How Long to Disembark in New York

We will be taking our first Westbound TA from Southampton to New York in April next year, can anybody (non-US resident) tell me how long it normally takes to get through Customs/Immigration/Security etc? We need to make on-going travel arrangements so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Gill

We will be taking our first Westbound TA from Southampton to New York in April next year, can anybody (non-US resident) tell me how long it normally takes to get through Customs/Immigration/Security etc? We need to make on-going travel arrangements so any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Gill

Well, I'm a NY resident - but I was also one of the last folks off the ship this past September. Cunard disembarks in stages, starting with self disembark (while we were having breakfast). Cunard scheduled transfers, Grills passengers & I believe high tier world club members come before the rest of the folks, announced from the top decks down. We were on deck 5, so there was a substantial wait in the Queens room.

There was no separation for US Citizen in the terminal's customs / immigration desks. I would recommend engaging a porter [their line is toward the left in the call] They will put your bags onto a cart, and then into dedicated porter lines which tend to move a bit faster.

'one of the last folks off the ship this past September'. .

Gill, about what time did you get off?

Gill, about what time did you get off?

Got outside just before 11. New passengers were arriving (and waiting)

Thanks, I didn't realise that the US citizens and the rest of us would all be in the same queue, I'd assumed you'd go straight through and we'd queue for hours lol. We're on deck 6 so it sounds as though we'll be amongst the last off as well - it's probably best not to book the 12.00 train from Penn Station! As this is just the start of our adventure we'll definitely need a porter's help with our luggage, if you don't mind me asking - how much would you normally tip them?

Thanks again for your help.

Gill

Thanks, I didn't realise that the US citizens and the rest of us would all be in the same queue, I'd assumed you'd go straight through and we'd queue for hours lol. We're on deck 6 so it sounds as though we'll be amongst the last off as well - it's probably best not to book the 12.00 train from Penn Station! As this is just the start of our adventure we'll definitely need a porter's help with our luggage, if you don't mind me asking - how much would you normally tip them?

 

Thanks again for your help.

 

Gill

We massively overpack [use family car for transport] so we have lots of stuff. We tip a minimum of $40 for our haul of baggage. Say $10 / per normal size bag.

Ditto to the recommendations on hiring a porter. As with many things in life you get what you pay for and you have to pay for what you want to get, which in this case is expedited immigration/customs processing.

I will echo the others regarding the porters. We tipped about $25 for 4 bags, they made it easy for us, and we had a somewhat express service through the immigration line. Otherwise you could have a reasonable wait (15 to 30 minutes), or horrible, over and hour.

Thanks for your help everybody, it's all really useful.

Gill

We self-checked-out last time and were off before 7:00 am (QM2 docked on time at 6:30 am).

Advantages

• More time ashore
  
• Line-ups at immigration virtually non-existent
  
• No line-up for taxis.
   
  But you have to pre-register with the Purser's desk ("self-help disembarkation") at least a day or so before and they will issue you with docs for this. But you must carry all your baggage with you off the ship.
   
  US Customs & Immigration is even more unpredictable the last couple of years. Whatever you do, make sure everyone in your party has all (ALL!) their needed documentation with them, correctly and completely filled out. The slightest irregularity and they can be, well, shall I say "strident"?
  Much more civilized eastbound into Southampton - the UK authorities pre-clear you while you're sailing, mid-Atlantic and upon arrival, just walk off the ship (notwithstanding Customs declaration) to - wherever you are going.
  

Another consideration, if not taking "self help" disembarkation, is the sorting of baggage on the pier. We - and many others - had a bad experience about a year and a half ago. As with other piers, the off-loaded baggage is arranged in various areas according to the colour and number of the disembarkation call. Each area was divided by a fence.

We were taking a Cunard airport transfer so were called off fairly early. As with several other passengers we found only one of our bags. I understand the logic of separating the baggage with fences, but this prevented us from searching for our misplaced bag. The staff helped all of us search for our missing luggage, but only in our area. Even they could not go beyond the fence. After standing around for half an hour or so the fence to the next area was removed and we - and I believe all others - found our luggage. Some of us worried that the buses would leave without us, but fortunately they were held for everyone. If our misplaced bags were at the far end of the customs hall we would have had a very long wait.

If I ever disembark again in New York (other than as an in-transit passenger) I will take "self help."

Thanks Canuker and David, sadly self-help isn't an option for us as we'll have 5 (yes 5 lol) cases - one with clothes for QM2, one with clothes for Independence, one with things we'll want on both cruises and two to take on the coach tour between the two cruises - we never travel light but this is taking things to extremes lol. At least being on deck 6 we shouldn't have to wait too long if our cases are in the wrong places - I'll be having nightmares about that now!

Thanks for the advice

Gill

We are UK citizens and we disembarked in New York last month. We chose to carry our own cases off, started disembarking at 7am and were sitting in Penn Station at 9.15am and that was including being pulled aside by US customs for further questioning......

I appreciate that not everyone can do "self help" and I also hope that such incompetence with baggage sorting at Red Hook is not normal. We have disembarked in Southampton about 20 times - not just on Cunard - and only once was one of our cases not where it should be. It was close by and we found it in two minutes as no passengers were held in "pens" and having to wait for fences to be moved.

