thumbs down to St. Thomas as first port of entry after TA

[cinnamon]

I was on this cruise and am British. I need to make a few corrections to the wrong information in this thread.

 

We were booked on a Celebrity Excursion to St John. Although we were in a 'special' line, all those taking a trip with the ship at ANY time that day were in the same line. The Shorex staff should have prioritised those going early.

 

OUR EXCURSION LEFT WITHOUT US.

 

We queued for 1 hour 40 minutes, when we got on the dockside we were told they waited neatly half an hour but had to go. Not True. An American lady I spoke to later who was on that trip told me it only waited 5 minutes after the scheduled departure time.

 

So, booking a ship's excursion did not help. Some UK and other foreign nationals queued up to 3 hours. Very few chairs for those unable to stand. A diabetic lady in a wheelchair had to send her husband all the way up to the buffet for orange juice as the refreshments provided after over an hour queuing were only cups of water and the staff sent him upstairs.

 

ESTAs are not forms to be scanned. The paper is just a printout of the email received. The info is embedded in the US system and if they could have scanned our passports they should not have been needed. We were not supplied with the green forms prior to the morning. They require info not necessarily available without returning to your cabin, such as address you would be staying on the US do many people struggled to fill them in while standing in a line.

 

Celebrity should NOT sell excursions for the morning in St Thomas. It took over 5 hours to clear all the passengers.

 

However, we did not need new green forms in FLL. It was a much quicker Customs check and brief check of the passports.

[kasi1979]

Yes, passengers who didn't follow instructions made it worse for all of us, but if the Customs/Immigration staff had shown up on time, and gotten the process started in a timely manner, and brought the correct equipment to scan the ESTA forms, it would have all gone much more smoothly.

 

And knowing that passengers don't always follow instructions, Celebrity staff could have made the entire process go better if they had communicated better why the green forms were needed, and if they had walked the lines making sure that each and every passenger had everything they needed prior to getting to the place where the SeaPass cards were being scanned and we were sent on to see the Customs/Immigration official.

 

 

Hi,

we were on the eclipse, too.

As German citizens we had the Long line of non-US Folks to wait in.

We were scheduled for 7:15 Immigration.

We were already Standing in line when the custom People showed up. By thgan Celebrity staff walked the lines asking if you had you passport, seapass Card and ESTA documents. No green forms had been handed out until that time.

Another 15 minutes later, the lines were getting longer and we were still Standing in the Casino on deck 4. Celebrity staff handed out green forms and pens to fill These out.

The handling through Celebrity once inside the theatre was causing some unhappy People to loose their Patience.

We were told to go through the sitting lines and sit down. Than other passaengers started to push Forward ignoring the Celebrity staff, so that the passengers already sitting and waiting to be called protested... It seemed a bit caotic.

By 8:45 we had passed the Immigration process. We were later told by other passemgers, that those, who received later times for Immigration waited way more than 2 hours...

[USVI-4-me]

I'm surprised no one has reported on this yet. But most of the people severely affected probably aren't home yet.

 

Here is what took place.

 

On the Eclipse TA which ended Saturday in FLL, the actual first point of US entry was St. Thomas. We then went to Nassau, and ended in Florida.

 

All passengers (and crew) had to formally enter the US there.

 

We were given times to line up, starting at around 7 a.m. One set of lines for US and Canadian passengers, one set for all others.

 

The non-US/Canadians were all given green forms to fill out. Most did not, because the forms are now obsolete, since approximately June, and they figured that the forms were handed out in error.

 

The US/Canada line was painfully slow -- it took 45 minutes to an hour to get to the person who glanced at your passport and waived you on.

 

But this was nothing compared to the non US/Canada folks, who should have been able to have their documents scanned by the Immigration officers. However, after showing up late, and then demanding that their check-in tables be moved from their original (pre-approved) locations, the Customs/Immigrations officers revealed that they had brought no scanning equipment and all the non US/Canadians would have to have their documents (the green forms) dealt with manually.

 

It meant filling out the green form after all, and then waits of one to two hours to get through the line, for the 1600 British and all the rest of the non US/Canadian passengers.

 

Needless to say, there were lots of angry passengers, lots of people missed shore excursions (Celebrity shore excursions were held to allow for late passengers, but private excursions were all messed up). After about one hour the Captain announced that the ship would stay an extra hour in port to make up for the time missed, however, by then some passengers had already made their way ashore, so they never got that announcement and hurried back to the ship at the previously announced time.

