Debarkation

[Cruisin_Mo]

Quick question for recent cruisers:

Does anyone know how long it takes to debark if you are (a child) using a birth certificate?

 

Background: two years ago we cruised on the Mardi gras, and we had an adult that used a birth certificate and it took them close to two hours to debark.

Last year we cruised out of Norfolk and had a child (5) with only a birth certificate with us, and she walked off with the rest of us. I figured they were using facial recognition, and that's why there was no separate line for anyone.

 

I've seen in a couple of posts on Facebook and maybe here about the long lines for birth certificate users leaving Celebration, and now I wonder if there will be a problem. Idk why Norfolk would be more efficient than Miami or Port Canaveral. Is it because she's a child so she can go with her parents in the passport line? Is there still a separate line for non passport patrons?

 

TIA

[hurricane0226]

We sailed on the Vista in March with our 14yr old grandson, he had only a birth certificate, He was able to walk off with us, not wait but maybe 2 or 3 mins. 

[Ferry_Watcher]

Different ports have different methods.  It could be the cruise line's decision, or the company that has the contract that manages the facility for the various cruise lines, or it could be the way the Customs and Border Protection folks want it.

 

In Seattle, everyone gets into one of the 3-4 lines that leads to the CBP Officers, who look at whatever citizenship document that you used to get onto the ship.  A vast majority of passengers use passports (and most of those are US passports, which makes it even easier), so the process is fairly quick.

[Elaine5715]

In Miami, passport holders and BC go in two separate lines.  Passport holders can go in the Birth certificate line but birth certificate holders can not go into the Passport line.  

[MEUB1112]

Just off the Radiance, we have passports but grandkids had birth certificates. That line moved (birth certificate) incredibly fast.

 

[stobe1]

Debarkation wise you will get off as fast as anyone with a passport. Clearing customs and immigration once off the ship is a different story...

[Mike45LC]

In New York last month, getting off the Venezia, I was not even aware of whether there were separate lines for people with birth certificates.  We have passports, and we just walked right through with barely a hitch in our pace.  But I did have to take off my hat.  Facial recognition took care of everything.

 

[mitsugirly]

I'm going to chime in on this with our Panorama cruise from last week to the Mexican Riviera. We noticed that there were 2 lines (one for passport people and the other for b/c only) and the passport line was EXTREMELY  long and the people with b/c just all zoomed right by us. It really had me thinking that next time I'm carrying BOTH with me because it looks like everyone has passports now. LOL

[mz-s]

It really depends on the port. I know in Miami they do facial recognition for passport passengers and you just walk through often not stopping.

[Elaine5715]

5 hours ago, mz-s said:

It really depends on the port. I know in Miami they do facial recognition for passport passengers and you just walk through often not stopping.

You do walk up to a portal and get facial scanned before proceeding

[BallFour4]

5 hours ago, mz-s said:

It really depends on the port. I know in Miami they do facial recognition for passport passengers and you just walk through often not stopping.

Yup. We walked off the Icon two weeks ago and never showed anything, never slowed down as we walked through a striped off lane and looked up at the monitor/camera configuration.

.

[mitsugirly]

We had facial recognition in Long Beach as well. However, the passport line was extremely long where the birth certificate line just zoomed past everyone (was just thinking they probably still made it up there before we did even with stopping and showing their birth certificates). 😄 

[Colorado Beach Bum]

Not the experience we’ve had.  With passports, just zip right through.  Line usually longer but proceeds way faster - especially with facial recognition.  When with the grankids and bc’s the line was short but moved slow especially when agents questioned everyone - no facial recognition.  The bc ports were LB and Galveston.  And when I say longer, maybe 15-20 minutes.  Definitely not two hours. 

[buckeyefrank]

On 4/8/2024 at 3:55 PM, Cruisin_Mo said:

Quick question for recent cruisers:

Does anyone know how long it takes to debark if you are (a child) using a birth certificate?

 

Background: two years ago we cruised on the Mardi gras, and we had an adult that used a birth certificate and it took them close to two hours to debark.

Last year we cruised out of Norfolk and had a child (5) with only a birth certificate with us, and she walked off with the rest of us. I figured they were using facial recognition, and that's why there was no separate line for anyone.

 

I've seen in a couple of posts on Facebook and maybe here about the long lines for birth certificate users leaving Celebration, and now I wonder if there will be a problem. Idk why Norfolk would be more efficient than Miami or Port Canaveral. Is it because she's a child so she can go with her parents in the passport line? Is there still a separate line for non passport patrons?

 

TIA

There's no way it took 2 hours to get out of customs with a BC and DL.  Did he not have a valid DL?  There had to be something else going on that was flagged for him to be stopped for 2 hours.  At least one person in our traveling party each cruise (10 of them) has had a BC / DL and nobody was stopped for more than a minute to have a question or two asked and to verify the picture matches the face.

