Any tips on dealling with St Thomas immigration?

[Dreamer04]

Hi everyone!

Immigration at St Thomas next Wednasday (WEEEEE) will be a new experience for me and mine

Just read a thread (poet-didn't know it) that scared me!

Verrrrry Loooonnng Waaaaait!

Any tips? Our cabin is on deck 8. Do they go by floor? Does it help to get there as soon as they open the doors?

Any info wil be appreciated.

BTW Happy St Valentine's Day

Ursula

 

[tvguy]

There is no order to when you report, other than EVERYONE has to report, on our cruise it was by 7 am. Everyone, even if you don't intend to get off the ship. They will come looking for you if you don't report on time.
Disney has nothing to do with this, it's US Immigration. I guess they cut back the number of Immigration officials, used to be they kept someone at the gangway and you cleared immigration when and if you got off the ship, but I guess they don't want to keep someone at every ship for the entire 8 hours they are there. So they stagger the times for immigration, they clear an entire ship, and move on to the next one.

 

[mmouse37]

We have gone through St. Thomas imm. several times on DCL and NEVER experienced the long wait others have reported....we are usually in and out in under 15 minutes.

Not sure how they can improve it unless they assign more officials and that is not up to DCL. DCL runs it pretty efficiently from what I have seen. Taking people row by row in order from the theatre seats, based on how you came into the theatre.

MJ

 

[TheWog]

Get there early. The earlier the better. They serve coffee, juice, pastries, etc. Once you get a row you get to sit and it didn't really take us that long on our cruise.

 

[Dreamer04]

Ok. So the earlier the better. How early can I get there? 6:00 am? That's what I told everyone. I said you all can go in your pjs and sweats. You can sleep in the seats. LOL

So is 6:00am about right? Earlier?

Thanks so much!!

 

[TheWog]

6:00 a.m. you will be fine. We left our room about 6:15 and were in the second row. DW and DS6 were in their pj's.

 

[DrCavin]

There is no order to when you report, other than EVERYONE has to report, on our cruise it was by 7 am. Everyone, even if you don't intend to get off the ship. They will come looking for you if you don't report on time.
Disney has nothing to do with this, it's US Immigration. I guess they cut back the number of Immigration officials, used to be they kept someone at the gangway and you cleared immigration when and if you got off the ship, but I guess they don't want to keep someone at every ship for the entire 8 hours they are there. So they stagger the times for immigration, they clear an entire ship, and move on to the next one.

That is not entirely true... There is an order to when you are to report. Here is a schedule from a navigator: http://www.dcltribute.com/navigators/east_carib/sttins.htm

It took us about 15 minutes at most to get through the process. We had to report to the Walt Disney Theater & was never anyone at the gangway to clear you, just the normal procedure to get off the ship. Unless they have changed the process completly, it really is not that bad....

 

[Dreamer04]

Thanks for the Navigator link!

It does say that the schedule is a guideline, so we could go as early as 6:30.

My DH is going to Mahogany Run to play golf that morning. So since we all have to be there together, that time would be best!

Thanks!

 

[ClarabelleCow]

Passports, Passports, Passports!!!

Once everyone starts using passports, these things will run much smoother and quicker. With a passport, they either just look at it, or scan it. then your on your way. with a Birth Cert., Driver's License, Marriage License, etc., they have to examine each document, sure it may just be another minute or two, but it takes time!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

In my experience, it's pretty hit-or-miss. We usually just go at our scheduled time. Sometimes we're there for 10 minutes, a couple of times, it's taken close to an hour. I guess the best advice is to be patient (that, and bring a book).

Regarding excursions, I believe that they tell people with early excursions to show up at the earliest time.

 

[Lynderella]

On the January 22 cruise the immigration officers were 30 minutes late. My DH and friends arrived at the first time (they were on the Mahogany Run golf excursion) and waited and waited. Of course, once the officers arrived, they were out in 5 minutes. I waited until closer to the end to take our DS and DD. They are both under the age of 4 and didn't want to wake them too early. We did wait about 30 minutes, but at least you could see the line moving. The kids went in their jammies and snacked on some of the pastries offered.

 

[lbgraves]

I was amazed how lax it all seemed when we went thru in 11/03. We got up to the front & had all the paperwork & the guy just asked DH & I which city & state we were born in. That was it...thank you have a nice day.

 

[lazarru]

I think they are rather lax because what are they really looking for anyway. Everyone on the ship has already goen through the checks to initally get onto the ship, the only way in port that your getting on the ship is with a ship ID so unless you've already passed through the procedures your not getting on. I think they really only do this because by law they have to, but I serious doubt it ever turns up anything. After all if your smart enough to get into the ship at a port, your going to be smart enough to get around this check in.

 

[marycaym]

We were on the 2/5 magic the immigration seemed to take longer this time that it did last time, same w/the tendors.

The day before we were given a schedule in our stateroom of when you should go, if you have an AM excursion you should go first. We had planned to snorkel on st john so we went right away, and we waited and waited for the immigration officers to show up, it was well after 7am when they showed, theater was full and lines out the door. Only 2 officers were there,they checked your docs/passports and then stamped your hand. Our excursion was scheduled to arrive as sessions at 7:30am, not many people were there as they were still going through immigration. Excursion ended up not going to st john so we were able to cancel w/a full refund.

Now begins the tender nightmare - As far as tendering in, last time I remember going right of the ship, this time you were asked to go to the buena vista theater, given a ticket and then put in a row, they then called rows to go to the deck to tendor.

It seemed like a very very long process, since those w/shore excursions were being let off first. Also, if you have a shore excursion that meets at the dock on st thomas - although yourself plenty of time to get from the boat to the dock.

Overall, I would say we were about 2+ hours from immigration to getting on the island.

 

[Dreamer04]

Thank you all, so much. Ok so we will all attend at 6:00 am. That way DH can play golf and the kids and I will head back up for breakfast before going to Coki Beach.

 

[MickeyB426]

Dreamer, I look at it this way...

...isn't 7AM a great time for no-limit Texas hold'em?

 

[jhorstma]

This is nuts. I know that this immigration thing has been covered in previous posts, but Disney really needs to figure out how to flip flop St. Thomas and St. Maarten (or replace St. Maarten - maybe 2 days at St. Thomas so that people can really enjoy St. Johns?) so that immigration here is not required. Now that it appears that tendering is required the time requirements are too much for the short time spent here, especially with the roundtrip time to St. Johns.

 

[MickeyB426]

This is nuts. I know that this immigration thing has been covered in previous posts, but Disney really needs to figure out how to flip flop St. Thomas and St. Maarten (or replace St. Maarten - maybe 2 days at St. Thomas so that people can really enjoy St. Johns?) so that immigration here is not required. Now that it appears that tendering is required the time requirements are too much for the short time spent here, especially with the roundtrip time to St. Johns.

The problem is...at some point, everyone will have to go through immigration. As long as a foreign country is visited, immirgation procedures wll apply when you return to U.S. "soil".

Also, it's possible that DCL wouldn't be able to "switch" St's Maarten and Thomas because of docking contracts that these harbors have with other cruiselines.

This is something that every cruise ship has to go through. It's just one of those things, I guess.

 

[coleland]

I'm a little worried too with what I'm reading the past few days about the wait. My BIG question is: if my family is scheduled for an excursion that leaves at 8:00 or so, are we guaranteed to be off the boat first so we don't miss it?? This whole conversation has me really worried about it.

 

[Dreamer04]

Dreamer, I look at it this way...

...isn't 7AM a great time for no-limit Texas hold'em?

LOLOLOL

Can't wait, Mike!