Astoria port questions?

I am traveling from Vancouver to Victoria to Astoria and then LA.

 

I understand that we clear customs in Astoria and that customs arrives on the ship?

 

Secondly when I get back onto the ship I am assuming everyone goes thru a security check like you would at the airport? lineup, show your passport etc, frisked and go thru a scanner?

 

Thanks

We did that trip in 2013 on NCL Jewel. yes, US Immigration come aboard to clear everyone. They had 2 locations, one for US Citizens, one for all others. Probably 2/3 of the passengers were non US and it was a total zoo, huge long lines snaking all over the ship, up stairways, thru the gym, down etc. We waited as we were not going on any excursions, and it still took about 1 1/2 hours in line before we were cleared.

Eventually the officials who were processing the US citizens came up to our section as they had finished the others, and things sped up a bit. All in all it was chaotic.

 

 

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Haha sounds fun, can't wait :eek:

I forgot to say, once you are cleared and leave the ship, your and return is like any other port, just your key card and photo ID and the ship security check

 

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For people whose first port of call is Astoria (leaving from Vancouver), you will clear U.S. Customs/Immigration in Vancouver before you board your ship, and you will be able to get off the ship in Astoria soon after it arrives.

We stopped at Astoria in August on our Vancouver to San Francisco cruise on Regent Mariner. Customs came on board, and they had 2 separate areas for US and non US citizens. You were allocated a time and it went very smoothly, no issues whatsoever. Jean.

For people whose first port of call is Astoria (leaving from Vancouver), you will clear U.S. Customs/Immigration in Vancouver before you board your ship, and you will be able to get off the ship in Astoria soon after it arrives.

 

This was not the case on my Pacific Coastal. We went Vancouver to Astoria. Did not clear in Vancouver; we had to clear C&I onboard in Astoria. Yep, it was a tad slow; when I got to the head of the line for US citizens, there was one officer doing the processing. But, it took all of maybe 10 seconds to be finished.

Edited October 10, 2016 by slidergirl

This was not the case on my Pacific Coastal. We went Vancouver to Astoria. Did not clear in Vancouver; we had to clear C&I onboard in Astoria. Yep, it was a tad slow; when I got to the head of the line for US citizens, there was one officer doing the processing. But, it took all of maybe 10 seconds to be finished.

A few years ago we had to clear Customs in Astoria, but just last week that was not the case. No one came aboard in Astoria, and everyone was able to leave the ship very soon after disembarkation. The one thing that was different was that we had to complete our Customs declarations before boarding the ship. We gave them to a woman standing in the hallway just before we got to the photographers.

 

It's interesting that the experience is different for different ships. I thought perhaps Customs had changed its procedure for all ships. Obviously I was wrong.

Edited October 11, 2016 by Cruise_More_Often

The first ships and last ships of the season usually do not get US customs in Vancouver.

 

Normally they like to screen problem cruisers before they can get on US soil. However US customs prefer to not keep staff in Vancouver when there isn't daily cruise ships in Vancouver.