Vancouver embarkation is the pitts

[phillipahain]

3 solid hours stuck in a non moving queue was the plight of all Non  USA travellers wanting to board either RCL or Seabourn on 30th Sept 

 

Quite what game USA Immigration staff etc thought they were playing I have no idea ...the ancillary staff were unc

operative and rude .

 

USA and Canadians though were moving quite swiftly through the lines and able to use the machines yet despite machine readable passports , ESTA etc all those who were non USA or Canadian citizens were jammed together like cattle .

 

Absolutely Disgraceful 

Edited October 10, 2022 by phillipahain
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[Ferry_Watcher]

Sorry to hear this.  It's possible that the US Customs & Border Patrol officers were understaffed.  I know during the final weeks in Seattle for the Alaska sailings the CBP coverage was cut down causing delays for everyone getting off the ships in Seattle's Pier 91.

 

In 2019 I know that we had to pass thru an immigration check on a coastal when we docked in San Francisco, and the CBP officers basically waved thru US citizens, but while we may have started in Vancouver,  the rest of the cruise was in the US.  That cruise left Vancouver, but we did not go thru US customs/immigration in Vancouver (which surprised me, but there they were in San Francisco).

 

The other reason the CBP officers probably made it easier for US and Canadian citizens is that those two nationalities made up the majority of the passengers on the ship, .and taking into account our two countries shared a 2,000 mile undefended boarder, it is easy for them (CBP) to process a majority of these passport holders quickly and get them on the ship.  Agreed that it's not fun for everyone else, but the process could be seen as more efficient.

 

Sorry that the embarkation wasn't a better experience for you.  Hopefully the rest of the cruise goes better!

 

 

[phillipahain]

Understaffed or downright rudeness and discrimination is no excuse whatever ....just imagine that USA tourists were subjected to being jammed together for 3 hours at Heathrow ...no way will USA passengers put up with it 

 

San Fran and LA have also been known to treat cruise passengers extremely badly especially from outside USA ,,,all UK passports are internationally machine readable ...those machines were available in Vancouver but were denied to anyone not USA or Canadian 

[cruisingrob21]

We had an issue a few years back disembarking in Seattle after a 1 night cruise from Vancouver, where we had already gone through customs.    This was complicated by the fact we had sailed from Vancouver's old Ballentyne pier which had no US customs preclearance.  The agents in seattle demanded to see everyone's declaration and passport (which I expected), but they double screened everyone.  I overheard some porters outside talking about the slow rate of passengers leaving the port and one porter had heard a rumor that the agents were frustrated about the current agent union's negotiation with the USCBP at that time and may have been doing a "really thorough" job as a result.  This is not a comment on unions because some may interpret that (and I am a happy member of one), but certainly, this is a tactic whereby no one comes out ahead and I'm not sure if a "message" was sent by such a tactic.  The agents were professional with me the entire time and none of them ever mentioned anything about a collective bargaining dispute, they did a thorough vetting process for everyone, so it may have just been an unfounded rumor.

Edited October 16, 2022 by cruisingrob21

[MBP&O2/O]

Interesting thoughts. We have a Vancouver embark and the subject of American Immigration never entered my mind! Memo to self? Obtain an ESTA!

I have never had a problem with the 'professional' uniformed staff ... but the attitude of some civilian airport and port staff I found totally obnoxious, especially at MIA! I now refuse to fly there.

They give the impression that visiting Brits are 'tolerated' but not really wanted. IMHO of course.

 

[GTJ]

14 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

We had an issue a few years back disembarking in Seattle after a 1 night cruise from Vancouver, where we had already gone through customs.

Absent any recent change that escaped my attention, U.S. customs inspections are not carried out at the port in Vancouver. There is only one port in Canada that has full pre-clearance, that being the port of Prince Rupert (and then only at the Alaska Marine Highway terminal, not the cruise line terminal). The port at Vancouver offers pre-inspection, i.e., immigration only, not customs. Passengers are thereafter subject to customs inspection when alighting at U.S. ports. This makes sense, of course, because after having boarded an Alaska-bound vessel in Vancouver, and having sailed into international waters, passengers might purchase goods duty-free aboard the vessel, and then seek to import them into the United States. There is a tendency of many persons to confuse immigration and customs, sometimes merging the two procedures. While many times both activities are carried out at the same time, the two procedures serve distinct purposes.