Silly Question - Why St. Maarten 1st?

[jhorstma]

Is the early morning immigration process at St. Thomas required because of the earlier stop at St. Maarten? If so, why doesn't Disney go to St. Thomas 1st and then St. Maarten?

Sorry if this repeats an earlier discussion on this board.

 

[mhb]

Good ??.

 

[izzinmac]

Originally posted by jhorstma
Is the early morning immigration process at St. Thomas required because of the earlier stop at St. Maarten? If so, why doesn't Disney go to St. Thomas 1st and then St. Maarten?

Sorry if this repeats an earlier discussion on this board.

As I understand it, St Maartin to Castaway is too far for one day at sea. By doing St Thomas last, they are close enough to Castaway to be able to make it by Friday morning. Even being closer, they still have to leave St Thomas relatively early.

 

[TheWog]

what izzinmac said and yes, because of the earlier stop in St. Maarten (a foreign country) is why you are required to appear before immigration.

 

[cruisenewbie2004]

Also think if you went to St. Maarten last, you'd have to go through customs at Port Canaveral, which I would think would be bedlam with people trying to get on and off the boat. It would delay everything.

 

[KEH]

This might be a silly question as well but even if they stopped at St Maarten after St Thomas, wouldn't that just mean that everyone including US citizens would have to clear immigration when the ship arrived at Port Canaverel? I thought the reason everyone had to do this at St Thomas was something to do with visiting St Maarten and then coming back into the US. Or have I got that wrong?

 

[KEH]

Oops, sorry, cruisenewbie2004, I didn't see your post before I wrote mine.

 

[jhorstma]

Don't you already go thru customs at Port Canaveral, given the stop at CC (Bahamas)?

Thanks for the info about the return trip time requirement from St. Thomas to CC. I guess the next silly question would be why not have dual Eastern itineraries, where on occasion instead of St. Maarten the ship stops at San Juan - should be about the same distance (a bit closer to home) and wouldn't require customs at St. Thomas (plus the CC stop I would assume would fulfill the "foreign port" requirement for operating a foreign flagged ship with a foreign crew). That itinerary may actually allow more time at St. Thomas (if St. Thomas was the 1st stop after 2 days at sea). But again this discussion may have been the subject of another thread...

 

[RickW]

Originally posted by jhorstma
the ship stops at San Juan - should be about the same distance (a bit closer to home) and wouldn't require customs at St. Thomas (plus the CC stop I would assume would fulfill the "foreign port" requirement for operating a foreign flagged ship with a foreign crew).

Actully, both St. Thomas and San Juan could fulfill the "foreign port" requirement, even without CC.

According to http://www.sealetter.com/Oct-99/alancol.html:

- The US Virgin Islands are presently exempt from the regulations, and may be treated as though its ports were "nearby foreign ports."
- Travel between the US mainland and Puerto Rico is allowed, provided that no eligible US vessel offers such service

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Immigration and Customs are two different things. Immigration is for ascertaining nationality and/or the right to enter the country. Customs governs goods purchased abroad and brought back into the country.

The check in St. Thomas is an Immigration check. You don't go through Customs until you get back to Port Canaveral (you have to fill out a Customs form and hand it to the agent on your way out of the terminal). Technically, you do go through Immigration here, too. Non-US citizens have to report early on the last morning of the cruise and take care of it on board. US citizens can be stopped in the terminal and asked to present proof of citizenship by the agents there, but this doesn't happen very often, since the passenger list is already on file and is checked against watch lists. Most of the time, I have my Customs form in my passport and the agent just grabs it out without giving the passport a second look.

San Juan and St. Thomas are considered foreign ports for the purposes of the Passenger Services and Jones acts, one of which mandates a stop at a foreign port for foreign-flagged passenger ships, but they are considered US ports for the post-9/11 "let's give the appearance that we're taking security seriously" Immigration check.

The Magic did do a few cruises this fall which swapped the St. Maarten call for San Juan. I don't know if they'll continue this or not. At this point, I don't think any more are scheduled. I don't think they switched the St. Thomas call to Tuesday, though. I'm not sure it would make that much difference. It would allow the ship to stay later in St. Thomas, but San Juan is not that much closer to the Bahamas than St. Thomas, maybe 40 miles, so the ship would have to leave early on Wednesday afternoon, anyway.

 

[alwatlers]

In response to immigration in Port Canaveral, We got off the Magic on Nov.6th and when we went through the luggage area we not only had to give the custom officer the paper declaring what we got, but the adults also had to show picture id. They let everyone know this as you were getting off of the boat. Also they said to have your birth certificates available if needed. We never had to do this before, but I think security was tighter. Even at the airport in Orlando, we saw children being patted down and checking their shoes!