New to cruising question about visa's

[IrelandMaryD]

Hi,

 

I am going on the FOS Eastern Caribbean 7 night tour to Coco Cay the Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Maarteen and from my research it looks like as and Irish citizen I will not need any visas except for the entry requirements that I already needed to get into the US? Is this right? I booked everything myself so I can not get information from travel agent.

 

I will have a machine readable passport and completed an esta and given advance passanger information as required by US regulations. Bahamas and St. Thomas I think has the same entry requirement as the US for non us citizens and as a european resident I can enter St. Maarteen for 3 months without a visa?

 

Also is there any vacinations that we should get?

 

If anyone form Ireland who has completed this trip could let me know if they agree or disagree I would really appreciate it.

 

Thanks In Advance

Mary:confused:

[English_in_Spain]

Ireland will be the same as all other Europeans.

It sounds like you have done all you need to enter US. Apart from that you need no other visas or vaccinations.

For some reason although we have completed the ESTA we still have to fill in the old green visa waiver form (I-94W). Don't forget to hand in the portion you are given when you finally leave the US.

This question on that I-94W that always amuses me

"Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in

terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in

any way, in persecutions associated with **** Germany or its allies?"

 

 

Who is going to admit to espionage, sabotage or terrorist activities? If someone was involved in **** activities in 1933-1945 they would now be well over 80 years old :confused:

Why do we have to go through this, stand in line for 1.5 to 2 hours at the airport to be intervieewd and give our fingerprints but when Americans visit Europe there are no checks? Seems a bit unfair to me.

 

Edit to say that the word N A Z I was replaced by ****

[IrelandMaryD]

Thanks for replying English In Spain - Your email made me smile I agree who would admit to a lot of things put on these forms:rolleyes:

[NorbertsNiece]

I would never give advice to any non US citizen as to what requirement is needed from their country. That is way too much responsibility. There's a thread on here where the visa requirements changed just days before a cruise for some pax.

 

Wisest response, IMO, is to refer the question to http://travel.state.gov/visa/

[willing292]

there are no mandatory shots required, but every traveller should have hepatitis a and b (twinrix) and tetnus.

[English_in_Spain]

I would never give advice to any non US citizen as to what requirement is needed from their country. That is way too much responsibility. There's a thread on here where the visa requirements changed just days before a cruise for some pax.

 

Wisest response, IMO, is to refer the question to http://travel.state.gov/visa/

 

Yes, NN you are correct. I think sometimes here on CC we try to be too helpful and risk giving incorrect information.

In this case though, the OP already has her documents to enter the US. She just wanted to know if she needed anything else for the Caribbean islands.

[NorbertsNiece]

Yes, NN you are correct. I think sometimes here on CC we try to be too helpful and risk giving incorrect information.

In this case though, the OP already has her documents to enter the US. She just wanted to know if she needed anything else for the Caribbean islands.

 

Ola!

What a lovely weekend you had!!

I know. Like with answering about jabs..... each country has their own recommendations.... we were advised to have yellow fever jabs for our Panama partial transit last year..... not many others were.... it's just something I would hate to get wrong when it can mean the difference between getting on the plane/ship or not.

[English_in_Spain]

It is not just on CC that you sometimes get out of date or incorrect information.

Going to our recent Noordam cruise we were flying from Madrid to Miami. The immigration official at Madrid was checking we had the correct papers for USA before allowing us to board the plane. We queried whether we would need the green form and he said definitely not. When we were on the plane we were then given the green form to complete and at Miami it certainly was needed.

[NorbertsNiece]

It is not just on CC that you sometimes get out of date or incorrect information.

 

Going to our recent Noordam cruise we were flying from Madrid to Miami. The immigration official at Madrid was checking we had the correct papers for USA before allowing us to board the plane. We queried whether we would need the green form and he said definitely not. When we were on the plane we were then given the green form to complete and at Miami it certainly was needed.

 

 

Hahaha. Same thing happened with us on BA at checkin last year! Something about left hand and right hand ;)

[Frankmac]

Mary we were on that cruise at beginning of June. We are Irish and all we needed were the same documents that we needed to get into the USA.

 

We had completed the ESTA forms as we had been advised but they were ignored by immigration as apparently it didnt come into operation until July. So you probably need to have that done. Probably be best to fill out the blue and green forms as well.

 

When you get to immigration be prepared to meet officials who appear to have had a sense of humour bypass. Dont be put off by this as your general welcome to the USA will a very positive one.

 

Oh and enjoy your buckets of beer