St. Thomas Immigration Policy

[WIcruizer]

Just got back from the 1/12 Magic cruise. Please be advised that the U.S. has a new policy in St. Thomas. The ship must be cleared by immigration in the morning before the ship is cleared to dock. This means you must have EVERYONE in the family up EARLY this morning and clear immigration in the Walt Disney Theatre. Depends on your room number, but by early I mean 6:00-7:30am. DCL has nothing to do with this policy, so don't be upset with them. This is a new U.S. policy borne from September 11th.

This means infants, toddlers...EVERYONE. Pleae plan accordingly the night before!

 

[MnParrothead]

Yes, we were on the 1/12 and had my brother, his wife and their 2-year old had trouble getting off the ship in St. Thomas because Customs didn't hand stamp the 2-year old while she was sleeping in her mother's arms during the customs check earlier in the morning. So we were held up while trying to get off the ship. Make sure EVERYONE gets their hand stamped.

 

[ducklite]

Originally posted by WIcruizer
Just got back from the 1/12 Magic cruise. Please be advised that the U.S. has a new policy in St. Thomas. The ship must be cleared by immigration in the morning before the ship is cleared to dock. This means you must have EVERYONE in the family up EARLY this morning and clear immigration in the Walt Disney Theatre. Depends on your room number, but by early I mean 6:00-7:30am. DCL has nothing to do with this policy, so don't be upset with them. This is a new U.S. policy borne from September 11th.

This means infants, toddlers...EVERYONE. Pleae plan accordingly the night before!

What order do they do this in? Top of ship to bottom, or vice versa?

Anne

 

[papa]

We were on the first post 09/11 cruise on the 22nd of September and that was when they started this policy.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

I'm not exactly sure of the order. They will leave an information sheet in your stateroom the night before. What I can tell you is that we were on deck 7, and were given a 7:20 AM time to report to the Walt Disney Theatre. Our friends were on deck 5, and were supposed to report at 7:50, I think. I know things started fairly early in the morning, probably 6:30 AM, so I'm not sure how they determine the order.

The process is fairly smooth. We were back in our room before 8:00 AM. Interesting that there was a problem with the hand stamp, mentioned by MnParrothead. I had my hand stamped, but nobody ever checked to see if I did. I remember wondering why they bothered.

They do read you passport closely. My birthday was the day before, and the immigration officer wished me a happy belated birthday. So they take more than a cursory glance at your documents.

 

[LisaTxUsa]

I thought I read in another thread that if you have an excursion booked through DCL then you'll have an earlier time than the ones who don't.

 

[Firefighter Mickey]

I don't think it will matter whether you have an excursion planned or not. No one is allowed off of the ship until everyone clears the inspection.

On our cruise, this caused our excursion to be delayed slightly while they tracked people down that did not show up.