Disembarkation process for Canadians?

[ChristinaN]

It has been some time since I've sailed Carnival. I recall having to drag my family down to Immigration or Customs before 7am in the past. Is this still the process? We are in no hurry to get off the ship so I'd love it if the process has changed.

[cruisecrazy02]

I don't recall having to do this one any of my previous cruises. Actually, I found being Canadian makes it a little easier to get through as immigration knows that we have our own border to cross after leaving the ship.

[nwcruiselover]

On a recent cruise I was on they kept announcing on the loudspeaker for all non-US citizens to please report to the showroom to be processed by U.S. Customs/Immigration. I don't recall the exact time, but I think it was around 8:00 that they started the announcements. They kept this up about every 10 minutes, saying that the ship could not be cleared until all non-US citizens were there in the showroom. Then finally they started calling passengers by name and said they were holding everyone up by not being there. This was on a cruise returning from Mexico in January 2011. I don't know whether things have changed since then but I have been on 2 cruises since then and it hasn't happened. Nancy

[Redsfan]

I do not recall having to report to Immigration so early on our '10 Destiny cruise, but for our November Inspiration out of Tampa we were given a notice under our door having to appear at 6:45 on Deembark Day! With 3 kids, we were non too please. I think there were 100 Non U.S. citizens on board, and all had the same time to report, and we were required to do so, and asked not to be late. Of course a few did not show up, so this delayed things longer than it took for the officers to get on board! We show up early, wait around with hungry kids!!!!

 

Lucky one of the Carnival Reps pushed us ahead of the wait...

[Ykgorbie]

We have cruise out of Long Beach and since we had an early international flight (before noon), we were allowed to choose "early disembarkation" - we were off of the ship by 8am. On the cruises we have taken out of Fort Lauderdale, once we chose to get off later and there was no announcement or notice for us to disembark early. The other times out of Fort Lauderdale, we had early flights and chose "self assist" or we were doing a B2B. I suppose every port authority could be different though and if they want to process the non U.S. residents first, they will notify you.

Have a good cruise !

[JUST TRIPPIN']

On our first cruise out of San Juan ( the Victory ) we just left with everyone else when our number was called. Last year aboard the Legend doing the western Caribbean, we had to report to the theatre at approximately 6:45am for a special customs for non US citizens only. It was packed but probably only took a half hour from the time we got there. It was annoying but part of homeland security I guess. You can't argue with Customs. :rolleyes: Afterwards, we were able to go up to the Lido for breakfast or back to our room before disembarking.

[sleeptechcruiser]

Just returned from the Liberty out of Miami and there were no announcements for Immigration. We did zone disembarkation and got off the ship around 9:30. Canadians have it easy. There was only 2 people in the "non US citizen" line!! was very quick and easy. The immigration officers don't even look at the declaration form.

[JUST TRIPPIN']

That sounds good. Thanks for the update on the Liberty. We will be sailing her in Jan. of 2013. I hope the Miracle in Fort Lauderdale is the same. I rolled the dice on a noon hour flight home.

[Rainberry]

Seems like only certain ports require the early customs onboard process. In Miami, you just get off with everyone else, but in Tampa they make all non-US citizens wake up early and get processed on the ship first. They made it 7:30 a.m. on our ship.

 

We had to do it in November and we had an 11:20 a.m. flight. It worked out just fine but it was a bit nerve wracking waiting for our zone to be called (they told us we couldn't self disembark, although I think we could've.. we ended up leaving the ship before our zone was called no problem). Ended up getting off the ship around 9:15 a.m. and got to the airport in 20 minutes so we were super early.

[jtdlmc]

In Florida, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale have the process where Canadians have to be in the lounge at 6:45 am - the entire family, not just one while the rest sleep. Our next cruise is also on the Liberty out of Miami - I will never again sail out of a port that doesn't have Customs/Immigration in the terminal, it isn't nice having to wake up at 6 a.m. on the last day of vacation.

 

[tracyvansmith]

That sounds good. Thanks for the update on the Liberty. We will be sailing her in Jan. of 2013. I hope the Miracle in Fort Lauderdale is the same. I rolled the dice on a noon hour flight home.

 

We have sailed out of Long Beach (queen mary), Fort Lauderdale, Miami and have never had to go any where for customs in the moring. We were able to get off the ship and go through customs then.

 

We did the Miracle in Jan and went thourgh customs after we got off the ship.

[ChristinaN]

Interesting that it is just differents ports that have this. We are sailing out of Port Canaveral this time so hopefully this eliminates the need. We don't have to be anywhere on the last day of the cruise so I'd rather that we be able to sleep in (when I say sleep in I mean 7AM LOL) than to have to drag 3 young boys to immigration/customs.

[jtdlmc]

Sorry, on my previous thread I said Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, it is actually Tampa and Port Canaveral that have the Immigration meeting on the ship. I read that Port Canaveral is or has built a new terminal so it is possible that is no longer the case - they may have it in the terminal now.

[lds26]

I have.sailed out of Miami Fort Lauderdale Los Angeles and have never been required to meet early. O hope I didn't just curse myself. LOL

[craftykitty]

Seems like the Port Authority that has been able to provide a permanent station for Canadians to be processed off the ship do not have the 'pre-dawn' meeting set up. I've done NYC and Miami and have always done customs and immigration on land.

[Redsfan]

I should also add though that we did not have to leave the ship after Customs, we were able to finish packing up the room and stay on board until our Zone was cleared...

[Mo from Canada]

Sailed out of Miami last week no special immigration only when we got off the ship there were two separate lines US and Non US wre not treated any different .

[SenatorsFan]

The only time I've had to do this was our very first cruise on Disney out of Port Canaveral in 2006. Since then, we've cruised from Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades, all on Carnival, and have never had to report early. I also agree that as a non-U.S. citizen, customs at the port is a breeze.:)

Heather

[hockeyluver]

The only cruises I can remember having to go down early to immigration was the ones where we had a St. Thomas port.

 

All other cruises we just got off the ship with everyone else, went through customs the same also.