Customs

[missmlt]

We are going from Grand Turk, to San Juan, to St. Thomas. Would San Juan be our only port we'd have to do customs check?

[Padraic]

The only customs check will be in Port Everglades at the end of the cruise.

[missmlt]

ok, perhaps I used the wrong term. Emmigration check? Where you have to go through the line and show your passport before exiting the ship?

[E-500]

ok, perhaps I used the wrong term. Emmigration check? Where you have to go through the line and show your passport before exiting the ship?

 

No problem, you can take your passport off the ship, but all you really need is a photo ID and ship key card to clear security to get back on the ship. The ship just requires the key for off and on. No security to leave the port terminal.

[djhsolara]

I'm thinking we had to do that for St Thomas as well (it is part of the USVI).

[bishop84]

We are going from Grand Turk, to San Juan, to St. Thomas. Would San Juan be our only port we'd have to do customs check?

 

Depends on where else your cruise is going. CBP have a policy called closed loop which depends on where your cruise stops, roughly it is most of the Caribbean islands and possibly the Mexico. If your cruise only goes there then you will should only get the combined immigration and customs check when you return to the US Mainland. If your cruise gets classified as open loop, such as the Zuiderdam going to Panama, then you get the immigration check at US territories during your cruise.

[Orlandocruiser]

I think what the OP wants to know is does the ship have to clear immigration both in San Juan and St. Thomas. In my experience once the ship has cleared immigration in an American port and goes directly to another American port then it does not need to clear immigration again. So if it first stops in San Juan and then in St Thomas it would not have to clear immmigration in St Thomas. I have been on cruises where the first port after boarding was San Juan and we did not have to "do" immigration again but a cruise stopping at Half Moon Key and then St Thomas required immigration.

[VermeulT]

I just got off the Eurodam with that itinerary.

 

The only time we needed our passports was at check in and about an hour ago at final disembarkation. There was no mid-cruise immigration/ customs check of any kind (at least that passengers needed to be a part of - if it happened - it was all behind the scenes)

[jtl513]

- if it happened - it was all behind the scenes)

Was the ship holding your passports so that it might have been done behind the scenes?

[Micmac]

Right after 9/11, I remember all passengers having to get up to clear customs in St, Thomas before the Westerdam could be cleared but since then I have never encounted anything except at check in and final disembarkation.

[Globaliser]

Right after 9/11, I remember all passengers having to get up to clear customs in St, Thomas before the Westerdam could be cleared but since then I have never encounted anything except at check in and final disembarkation.

The immigration check (not customs) when calling mid-cruise at an island like St Thomas, after visiting a non-US port, has been abolished. It was in place long before September 2001, but mercifully ceased to exist about three or so years ago.

[ACNCON]

We just got off the Eurodam today and visited the same ports of call -Grand Turk, San Juan, and St. Thomas. We were never asked for our passports at any of these islands although we did have them with us.

 

In San Juan they did ask for photo ID from my husband (only 1 person per family had to show ID). We only had to show our passports at customs when we left the Eurodam this morning.

[VermeulT]

Was the ship holding your passports so that it might have been done behind the scenes?

 

No but they do have all the data.