St. Thomas-GLORY help: how long to disembark?

[kbatschke]

Going on the Glory Eastern 4/16. Read many reviews and posts. A few (seriously just a few,) have mentioned a LONG wait for immegration at St. Thomas and taking a Carnival shore excursion is advisable. DW and I just want to go to ST. John and do it on our own.

 

Are long dismebarkation times the norm for St. Thomas, or an exception. I don't mind an hour or so, but 2 to 3 would really take the fun out of the island and may be worth an excursion.

 

Thanks,

 

Karl

[hkolln]

why do you go thru immigration in St Thomas? I can't remember ever having to do that when we were there a couple years back. Only time immigration held us up was when we went back into the US.

 

We rented a jeep in St John ourselves and took a taxi to the Red Hook Ferry over to St John and drove the island ourselves. Very cool experience! We are going back on the Glory in March 2006 and are going to do it all over again. Can't wait!

 

If you get to St john have lunch at Skinny Legs. Really good food!

[Cruising89143]

It can vary by each cruise but when I was on the Glory which was almost two years ago, we cleared immigration pretty fast. They had us start lining up on the promenade deck at around 9:00 and the line moved quickly. If everyone has their documents out that will expedite things.

[Cruising89143]

why do you go thru immigration in St Thomas? I can't remember ever having to do that when we were there a couple years back. Only time immigration held us up was when we went back into the US.

 

QUOTE]

 

The ship first calls at Nassau. Since you are going back into a US territory the passengers now have to clear immigration.

[hkolln]

Then why did we not have to show anything in St Thomas in 2003 when we were there? Our Itinerary was San Juan, St Thomas, St Martin on the Triumph. Is it cause we were coming from San Juan?

[Majj]

Because San Juan is a U.S. Territory.

[dayne]

just off the Glory... It took about 2 hours to get off the ship. Lot of people were grumbling about it.

[dkee]

It took our group over three hours to get through immigration in St. Thomas.

We had an island tour booked with Godfrey at 10:00. However, they stated on Glory that you must show your "tickets" to be able to get off first. Since we did not have Carnival tour tickets we assumed we had to wait like we were told...so therefore our floor which was Main was almost last to be let off. To our amazement, Godfrey's brother was there holding a sign for us! He took us to all the places we requested--even though each stop had to be for a shortened period of time. We later learned that others with tours not booked with Carnival did leave at the first call, so we want make that mistake again!

[caviargal]

I find this silly. I have NEVER had a wait to get off any ship in St.Thomas and have ported there over twenty times. We were docked next to the Glory in February and were off in minutes. We saw the crowds on deck waiting to disembark. Also, we were back on our ship immediately and there was a huge, slow moving line to get on the Glory.

 

If the real problem is immigration, perhaps Carnival should look at revising the itinerary.

[Cruising89143]

I find this silly. I have NEVER had a wait to get off any ship in St.Thomas and have ported there over twenty times. We were docked next to the Glory in February and were off in minutes. We saw the crowds on deck waiting to disembark. Also, we were back on our ship immediately and there was a huge, slow moving line to get on the Glory.

 

If the real problem is immigration, perhaps Carnival should look at revising the itinerary.

 

The problem is immigration and we were told on the ship by the CD that Carnival did in fact look at moving the stop in Nassau to the end on Friday but there was no space in Nassau to dock on Friday's.

[Girlsnightout]

IF the problem is immigration and not Carnival, why aren't the other lines having this problem?

 

I've heard about the 2-3 hour delays too, and I'll be grumbling if it takes that long..we have plans to meet with friends coming off the Zuiderdam, and it's not a ship sponsered excursion.

[Cruising89143]

IF the problem is immigration and not Carnival, why aren't the other lines having this problem?

 

I've heard about the 2-3 hour delays too, and I'll be grumbling if it takes that long..we have plans to meet with friends coming off the Zuiderdam, and it's not a ship sponsered excursion.

 

Depends on what stops those other ships have made prior to St. Thomas. If they are not stopping at non US ports then they do not have to clear immigration prior to debarking the ship.

[Boston6]

It's amazing how many people have problems with the concept of having to go through immigration in St. Thomas.

 

IMO - Carnival should just scrap the Nassau stop (too short) and go to a private island on Friday instead.

[Buckeyefan]

We were on the Glory 3/19 and we had a tour booked through Godfrey - We lined up with people who had an early excursion and showed them our e-mail confirmation from Godfrey. No problem. Took about 30 to 45 minutes.

 

Kathleen

[kkmonga]

Just got off the Glory 4/2-4/9. We did not have our deck called until after 12:00 and did not disembark until 12:45. Very disappoining, because it is one of our favorite islands. The people with early tours were given priority, and then decks were called at random. Our line started by the aft elevators and went all the way down promenade, through the Blue Bar forward, then through the disco. Something needs to change with this procedure! Luckily, the KonTiki was a 1:00 tour, which we made just in time.

[Girlsnightout]

It's amazing how many people have problems with the concept of having to go through immigration in St. Thomas.

.

 

Perhaps there wouldn't be a problem if everyone was able to get off the ship in less than 4 hours after docking. That's completely unreasonable. I've been to St. Thomas a number of times by cruise ship, and never had problems getting off early (without an excursion). You miss half the day when you disembark at 12:45.

 

No one has a problem with going through immigration, we have a problem with the inability of the cruiseline to get it done in a timely manner.

 

I do agree with the suggestion of the private island though, I'd much rather go there than Nassau anyway.

[basketballmom]

So as long as I bring my Godfrey email stating I have a tour booked, they will let us off with the "early group"?