 

The Captain made a "thank you for your patience but this was all beyond Celebrity's control, it was all Customs/Immigrations fault" which wasn't entirely accurate. There were many things that Celebrity could have done to make the lines move quicker, for instance, having someone walk down the line to make sure that passengers all brought both their passports and SeaPass cards, because astonishingly, some did not. Some passengers brought all the passports for their whole family, even though the instructions clearly stated that each person had to present themselves individually. Some had forgotten their SeaPass cards and held up the line with stupid comments like "I know my stateroom number, isn't that enough?" Some even tried arguing with the Customs/Immigration officials. Like that was going to work.

 

Later, the Captain announced that because we had all cleared, we would not have to go through Immigration in Florida again.

 

WRONG! A day later, a letter was sent to all staterooms, telling us that because we had left the US to go to Nassau, we WOULD have to go through the entire process again in Florida.

 

Many passengers felt like the Captain's declaration that we would not have to go through Customs/Immigration in Florida was a deliberate lie, said to keep people from going to Guest Relations and pitching fits. And they may have been right.

 

The overwhelming sentiment I heard was "well, we won't be coming back to the US after this treatment ever again."

 

I can only imagine what it will be like next year when Eclipse's first port of entry will be New York City.

 

Mercy!!!!! First you reported on the Millie fiasco on the Alaska cruise, now this on the Eclipse TA. Do I dare ask if you have another Celebrity cruise planned for the near future. If so, which one?

 

Thank you for reporting on this. I'll be careful and hope to avoid such treatment next fall.

 

Additionally, if the ship leaves a US port and goes to Nassau or St. Marten first, do passengers have to go through customs to visit the St. Thomas or San Juan ports?

 

-Marisa

Edited November 19, 2013 by USVI-4-me
Add ? re port order for Caribbean cruises

[cinnamon]

Interesting to read of your experience. We were in line from 7.20 having been sent the time of 7.30. We heard that people had become angry due to mismanagement of the queue system. Celebrity must take some responsibility for this. Using young dancers to try and control grumpy people rather than security staff or people who routinely have face to face experience of dealing with passengers.

[cle-guy]

HOW ABOUT THE GRUMPY PEOPLE NOT BE GRUMPY.

 

I bet if people just remained calm and patient, and realized all the bitching and moaning in the world wasn't gonna do anything, all would have been much less stressful. If they simply would have listened to the limited instructions and not just keep pushing and trying to not listen to the ships staff/dancers. But alas probably the same people who didn't read their instructions because they knew better how to run the customs process so they probably also decided they could better handle the lines and crowds so no need to listen to the staff.

 

And what kind of passengers are on a ship that makes people say security should have been there, not dancers. Really, security is that important? Why should you give any more courtesy to a security staff member than a member of any other department's staff on ship?

 

Since when have human beings become so dependent on hourly hydration? People now upset that after an hour no refreshments were given?!?! Egyptians live in the desert and spend 12 hours daily without food or water during Ramadan while carrying on with daily life.

 

sheesh. Rich people problems as my friends would say.

 

Why can't everyone just accept that immigration and lines are part of travel until we get star trek teleporters operational. If you get thru immigration in less than 2 hours, consider it a good day. I've been in hours long lines landing in the UK, and I didn't ask security to go fetch me a beverage while I waited. I listened to instructions for the airport ambassadors, even though they weren't official security staff.

 

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

[Mickb]

We arrived at this line at 07.45 as requested. At that time the line stretched from the Theatre all the way down the starboard side of the ship round the back of the lifts and back down the port side to the shops. We eventually got through at 10.30. In hindsight we should have gone on deck and come back later but were anxious to get ashore.

In the end, as neither of us is in the first flush of youth, - and there was nowhere to sit down

during the queuing process we gave up on St Thomas and stayed on the ship.

It was not a pleasant experience and certainly was not well handled by Celebrity.

 

13 cruises with HAL Cunard RSSC Celebrity NCL

[CaroleSS]

This past weekend I went to Wal-Mart and experienced the same thing while trying to check out.....lots of customers, few lanes open, slow cashiers, no barcodes on some items (price check aisle 4). :eek:

[Cruise Junky]

Epic scheduling error on Celebrity's part by putting in St. Thomas. Could have easily have been St. Martin and this wouldn't have been an issue.

[Desert Cruizers]

Coming off our TA on the LOS back in 2011, it was total chaos. We along with probably 200 or better had Post Cruise tours so we met in the Schooner Bar at 8 AM or other locations but our group never got called until 10:15. The lines were so huge, people in elevators couldn't get off because people were lined up in the hallways. We finally made it off the ship shortly after 11 and missed our tour. RCCL had to call in at least 3 more buses to take us all to the airport.

