Eastern - Customs at St. Thomas?

[deebs]

Hi,

The last time we were on the Eastern Caribbean cruise, we had to wake up at the crack of dawn with the rest of the ship to present ourselves at customers before we could get into St. Thomas.

Is this still the case?

Thanks!

--Deebs

 

[jw2736]

Yep, Still the case due to sailing into a US Port from a foriegn port. Those with early excursions, i think, go at 0630, then according to stateroom numbers. Its painless and only took a 10-15 minutes. Many people were still in PJ's.

 

[tvguy]

Yep, Still the case due to sailing into a US Port from a foriegn port. Those with early excursions, i think, go at 0630, then according to stateroom numbers. Its painless and only took a 10-15 minutes. Many people were still in PJ's.

Actually, I think the reason they clear the entire ship at once now is they no longer want to leave a customs officer at each ship for the entire time they are in port.
Used to be in St. Thomas, you cleared customs as you exited the ship. If you didn't leave the ship, you didn't have to clear customs. Now everyone has to clear customs, even those who don't get off the ship.

 

[Snoopyto]

Actually this is a formality but, you really only clear Immigration not Customs in St Thomas. There is no real Customs since it is a duty free port. This is why you have to fill out the blue form when you come back into Cape Canaveral.

 

[kb1esx]

Hi All,

Please tell me just one person from each stateroom needs to do this?

I can't imagine dragging my wife & 2 sleepy kids thru this. My wife has some mobility issues and one son just turned 13 (enough said there).

Thanks.

David

 

[kb1esx]

Never mind, I dug out my Passporter and found the answer.

It's ALL passengers.

David

 

[lbgraves]

If you don't have an excursion booked you can wait until 8/8:30 to go. By that point there is no line & it is very quick.

 

[Skallywag]

We were not given the alternative up at the crack of dawn to clear this immigration, get our npassports back and then taken away again. It is exactly the same for non US when getting back into Port Canaveral at the end of the trip. It is a nightmare and I felt so sorry for people with babies wrapped in blankets and still asleep.

This is the only thing that lets Disney down and could I think he handled much better.

Hope when we sail the med it is more civilised.

 

[TiggerKing]

We were not given the alternative up at the crack of dawn to clear this immigration, get our npassports back and then taken away again. It is exactly the same for non US when getting back into Port Canaveral at the end of the trip. It is a nightmare and I felt so sorry for people with babies wrapped in blankets and still asleep.

This is the only thing that lets Disney down and could I think he handled much better.

Hope when we sail the med it is more civilised.

Keep in mind, this is not a "Disney thing," but an immigrations thing. You can find similar postings on cruisecritic.com for other lines as well.

As for the Med, it should not be an issue. I believe that all of the ports of call for the Med cruises are EU ports. EU, like the US, has a single point of entry policy, meaning that you are processed in the first country you enter, and then have the ability to move freely amongst the other EU countries. Someone will correct me if I am wrong about the ports of call.

 

[tvguy]

If you don't have an excursion booked you can wait until 8/8:30 to go. By that point there is no line & it is very quick.

I'm not sure this is correct, or at the very least has changed since my cruise. I just pulled the paper work, it says everyone has to report BEFORE 7 am. Nobody could leave for their excursions until everyone on the ship cleared immigration, and I believe some of those excursions depart at 8 am.

This was the first trip to St Thomas for our kids, so we did book excursions. But this was the 6th trip for DW and I, and after the first 2, we stopped booking excursions and used the night before the St. Thomas day as a stay up late and dance night, then sleep in late the next morning. Oh well, can't fight the U.S. Government I guess.

 

[lbgraves]

Here is the form that we received in our stateroom on the 12/10/05 cruise. The excursion info sheets has some excursions leaving at 7 am.