Addicted2TheMouse
<font color=purple>Yeah, yeah, we all hate Stitch,
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2006
- Messages
- 102
I thought I would share my experience at customs in Orlando last week so all of you could learn from my mistake. We flew Air Canada direct from Halifax. On those customs forms your airline gives you, make sure you know and write the full street address for your hotel.
When we arrived in Orlando on Feb. 18 our small Air Canada flight landed at the same time as a very large Dutch flight. We had been seated at the very back of our plane with our 18 month old so we were last in line behind hundreds of people going through customs. All of the Dutch people were being fingerprinted and photographed. (BTW, they didn't fingerprint or photograph any Canadians) We ended up waiting about 1 1/2 hours in line and to make matters worse or stroller hadn't been delivered to the gate like it was supposed to be so our tired, hungry, cranky baby insisted on walking around the room a thousand times while we waited. Finally it was our turn. Picture us... a tired, hungry, young family who has waited a long time. Well, the customs officer had no sympathy. He looked at our customs form and said "Tropical Palms?? What's this?? I don't know what this is!" I calmly told him that was where we were staying. He snapped "I don't know where that is!" I calmly replied at it was on 192 in Kissimmee but I wasn't sure of the exact address. The guy literally sat back in his chair, crossed his arms and said "well, you've got problems!"
My parents had all ready been staying at Tropical Palms and we were meeting them. I took my cell phone out and went to call my dad to see if he knew the address. The guy jumped forward and said "What are you doing?!" I said I was calling to get the address. "You can't use a cell phone here!!" At this point I was exasperated and about to cry. He pointed to a door and said "you have to go in there and figure out what you're going to do".
So here's my tired, hungry, now very angry little family sitting in the office at customs all because I didn't know the exact street address of our resort. Luckily a much nicer officer came in and said I could use my phone. I called my dad and he looked up the address in the phone book for me, I gave it to them, they wrote it on my customs sheet, and that was it. All that fuss and they didn't even enter it in the computer or anything. Then to add injury to insult, we later realized that we had forgotten our duty free bag in that office.
We called around and looked for it but never got it back.
Anyway, the moral of this story is have any and all info customs could possibly ask for. Better yet, fly with an airline that clears customs in Canada.
When we arrived in Orlando on Feb. 18 our small Air Canada flight landed at the same time as a very large Dutch flight. We had been seated at the very back of our plane with our 18 month old so we were last in line behind hundreds of people going through customs. All of the Dutch people were being fingerprinted and photographed. (BTW, they didn't fingerprint or photograph any Canadians) We ended up waiting about 1 1/2 hours in line and to make matters worse or stroller hadn't been delivered to the gate like it was supposed to be so our tired, hungry, cranky baby insisted on walking around the room a thousand times while we waited. Finally it was our turn. Picture us... a tired, hungry, young family who has waited a long time. Well, the customs officer had no sympathy. He looked at our customs form and said "Tropical Palms?? What's this?? I don't know what this is!" I calmly told him that was where we were staying. He snapped "I don't know where that is!" I calmly replied at it was on 192 in Kissimmee but I wasn't sure of the exact address. The guy literally sat back in his chair, crossed his arms and said "well, you've got problems!"
My parents had all ready been staying at Tropical Palms and we were meeting them. I took my cell phone out and went to call my dad to see if he knew the address. The guy jumped forward and said "What are you doing?!" I said I was calling to get the address. "You can't use a cell phone here!!" At this point I was exasperated and about to cry. He pointed to a door and said "you have to go in there and figure out what you're going to do".
So here's my tired, hungry, now very angry little family sitting in the office at customs all because I didn't know the exact street address of our resort. Luckily a much nicer officer came in and said I could use my phone. I called my dad and he looked up the address in the phone book for me, I gave it to them, they wrote it on my customs sheet, and that was it. All that fuss and they didn't even enter it in the computer or anything. Then to add injury to insult, we later realized that we had forgotten our duty free bag in that office.
We called around and looked for it but never got it back.Anyway, the moral of this story is have any and all info customs could possibly ask for. Better yet, fly with an airline that clears customs in Canada.
TIA
