Customs - Ft Lauderdale

[ED49404]

DW and I just got off the Princess Sky yesterday.  Doing a walk-off at 7am and had all our luggage and receipts ready to go through customs in case we had to declare any of our purchases.  To our surprise we came up to a bunch of people like we were disembarking at any port they scanned me and my photo popped up on a screen.  The customs officer stated my name and told be to continue out the door.  He never asked me if we had anything to declare, so we went out the door and continued to our private transportation.  Does anyone know when they started this with customs??? 

[Colo Cruiser]

4 minutes ago, ED49404 said:

DW and I just got off the Princess Sky yesterday.  Doing a walk-off at 7am and had all our luggage and receipts ready to go through customs in case we had to declare any of our purchases.  To our surprise we came up to a bunch of people like we were disembarking at any port they scanned me and my photo popped up on a screen.  The customs officer stated my name and told be to continue out the door.  He never asked me if we had anything to declare, so we went out the door and continued to our private transportation.  Does anyone know when they started this with customs??? 

What do you mean they scanned you?

Facial?

[MISTER 67]

1 minute ago, ED49404 said:

DW and I just got off the Princess Sky yesterday.  Doing a walk-off at 7am and had all our luggage and receipts ready to go through customs in case we had to declare any of our purchases.  To our surprise we came up to a bunch of people like we were disembarking at any port they scanned me and my photo popped up on a screen.  The customs officer stated my name and told be to continue out the door.  He never asked me if we had anything to declare, so we went out the door and continued to our private transportation.  Does anyone know when they started this with customs??? 

It's been going on for a few years and maybe more, first it started with no more customs forms to fill out and as the years pass on it seems like things get laxer and laxer. I'm a little concerned about security and it seems like they aren't worried about duty taxes at all. Oh well.

[Cruise Raider]

5 minutes ago, ED49404 said:

DW and I just got off the Princess Sky yesterday.  Doing a walk-off at 7am and had all our luggage and receipts ready to go through customs in case we had to declare any of our purchases.  To our surprise we came up to a bunch of people like we were disembarking at any port they scanned me and my photo popped up on a screen.  The customs officer stated my name and told be to continue out the door.  He never asked me if we had anything to declare, so we went out the door and continued to our private transportation.  Does anyone know when they started this with customs??? 

 

This seems to be the new process.  If you purchase some expensive jewelry in port, they take down your information.  They do the same if you purchase a high priced item on the ship.  They will stop you to pay duty if you are required to do so.  

[ED49404]

1 minute ago, Colo Cruiser said:

What do you mean they scanned you?

Facial?

All it was facial.  The same photo that was on my Ocean Medallion.  Princess must be giving them the information they want from our passports. 

[Colo Cruiser]

5 minutes ago, ED49404 said:

All it was facial.  The same photo that was on my Ocean Medallion.  Princess must be giving them the information they want from our passports. 

Not the passport photo?

Interesting.

I went through from the Sky last month and my passport photo showed up not my Medallion photo.

[ED49404]

8 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Not the passport photo?

Interesting.

I went through from the Sky last month and my passport photo showed up not my Medallion photo.

Just checked my passport photo.  My passport has me with no glasses, and my Medallion photo shows with my glasses on.  The photo at customs shows me and DW with our glasses on. 

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, ED49404 said:

Just checked my passport photo.  My passport has me with no glasses, and my Medallion photo shows with my glasses on.  The photo at customs shows me and DW with our glasses on. 

Thanks,

Like I said, interesting.

I realize that the ships system has our passport info entered however

I hope they are not using Medallion info versus an actual passport.

 

[CruiseVA]

That's super! When we went thru customs in December they weren't doing it.

[ED49404]

1 hour ago, Colo Cruiser said:

Thanks,

Like I said, interesting.

I realize that the ships system has our passport info entered however

I hope they are not using Medallion info versus an actual passport.

 

The only thing I can think of is that the Medallion photo is more current.  It sure is getting more lax.  It will be interesting to see what happen when we take our Mediterranean cruise in October. 

[kywildcatfanone]

Been that way for a while. 

[thinfool]

Why is it lax?

Stopping each pax, reading a declaration form, a little chit chat are labor intensive and add to the time it takes to process a ship.

Every passenger on every ship sailing out of Port Everglades is vetted while they are having a good time in the Caribbean.  CPB knows who you are, what you look like and whether you have bought your wife a huge diamond ring while on your trip.

They also have extensive records of what cruise passenger buy on a trip, what it is worth and whether there will be duty to pay.

