Customs in St.thomas

[curiouscat]

After 10 cruises (mostly caribbean) I now here you need to "clear"customs in St.thomas????

 

If we leave from Ft.laud and go to st.thomas isn't that going w/in our own country??? :confused:

 

Anyone shed light on this new "absurd" procedure...:eek:

 

Thanks

 

CuriousCat

[lindanick]

Are you sailing on the Emerald Princess? (I assume you are). You need to go thru customs because you are stopping in the Bahama's first (Foreign country).

 

Linda

[curiouscat]

We are going to Princess cay their private island... is that Bahamas???

 

Ok.... then is it really worth to stop on their private island to be subjected to customs in st.thomas?

 

CuriousCat

[lindanick]

I have had to do customs in St Thomas a total of 3 times, I like you, dreaded it. In actuality it was easy. Took about 15-20 minutes. They give you a time frame to go thru. Have your passports and room key. They look at it and its done.

 

Princess cay is in the Bahamas, and it is worth the stop. Beautiful beach party. Lots of water toys, food and cool drinks. Its a great way to start your tan.

 

Have fun and keep the ship in tip top shape, I'll be there in March.

 

Linda

:) :) :)

[zaandam_2]

Princess cay is in the Bahamas, and it is worth the stop. Beautiful beach party. Lots of water toys, food and cool drinks. Its a great way to start your tan.

 

Have fun and keep the ship in tip top shape, I'll be there in March.

 

Linda

:) :) :)

 

it's a great revenue-producer for princess, too. they don't have to worry about us pesky DIY types who book private tours.

[curiouscat]

Linda

 

Thanks... that makes sense... I just got done w/ an X cruise and we had to do customs in seattle... while it's a smaller ship 1,899 passengers it was a mess.... people stood in line for hrs and wouldn't let anyone back on till the whole ship was cleared... very bad communication...:(

 

Glad Princess has there act together... that's why I panicked at the thought of 3k passengers lined up to go thru customs:eek:

 

I've been to princess cay.... it's nice.

 

CuriousCat

 

PS we'll keep the ship in one peice for ya....:p

[m steve]

you do not clear customs in St.Thomas. You clear immigration on board where they check passports. Customs is when you finally get off the ship in the mainland (Miami, FT. L) and you declare your purchases.

[cherylandtk]

Steve is right--its immigration. ;) When we've had to do this it took just minutes to walk down to the Vista Lounge, through the ropes and out the other door. Took longer to walk back to our room.

[DanJ]

"Customs" is also used as a more generic term for the whole procedure, and I think most people reading this understand that. I don't think a thumbs down and calling the topic stupid is very appropriate.

[nat9511]

We are sailing from Ft. Lauderdale in February and our first stop is St. Thomas. There is no stop in the Bahamas or anywhere else so I would assume we don't have to go through immigration?

[curiouscat]

ok... call it what you will... immigration.... again I just experienced the immigration from hell in seattle on an X cruise... we lined up for hours to disembark to clear immigration and couldn't just walk back on the ship back to our room.....we wentt into t own but others couldn't get back on the ship for hours:eek:

 

Just checking it won't be what we went thru in seattle on X

 

CuriousCat

[FlyStef]

We had to clear immigration on board at 7am Thanksgiving morning before we could get our pass to enter St. Thomas. Honestly I thought it was annoying as hell that as Americans we had to go through hoops to get to the USVI. You have to bring this paper they put in your box the night before and your passport and wait in a line that wraps all the way around the ship, so you can get a card and enter St. Thomas. Many of us were late for our 8am tours, and it was a bad way to start Thanksgiving Day.

[SharkieRools]

I beleive the ship itself is considered a foriegn country as well....

 

Anyways when we went through it in October it literally only took minutes. The line extended almost the entire ship but was moving the entire time.

[curiouscat]

We had to clear immigration on board at 7am Thanksgiving morning before we could get our pass to enter St. Thomas. Honestly I thought it was annoying as hell that as Americans we had to go through hoops to get to the USVI. You have to bring this paper they put in your box the night before and your passport and wait in a line that wraps all the way around the ship, so you can get a card and enter St. Thomas. Many of us were late for our 8am tours, and it was a bad way to start Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

Hi fellow Atlantan... I agree. Even though we go to Nassau the ship has a manifest and we all filled out Forms for homeland security and all showed our passports upon embarkation.... uh what happened w/ clearing it by showing the manifest????

 

Last year we went on Med cruise...left from Spain and visited France,Italy,Gibralter,Portugal and not once was asked to go thru Immigration....... HUH... ????

 

My view is if they keep this up I will rethink cruising..... and where I go and with whom. This is just ridiculous and NO I don't feel safer !!!!!!!

 

CuriousCat

 

PS did they get the Princess tour people off first???

