New improved back to back procedure in Boston

[cruisestitch]

New improved back to back procedure in Boston—- I hope it’s implemented in other US locations.  Back to back passengers did not have to get off the ship. We saw the immigration officer in the rendezvous lounge then waited in the rendezvous lounge for the ship to “zero” and then we were released.  So much better!

 

 

[Barwick Cruiser]

We actually did that years ago on the Summit in San Juan. Waited in Sky Lounge for the zero update and then were  free to roam the ship. I originally thought your post was going to speak to the testing for B2Bs. 🤷‍♀️

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

New improved back to back procedure in Boston—- I hope it’s implemented in other US locations.  Back to back passengers did not have to get off the ship. We saw the immigration officer in the rendezvous lounge then waited in the rendezvous lounge for the ship to “zero” and then we were released.  So much better!

 

 

 

Really not new.  That has always been the process in Boston for at least the past 4 years.    They use a similar procedure in San Diego and a number of other ports where Immigration for the complete ship is done aboard the ship.  It is more of a CBC decision and facilities at the port.

 

On our Canadian Summit we had cleared immigration in Portland  (first U.S. Port) so turn around was really easy as no immigration involved in Boston for all passengers.

 

I agree with you it was a much easier process.  

[Arizona Wildcat]

As Jim said this is the norm in Boston for several years.  You hold up.your passport if from the US and pretty much walk off.

[cruisestitch]

We were told that today’s procedure was “streamlined”.  I haven’t been able to find out any details and I haven’t sailed out of Boston for a while so I have nothing recent to compare it to.  The staff said this is “better” and so will investigate in what way it is better.

[Jim_Iain]

32 minutes ago, cruisestitch said:

We were told that today’s procedure was “streamlined”.  I haven’t been able to find out any details and I haven’t sailed out of Boston for a while so I have nothing recent to compare it to.  The staff said this is “better” and so will investigate in what way it is better.

 

We did a B2B in Boston at the end of August returning from Greenland.    It was as @Arizona Wildcat described.    The only difference from her description was that the 4 of us in Retreat Class they had us meet in Retreat instead of Sky Lounge  and after all of the other B2B's had been processed they brought us up and we flashed our Passports and then they tapped us off an tapped us on.  

 

Our key didn't work to be tapped back on so the Retreat Host had to run downstairs and make a new card taking about 5 minutes. 

[AlbertaCruisers]

It was always hit and miss on the Summit from San Juan before the pandemic. Sometimes we had to walk off and sometimes it was in the sky lounge. We were told one time it depended on the customs guys and what they wanted. 

[1025cruise]

There really isn't much space in Boston to handle immigration. When I cruised on NCL this summer to Bermuda, we stopped at Bar Harbor, mainly I think to go through immigration there.

[colliercruiser]

We experienced an even "easier" B2B process on the same sailing... didn't even leave our suite!!

 

The catch is that we were still in our COVID isolation and were able to continue on for our Oct 15 sailing.  (Bermuda gave the ok.)  The documentation officer collected our passports and that was it.  Not the way we planned it, but so far it's working ok well.