney Theater until nearly 8:30. (The process took all of one minute.)

After 9AM, they did call individual names who had NOT yet shown up for immigration and I assume those ultra-lazy slugs got loud knocking on their stateroom doors -- and it wasn't Mickey coming to wish them a magical day.

-Jeff

 

[musicgirl]

Jeff, you have to remember this is not a DCL policy (it is St. Thomas) and whether you got off the ship or not, the ship itself was visiting a non-US port.

Personally, it wasn't that big of a deal. I'm an early riser, dh and ds are not, but we had an excursion anyway, which by the way was the highlight of the trip!! Capt. Nautica was AWESOME!!!!!!

DH and DS would have easily been able to go back to sleep. We were in an inside cabin so there was no light. Well, for the 2 of them, any daylight would not have hampered their ability to sleep!!!!!!

 

[Aisling]

Anyway, I can assure you that passengers WERE alllowed to get off the boat long before all of the passengers had gone through the immigrations check. I believe they gave the all-clear around 7:30AM (??) and after that announcements were made that everyone must go to the Disney theater, etc.... However, I saw people streaming of the Magic at 7:30AM while my family didn't drag our lazy carcasses to the Disney Theater until nearly 8:30.

Jeff, I'm glad to hear this. Maybe it was a threat to get you slugs moving! I had to say that, because while we were waiting our turn, my kids were joking around that they were going to go round up all the late-comers, were devising all kinds of tactics, not so pleasant! It was funny, though, and breezed us through our short wait.

 

[KimberlyC]

Although its a US Immigration Policy and NOT a DCL policy, DCL could avoid this entire process if it wanted to by simply going to St. Thomas before going to St. Maarten. The islands are close to each other so distance wise it wouldn't make a difference as there is an at sea day before these two and an at sea day after these two before arriving at Castaway Cay. And of course the distance between the two is the same regardless of which one DCL goes to first.

Personally, this is one of 3 reasons I did not want to do an Eastern on DCL. No matter how "painless" it may be, its still an inconvenience I could do without.

 

[DrCavin]

Although its a US Immigration Policy and NOT a DCL policy, DCL could avoid this entire process if it wanted to by simply going to St. Thomas before going to St. Maarten.

If it were that easy, I think DCL would do it that way. I think it is alot more complicated than just switching.

 

[KimberlyC]

If it were that easy, I think DCL would do it that way. I think it is alot more complicated than just switching.

I presume there are economic reasons for it. I was just pointing out the fact that if DCL wanted to it could go to St. Thomas first and avoid the process. Carnival's Triumph, Valor and Glory go to St Thomas before St. Maarten, thus avoiding the issue. Based on reviews I've seen, the Valor formerly went to a non-US port first, people didn't like it and for whatever reason (perhaps complaints ) Carnival changed it. I could speculate as to reasons why DCL wouldn't change - maybe the Havensight preference is given only if DCL docks at St. Thomas on Wednesday (I'm sure lots of other ships would love this preference). Maybe contract issues. Who knows why? Ok, maybe somebody on this board knows why. Anybody?

 

[JeannieH]

How on earth will these "whingers" cope when they cruise the Med? Its no big deal and not Disney's fault. If you do your homework before you cruise, you will be well aware that you have to attend immigration. We have made many friends in the "line" at immigration! Just smile and get on with it

 

[jodifla]

How on earth will these "whingers" cope when they cruise the Med? Its no big deal and not Disney's fault. If you do your homework before you cruise, you will be well aware that you have to attend immigration. We have made many friends in the "line" at immigration! Just smile and get on with it

I'm with Jeff. I don't look forward to hauling everyone out at the crack of dawn for some bogus immigration check. (They didn't used to do this....and since they are only checking the docs of people who've already been checked to get on the ship, what's the point?)

But that's the way of the world these days.