[FLACRUISER99]

I wonder how many Illegals cross the border into the US during immigration checking the ship?:confused: A complete waste of resources.

[FlyStef]

 

PS did they get the Princess tour people off first???

 

Nope, there wasn't a priority to getting through the line. The paper we got said if we had a morning tour to get there by 7:15am. We did , but it was rather chaotic. Lots of people didn't realize they had to bring that paper with them, they only had their passports, running back and forth between rooms and the line, panic, early morning grumpiness. The line did move fairly quickly, but it seemed the whole ship wanted to get through at the same time.

 

The princess tours were held late for the people running late because of it, but our tours were cut short also. :( But I doubt I'd book another princess tour after this trip, I think we'll just do our own thing from now on.

[DanJ]

I beleive the ship itself is considered a foriegn country as well....

 

 

No, if that were the case, the ship wouldn't have to actually stop at a foreign port, like Ensanada on the round-trip Hawaii sailings for example.

[cherylandtk]

Well folks, there used to be exceptions for cruises, but ever since the government tightened up the travel rules, when you leave the US and then return, you have to go through a physical face-to-face immigration. No paper lists, no sleeping in, no conveniences just for you, the American cruise passenger. You do have options:

 

1. Don't leave the US--nobody is making you.

2. Choose an itinerary that goes from the mainland to USVI first, then on to the foreign countries.

3. Write your congressperson and senators if you don't like the current rules.

4. VOTE!

 

Do I think the cruise ship immigration process is 'useful' in keeping illegals or terrorists off of cruise ships? Heck no. Is is so aggravating as to keep me from cruising? Heck no. It is what it is; if this is the most aggravating thing in your life right now, count your blessings.

[SharkieRools]

No, if that were the case, the ship wouldn't have to actually stop at a foreign port, like Ensanada on the round-trip Hawaii sailings for example.

 

Actually according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea:

Article 91. Nationality of ships

 

1. Every State shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the State and the ship.

[Times Prince]

We had to clear immigration on board at 7am Thanksgiving morning before we could get our pass to enter St. Thomas. Honestly I thought it was annoying as hell that as Americans we had to go through hoops to get to the USVI. You have to bring this paper they put in your box the night before and your passport and wait in a line that wraps all the way around the ship, so you can get a card and enter St. Thomas. Many of us were late for our 8am tours, and it was a bad way to start Thanksgiving Day.

I mind having to get up well before 7 am :( to go through immigration to enter a U.S. Territory.

 

I don't get up that early to go to WORK ! :eek: And this is supposed to be a vacation.

[DanJ]

Actually according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea:

Article 91. Nationality of ships

 

1. Every State shall fix the conditions for the grant of its nationality to ships, for the registration of ships in its territory, and for the right to fly its flag. Ships have the nationality of the State whose flag they are entitled to fly. There must exist a genuine link between the State and the ship.

 

That's fine if you were born on a ship. But when you sail from Ft Lauderdale to San Juan to St Thomas, you don't have to clear immigration at any of those ports. Only after you have visited a foreign port, whether you actually get off the ship or not, have you left the US. You've no more entered a foreign country by boarding a foreign-flagged ship than you have entered the UK by boarding a British Airways 777 at LAX.

 

I can't say for 100% since I have done one yet, but I beleive that when you do a cruise to nowhere, you don't have to clear immigration when you come back to port.

[curiouscat]

Times Prince

 

When I told my husband he just looked at me and said the same thing... this is my vacation....:eek:

 

I really beleive this is an issue for the cruise lines... I don't think Princess should have scheduled St. thomas after Princess Cay.... If theywant to make it difficult to visit our own territory then lets skip it....... Then they will sing another tune

 

I can just tell you from my past exp just a couple of weeks ago in Seattle, it was awful and that was a small ship....

 

CuriousCat

[lindanick]

It would be great if they could change the ITinerary. Go to St. Thomas first then on to the rest of the trip,

then the private island.

 

Last year on the Caribbean Princess we stopped at St. Maarten first then on to St. Thomas so we had to go thru "CUSTOMS". Then we tried to go to Princess Cay, but high winds kept us from stopping there. Thats if my memory is correct. Who knows at this age?:eek:

 

Linda

:)

[BigGuy25]

Folks ... this is not a big deal!! I've done it several times. Don't get so excited. You're going to give yourselves heart attacks!!!

 

They simply look at the form you've filled out and your passport and then you walk right through. The problem is, some folks get in line well before the process starts so, at the beginning, there can be quite a queue (it still moves quickly). Just have another cup of coffee and then go down to pass through. It really is a painless process. At least is has been in my experience.

[zaandam_2]

princess should do it like they do on HAL, where you are assigned a time based on your last name. it goes very quickly.

 

of course there are always the people who don't go when they should (late/early) and the stragglers who hold everyone up.