Any tips on dealling with St Thomas immigration?

[logan1_2000]

Very true in pointing out that eventually the ship will be returning to the U.S. from a foreign port--otherwise there would be a Jones Act problem if the itinerary was entirely U.S.--not to mention a boring itinerary--but reflect for a minute on customs and immigation back at Port Canaveral...the hall monitor at my junior high was more thorough...and it is absolutely true that this process is an example of bureaucracy. I agree completely that the immigration officials expect to find nothing of note and don't find any surprises. Might be nice to think that the law could allow a waiver for a ship whose passengers have already gone through a process, such as DCL's or the other major cruise lines', that has been certified by INS. And some aspects of U.S. law do allow the private sector to certify their processes and then become self-inspecting. But the second such a law would be passed, in this post 9/11 world, either someone who didn't like the U.S. would start plotting, or otherwise so many people would become fearful that such a plot was hatching, that there would be a backlash against making our immigration safeguards into a Mickey Mouse operation...sorry, the line was there, had to go for it.

Me? I'm waking up at 6 and reporting down there w/ DW and DS in whatever jammies we slept in (sadly shows how little excitement there is in my middle aged life that I already know there won't be any thing that needs covering up) and a couple of deck 9 diet cokes in my hands. Make up for it by sleeping in the next day.

 

[Dreamer04]

logan1_2000

LOL I love posts that have laughs built in.

We have the same plans!

 

[MickeyB426]

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.

Lisa, don't worry about your excursion. DCL wouldn't plan excursions on immigration days at 8AM if they couldn't keep the appointment.

Besides, the 8AM time would be the time that all the people who signed up for those excursions actually meet - most likely, that would be in one of the lounge areas. Most people complete immigration by then. The most it has taken me is one hour, which went by quickly because we were in the Walt Disney Theater watching cartoons.

 

[Hollua]

Lisa, don't worry about your excursion. DCL wouldn't plan excursions on immigration days at 8AM if they couldn't keep the appointment.

Our April cruise has six excursions listed for St. Thomas with a start time of 7:40am.

I was wondering, we have booked a charter daysail on our own. We need to leave the ship early. Will we have trouble getting in line early, if we don't have an official Disney excursion scheduled?

 

[jhorstma]

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".

Correct me if I'm wrong, but everyone goes thru immigration back at PC on the last day of the cruise (due to the CC stop). If St. Thomas is the first stop then it would be the same as the 1st Western stop at Key West (no immigration there - just at PC at the end of the cruise).

 

[jhorstma]

Our April cruise has six excursions listed for St. Thomas with a start time of 7:40am.

I was wondering, we have booked a charter daysail on our own. We need to leave the ship early. Will we have trouble getting in line early, if we don't have an official Disney excursion scheduled?

We're in the same boat, so to speak. We have a 9am shoretrips.com excursion from Redhook I believe. I plan to call both shoretrips and the excursion POC and make sure that there's some flexibility here. If not we'll cancel.

Whatever happened to the Champagne Sail and Snorkel?

 

[MickeyB426]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but everyone goes thru immigration back at PC on the last day of the cruise (due to the CC stop). If St. Thomas is the first stop then it would be the same as the 1st Western stop at Key West (no immigration there - just at PC at the end of the cruise).

True, but I also mentioned that there might be contractual reasons for the schedule being the way it is.

Maybe I'm looking through mouse-colored glasses (I don't believe I am), but I'm just of the opinion that if DCL could do something to make the process go faster, they would.

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

I'm pretty sure that the call at St. Maarten is first because of the time it takes to get to Castaway Cay. The ship leaves early from St. Thomas because of the long haul up to the Bahamas. Most ships are there until 6:00pm, I've noticed. I asked one of the officers once why we leave so early and was told that it was necessary in order to get a full day at Castaway Cay. Leaving from St. Maarten would add another couple hundred miles to the trip, and would result in a half-day at Castaway Cay.

I believe jhorstma is correct, though, if the first call of the trip was at St. Thomas, there would be no immigration check at that port. I believe this was the case this past fall when the Magic changed itineraries and called at San Juan and St. Thomas.

 

[Admiral Boom]

Do they actually verify that you have an excursion booked? We're looking at booking an excursion with an operator that is not offered by DCL but we will still need to be off the boat in time. I am assuming we can still go through immigration at 6am.

Where do NON-US Residents go?? Is there a longer wait? Same process?

 

[Jsme]

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

We had to go according to our dinner seating. IF you had early seating you went very early. If you had the late one you went a little later. We waited and did not arrive early. We went about on time. Yes we had to wait about 5 minutes to get into the Theatre and then another 15 minutes after that. It was not too terrible. The worst part was getting up that early.

