Boarding in Singapore for an overnight - futile waste of time

[dani negreanu]

It was not the best start to a long awaited cruise.

 

We checked in early afternoon (Saturday) for a sail away on Sunday. Went through Singaporean security line, and then X security line. In my "book", I've "departed" Singapore.

 

Saturday evening there was an announcement about "showing your passport to Singaporean authorities at 11AM the following morning".

 

Hmm, ok, couldn't fathom why we have to go through this again, being already on the ship, but, based on previous cruises where the "authorities" boarded the ship, and all the "proceedings" took a few mins, it is what it is...

The announcement also said that pax wanting to leave the ship to visit Singapore, should do it before 11AM and should not be back on ship before 2PM...

 

A few mins before 11AM we took our passports and our sea passes and proceeded as advised. We found ourselves in a loooong line to "enter" Singapore (???), have our passports checked, and then out to the public terminal, which serves other ships or ferries or else, and submit to another security check... There were people with luggage of all sorts in line with us, while we only had our passports and sea passes to show.

 

After this security line, we were directed to the 1st floor, where we had to pass X's own security line.

 

Then, we were allocated numbers and directed to seat and wait...

 

At this point, pax started to "question" this line of "activity" which was prepared for us in the 1st morning of our (paid) cruise. They were told that the Singaporean authorities demand "0 passengers count"....

Stands to reason that before starting the check in for another cruise, there is always a demand for "0 passengers count" and the check in was yesterday....

 

We waited almost an hour for our #5 to be called, only to find ourselves directed to another line, that one for "departing" Singapore, fingerprinting included....

 

All in all, we spent all the morning in lines, and we, among many others, found this very frustating.

 

I think that Celebrity should have a "say" when involving so much wasted time of our precious vacation, and either ask for a procedure where the "authorities" board the ship, or skip entirely the overnight in Singapore.

 

[mnocket]

I agree.  At a minimum Celebrity should make it clear in advance what the security procedures will be.  That way pax will be able to make an informed decision as to whether they want to remain on the ship and treat it as a "sea day" or endure the security lines to return to shore.

[Fogfog]

Was there a security breech of some kind?

 

I don't understand why If you went through customs/security in Singapore and got onto the ship...(and went through X security) 

WHY would you have to get off the ship to be re-screened? 

 

Certainly if you went off the ship --you'd go through security both ways again... 

 

Am confused

[hcat]

Sounds like a port to skip....not worth the hassle for the privilege of spending  money there!

 

X could have provided a heads up but the main  fault is with the procedures imposed by Singapore.

[CEOofVacation]

We decided that maybe the puzzle of all this has to do with when we were actually leaving the country.  Day 1 check in was a procedure that treated like we were going to stay on the ship as our hotel.  On Day 1, the person at the counter collected our pre-printed seapass and credit card paper info.  We asked this person whether they were going to collect our immigration departure card and she said "Celebrity does not collect it." Day 2 was when we were treated as leaving Singapore where our immigration departure card was collected and we were finger printed.  It was a very cumbersome process and I believe both Celebrity and Singapore immigration were responsible for it.  We understand the rationale behind it and we are not sure how it could be streamlined.

[Jim_Iain]

I've only sailed out of Singapore once and we did not have an overnight at the beginning of the cruise.   I did have an unexplained experienced that also soured me on Singapore Port.   When Checking in I had an overstuffed suit bag.   The porter refused to accept it and said they could only accept luggage with wheels.   We are talking all he had to do was move it 4-5 feet to toss on a luggage cart.    He had no problem accepting our large suitecase that weighted 50 pounds.

It really soured me on Singapore.

 

I had to lug the bag through the terminal, xray inspection and all the way to Michael's Club. 

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, Fogfog said:

Was there a security breech of some kind?

No. We were constantly given the "shpiel" of "the Singaporean authorities demand 0 count"...

 

I don't understand why If you went through customs/security in Singapore and got onto the ship...(and went through X security), WHY would you have to get off the ship to be re-screened? 