[CaroleSS]

I guess I don't understand the confusion here.

 

Haven't the cruise lines done this before? Don't they sorta/kinda do this with every disembarkation? How can they get it soooo wrong??? :confused:

[Desert Cruizers]

Carol in our case, it was the Customs in FT Laud that was causing the delays for people getting off. I think the lines were created because people had been called to get off but the lines didn't move thus the backup. We dragged our carry ons down 4 decks to go to our waiting area. Getting off was almost amusing, my DH was ahead of me but I got shoved back by others crowding in so ended up 4 or 5 people back and when he exited the ship, I got stopped at the door for 15 + min because the call came up to stop the line again.

[cinnamon]

HOW ABOUT THE GRUMPY PEOPLE NOT BE GRUMPY.

 

I bet if people just remained calm and patient, and realized all the bitching and moaning in the world wasn't gonna do anything, all would have been much less stressful. If they simply would have listened to the limited instructions and not just keep pushing and trying to not listen to the ships staff/dancers. But alas probably the same people who didn't read their instructions because they knew better how to run the customs process so they probably also decided they could better handle the lines and crowds so no need to listen to the staff.

 

And what kind of passengers are on a ship that makes people say security should have been there, not dancers. Really, security is that important? Why should you give any more courtesy to a security staff member than a member of any other department's staff on ship?

 

Since when have human beings become so dependent on hourly hydration? People now upset that after an hour no refreshments were given?!?! Egyptians live in the desert and spend 12 hours daily without food or water during Ramadan while carrying on with daily life.

 

sheesh. Rich people problems as my friends would say.

 

Why can't everyone just accept that immigration and lines are part of travel until we get star trek teleporters operational. If you get thru immigration in less than 2 hours, consider it a good day. I've been in hours long lines landing in the UK, and I didn't ask security to go fetch me a beverage while I waited. I listened to instructions for the airport ambassadors, even though they weren't official security staff.

 

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

 

Do not flame me. You were not there!

 

It was the dancer who told us she would have liked security with her.

 

The person who needed orange juice was diabetic and beginning to go into hypoglycemia (sp?). The staff did not help but told the husband to sort it himself.

[Fouremco]

This past weekend I went to Wal-Mart and experienced the same thing while trying to check out.....lots of customers, few lanes open, slow cashiers, no barcodes on some items (price check aisle 4). :eek:

You, of course, had the option of leaving directly rather than waiting in line, an option that the OP and other passengers would have dearly loved!

 

[cle-guy]

Sorry for the flame.

 

My overall point is, passengers just need to be patient, follow general common courtesy, follow instructions, especially as they relate to immigration matters, and wait in orderly lines. We shouldn't need an adult to show us how to make an orderly line. The dancer should have never felt so threatened that she had to ask for security. The person who witnessed the poor old man having to get orange juice for his wife, should have offered to go get it for him. That's just how I roll.

 

Even since my other post, another post about people pushing thru the lines just to get ahead by 5 people and then separating another party from each other.

[CaroleSS]

You, of course, had the option of leaving directly rather than waiting in line, an option that the OP and other passengers would have dearly loved!

 

 

it was supposed to be funny

[Fouremco]

[quote name='CaroleSS']it was supposed to be funny[/QUOTE]
[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][SIZE="4"]Sorry, looked like sarcasm!

[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

[quote name='kevinyork']We docked in New Orleans a couple of years back on a cruise. Immigration had four desk to clear 3000 passengers and 1400 crew. People had to get a numbered ticket and wait to be called to attend immigration. We were lucky and were off within an hour (but had to face the most miserable of officials). As we reboarded at 4.30, they were still calling passengers to attend immigration some 8 hours later. Very poor service from US Immigration which meant some never got to see New Orleans at all.

As a contrast we did a transatlantic this year on RCI. UK officials boarded in The Azores and over the next two sea days passengers could attend the conference suite when they wished to have their documents checked prior to our arrival in the UK (by a smartly dressed, smiling official). A Canadian friend commented that he had never had a more pleasant experience clearing immigration.[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Verdana"][SIZE="3"]We had the same experience this year on our British Isles cruise. It was very refreshing to meet with a personable customs/immigration agent. Our officials could take a lesson from these folks.