 

[WDWLVR]

When we did it in December there were a number of assigned times. Just went down at our time and walked in and walked out. No waiting in seats or anything. Just grin and bear it. The people are just doing their job and while it would be nice not to have to get up so early there are worse things in life.

 

[jhorstma]

Do they actually verify that you have an excursion booked? We're looking at booking an excursion with an operator that is not offered by DCL but we will still need to be off the boat in time. I am assuming we can still go through immigration at 6am.

Where do NON-US Residents go?? Is there a longer wait? Same process?

We too were on a non-DCL excursion - we went to Immigration 1st thing because we were nervous we weren't going to get to our jump-off point by 9am (near Coki Beach) - turned out not to be an issue. We actually got off the boat before the cabs arrived (CB, not Havensight for us).
What excursion are you taking, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[logan1_2000]

When we did the Eastern 4/2/05, couldn't get DW and DS in gear quite early enough, so we hit the Walt Disney Theater at 7:15 and it took an hour. Really. There was a totally inept slow as molasses immigration flunky on the right hand side of the theater, and an quick efficient guy on the left. DCL did the best they could, row by row, and then started sending rows across the theater (the guy on the left had done the entire left side of the theater in the time slowpoke took to do half as many rows.), so we were seated on the right by checked out by the faster agent on the left.

Dining time had absolutely nothing to do with it on our cruise. Was that poster thinking of Debarkation, perhaps?

We passed the non-U.S. Citizen station in the Wavebands (or is it Rockin' D Bar on that ship?), and there was no line and if there was a customs agent it was wasted completely, but all I noticed for sure was the lack of line and the thought, "oh to be a Canadian today".

 

[Admiral Boom]

We too were on a non-DCL excursion - we went to Immigration 1st thing because we were nervous we weren't going to get to our jump-off point by 9am (near Coki Beach) - turned out not to be an issue. We actually got off the boat before the cabs arrived (CB, not Havensight for us).
What excursion are you taking, if you don't mind my asking?

Deep Sea Fishing on the Marlin Prince.

Check out their website at marlinprince dot com :

Marlin Prince USVI Fishing
Come fish the blue waters of the Caribbean aboard the Marlin Prince, the USVI’s own 45’ Viking. We sportfish for Blue Marlin, White Marlin, Sailfish, Tuna, Wahoo and Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi).

We're conveniently docked at American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook, on the island of St. Thomas. Situated near the North Drop, the Atlantic Oceans’ deepest point, the Marlin Prince is one of the most experienced yachts to fish the "Blue Marlin Capital of the World". The full day trip is about $1100 however I'm hoping they'll discount it a little if we do a 10am - 3pm run. If not, oh well.

We passed the non-U.S. Citizen station in the Wavebands (or is it Rockin' D Bar on that ship?), and there was no line and if there was a customs agent it was wasted completely, but all I noticed for sure was the lack of line and the thought, "oh to be a Canadian today".

Part of our group is Canadian and part is American. I hope it's not going to be a huge timing problem.

 

[BuzzBoyMom]

Isn't it interesting how something seemingly so important can have such a variety of experiences tied to it. Our last cruise, we got there "early" but not 6ish. What could have been quick and painless ended up causing huge arguments because the CM directing the rows was allowing people who arrived after our section to go up before us. To say the least, you would have thought there was gonna be a mutiny on board. The CM admitted she didn't normally do that duty and didn't realize what had happened, but it added at least a half hour and we did wait for a total of an hour and a half till we left the theater.

Lesson learned - next time, arrive early, no matter what!

 

[mmouse37]

Curious....we just off the Carnival Legend these weekend from our 8 night Carnival cruise that started and returned to NYC....our stops were San Juan, St. Thomas and Tortola, in that order. Why did we not have to get up early and do immigration...is it because we were coming from another US territory (San Juan)????

Anyone know???

BTW....Carnival did a very good job....DCL will always be my favorite...but other than a few things that came up, I would definately sail them again and leaving from NYC with no flights for us was just fantastic!!!

MJ

 

[kcashner]

We've done several Easterns. Generally the Immigration check isn't a big deal at all. The longest it ever took (we actually sat down) was about 15 minutes. Twice (at least) we never even took a seat...the line was just moving. We generally get there about 6:45 and don't worry much about the schedule. DD as a teen is hard to get up!

 

[mickeyboat]

Curious....we just off the Carnival Legend these weekend from our 8 night Carnival cruise that started and returned to NYC....our stops were San Juan, St. Thomas and Tortola, in that order. Why did we not have to get up early and do immigration...is it because we were coming from another US territory (San Juan)????

Anyone know???


MJ

Yes, this is why. On the Eastern, you go from a non-US port (St. Maarten, to a US port (St. Thomas), hence the immigration requirement.

Denae