What can we expect on MSC Divina?

[Hlitner]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:17 PM, sidari said:

I get what you say but they could fly out by helicopter the day before not too difficult in this day and age.

 

19 hours ago, nikkiw60 said:

We were on a 5 night Pacific Coastal on NCL Bliss last month starting in Vancouver down to LA. We had to do immigration in SAN Francisco, everyone had to disembark deck by deck, it took over 4 hours! People who had booked their own tours missed them due to this, we went under the Golden Gate Bridge at 6.30 am and finally got off at 1pm.

Also we flew into Seattle to do this cruise and immigration there took 3 hours. 

The people who are doing the immigration checks seemed to be asking stupid questions which took time, eg from the ship “how long are you staying in San Francisco for?” And in Seattle the best ever “I see you are wearing red nail polish, are you going to Las Vegas”...

You obviously have not been around the cruise industry.  Ship/helicopter operations involve substantial risk and can really disrupt normal cruise operations.  And this is not a service provided by CBP.  In fact we have cruises on 6 continents and never known immigration agents to arrive via chopper.

 

in Europe the UK agents will sometimes board in an EU port and clear all the passengers before getting to the UK.  But this does not happen with the USA

 

Hank

[sidari]

Hank ... Maybe it's time they got their act together then ?

Having sailed Northern Europe we know how border force operate.

No more forms to fill in when landing in Miami due to the new book in screens which is great, then they have three guys on the immigration desks! 

[Até]

On a  2010  Pacific coastal we had US immigration/passport check on a sea day between Victoria, BC and Astoria, OR.  A bit tougher to do when on a TA.

[Hlitner]

18 hours ago, sidari said:

Hank ... Maybe it's time they got their act together then ?

Having sailed Northern Europe we know how border force operate.

No more forms to fill in when landing in Miami due to the new book in screens which is great, then they have three guys on the immigration desks! 

Government getting their act together is an oxymoron!  But our CBP folks have improved things for those that play their game.  Getting Global Entry, which I think is compatible with a similar U.K. System, does really speed things along in airports.  As to cruise ports this does work for us at Port Everglades and Miami.  But with so many folks trying to illegally get into our country, I would not expect much future improvement for non-USA Passport holders.   And as I recall, the U.K. Did not join the Schengen deal and still has pretty tough border controls.   On a recent cruise from Northern Europe that stopped in the U.K., your immigration folks spent over 12 hours clearing our ship during a seaday.  Everyone, including crew, had to present themselves for a face to face.  I am not sure if disrupting a relaxing seaday for 5000 folks is a good alternative to a slow disembarkation.

 

 

Hank

[sidari]

Hank ... I would rather do it on a sea day than miss a booked excursion because of it, last time we did a TA that stopped in St Thomas we had an 8am time and was off the ship by 10.30, others did not get off until 1 pm and were severely annoyed having missed excursions as the ship was leaving at 4 pm!

I understand the need to vet people but dragging all those on a B2B off the ship some of whom may be changing cabins for hours on end is just wrong.