Carnival Embarkation Drug Searches

[txcruiser1234]

I know it's a port authority thing, but these enhanced drug searches occur inside the Carnival embarkation process and affect the beginning of the cruise experience. I've been pulled out of line 2 out of our last 3 Carnival cruises (both from Galveston). The first time I chalked up to happenstance, but two out three seems like a trend. Both times, they were pulling about 1 person a minute into the interrogation area. None of the 50 or so searches I witnessed turned up anything. Seems like they are casting a very wide net. 

 

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My cruise survey comment to Carnival:

 

Great cruise... would have been a 10 if not for the needless embarkation drug search. I know it's a port authority thing, but it nonetheless affects the overall cruise experience. It turns our normally great priority boarding experience into a questionably invasive pre-boarding interrogation. Having your neatly packed bags tossed in front of you, the groping head to toe (and everything in between) pat down and having to answer personal questions about non-existent drug use are off-putting to say the least and the 30-40 minutes of wasted time are unrecoverable. The fact that the 25 other cruisers pulled into the detention area with me had no prohibited substances (we were all sent on our not so merry ways) leads me to question the methods used to rope folks into these searches. This was the second time in our last three Carnival cruises that this has happened. Together, I've witnessed about 50 of these searches and no one had anything. At the rates they are pulling people into these searches, it's an inefficient and ineffective process that puts hundreds of targets and their traveling companions in foul moods to kickoff the cruise.

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Anyway, just wondering if this is something others have noticed or experienced recently...

[ledges1]

In Jacksonville cruise port, a dog sniffed all carry on prior to boarding. Also, there was a dog on the ship roaming the common areas during the boarding process. I saw it in the Atrium and the elevator lobby on the Promenade or Lido deck. I am glad they are enforcing security. They do need to know what is causing the false alarms.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

OP didn't mentioned being chosen by a sniffer dog for further inspection.

 

Last year we were standing in the TSA line at ATL airport which uses drug sniffer dogs all the time, and one of the dogs smelled a woman's private area for a very long, uncomfortable time. As in - stuck the entire snout up there.... But didn't alert. Left her alone after a while. Farther down the line the same dog visibly alerted his handler to a big guy. He was taken out of the line and taken away for interrogation.

 

 

[staceyglow]

2 hours ago, txcruiser1234 said:

I know it's a port authority thing, but these enhanced drug searches occur inside the Carnival embarkation process and affect the beginning of the cruise experience. I've been pulled out of line 2 out of our last 3 Carnival cruises (both from Galveston). The first time I chalked up to happenstance, but two out three seems like a trend. Both times, they were pulling about 1 person a minute into the interrogation area. None of the 50 or so searches I witnessed turned up anything. Seems like they are casting a very wide net. 

 

****************

My cruise survey comment to Carnival:

 

Great cruise... would have been a 10 if not for the needless embarkation drug search. I know it's a port authority thing, but it nonetheless affects the overall cruise experience. It turns our normally great priority boarding experience into a questionably invasive pre-boarding interrogation. Having your neatly packed bags tossed in front of you, the groping head to toe (and everything in between) pat down and having to answer personal questions about non-existent drug use are off-putting to say the least and the 30-40 minutes of wasted time are unrecoverable. The fact that the 25 other cruisers pulled into the detention area with me had no prohibited substances (we were all sent on our not so merry ways) leads me to question the methods used to rope folks into these searches. This was the second time in our last three Carnival cruises that this has happened. Together, I've witnessed about 50 of these searches and no one had anything. At the rates they are pulling people into these searches, it's an inefficient and ineffective process that puts hundreds of targets and their traveling companions in foul moods to kickoff the cruise.

*****************

 

Anyway, just wondering if this is something others have noticed or experienced recently...

 

You know what puts me in a foul mood?  Smelling pot smoke on my cruise.🙂

 

I find it curious that you have been pulled on multiple occasions.  If you don't mind me asking, is there a chance that you or your luggage could have been exposed to cannabis in a way that the dogs might have smelled it?

[FTLCruiseGal]

I used to get extensively questioned after each cruise and once was pulled aside.  I had nothing to hide, so it doesn’t bother me.

 

Customs/police have certain traits they look for.  Unfortunately, you may match the description of someone they got a tip about or you unknowingly exhibit some behaviors.

[jimbo5544]

There is a reason that they have to do this.  If people did nto try and bring illegal or banned stuff on, there would not be an issue.   

