I'll probably get "attacked" like I did last time I said this, but I'll say it again. Last October when we went, I wasn't at all thrilled with security, or should I say LACK of.. When we boarded, they had "bomb/drug sniffing dog" which I like to call a puppy for all the kiddies to pet, and make adults live in a fantasy world of hight security. It didn't sniff anyone, it LITERALLY was a very young pup, who may have been there just to give people peace of mind, but it didn't give me any, I don't like to lie to myself. MOST of the trip was fine, the DISNEY crew always checked our KTTW cards and drivers licenses. But the CUSTOMS officials?? What a TOTAL JOKE. Our trip itinerary was different due to some bad weather, but trust me, it happened like this. We went to Castaway Cay Sunday FIRST, and San Juan, Puerto Rico either Monday or Tuesday. When we got to San Juan, we had to go through customs ( my hubby isn't citizen) and the agent did NOT look at our papers AT ALL. He stamped my hubby's passport, but he didn't look at it. It could have been some woman's and he wpould not have known. And when it was time for me to show him by birth cert., ( it was inside this little teeny envelope) I went to take it out, and he put up his hand, and said, "No, it's ok.." He didn't speak to good of english to begin with, but I asked, don't you need to see these? He said "NO!, go on..." sort of sternly and rude.. And later on that evening, my little group of people I was with wanted to go buy some souvenier Puerto Rican liquer, so we went to go get back off the ship to go to the little shops, and as we were getting OFF, a Disney Crew official, not sure who he was but I had seen him alot before, and he was someone "in charge", but he was bringing on SEVERAL men in regular clothes who were of middle eastern discent ( DON'T freak out people, I'm not a racist, but this was soon after Sept. 11, and I was NERVOUS to say the least, I had just heard onCNn about a possible plot to blow up cruise ships that morning..) And these men didn't show ANY I.D., and they walked AROUND the metal detectors. I was VERY upset, and I went around asking ALOT of people who they were and why were they on the ship. No one knew. I even waited until MUCH later, to give them time to maybe find out, and I went back to guest relations desk and asked again, and still no one knew. I never figured out who they were EVER. When I posted about this experience before, people got mad that I was "shaking their false sense of security" or something, and others tried to raltionalize they may have been Customs. No, they weren't customs. The Customs guys were big badged that say Customs. So, maybe this was a ONE time only thing, but I like to tell people about it, so if they see similar happenings on their trip, maybe they can complain as well and keep it from happening again.
Denise
Bob