[Cruisin_Mo]

25 minutes ago, buckeyefrank said:

There's no way it took 2 hours to get out of customs with a BC and DL.  Did he not have a valid DL?  There had to be something else going on that was flagged for him to be stopped for 2 hours.  At least one person in our traveling party each cruise (10 of them) has had a BC / DL and nobody was stopped for more than a minute to have a question or two asked and to verify the picture matches the face.

I'm not saying it just took her that long. The line was that long. But in reading replies, I think both the embark and debark of that cruise was abnormal. For debark, Mardi gras was back in port a little after midnight(!), but even us with passports didn't get off until 11:30 am, and we were in the middle of the pack. She was in the bc line for that long after the rest of us got off the ship.

For comparison, the Magic got in port around 5-6 am, and we walked off the ship a little after 10am, and there were no separate lines for passport vs. birth certificate that we saw, but we were near the back of the pack.

[deladane]

I cruised out of Long Beach on the Panorama for the New Years Eve cruise, so the ship was filled to capacity with nearly 5000 passengers.  We took my toddler on his first cruise and opted not to get him a passport, so we traveled with his birth certificate and my husband and I both took our passports.  At debarkation, the line for passports was crazy long, wrapping all the way up to the top of the ramp when exiting the ship.  We flew passed them all the way to the front and had no line at all for the birth certificate line (they were able to look at our passports there too since obviously we couldn't send our toddler on his own to the BC line).  I assume that not every port operates the same way, but we were happy with our decision to use his BC as it saved us a lot of time in the long and slow-moving passport line in Long Beach.

[Redskinsfan92]

Just sailed on Legend out of Norfolk first week of April. Birth Certficate was same line as everyone else and fast 

[notscb]

On 4/13/2024 at 1:37 PM, deladane said:

At debarkation, the line for passports was crazy long, wrapping all the way up to the top of the ramp when exiting the ship.

My experience was the exact opposite at long beach. Birth certificate line was wrapping all the way up, the folks who kept walking were passport holders using facial scanning. Strange how that happens.

[DallasGuy75219]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:12 PM, mitsugirly said:

We had facial recognition in Long Beach as well. However, the passport line was extremely long where the birth certificate line just zoomed past everyone (was just thinking they probably still made it up there before we did even with stopping and showing their birth certificates). 😄 

This is the exception to the rule, at least in ports with separate debarkation lines for passports and birth certificates.

[sparks1093]

On 4/8/2024 at 7:35 PM, Ferry_Watcher said:

Different ports have different methods.  It could be the cruise line's decision, or the company that has the contract that manages the facility for the various cruise lines, or it could be the way the Customs and Border Protection folks want it.

 

In Seattle, everyone gets into one of the 3-4 lines that leads to the CBP Officers, who look at whatever citizenship document that you used to get onto the ship.  A vast majority of passengers use passports (and most of those are US passports, which makes it even easier), so the process is fairly quick.

All of the passengers are vetted during the cruise, so there is no need for any checks to be done at debark. We've never had a CBP Officer give our documents more than a passing glance (as opposed to returning across the border and having everything gone over with a fine toothed comb). 

[sparks1093]

Our experiences have been varied because of the port. Sometimes there is a separate line, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes they are using facial recognition, sometimes not. There was one debarkation (Legend/Baltimore) where the CBP Officers stood outside of their cubicles and watched everyone walk past with no checking of documents. We've traveled with people with different documents than us who have had to go in a different line and we all exited on the other side within minutes of each other.

[BallFour4]

On 4/16/2024 at 6:45 AM, sparks1093 said:

All of the passengers are vetted during the cruise...

Allow me some liberty with your post.
Here in Galveston they do this and discover those aboard with warrants. They then contact the agency that holds them, inquire about extradition and notify Galveston PD. These folks get priority debarkation from deck zero with new silver bracelets and a ride to jail.
 Search on Galveston.com and click on webcams. Within 20 min of the ship being secured to the dock this parade takes place.

 There is no algorithm, but the shorter cruises in warmer weather tend to have more in the ceremony. A group exists that watch this along with a webcam operator making real time comments...

 

.

[jsglow]

4 minutes ago, BallFour4 said:

Allow me some liberty with your post.
Here in Galveston they do this and discover those aboard with warrants. They then contact the agency that holds them, inquire about extradition and notify Galveston PD. These folks get priority debarkation from deck zero with new silver bracelets and a ride to jail.
 Search on Galveston.com and click on webcams. Within 20 min of the ship being secured to the dock this parade takes place.

 There is no algorithm, but the shorter cruises in warmer weather tend to have more in the ceremony. A group exists that watch this along with a webcam operator making real time comments...

 

.

Awesome. I think I need to tune in. So much more fun than dock runners in Cozumel.