[1025cruise]

It's actually a Carnival thing, not a Port Authority things. Carnival has the dogs doing the searching due to too many people bringing onboard.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

4 hours ago, ledges1 said:

In Jacksonville cruise port, a dog sniffed all carry on prior to boarding. Also, there was a dog on the ship roaming the common areas during the boarding process.

 

It's not just prior to boarding or during the boarding process anymore.  Now the dogs stay on board for the entire cruise.  We were on the Venezia out of New York for 21 days and ran into security with the dog multiple times in different areas of the ship.

[Don Kehote]

Who can I write to to complain about the weather?  That seems to be just as much in the realm of responsibility as we're talking here.  Do they have a department for "Taxes are too high" and "My boss thinks I'm dum"?

[hurricane0226]

49 minutes ago, Don Kehote said:

Who can I write to to complain about the weather?  That seems to be just as much in the realm of responsibility as we're talking here.  Do they have a department for "Taxes are too high" and "My boss thinks I'm dum"?

dumb

[txcruiser1234]

4 hours ago, staceyglow said:

If you don't mind me asking, is there a chance that you or your luggage could have been exposed to cannabis in a way that the dogs might have smelled it?

Good question - we've had our standard travel bags since 2016 - a pair of backpacks and a pair of carry-ons. They're always stored together so they, I assume, share the same smells. Her bags have never triggered. Plus, we passed drug dogs three times on other travel between these instances with no issues. Same bags, same basic travel stuff. So I really don't think its the bags (or the contents).

 

4 hours ago, staceyglow said:

You know what puts me in a foul mood?  Smelling pot smoke on my cruise.

Agreed. And I've read others problems with pot smells on balconies, in halls etc. So I do get that. From our perspective though - on 15 post covid cruises for over 100 sea days, we've smelled pot just once on the Mardi Gras for about 30 seconds while passing the outside smoking area. Anything can happen to anyone on any cruise, but (again just from our perspective) it hasn't been an issue.

 

6 hours ago, ledges1 said:

Also, there was a dog on the ship roaming the common areas during the boarding process. I saw it in the Atrium and the elevator lobby on the Promenade or Lido deck.

Yes, these on-ship dogs have never had a problem with my bags.

 

6 hours ago, ledges1 said:

In Jacksonville cruise port, a dog sniffed all carry on prior to boarding.

My question is were they pulling anywhere near 50 people an hour into interrogation? Or was it more normal where next to no one gets pulled?

 

4 hours ago, FTLCruiseGal said:

 I had nothing to hide, so it doesn’t bother me.

Agreed on the having nothing to hide.. I just don't enjoy the bag tossing, the chain pulling (especially) or the questioning. 

 

4 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

It's actually a Carnival thing, not a Port Authority things. Carnival has the dogs doing the searching due to too many people bringing onboard.

I did not see who was handling the dog. The second time, it was definitely a port authority (arm patch) staffer who pulled me out of line a ways after the dog near the entrance to the interrogation area (and port authority staff doing the searches). Not sure how much or how little Carnival is involved in this part of the boarding process.

 

5 hours ago, FTLCruiseGal said:

Customs/police have certain traits they look for.  Unfortunately, you may match the description of someone they got a tip about or you unknowingly exhibit some behaviors.

Well, I don't think its the bags so you may have something there. Just seems excessive to pull so many people out of line based on looks/behavior and none of us having anything nefarious.

 

5 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

There is a reason that they have to do this.  If people did nto try and bring illegal or banned stuff on, there would not be an issue.

Understood. Just does not seem like mass embarkation interrogations fits the problem (from our perspective).

 

2 hours ago, Old Fart Cruisers said:

Now the dogs stay on board for the entire cruise.

This to me makes sense. Never had a problem on board - this seems simple enough and just enough.

[icft]

Just as a data point:

 

We sail out of New Orleans often. The dogs are after the security point. If you have carry-on luggage or bags they sometimes (as you approach) ask you to carry them low so the dog can sniff, and sometimes don't. We have never even had to break stride and we have never seen anyone pulled aside. The dog just sniffs the bags as they pass.

 

So no fuss, no bother and no time taken. We also haven't smelled pot on the ship since that started.

[jimbo5544]

Easy peasy solution, stuff found, banned for life.

[LouChamp]

Aloha. I am glad they are doing it. The annoying smell permeating on Carnival ships is repulsive. Keep it at home in my opinion or stay home. Because some people “need” to have it the rest of us have to smell that garbage thus the need for the dogs.

[MJSailors]

This kind of security check ,most likely, is a Carnival policy.