I also don't understand why we were shepherded off the ship, just to "enter" and "depart" again. We could just made an U-turn at the same desk... "see, I'm now [re]entering S., and now I'm departing S.", without exiting into the general terminal and all the re-screening. To tell the truth, I can see the security reasons of being fingerprinted when entering US, but, with all due respect, not Singapore.

 

Certainly if you went off the ship --you'd go through security both ways again... 

The vast majority of passengers opted for enjoying the ship.

 

Am confused

 

My gripe in writing this post is with Celebrity -- You should not subject your paying passengers to all this lengthy and futile procedure !!

All those cruisers flying in Singapore ahead of a cruise, staying at least 2-3 days in hotels, spending money on shopping, attractions and restaurants are generating a very nice revenue for the "authorities". 

[dani negreanu]

34 minutes ago, CEOofVacation said:

We understand the rationale behind it and we are not sure how it could be streamlined.

 

As I said above, we and all the hundreds of passengers, left the ship holding only our passports and sea passes.

 

We could very easily show the "authorities" that we [re]enter Singapore, move to the other side of the immigration desk and show that we "depart" S. Not really need to exit the "no man land", hence no need to double X-screening.

 

[Fogfog]

Do people in the airports have to present fingerprints to leave? 

 

It sounds very Big Borther-esque.

 

And I think Celebrity should be able to give an explanation --Is this typical? KWIM

[Muffinz]

we may face this problem in Hong Kong 2021 on Millenium

We board day one in Hong Kong, but it stays in Hong Kong that night and doesn't depart until the following evening

Hopefully there will be no problems

[JBare]

Something must have gone wrong somewhere, maybe Celebrity or the terminal messed up check in count. This certainly did not happen when we did a cruise on Millenium starting in Singapore with an overnight in port. It was a couple of years ago so maybe things have changed or it may be a one off problem. On arrival at the airport we handed in part of our entry cards at immigration. When boarding the ship the day before departure we surrendered our passports to the ship had lunch on board then left the ship multiple times afterwards over the next 24 hours just using our seapass cards and the remaing part of the entry card. On final departure we surrendered the last part of the entry card telling the authorities we had left. 

Edited January 19, 2019 by JBare
spelling

[dani negreanu]

5 hours ago, Muffinz said:

we may face this problem in Hong Kong 2021 on Millenium

We board day one in Hong Kong, but it stays in Hong Kong that night and doesn't depart until the following evening

Hopefully there will be no problems

 

At least, the Hong Kong "authorities" don'f fingerprint you when entering and leaving their country......

 

But, in answer to your question, I'm sure that someone who boarded HK with an overnight will chime in with their experience.

[carlmm]

Maybe this was already the streamlined process put in place to please tourists unpatient with the laws of the countries they are visiting?

When I was in Singapore for an overnight stay we were told that Singapore treated every movement on and off the ship as entering and leaving the country. Thus one had to go through the whole passport, security, fingerprinting etc process MULTIPLE times if one for example went for sightseeing, come back, went for an evening excursion and so on.

If passengers did not go through the "leaving the country process" on day one, as CEOofVacation writes, obviously the authorites of the Republic of Singapore must make sure that everybody is accurately accounted for and checked ONE TIME - which works only with a 0 count.

 

Reading from JBare that there was yet another process a couple of years ago, might indicate that the try to find the right way between convenience and the unavoidable inconvenience of border control.

[Gnoelj]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:38 PM, dani negreanu said:

It was not the best start to a long awaited cruise.

 

We checked in early afternoon (Saturday) for a sail away on Sunday. Went through Singaporean security line, and then X security line. In my "book", I've "departed" Singapore.

 

Saturday evening there was an announcement about "showing your passport to Singaporean authorities at 11AM the following morning".

 

Hmm, ok, couldn't fathom why we have to go through this again, being already on the ship, but, based on previous cruises where the "authorities" boarded the ship, and all the "proceedings" took a few mins, it is what it is...

The announcement also said that pax wanting to leave the ship to visit Singapore, should do it before 11AM and should not be back on ship before 2PM...