A cost benefit analysis would reveal what risk there is to missing a duty payment by a passenger who might slip through.  If you owe $10. duty on an item but it costs CBP $25.00 to process you through their system and collect the $10....well...you can see the problem.

My take is that someone did the math and made the changes.

Not lax...fiscally responsible.
 

 

 

[CruiseVA]

1 hour ago, kywildcatfanone said:

Been that way for a while. 

Wasn't that way when we got off the Sky in December...

[satxdiver]

It was similar on returning in November 2018 when leaving the CB.  No questions about our luggage or checks.  We found the same experience when returning to San Pedro (LA) this past fall.  

[caribill]

4 hours ago, thinfool said:

They also have extensive records of what cruise passenger buy on a trip, what it is worth and whether there will be duty to pay.

 

 

They may be able to know what you purchased on the ship, but they do not know what you purchased on shore.

[Steelers36]

Last time we came through PE after disembarking, the CBP officer wanted to know how the wine I chose was with the CG steak I had.

[Steelers36]

@Colo Cruiser.  First time seeing the new avatar you have.  👍

[casofilia]

I bet this only applies to US & Canadian passport holders.   I took 3 hours to get off and my wife 3.5 hours when we arrived in Fort Lauderdale from Barcelona for a B2B early in December.

[dog]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

 

They may be able to know what you purchased on the ship, but they do not know what you purchased on shore.

Yes, how do they know what I purchased in Antigua?

[Daniel A]

Very interesting about which photo was displayed.  I wonder if OP also has Global Entry and it was that photo which was displayed.  Passports now contain a rfid chip that would have brought up information on a screen and I believe it will link to Global Entry ID.  The Global Entry photo is different from the passport photo.  I would hope that CBP would not rely on a PAX submitted photo (We enter our own photo into Ocean Ready) on the Medallion as proof of who you are.  But who knows, stranger things have happened. 

[5:00_Somewhere]

Very interesting. We did not experience this when disembarking the Sky in December, even though we have Global Entry.  

 

But, when we flew to Germany last October, we had a similar experience when we boarded our Lufthansa flight at BOS: we looked into a camera-like facial recognition device (were were told) and passed through without the need to show either our boarding pass or passport.  The future is coming. 😁

[SueMo]

The cruise ships are required to inform US Customs of passengers who have made purchases onboard that exceed the limit.  When you swipe your card upon debarkation, you will be informed that you were randomly "tagged" to go fill out a customs card and meet with an agent.  (This, of course, is a lie.  There is nothing random about it.  They already know you made the purchase.)  So you better be honest and fill out the card denoting your purchase.  They then take you to an agent who asks for the receipt and calculates the duty owed.  Duty must be paid in cash or check, no credit cards.  My son experienced this yesterday in Port Everglades.  The customs agent had a hard time doing the math calculation to figure out what was owed (3% of $1400) and didn't have change (my son gave him $60 to pay a $42 duty and the guy had to go onboard the ship to get change) all while the line behind him grew longer and longer...

[dog]

2 hours ago, SueMo said:

The cruise ships are required to inform US Customs of passengers who have made purchases onboard that exceed the limit.  When you swipe your card upon debarkation, you will be informed that you were randomly "tagged" to go fill out a customs card and meet with an agent.  (This, of course, is a lie.  There is nothing random about it.  They already know you made the purchase.)  So you better be honest and fill out the card denoting your purchase.  They then take you to an agent who asks for the receipt and calculates the duty owed.  Duty must be paid in cash or check, no credit cards.  My son experienced this yesterday in Port Everglades.  The customs agent had a hard time doing the math calculation to figure out what was owed (3% of $1400) and didn't have change (my son gave him $60 to pay a $42 duty and the guy had to go onboard the ship to get change) all while the line behind him grew longer and longer...

Do stores at ports do the same?

[Cruise Raider]

5 hours ago, dog said:

Do stores at ports do the same?

When we bought expensive jewelry in port, yes, they take down all of your info, including your ship, and then submit it ... where??  Not sure but think it is probably provided to customs.  

[polmcs]

I bought my wife a pearl necklace our our Tahitian cruise many moons ago. It significantly exceeded our customs allowance. Upon arrival back in the US (Honolulu as were were on a PPT-HNL-PHX itinerary -now that is as good a place as any to have a 10-12hr layover) I went to the “goods to declare” office. The officer took one look at the necklace, another at the receipt and simply waived us through!  The fact that it was around 6AM in the morning and he looked like he just wanted to go back to sleep probably worked in our favor. 😉