Heads UP... Immigration delays for non US pax on West Coast again

[Mabers]

I too was on the sailing arriving in San Diego on Mar. 13th....it truly was a mess!

 

Just this morning (while still tidying up cruise stuff!) I came upon the last day's "Celebrity Today". It clearly states that for U.S. and Canadian citizens the inspection would be held in the cruise ship terminal AFTER disembarking the vessel. I wonder what made them change their minds.

 

For those of us who had cruised before, but never experienced this shipboard immigration routine, but realized it did happen, we thought it was the first time it had been so poorly handled. It is disheartening to know that chaos had reigned before and no remedy had been found.

 

As an aside, I did not miss my flight.....it had been delayed , BUT with weather, glitches and 4 time changes, I arrived home at 4:35 A.M. local (Toronto) time on Sunday morning with no luggage! I'm still recovering!

 

M.

[c-legs]

We two 'foreigners' are booked on a LUX bus to LA Airport which we meet at the Holiday Inn (near the port) at 11.30 a.m. in San Diego. We don't mind carrying off our one bag each, I just hope we get off by 11 am which gives us 30 minutes to walk out of the port to the Holiday Inn. Otherwise will just have to go by Greyhound bus or the train. Is the Amtrak train near the port?

Amtrak station right accross, facing the pier. You can see the old '' Santa Fe'' sign on top of buildng.

Cheers

[c-legs]

Good afternoon, all.

 

We're on a B2B this september, 1st cruise ending in SanDiego...As C&BP folks insist on a ''zero base'' pax count including back-to-backers in any USA ports, we presume we'll be asked to debark , only to re-embark after the ship is ''zero based'' and following minimal process by the authorities. Fair enough.....HOWEVER: :eek: with the ''WestCoast'' C&BP ''ambiance'', would we presume we ( Canadians) could very well be '' allowed off'' the ship only around 10.00am-ish after all this ''on board clearing'' scenario ( which would mean re-embarking around 11.00am...) ???

We had planned on meeting some friends from SanJuan Capistrano for lunch/visiting.....which would be worth our while if we can be off the ship by 9.00am latest....but with this new ''flair'' :rolleyes: of clearing ships in SanDiego, might not be worth our while to organise that, and ought to simply walk back on at the earliest opportunity ( after all, we would HAVE to be back on board 3.30pm latest anyways )

Any opinions ??

Cheers & Thanks:)

[C 2 C]

Good afternoon, all.

 

We're on a B2B this september, 1st cruise ending in SanDiego...As C&BP folks insist on a ''zero base'' pax count including back-to-backers in any USA ports, we presume we'll be asked to debark ,

 

Hi c-legs:

 

As a Canadian doing a B2B you (if our experience was "normal") will be requested to go through the "foreigner line" not the Canadian line in the terminal. We did not bother to go ashore in Dec. and we did not have to dis embark.

 

However when we had the turnaround on Infinity a year ago, we went ashore (about 9:30?) to visit Ralph's for some wine (pre Elite cocktail hour days), returned at about 11 but:

despite having our B2B boarding pass, shoreside staff would not let us proceed because only Concierge were being processed :mad:, then we showed him our concierge keys from the previous voyage :rolleyes:and we were allowed to proceed but then boarding had not begun and we had to sit with arriving concierge passengers until the ship was cleared. If we had had no need of the libations we could have stayed on board.... without the aggravation.

[wrp96]

DH reminded me we are sailing on Royal C this time so we hope they get us off more efficiently--they usually do...

 

 

Please be aware that this can happen on RCCl as well. This is a San Diego DHS issue, not a cruiseline issue.

[c-legs]

Hi c-legs:

 

As a Canadian doing a B2B you (if our experience was "normal") will be requested to go through the "foreigner line" not the Canadian line in the terminal. We did not bother to go ashore in Dec. and we did not have to dis embark.

 

However when we had the turnaround on Infinity a year ago, we went ashore (about 9:30?) to visit Ralph's for some wine (pre Elite cocktail hour days), returned at about 11 but:

despite having our B2B boarding pass, shoreside staff would not let us proceed because only Concierge were being processed :mad:, then we showed him our concierge keys from the previous voyage :rolleyes:and we were allowed to proceed but then boarding had not begun and we had to sit with arriving concierge passengers until the ship was cleared. If we had had no need of the libations we could have stayed on board.... without the aggravation.

Hi, Arno

Tks for tip.

You seem to indicate that you do not HAVE to disembark is SAN when on a B2B....I was under the impression that C&BP folks ,on a terminating cruise, want to ''zero out'' the entire ship before the next round of boarding ( in the USA anyways....),which would automatically includes all back-to-backers getting off with their B2B passes.....:mad:

With what I ''smell '' on this thread, we'll just stay put and not bother getting off ( unless we're forced to.....).There is something about enjoying the top deck on ''our'' ship with few people around...:rolleyes:

Cheers

Best regards to Joanne

Claude

:)

[Nancyquilts]

We will have the same, 2 medium wheelies & 2 carry ons but also a garment bag for our formal clothes--( Doesn't your formal wear get wrinkled in a regular suitcase???

Good question - one of our suitcases is a fold-over garment bag on wheels. (And we're trying to get rid of stuff now, not buy more. Ah, the good old days when we needed things!);)