 

A few mins before 11AM we took our passports and our sea passes and proceeded as advised. We found ourselves in a loooong line to "enter" Singapore (???), have our passports checked, and then out to the public terminal, which serves other ships or ferries or else, and submit to another security check... There were people with luggage of all sorts in line with us, while we only had our passports and sea passes to show.

 

After this security line, we were directed to the 1st floor, where we had to pass X's own security line.

 

Then, we were allocated numbers and directed to seat and wait...

 

At this point, pax started to "question" this line of "activity" which was prepared for us in the 1st morning of our (paid) cruise. They were told that the Singaporean authorities demand "0 passengers count"....

Stands to reason that before starting the check in for another cruise, there is always a demand for "0 passengers count" and the check in was yesterday....

 

We waited almost an hour for our #5 to be called, only to find ourselves directed to another line, that one for "departing" Singapore, fingerprinting included....

 

All in all, we spent all the morning in lines, and we, among many others, found this very frustating.

 

I think that Celebrity should have a "say" when involving so much wasted time of our precious vacation, and either ask for a procedure where the "authorities" board the ship, or skip entirely the overnight in Singapore.

 

 

You know, Celebrity Reflection is doing an overnight in Dublin at the end of its cruise.  Hopefully, passengers will not have to go through the rigmarole of going doing all these checks and queues in Ireland.

[dani negreanu]

1 hour ago, Gnoelj said:

 

You know, Celebrity Reflection is doing an overnight in Dublin at the end of its cruise.  Hopefully, passengers will not have to go through the rigmarole of going doing all these checks and queues in Ireland.

 

Funny you should mention X Reflection. I'm booked on this cruise (June 3rd), and I was just inquiring on the roll call about the possibility of leaving the ship early, when docking in Dublin, and not staying overnight.

 

I was told there will be no problem at all, just that we'll have to carry our luggage by ourselves.....😀😀

[PetB]

When you boarded the ship you had left Singapore.  To disembark after that it is only natural to expect to have to go through some border formalities.  Other nearby countries have a more relaxed approach and often accept your sea pass card, but Singapore is very security conscious.  It’s also one of the safest places you could ever hope to visit.

 

If the ship requested that you be off by 11:00 then, human nature being what it is, it’s fairly likely to be busy a few minutes before that time.

 

its a pity that you weren’t able to spend more time in the city.

[zanderblue]

On 1/19/2019 at 9:48 AM, Muffinz said:

we may face this problem in Hong Kong 2021 on Millenium

We board day one in Hong Kong, but it stays in Hong Kong that night and doesn't depart until the following evening

Hopefully there will be no problems

 

Relax, our experience of this is that it is not an issue. We boarded in Hong Kong in the normal manner. Spent the rest of that day and night onboard and then went ashore next morning and only had to show our sea pass as we walked off. We did have to go through terminal security when came back aboard later in day for departure.

[juanita1767]

We boarded our ship in Singapore on Sunday with an overnight and never had a problem. They took all our information and then we proceeded through immigration. 

[4774Papa]

On 1/18/2019 at 5:03 PM, hcat said:

Sounds like a port to skip....not worth the hassle for the privilege of spending  money there!

 

X could have provided a heads up but the main  fault is with the procedures imposed by Singapore.

We spent five days in Singapore prior to our cruise and loved it.  Don't miss Singapore.  We had no problems like this.

[dani negreanu]

11 hours ago, PetB said:

When you boarded the ship you had left Singapore.  To disembark after that it is only natural to expect to have to go through some border formalities.  Other nearby countries have a more relaxed approach and often accept your sea pass card, but Singapore is very security conscious.  It’s also one of the safest places you could ever hope to visit.

 

If the ship requested that you be off by 11:00 then, human nature being what it is, it’s fairly likely to be busy a few minutes before that time.

 

its a pity that you weren’t able to spend more time in the city.

 

Sorry u misunderstood ....

 

Yes, we boarded the ship after the check in (Dec. 😎.) 