I found my landing arrangements for Red Hook last October. Deck 6 was called off at 10:00 a.m. As we were in transit from Québec to Southampton (and not wanting to go ashore) we were told to wait until everyone else had disembarked and were called off at about 10:40. Although we were processed quickly at what appeared to be an express desk of sorts, we did notice a horrendous queue of passengers with luggage. Good luck!

I've disembarked 4 times in Red Hook and one of our bags was misplaced three of those times.

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on our last experience we too had too much goodies to try and self carry but with a noon flight out of LaGuardia I was not comfortable with our assigned time 'by deck' where I doubted we'd get off in time to get to the airport and thru TSA!

You CAN change …. they don't advertise this to avoid everyone asking for first group but I asked and got moved up to first group after the 'self carry' and suites. We made our flight with ease.

As I recall the request was handled by the excursions desk …. I may have been asked to show my plane tickets.

and 'knock on wood' … have never had a bag misplaced … on a cruise … flying YEP but not on a cruise.

As I recall the request was handled by the excursions desk …. I may have been asked to show my plane tickets.

Same here, last year. They'll provide early disembarkation to those who need it. Just politely request priority disembarkation and they'll provide the special tags and instructions. I think I mentioned my flight time, but was not asked for any documentation. This happened about two days before the end of the cruise, I believe. I also recall that we needed an extra tag after they were delivered and I was able to get it just by asking at the counter (and it may have been off-hours at the Pursers Desk, but I may be imagining things here.)

I think this is true for most lines. They want happy passengers and want you to make your flight. They can't let everyone off at once, so they stagger debarkation - but if you politely and discretely request early accommodation, they'll be happy to help you out.

One point about porters - When we did the early debarkation, we were going to use the porters/stevedores, but there were none to be found. We wanted assistance, both because my husband has mobility problems, but also for the express customs lane. Once we had gathered our bags, the gates opened, and there was a veritable parade of porters and their carts. As it was, we already had our bags together in a manageable fashion and the lines hadn't grown yet, so we didn't bother. (Moral of the story, if there are no porters, you may just be a few minutes early.)

- Mark

We usually are disembarking following a closed-loop NYC-NYC cruise to the Caribbean so immigration checks aren't as overbearing as they are following a transatlantic. The day we embark is the day of the completion of a crossing and boarding often starts late due to slow processing of disembarking passengers.

When I've looked the queue for a porter seemed longer than the queue for immigration on a closed loop cruise. It has tended to discourage me from trying to get a porter. We can just about (barely) manage all of our cases in one go, by connecting the handle of one rolling bag to the streap or the bag in front and pulling a sort of train.

If your hands are full avoid holding your customs declaration in your teeth. The inspectors will give you some additional instruction if you forget...

If any of your party appears mobility impaired (e.g., is holding/using a cane) the line guards will typically guide your party to a dedicated, short line. Do with that information as you'd like.

Thanks everybody for all the help and very useful information. We decided the most sensible thing to do was to book a later train so we now have more than enough time to get to Penn Station for the 4pm train.

Thanks again

Gill

We are on the Sept 23 round trip NY New England/Canada cruise this year. Contrary to everyone on this topic we want to get off the ship as late as possible as our turn flight to Tucson leaves Newark at 7:30 pm 🤤

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There are really 3 delay areas when disembarking in NYC - 1. getting off the ship 2. Getting through Border Control and 3. getting a taxi outside. Our disembarkation time was 10:30 recently so quite a long wait there considering we had to be out of our cabin by 8AM, then took an hour to get through Border Control (we were not aware of the trick of using the porters ) and then another 30 minutes to move up the taxi queue.

Here is some recent timing for New York disembarkation (from yesterday).

We had booked the Cunard transfer to LaGuardia airport. We were called off the ship at 8:15am. By the time we were actually off the ship, found our luggage, and joined the queue for US Customs and Border Protection, it was 8:30am. We made it through that queue at 8:55am (so a 25 minute wait for us yesterday in the US border control queue at that time of the morning). We boarded the coach for the airport transfer at about 9:00am.

One caveat about the airport transfer to LaGuardia. As has been mentioned in other threads, there is major construction going on at LaGuardia. For that reason, our transfer coach had to drop everyone off at Terminal B on the arrivals level. That worked reasonably well for us since our flight was on American Airlines out of terminal B. We just had to take the elevator up to the departures level of Terminal B. Those departing from other terminals had the extra step of taking the airport shuttle to their terminals, so not as convenient for them.

Just for comparison, this was after a Transatlantic crossing, right?

Just for comparison, this was after a Transatlantic crossing, right?

Correct. The New York disembarkation timings I provided were for the QM2 westbound crossing June 24-July 1, 2018.

Last month I carried my own luggage off and was on my way (in a taxi) to jfk at 7:20. Btw. A hint. Don’t go to the room they tell you the to if you are carrying off your own. Queque near the gangway out of sight. I was 4th off. The room they tell you to meet in is a long way from the gangway.

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