MaxTheHorse

Our cruise itinerary was changed/shortened for this question I originally asked and St. Thomas was dropped. We instead did HMC, Key West, then back to port in FLL. Even though we'd only gone to the cruise line's private island, we still had to clear immigration at our first US port of call (Key West). On arrival in Key West, ALL passengers had to clear immigration. Those with excursions were called first I think starting at 8 am. Then starting at I think 8:30 you were assigned a time slot deck by deck. They announced it and there was a letter in your cabin the day before with times and instructions. I don't think the scheduled clearing times lasted more than 90-120 minutes in total. They had us queue on deck 3 through the atrium and shops, and there were USCIS officers checking passports in one of the meeting rooms. After the check, a crew member punched your key card and you could exit the ship or go back to whatever you were doing. We had an excursion so were in the first group allowed through the line. Took about 10 minutes and moved very quickly. It was quite efficient.

Thanks! Indeed I was looking at old posts from the 2000s so the information was outdated. Thank you for clarifying!

Correct. After USVI it’s Half Moon Cay then return to Fort Lauderdale.

Sailing next month on Nieuw Amsterdam with St. Thomas as one of our ports. Stop is after Grand Turk and Samana so I know we’ll have to go though immigration. Question is: what’s the current HAL procedure and does it take a long time to clear? We have an 8:30 am private tour booked (leaves from Havensight where we are docking) and I’m second guessing if we’ll have enough time to make it if its a lengthy immigration process. Arrival time is either 7 am (time on my booking receipt) or 8 am (time showing on HAL site).

We shall see! I booked a the "countryside & culture" excursion today. A few of the excursions they had a few days ago no longer appear.

I just booked, but according to our roll call thread the port was changed from San Juan to Samana sometime this summer. Cruise is 12/16.

Yikes! Was that recent?

Extremely helpful. Thank you.

Have searched the boards and coming up empty on info about quality of HAL excursions in the Samana port of call. Is this a new port for HAL or something? We're on the 12/16/23 sailing on NA.