Yes, this stuff is all part of traveling. However, travelers who are aware of and therefore avoid pitfalls such as the one of having to clear customs/immigration twice will have fewer such unpleasant experiences. That's why this board is so useful.[/SIZE][/FONT] Edited November 19, 2013 by Happy Cruiser 6143

[CaroleSS]

The sad reality of our world now is that people have become quite narcissistic. the world revolves around me, me, me and no one cares about how others might be impacted....as long as it's not ME.

What ever happened to helping others? If we ALL (wherever we may be) would remember that there are lots of others in the same situation we are in (be it a line for disembarkation, waiting for a table, people pushing away someone waiting for an elevator, pushing in buffet lines, saving seats (theater or pool)....and the list goes on.) and we should be tolerant of those around us.....we'd all be happier people.

I've seen the 'me' attitude creep it's way into these threads and it truly makes me sad. The only thing that I've come to accept is that I cannot control the actions of others, but only the effect they have on me.

With the written word, sometimes inflection is missed. I do humbly apologize if I came off as rude. It was not intended as such, but simply as a levity and a frustration by those around us.

[Desert Cruizers]

cle-guy, my husband said he started to ask me something turned around and didn't see me then saw me on the ship, partly the reason I said amusing.:) Since we didn't see how the line was moving initially, they may have been calling groups regularly then after many were in the line, did it come to a screeching halt. I only know when we came down from our room with our bags around 7:30 or so, it was a mess.

Carol you raise a good point, we have seen it with driving, some are in so much of a hurry they race ahead, cut in front of others with no regard for anyone but themselves. I say to myself, there is nothing in this world that I need to race to, I will get there sooner or later.

[CaroleSS]

[quote name='Desert Cruizers']
Carol you raise a good point, we have seen it with driving, some are in so much of a hurry they race ahead, cut in front of others with no regard for anyone but themselves. I say to myself, there is nothing in this world that I need to race to, I will get there sooner or later.[/QUOTE]

I know what you mean....I pick a lane and stay in it, although I guess I must live in an area where there are a lot of transplant surgeons as they are in such a hurry to get to work! (Although I do sometimes grow horns and a tail in that when I pass them at a stop light, I wave just to say "hi"!! :D)

I work about a 25 minute drive from home. Sometimes I have to go in to work in the wee hours. It takes me about 20 minutes. Somehow I don't think those saved 5 minutes are worth killing someone (and maybe ME) over.

Life is short.....smell the roses along the way!

[Desert Cruizers]

The craziest one was earlier this week. I had entered the left hand turn lane to enter our side street and saw a semi pulling a wide load with a trailer coming from opposite direction. I was fine where I was however this lady decided to pass him, in the left hand turn heading right for me with me in it.:eek: Thank goodness I hadn't pulled all the way up to our side street which enabled her to make her illegal pass and get back in front of the truck without hitting me head on. Edited November 19, 2013 by Desert Cruizers

[pendlecruiser]

We queued for 3 hours on the Celebrity Eclipse to be scowled at by a surly Homeland Security clerk on the stage in the theatre. The queue had at least an hour to go when we left the theatre. Did anyone else notice the US Coastguard boats patrolling up and down beside the Eclipse, Royal Princess & Norwegian Epic with uncovered machine guns as if we were terrorist suspects? We then had to queue for an hour to hand over a customs form at Ft Lauderdale. At MIA there was a 400yd queue to get to the bottom of the escalator going up to security screening. We then ended up in a terminal that Leeds Bradford can beat for shops and facilities. At no point was any attempt made to match our details with the information we supplied with our ESTA application. Homeland Security? What a joke. Heathrow was a model of efficient thoroughness in comparison.

Not going back to the US any time soon. Looking at cruises in and out of Barbados and not touching US territory for our next caribbean trip.:mad:

[travelberlin]

[quote name='cruisestitch']I'm surprised no one has reported on this yet. But most of the people severely affected probably aren't home yet.

Here is what took place.

On the Eclipse TA which ended Saturday in FLL, the actual first point of US entry was St. Thomas. We then went to Nassau, and ended in Florida.

All passengers (and crew) had to formally enter the US there.

We were given times to line up, starting at around 7 a.m. One set of lines for US and Canadian passengers, one set for all others.

The non-US/Canadians were all given green forms to fill out. Most did not, because the forms are now obsolete, since approximately June, and they figured that the forms were handed out in error.

The US/Canada line was painfully slow -- it took 45 minutes to an hour to get to the person who glanced at your passport and waived you on.