As I said, in "my" book, the moment I've boarded the ship with no intention to disembark again while she is moored in Singapore, I've LEFT Singapore.

BUT, the day AFTER (Dec. 9), we HAD to leave the ship again (thus entering Singapore AGAIN), went to all the procedures of entering the country, then security for entering the country, and then we waited to be called to DEPART Singapore AGAIN.

 

I can understand all the procedures for people who, after checking in, wanted to go OUT again and visit Singapore, and came back shortly before sail away.

 

BUT the vast majority, like us, checked in the ship with no intention to leave it again until Thailand.

 

[Hlitner]

Sounds like an awful first-day experience.  Even since 9-11, security has become more difficult throughout much of the world and is too often a major annoyance.   The cruise lines have little to say about any of the procedures and most simply put up with the authorities just like the passengers.  In fact, it can sometimes be much worse for the crew then the passengers.  We recently witnessed the US CBP folks cracking down on the crew of the MSC Divina....at the Port of Miami.  The crew members were "jerked around" for hours on several subsequent cruises which ruined their day, caused those with time off to miss getting off the ship, and created major problems with embarkation day services for the passengers.  In fact, on our cruise in late November the initial boarding of passengers was delayed until around 1:30...with thousands of passengers having to pass the time in the spartan terminal.  What was the crime that created this problem?   A few weeks earlier ANOTHER MSC ship had a major problem when a couple of crew members were caught trying to smuggle a significant amount of Cocaine into the USA.  Apparently MSC had even helped the authorities with this incident.  But I guess the CBP folks decided to teach MSC a lesson.   My point is that there are all kinds of reasons why government agencies "jerk around" cruise ships and, in most cases, the passengers are simply the innocent victims.

 

Hank

[PetB]

5 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Sorry u misunderstood ....

 

Yes, we boarded the ship after the check in (Dec. 😎.) 

As I said, in "my" book, the moment I've boarded the ship with no intention to disembark again while she is moored in Singapore, I've LEFT Singapore.

BUT, the day AFTER (Dec. 9), we HAD to leave the ship again (thus entering Singapore AGAIN), went to all the procedures of entering the country, then security for entering the country, and then we waited to be called to DEPART Singapore AGAIN.

 

I can understand all the procedures for people who, after checking in, wanted to go OUT again and visit Singapore, and came back shortly before sail away.

 

BUT the vast majority, like us, checked in the ship with no intention to leave it again until Thailand.

 

 

Sorry for the misunderstanding and I can why you are annoyed about what happened.

 

Strange.  

[Muffinz]

5 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

Sorry u misunderstood ....

 

Yes, we boarded the ship after the check in (Dec. 😎.) 

As I said, in "my" book, the moment I've boarded the ship with no intention to disembark again while she is moored in Singapore, I've LEFT Singapore.

BUT, the day AFTER (Dec. 9), we HAD to leave the ship again (thus entering Singapore AGAIN), went to all the procedures of entering the country, then security for entering the country, and then we waited to be called to DEPART Singapore AGAIN.

 

I can understand all the procedures for people who, after checking in, wanted to go OUT again and visit Singapore, and came back shortly before sail away.

 

BUT the vast majority, like us, checked in the ship with no intention to leave it again until Thailand.

 

are you sure you HAD to leave the ship? was there no option to stay on board?

 

our cruise last year had 2 days moored at Cairns (Australia), but you didn't have to get off the ship if you didn't want to on either day.... I just find it bizarre that you boarded one day, had an overnight in Singapore then the next day you HAD to get off the ship....

[dani negreanu]

50 minutes ago, Muffinz said:

are you sure you HAD to leave the ship? YES.  was there no option to stay on board? NO.

 

I just find it bizarre that you boarded one day, had an overnight in Singapore then the next day you HAD to get off the ship.... Me too... that's the reason I've raised this issue, and also to gave a "heads up" to "unsuspecting" passengers....

 

ALL passengers HAD to get off the ship by 11AM with their passports and sea passes....