St. Thomas & customs...what's the REAL deal?

[MamaParrotHead]

Booked Godfrey back in December for our cruise the end of May (47 days to go, but who's counting? :D LOL). Booked him for a 9 a.m. pick up (ship arrives at 7 a.m.). What's the scoop on getting off the ship? some people make it sound like it's a major hassle and that it takes forever. :confused: Is it reasonable for me to expect to be off the ship and able to be picked up at 9 a.m. for the tour?

 

thanks!

[TheWog]

You should be fine, but it depends on several factors. How many immigration officers are working, how many ships are in port, if everyone on your ship reports in a timely fashion, whether you dock or anchor. So it is hard to guess right now if that is a good time or not. Remember they do this all the time and have a sense for timing with passengers.

[Buckeyefan]

What time are you arriving in port? We just went on the Glory and felt we were lucky to make the 10:30 pickup time with Godfrey. Fortunately I had our confirmation letter with us so we were able to go thru customs first. Make sure you take a confirmation with you so that you can get thru faster. Some people didn't make it off till after 12:00.

 

By the way you will love Godfrey. He is softspoken so if you want to hear all of his information stay close to him.

 

Kathleen.

[Girlsnightout]

12:30 is ridiculous. No one should be expected to wait so long to disembark! You lose half the day!

 

 

Who is responsible for this? The cruiseline, or immigration on St. Thomas? I assume this is what some of our port charges are paying for, why can't we expect reasonable service?

Sorry but this bugs me. I don't have an excursion planned but we are meeting friends who are on the Zuiderdam, and I didn't think we were going to lose half our port time waiting to be cleared for customs.:mad:

[Schplinky]

I would thik the fault would be with customs. It seems like they are not staffing their posts to meet the increasing demands of popular cruises and are taking longer with each passenger. It's simple math. It's the reason most people cite about getting off ships late back in the port of disembarkation.