Bliss problem getting off the ship in San Francisco

[wildescapade]

On October 3rd, we docked in San Francisco. I was one of the lucky ones, it only took me 1 hour to clear immigration. I was told while still on the ship, that we would not be able to reboard until everyone had gotten off the ship and cleared immigration. About 3 hours later I tried to get back on the ship, I was told that I would have to wait as the ship was not cleared yet????? I made the best of it and went back into the city to have lunch. But, while I was standing there I was told by an older woman that NCL never gave the passenger manifest to the immigration authorities in San Francisco. Which sort of makes more sense than blaming immigration for the problem. Now, normally I wouldn't really pay too much attention to what other people have to say. Except, when I told this older woman that one of her travelling companions could not reboard, because the ship was not cleared. She said, "my friend is 80 years old and she just waited in line for over 3 hours and NCL staff are escorting her back on because she is having a lot of back pain from standing in line so long. And she got back on. It was a complete mess and handled rather badly by NCL. I was with 2 other couples, took them 3 hours and 20 minutes to get off the ship so they were not able to do much in port.

[chengkp75]

I would not hold too much with what another passenger says about the reason for slow clearance of the ship. If the ship did not submit the passenger/crew manifests as part of the ENOA (Electronic Notice of Arrival), 24 hours prior to arrival at the port, the USCG will order the ship to remain outside 12 miles (outside US waters) until the ENOA is filed. My guess is that there were just not enough CBP agents scheduled for that day to expeditiously handle clearing the ship.

[wildescapade]

The line was moving rather quickly when we got into the terminal. Upstairs on the ship, they had only two NCL employees swiping cards to let people off. While we were in line 4 customs officials boarded the ship. I never saw them again so that raised some eyebrows. I saw at least 8 downstairs clearing people through. I did read on one of the live blogs that 2 people were supposedly hiding?? But then the other 4000 or so people would have cleared quickly so that doesn't make sense either. I suppose we will never know

[bluesea777]

This really puzzles me.

 

The ship departed from Vancouver, and surely they have US Pre-Clearance at the terminal! Maybe the fact that they stopped at Victoria, still in Canada, before the US that might have nullified the Vancouver's US Pre-Clearance.

 

I still think it's crazy.

 

Now we've decided to take the northern Pacific Coastal rather than the southern in 2019.

[SMITTY6719]

My wife and I were on that cruise. We chose not to go into San Francisco because we wanted to just enjoy the ship. We got off with the idea of going through customs getting coffee and getting back on. That ended up being a 5 hour cup of coffee. Never saw anything like the mess in SFO. We missed spa appointments and a half a day of just exploring the ship. We also wasted money on a Vibe pass since we could not get back on and enjoy it. Not the best day of the trip but it was still a great vacation .:)

[Baseball fan]

I too was on that cruise. I wasn’t off the ship until close to 1pm and I wasn’t the last. I thought one of the biggest problems was calling people/floors to disembark only to wait in a line on the ship for an hour. That had nothing to do with customs (that was all on NCL). Why they didn’t have people disembark in smaller groups (like the end of a cruise)? There had to be a better way.

 

I did stop and talk to the supervisor for US customs. They did admit there was a delay in getting the manifest so there were some things that customs had to do manually versus transmitted electronically. I voiced my concern as it messed up a lot of people’s plans (including mine), but also took a lot of money from the city’s economy.

 

And I agree, once you got off the ship, things moved pretty quickly.

 

 

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[dexddd]

NikkiW was doing live review over on MSC boards and was on that sailing. She mentioned it took them 4 hours to clear. She is from Europe if that had any bearing.

[jvsnana]

My wife and I were on that cruise. We chose not to go into San Francisco because we wanted to just enjoy the ship. We got off with the idea of going through customs getting coffee and getting back on. That ended up being a 5 hour cup of coffee. Never saw anything like the mess in SFO. We missed spa appointments and a half a day of just exploring the ship. We also wasted money on a Vibe pass since we could not get back on and enjoy it. Not the best day of the trip but it was still a great vacation .:)

We, too were on that cruise and we, too like you, opted not to get off in San Francisco. We were having breakfast when Silas came over the intercom and announced the first group, which we were in. We were going to do the same as you, get off and get right back on, however at the end of Silas' first call announcement, he stated that if you were not going to visit SF it would be better to wait until last call as you would not be able to come back onboard until ALL the passengers cleared customs.

 

I did not hear this part, but luckily my DH did. So when we finished breakfast, just be sure he heard correctly, we went down and asked a staff member if what he heard was correct. He confirmed it was so and said he expected last call to be around noon. We heard the last call at 1pm and went down to get in line. There were about 25 other people behind us. The line went quick and there were 8 customs personnel getting everyone through.

 

When we cleared customs, we went out the door, got on the escalator and waited in the large waiting room for about 20 minutes before they cleared the ship and started letting everyone back on.

 

I know we would have been in the same situation as others had my husband not heard the announcement made by Silas. I admit we did not thoroughly read the customs information paper that was sent to the cabin...I just saw we were first call and stopped reading. I am not sure if it was even printed about not being able to reboard until ALL were cleared.

 

I feel bad for those who had to endure the wait and inconvenience. I heard some folks did not take money and medications off...just their passport and key card as was announced to take.

 

Overall though a great cruise on a beautiful ship!

[Budget Queen]

You are NOT going to know any details and your assumptions are not facts. Actually it was pretty amazing that they were able to process over 5000 people in that time You weren’t on a private yacht and every one didn’t have a private agent.

[rtkenmore]

San Fran wasn’t the final destination was it? Why did everyone have to clear customs? I thought that cruise ended in LA?

 

 

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[martincath]

...Maybe the fact that they stopped at Victoria, still in Canada, before the US that might have nullified the Vancouver's US Pre-Clearance.

Good guess - but not nullified, unlawful so not done. The law that allows for Preclearance to be done on Canadian soil has the prerequisite that the vehicle, whether train, plane, or ship, leaves DIRECTLY for the USA with no other stops en route. We've done these coastal trips on much smaller vessels, suffered from exactly the same situation. The trade off for avoiding preclearance in Vancouver - which can be a bear - is the even WORSE delay at minor US cruise ports like Astoria or SF where the staff have even less experience than Seattle/Vancouver handling volumes of cruise pax. At least LA has year-round cruising to Mexico and lots of space, so they can if they choose throw staff at the problem and get things done faster.

 

I actually warned folks over the Bliss roll call not to book any morning excursions in SF and to expect possibly worse than 3 hour delays based on how long it took to clear Golden Princess (three hour queues for the later pax off that, and it sailed with maybe 60% of the passenger load of Bliss!)

 

Unless they start putting a couple CBP agents on board in Victoria and having them process folks en route during the sea days, there will always be huge delays any time a vessel does Vancouver/Victoria/San Francisco on the way down the coast (I believe that some of the East coast Canada/US cruises do this, boarding CBP to travel for a day or two and process folks onboard).

[EMBFlyer]

San Fran wasn’t the final destination was it? Why did everyone have to clear customs? I thought that cruise ended in LA?

 

 

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They weren't clearing Customs. They were cleaning Immigration. US law requires that you clear immigration on the first US Port of Entry, which in this case was SFO.

 

I've had to clear Immigration in St. Thomas on a Southern Caribbean cruise when it was the last port of call before San Juan.

[ceilidh1]

I was on this cruise and, yes, it was a hassle. I, too, warned folks on our rollcall to expect long lines and delays - had we needed to pre-clear in Vancouver with the other two ships in port the waits would have been exactly the same. You move at the speed of the US CBP officers - the cruise line has no power and no control over this. As someone pointed out, it is a requirement that passenger manifests are submitted, not only 24 hours out but also 72 hours out (I can state this with 100% certainty as I worked shoreside at Canada Place for many years and this was one aspect of my job). The reason that the line on the ship moved more slowly than the line in the terminal is because NCL is only permitted by US CBP to allow a certain number of passengers off at a time - this is to avoid congestion in the terminal area (considered a security risk) and to prevent lines/crowds on the gangway area (considered a safety risk). This is why you would have seen the line end just outside the entrance to the terminal and then begin at the card scanners on the ship.

 

 

We originally were not planning on getting off in San Francisco and did see it noted on the paperwork in our room that we should get off with the last group if we were not planning on going ashore. In the morning we changed our minds - we were fortunate to be in the first group called and it only took us an hour (not pleasant, but way less than I expected given the size of this ship). I also heard on the announcements that anyone not in a rush or not planning to go ashore should wait until the last group. When we got into line, Jose was also telling passengers this same information.

 

 

This is the first time I've sailed NCL and I don't think they handled it badly at all. I think they did what they were told to do by US CBP. I have had to do this process with other lines - they have had similar waiting times on ships a fraction of the size of Bliss.

[ceilidh1]

One last thing to point out - anyone considering doing this cruise next September will need to pre-clear in Vancouver for the first port, which is Seattle. Since Bliss then sails to Victoria she will also have to re-clear in San Francisco! Imagine that - double whammy!

 

 

I am willing to bet that the itinerary changes before September 2019 and Victoria will be scheduled before Seattle......

[YVRBassElectric]

Thanks for the heads up about the Sept 2019 sailing, I had been considering it, do not want to deal with 2 CBP inspections on the same sailing!

[ceilidh1]

Thanks for the heads up about the Sept 2019 sailing, I had been considering it, do not want to deal with 2 CBP inspections on the same sailing!

 

Just keep checking the itinerary - I would be surprised if they would put passengers through that on a short sailing. I'm thinking it may change or, better yet, they may have some kind of pre-clearance going in Victoria by that time???

[martincath]

Just keep checking the itinerary - I would be surprised if they would put passengers through that on a short sailing. I'm thinking it may change or, better yet, they may have some kind of pre-clearance going in Victoria by that time???

Best guess is that this will actually be treated like Victoria currently is on all the Seattle RT cruises. Just a port day, not a terminus, so there will likely be the same laissez faire approach by CBSA of only interacting with folks who are 'flagged' while the rest don't need interviews - or even less, since everyone aboard has already done the Canadian immigration thing to get to Vancouver just a couple of days before. Then when you arrive in the USA again the same deal as Seattle on current coastals/AK cruises, with a rather minimalist 'show your customs card but no immigration questions' - and I believe even the cards have now been phased out for cruises.

 

As long as the passenger manifest does not change, there's really no risk from an Immigration perspective - everyone was literally just checked out a couple of days before and has not been anywhere but the ship/USA/Victoria since, so it's really no different than doing a short cruise from the US with a stop in Victoria. The odds of anyone doing something that changes them from 'admissible to the USA' into 'not admissible' in that timeframe is low - and even if they DID commit some crime, unless they were actually caught & charged (in which case odds are good they miss the ship because they are in a holding cell!) nothing would show up on their file to make them inadmissible!

 

Folks might have bought a bunch of shiny things in Victoria, so some sort of Customs check is certainly on the table. Since NAFTA did get renewed though, duties on all Canadian goods remain 0% even over the duty free limit - so I could totally see CBP skipping the manpower costs required to check all aboard for customs purposes when they are unlikely to make much for government coffers. Immigration is of course a security issue, but Customs has and always will be about making money;-)

 

Of course applying common sense and rationality to cruiseline policies or CBP policies, let alone both, means a very large margin of error;-) Much like the whole 'what time (do we actually have to board/will we leave) and can we come and go while docked in Vancouver?' debacle from this year's Bliss trip, until it actually happens there's no way to be sure!

[PATRLR]

This thread is a very interesting read, I hadn't been aware of these immigration delays when stopping at a US port after a foreign port.

 

What is not clear to me is, do I have to get off the ship? It seems to me that everyone would need to go through immigration, but do they?

Edited October 8, 2018 by PATRLR

[Casino Comp Chick]

Wow that stinks

[YVRBassElectric]

The difference in round trip Seattle, is disembarkation happens right after the foreign port, so yes everyone is going through full customs and immigration in Seattle (after Victoria). The ship is proving it is empty to CBP before next cruise.

 

FYI for Canadians, We had to go through Customs check in Victoria, so don't buy anything on board after you fill out the Canadian customs form - we had to explain ourselves to a VERY intimidating Canadian Border Guard

[YVRBassElectric]

This thread is a very interesting read, I hadn't been aware of these immigration delays when stopping at a US port after a foreign port.

 

What is not clear to me is, do I have to get off the ship? It seems to me that everyone would need to go through immigration, but do they?

 

yes everyone had to get off the ship. Including crew, from my understanding on other sailings

 

In 2015, we did a Panama cruise - Miami to LA to Vancouver, 800 passengers did the 21 day cruise, 1400 did the 15 day. We did a shore excursion, so we were away from the Port while it was clearing immigration, I didn't want to deal with the chaos. The passengers who thought they would have a relaxing ship day, spent more than 2 hours waiting in the port. Can't imagine how long it would have taken with 4000+ passengers (we were on the Pearl)

[PATRLR]

yes everyone had to get off the ship. Including crew, from my understanding on other sailings

 

In 2015, we did a Panama cruise - Miami to LA to Vancouver, 800 passengers did the 21 day cruise, 1400 did the 15 day. We did a shore excursion, so we were away from the Port while it was clearing immigration, I didn't want to deal with the chaos. The passengers who thought they would have a relaxing ship day, spent more than 2 hours waiting in the port. Can't imagine how long it would have taken with 4000+ passengers (we were on the Pearl)

That's good to know. I would view a port stop at most US ports as a "relaxing" day on the ship. Now I need to pay attention and determine if it's stop that would require clearing customs/immigration.