Key West, Royal Caribbean and Customs

I'm not sure if other cruise companies follow this policy, but Royal Caribbean (assuming Key West isn't your first port) allows cruisers off the ship after going through customs, but to make it somewhat organized, they have you approach customs by your Muster Station number. Here's what that means:

If you're Muster Station One, you're first in line to go through customs. If, for example, you're Muster Station Twelve, you might not be able to get off the ship for several hours. We were Muster Station Six and were told our Customs time would be 11:30AM (disembarking began at 10AM). However, by booking an excursion through Royal we were able to get off the ship immediately. We did the Taste of Key West - it was a leisurely walk through downtown with a few food stops, worth the low excursion price.

By booking the excursion, we had time to get off the ship, look around town, then do our excursion which also left ample time afterwards for exploring Key West. Just something to think about (especially if you have a high Muster Station #).

I'm guessing this is something new? I haven't stopped there in a while but I've never had to go through customs in the past and we definitely went to other ports first (Nassau and/or CocoCay)

I'm guessing this is something new? I haven't stopped there in a while but I've never had to go through customs in the past and we definitely went to other ports first (Nassau and/or CocoCay)

I believe it is only if it is your 1st stop is a US port after a foreign port

We will be stopping there next weekend on the way back to PE

I've done this several times on Majesty of the Seas, Enchantment of the Seas and Jewel. We did the process by floors, not muster stations, so maybe that process has changed. It went really fast every time we did it. When we did it, the agents woud stamp a small hole in our Sea Pass and that way, the security at the ship's exits knew you had been processed.

I don't think it ever took several hours. The only passengers that were delayed were the ones who didn't show up at the appointed time for their floor and had to--actually I don't know what they did. If they missed the processing while the agents were there, I don't know if they could leave the ship.

We stopped in Key West after Nassau. It could be that Royal experiments with different procedures for Customs -maybe other recent cruisers can chime in.

I know someone who did the Majesty OTS cruise just before us; they received an E-Mail telling them boarding was to be done by decks (last deck told to board at 3 PM). It didn't apply to Suite guests or Platinum or above. No one on our cruise received an E-Mail like that, so maybe they're just trying out some new things.