Debarkation in Tampa

[firerunner]

Im a canadian citizen with a US Green card and did self disembark in Oct...

 

1) first off they do not treat you like second class citizens this is homeland security and believe it or not..my home country (canada) is more of a pain in the arse then the US is.. we enter canada me as a canadian citizen husband as a US citizen married to me and we spend HOURS every visit in immigration proving we have no intentions of staying there. I hate visiting home for this reason.

 

2) If you have a TA or PVP they would have told you about immigration. Mine did, started we would have to go thru it before leaving the ship, usually early in the morning and at a specific location ( for me 6:45 at the rock and roll lounge)

 

3) We did self disembark but ONLY after all non us passengers were cleared via immigration, we got off about hmm 9:30. You cant get off the ship even with a Zone one card until immigration gives the okay, they will stop you at the exit (how do I know..cause it happened to a couple also from canada that we met on the cruise., They tried to leave at like 8:30 and were turned away)

 

4) This is an immigration issue NOT a carnival issue.

 

I think if you can change your flight..you should for "what if"..and who wants to rush around???

 

I hope you have a good cruise and that it works out but I know I would not want to catch a flight that soon.

[KCTravel]

We were on the 10-30 cruise, arriving back in Tampa on 11-6-11. We had a 3:00 pm flight so, for the very first time, we did not have to race off the ship. We took our suitcases up to the Serenity area and relaxed.

 

There were several announcements asking the same two individuals to please report to the lounge for immigration. This seemed to delay the process a bit.

 

The first self - debarkation was called about 8:30. There were several delays and the first numbers were called around 9:00/9:15. Halfway through, there was an issue with Immigration so everything was stopped for about 15 minutes and then they started calling numbers again. The all-clear was called at 10:30.

 

We were the last two passengers off the ship at 10:40, exiting with crew members going home. The customs area was clear of all luggage and no line at customs--walked right through.

 

No wait for a cab and at the airport by 11:00.

 

Have an awesome cruise!

K

[CarolR]

All non-US citizens have to meet in the lounge early in the morning of debark to meet with immigration. We had no idea this happened until receiving this notice in our cabin the night before:

 

 

Now that we know, we will not cruise out of Tampa or Port Canaveral as both ports do this. Waking up at 6 a.m. on our last day of vacation is not what I call fun! I read another post that said they didn't have to be there until 7:30 which is a little more humane but we had to be there at 6:45.

 

We have changed our mind as well and will cruise out of a different port. Not going to go through that hassle again as we did in the past. Other ships do the same Western Itinerary but we chose Tampa because the flight was a bit cheaper. We sailed from Port Canaveral in July and they did not have the same rules as Tampa. We were able to use self assist debarkation and was off the ship before 7:00am.

[dioxide45]

I wonder if this is unique to the smaller ships or smaller ports. We had a similar experience in Port Canaveral on the Sensation. We will be sailing next May on the Paradise out of Tampa. On the sensation, all non US citizens had to meet in the disco prior to a certain time. I am a Canadian citizen holding a US green card.

 

All non US citizens had to clear immigration in the Disco. We didn't do self debarkation. If I recall correctly, we did not go through any immigration when we got in the terminal, just handed in our customs card to a single customs official. My wife (a US Citizen) didn't show her passport to anyone except when we got on the ship. It seems that only non US citizens have to clear immigration. That must perhaps by why they can't do self disembark?

[jtdlmc]

We have changed our mind as well and will cruise out of a different port. Not going to go through that hassle again as we did in the past. Other ships do the same Western Itinerary but we chose Tampa because the flight was a bit cheaper. We sailed from Port Canaveral in July and they did not have the same rules as Tampa. We were able to use self assist debarkation and was off the ship before 7:00am.

 

Maybe Port Canaveral has recently changed - I do recall reading something somewhere about using a different port building there now or something along those lines. I researched this before booking our next cruise and found out that in the East, New York, Miami and Fort Lauderdale do not have the non-US citizens meeting with Immigration before debark. I was told it has to do with smaller ports - some are not set up to accommodate the two separate immigration/customs lines and this is why they have to do it on the ship.

[dioxide45]

It could be the smaller terminals. When we sailed on Sensation we went out of a small terminal. We didn't have to meet in a lounge to clear customs when we sailed on the Dream which sails out of a larger newer terminal. Not sure if Sensation changed terminals when the Dream came to Port Canaveral.

[cantw8togo]

Maybe Port Canaveral has recently changed - I do recall reading something somewhere about using a different port building there now or something along those lines. I researched this before booking our next cruise and found out that in the East, New York, Miami and Fort Lauderdale do not have the non-US citizens meeting with Immigration before debark. I was told it has to do with smaller ports - some are not set up to accommodate the two separate immigration/customs lines and this is why they have to do it on the ship.

 

I am assuming that RCI's ships that sail out of Tampa handle immigration the same way? We have always sailed out of Fort Lauderdale or Miami, and as a Canadian, have self debarked with everyone else. Our last cruise out of Miami had one long customs line for everyone, and it wasn't until the last part that the line split into two separate lines for US and others.

 

I'm glad that I stumbled across this thread as I had no idea that we would be singled out and inconvenienced before being allowed off the ship. I'm just glad that we don't check our bags and have to hope that nobody picked them up by mistake will waiting for all of the US citizens to got off of the ship. :cool: