Confused about Customs!

[ltprn]

Can someone please clarify the CUSTOMS process on a cruise ship?

 

The last time we sailed Princess, there were hardly any people in line to claim anything the morning we disembarked.

 

I thought that you had to claim EVERYTHING that you purchase while away from the US, such as souveniers (sp?), alcohol, tobacco, etc., whether you go over the limit or not???

 

I later realized - how do they know if I've got 4 cartons of cigarettes and 4 liters of booze in my baggage?

 

Was I just wasting my time standing in line???

 

Please explain the proper procedure to me so I will know how to handle this on my next cruise!

[Tandy22]

It may depend on the port. We have always been given a form to fill out. What we do is when we buy something put receipts in envelope & list what it is and price on outside of envelope. We don't have to look in envelope to fill out form and if question comes up have all our receipts handy. We also put everything we bought in one suitcase.

Have a great cruise.

Susan

[m steve]

Aftyer many cruises I find that if I fill in customs form and am over the allowance it pays to check in w/ them on the ship. Usually they just ok the slip and then you won't have a hassel when going thru Immigration. I usually have over allowance on liquor and have never had to pay extra for that. It seems that they are more lenient w/ cruise ships than at airports but they are getting looser everywhere while they search for terrorists.

[Pam in CA]

Listing things you've bought is pretty much on the honor system. I list everything I've bought, right down to the T-shirts.

 

The ship is required to submit a list of passengers who have purchased items of a certain value or more (not sure what that amount is). Most of the time, someone from Customs just takes the form from me as I walk off the ship although I have heard stories of people caught who had purchased mega $$$ worth of jewelry and tried to get in without paying duty.

[TrentS]

It is on the honor system, but if they decide to pull you out and go through your things and find things you didn't declare that would put you over the limit, the fine is a whole lot more than the duty would've been. I've bought some expensive things a few times, and the duty is really quite small. It's not worth it trying to smuggle something!

[Stevesan]

You do not need to itemize indvidual items of small value. You may lump minor purchases such as souvenirs under miscellaneous categorie(s).

[chasetf]

Listing things you've bought is pretty much on the honor system. I list everything I've bought, right down to the T-shirts.

 

The ship is required to submit a list of passengers who have purchased items of a certain value or more (not sure what that amount is). Most of the time, someone from Customs just takes the form from me as I walk off the ship although I have heard stories of people caught who had purchased mega $$$ worth of jewelry and tried to get in without paying duty.

 

We shared a dining table with two women who were friends and cruising together. One of the was Elite. The other wanted to purchase a fairly expensive ring in one of the ship's store, so her friend who was Elite purchased it for her to get her the Elite discount.

 

Later in the cruise the Elite friend was notified she needed to report to customs because she was over the limit. Do not know if the added customs erased the discount savings, but the friend who bought the ring did volunteer to pay the duty her friend got stuck with.

[starsjohn]

I saw a women get caught who tried to hide her excess diamond purchases in a vial of cold cream. The inspector went through each of her cosmectics and found the booty.

 

Do not know the outcome but fines and confiscation were likely.

 

I like the posters above, list small items in general catagories and then list the expensive items individually.

 

A note of warning! On a Grand Princess trip, I declared a fairly large sum due on items from Europe. The State of California Franchise tax office scanned the incomming customs duty receipts, and billed me 8% state tax on all items even the ship bought tee shirts. The Arnoldator will not touch this tax.

[Suzieb]

We were told that if we went over $800 from the ships shops that we would have to go visit customs when we docked. They said all other stuff bought elsewhere would be handled on the pier. It seemed to counter what they said over the ship wide system, but we went with what the purser said.

Also on the customs forms they want you to generalize your purchases. Like Jewelery = $$$$ 12Liters of Alcohol = $$$$ So many cigars and cartons of cigerettes = $$$$ and Misc. Gifts = $$$$ and then total the amount. Have your high value reciepts handy if they ask. This is what we have done many times and seems to work pretty well

When we left the Sun princess on the 29th the customs guy appeared to just look at the total amount and said "good to go".

 

Good Luck