But this was nothing compared to the non US/Canada folks, who should have been able to have their documents scanned by the Immigration officers. However, after showing up late, and then demanding that their check-in tables be moved from their original (pre-approved) locations, the Customs/Immigrations officers revealed that they had brought no scanning equipment and all the non US/Canadians would have to have their documents (the green forms) dealt with manually.

It meant filling out the green form after all, and then waits of one to two hours to get through the line, for the 1600 British and all the rest of the non US/Canadian passengers.

Needless to say, there were lots of angry passengers, lots of people missed shore excursions (Celebrity shore excursions were held to allow for late passengers, but private excursions were all messed up). After about one hour the Captain announced that the ship would stay an extra hour in port to make up for the time missed, however, by then some passengers had already made their way ashore, so they never got that announcement and hurried back to the ship at the previously announced time.

The Captain made a "thank you for your patience but this was all beyond Celebrity's control, it was all Customs/Immigrations fault" which wasn't entirely accurate. There were many things that Celebrity could have done to make the lines move quicker, for instance, having someone walk down the line to make sure that passengers all brought both their passports and SeaPass cards, because astonishingly, some did not. Some passengers brought all the passports for their whole family, even though the instructions clearly stated that each person had to present themselves individually. Some had forgotten their SeaPass cards and held up the line with stupid comments like "I know my stateroom number, isn't that enough?" Some even tried arguing with the Customs/Immigration officials. Like that was going to work.

Later, the Captain announced that because we had all cleared, we would not have to go through Immigration in Florida again.

WRONG! A day later, a letter was sent to all staterooms, telling us that because we had left the US to go to Nassau, we WOULD have to go through the entire process again in Florida.

Many passengers felt like the Captain's declaration that we would not have to go through Customs/Immigration in Florida was a deliberate lie, said to keep people from going to Guest Relations and pitching fits. And they may have been right.

The overwhelming sentiment I heard was "well, we won't be coming back to the US after this treatment ever again."

I can only imagine what it will be like next year when Eclipse's first port of entry will be New York City.[/QUOTE]
Almost exactly the same happened to us on our transatlantic with Liberty of the Seas. Only instead of St. Thomas the port was San Juan de Puerto Rico. Apparently it happens all the time.
The same happens if you go to Hawai, for some reason the ships have to touch an additional foreign port even if it is only a couple of hours ( in this case it was Ensenada) so you go through migration twice. Edited November 19, 2013 by travelberlin

[BEAV]

[quote name='c-legs']You wouldn't have to clear again in Canaveral as you enter USA in NewYork and are still in USA in Florida....( last time I checked...;))
Cheers[/QUOTE]

The itinerary lists a stop in Bermuda [I]between[/I] New York and Pt Canaveral, thus my assumption you'd have to clear U.S. Immigration again in Canaveral.


Date Port/City Activity Arrival Departure
Day 1 Southampton, England 4:30 PM
Day 2 At Sea
Day 3 At Sea
Day 4 At Sea
Day 5 At Sea
Day 6 At Sea
Day 7 At Sea
Day 8 New York, New York Docked 10:00 AM
Day 9 New York, New York Docked 6:00 PM
Day 10 At Sea
Day 11 Kings Wharf, Bermuda Docked 10:00 AM
Day 12 Kings Wharf, Bermuda Docked 12:30 PM
Day 13 At Sea
Day 14 Port Canaveral, Florida Docked 7:00 AM 7:30 PM
Day 15 Miami, Florida 7:00 AM

[BEAV]

[quote name='USVI-4-me']

Additionally, if the ship leaves a US port and goes to Nassau or St. Marten first, do passengers have to go through customs to visit the St. Thomas or San Juan ports?

-Marisa[/QUOTE]

We were on Oasis of the Seas earlier this year and stopped in Nassau between Ft Lauderdale and St Thomas. I was fully expecting to have to clear U.S. Immigration upon arrival in St Thomas, but for whatever reason we didn't. But I've had to do it under the same type of circumstances in years past.

We've done two West Coast cruises this year, both round trip from San Francisco. Once to Alaska/Canada and once to Southern California/Mexico (Ensenada). In both cases there was NEVER a U.S. Immigration check upon return to San Francisco or at any time during the cruises. On the other hand, we also did two Caribbean cruises, one from Miami the other from Ft Lauderdale and we had to go through the usual full immigration checks upon return to both ports. What is it about visiting Ensenada and Victoria that circumvents the Immigration checks altogether as opposed to calling at Cozumel or Nassau? :confused::rolleyes: