Miami debarkation

[Dred pilot Roberts]

Hi all

 

for the Miami debarkation process does MSC have a biometric system like Royal Carribean does with customs?  Royals new system eliminated any wait times and is really great.  If not does the yacht club have a separate line for customs clearance?

 

thanks,

 

DPR

[alyssamma]

Yes it does have the facial recognition...very easy and quick.

 

And let me also say...no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley

[Dred pilot Roberts]

Thanks for the reply.

 

of coarse they would if he had a glass of  culligan 😉

 

DPR

[Até]

Disembarked Meraviglia at POM terminal F in November and I asked C&B agents about the facial recognition system and was told MSC was not paying for that feature.  Other POM terminals do have it.  Once off the ship YC joins the regular customs lines.

Edited January 19, 2020 by Até

[alyssamma]

Interesting...we did the Seaside in April and they had it. It was for all passengers, not just YC. We walked straight through...no lines, very easy.

[rikitikitavii]

1 hour ago, Até said:

Disembarked Meraviglia at POM terminal F in November and I asked C&B agents about the facial recognition system and was told MSC was not paying for that feature.  Other POM terminals do have it.  Once off the ship YC joins the regular customs lines.

December 14th on Seaside, did not have it.

[grandgeezer]

We got off the Seaside, in Miami, the middle of October, and they had facial recognition. 

[alyssamma]

It seems, like with all other things MSC, YMMV 🙂 

[capriccio]

1 hour ago, Até said:

Disembarked Meraviglia at POM terminal F in November and I asked C&B agents about the facial recognition system and was told MSC was not paying for that feature.  Other POM terminals do have it.  Once off the ship YC joins the regular customs lines.

 

This was our exact experience last Sunday.  And while there was signage for Global Entry we were told the lane wasn't open.

 

Added:  Disembarkation was stopped at least once (before we disembarked around 9:15) with the explanation that CBP insisted no one else exit the ship until the lines cleared up.  It was about a 15 minute delay before they resumed disembarkation.

Edited January 19, 2020 by capriccio

[dexddd]

We went twice last year on Seaside and had facial recognition.

[Todd320]

Did have facial in Nov but didn't have facial in Dec or three days ago. All off the Seaside.

 

YC baggage pick up is in a different location.  Don't get sucked into the baggage pickup hall with everybody else.  Use the YC bypass, may have to show card.  If it is busy this will save you 30 minutes. You still have to go through normal customs after you pick up your bags but the YC bypass lets you skip the majority of the wait line.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Todd320

[capriccio]

4 hours ago, Todd320 said:

 

YC baggage pick up is in a different location.  Don't get sucked into the baggage pickup hall with everybody else.  Use the YC bypass, may have to show card.  If it is busy this will save you 30 minutes. You still have to go through normal customs after you pick up your bags but the YC bypass lets you skip the majority of the wait line.

 

There was no "YC bypass" when we disembarked the Meraviglia on the 20th.  The butler escorting our group left us as we entered the terminal building with instructions to go down the escalator (about a 10 minute line) and then go to the YC luggage room.  We entered the large holding luggage holding area and told the attendant that we were looking for 'gold' (YC luggage color code) and she told us to proceed to the next room (the last room before the CBP checkpoint.  We found our luggage and got back in line and were out on the sidewalk about 7 minutes later.

Edited January 20, 2020 by capriccio

[grandgeezer]

45 minutes ago, capriccio said:

 

There was no "YC bypass" when we disembarked the Meraviglia on the 20th.  The butler escorting our group left us as we entered the terminal building with instructions to go down the escalator (about a 10 minute line) and then go to the YC luggage room.  We entered the large holding luggage holding area and told the attendant that we were looking for 'gold' (YC luggage color code) and she told us to proceed to the next room (the last room before the CBP checkpoint.  We found our luggage and got back in line and were out on the sidewalk about 7 minutes later.

That's excatly the way it worked when we got off the Seaside last October.

[capriccio]

56 minutes ago, capriccio said:

 

There was no "YC bypass" when we disembarked the Meraviglia on the 12th (the 20th in the original post was a typo). 

 

[Todd320]

You all found the YC bypass.  When you come down the escalator the crowd turns right to the luggage hall.  If you followed those people and if it was busy it would take another 30min. I have talked to YC people who have made that mistake.  All the YC bypass is, is that you have to tell them your YC and then they will let you take a direct route to pick up your luggage.