We have taken cruises on Princess,Celebrity, Cunard and NCL.

We were never checked for drugs etc and never saw a security dog either at the port and never on any ships.

We have sailed from NYC, Ft Lauderdale,Bayonne, Seattle , Port Canaveral and Southampton, England.

To the OP, if you are fed up with being called over before boarding a ship, perhaps you could choose another cruise line and see if you are selected for a security check.

MJ

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, FTLCruiseGal said:

I used to get extensively questioned after each cruise and once was pulled aside.  I had nothing to hide, so it doesn’t bother me.

 

Customs/police have certain traits they look for.  Unfortunately, you may match the description of someone they got a tip about or you unknowingly exhibit some behaviors.

What you described is called "targeting". And it is absolutely wrong.

 

I was stopped once in 1970 in what I am sure was targeting. And I am sure the policeman who pulled me over was sure he had me in a place I should not have been. But then he saw my little nametag badge that said I was a census taker and interfering with me in the line of my duty was a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment. When he did realize I had a good reason to be where I was, he just kept apologizing!

[jimbo5544]

58 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

This kind of security check ,most likely, is a Carnival policy.

We have taken cruises on Princess,Celebrity, Cunard and NCL.

We were never checked for drugs etc and never saw a security dog either at the port and never on any ships.

We have sailed from NYC, Ft Lauderdale,Bayonne, Seattle , Port Canaveral and Southampton, England.

To the OP, if you are fed up with being called over before boarding a ship, perhaps you could choose another cruise line and see if you are selected for a security check.

MJ

love to see that logic applied to flying….

[jimbo5544]

46 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

What you described is called "targeting". And it is absolutely wrong.

 

I was stopped once in 1970 in what I am sure was targeting. And I am sure the policeman who pulled me over was sure he had me in a place I should not have been. But then he saw my little nametag badge that said I was a census taker and interfering with me in the line of my duty was a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment. When he did realize I had a good reason to be where I was, he just kept apologizing!

Describe wrong for me.  They can do whatever they want.  They can select every person or 1 in 10 or everyone with red hair or everyone that have a blue back pack.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

40 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

Describe wrong for me.  They can do whatever they want.  They can select every person or 1 in 10 or everyone with red hair or everyone that have a blue back pack.  

Well, no.  They can do pure random, every nth person, or they can do selection based on resemblance to known suspect or other "feature" (like blue backpack), or they can do it based on your exact history.  But they can't legally do it because you have brown skin, or dreads, or tattoos, or even red hair.  That is profiling and is considered illegal search and seizure.

 

Of course, it is still done for those reasons, but no-one will admit it.

[tonit964]

10 hours ago, hurricane0226 said:

dumb

I’m pretty sure the misspelling was intentional based on the comment about the boss. 🤣

[odis]

It is a shame that so many people are being detained without any reason. Unfortunately, the port authority can detain you long enough so that you could miss the cruise, so this is used to their advantage. 

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Well, no.  They can do pure random, every nth person, or they can do selection based on resemblance to known suspect or other "feature" (like blue backpack), or they can do it based on your exact history.  But they can't legally do it because you have brown skin, or dreads, or tattoos, or even red hair.  That is profiling and is considered illegal search and seizure.

 

Of course, it is still done for those reasons, but no-one will admit it.

Totally disagree.  That said,  no dog in this fight.  

[jimbo5544]

11 minutes ago, odis said:

It is a shame that so many people are being detained without any reason. Unfortunately, the port authority can detain you long enough so that you could miss the cruise, so this is used to their advantage. 

Who said  anything about being detained?   

[jamie717]

We sailed out of Galveston in February and the dog alerted on my husband.  This policy does not bother us, Carnival is cracking down. My problem was the agent/officer that while checking extensively through the carry on luggage in my husbands possession and was threatening to not only keep him from getting on the ship but also throwing him in jail!  Unprofessional, unnecessary, and in my opinion someone in a position of authority out of control.  After a good 45 minutes he was able to join us. 

[staceyglow]

1 minute ago, jamie717 said:

We sailed out of Galveston in February and the dog alerted on my husband.  This policy does not bother us, Carnival is cracking down. My problem was the agent/officer that while checking extensively through the carry on luggage in my husbands possession and was threatening to not only keep him from getting on the ship but also throwing him in jail!  Unprofessional, unnecessary, and in my opinion someone in a position of authority out of control.  After a good 45 minutes he was able to join us. 

Did you report that to Carnival? I certainly would have.