Declarations

How does declaring your purchases work? Say we purchase $200 or less worth of items while on the cruise (in ports or on ship), do we tell the customs agent when we disembark?

Under most countries laws there is a legal limit below which no duty is payable on dutiable items or gifts purchased by travellers for the importation of goods purchased overseas. If you are below legal limits you have "Nothing to Declare" and need not mention what you have purchased.

Regards John

john watson has it right.

Just have your receipts for all items and know where they are packed just in case you are stopped but that rarely happens.

Keith

I understand Customs is moving away from paper declarations (at least for air travel) but at the beginning of January we were still given paper declaration forms to fill out on QM2. The directions changed a few years ago to say that you list all items purchased (a generic description like "souvenirs" works for miscellaneous items) and there's only duty to pay if you're over $800 per person in items ($1600 from the USVI).

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/sample-declaration-form

Declare all articles on this form. For gifts, please indicate the retail value. Use the reverse side of this form if additional space is needed to list the items you will declare.

Side Note

It's been reported that if you should happen to purchase a high value item on the ship, it will be reported to CBP.

If you get to CBP and declare nothing, it will be frowned upon and a long discussion will ensue.