Customs check on Pacific Coastal after Mexico visit?

[phoenix_dream]

Hope this stays on the Celebrity pages for awhile as the ports of call section gets little visits.

 

Our cruise itinerary has changed to eliminate Monterey, and now includes a San Francisco stop right after Ensenada.  I remember years ago in a similar situation we had to do a customs check upon arrival.  At the time customs officers came onboard and we had to all go through Customs officially, showing passports and so on.  It took quite awhile.

 

Has anyone had to do that recently?  And in particular, has anyone experienced it in San Francisco?  If so, what was the process?  TIA

[cruisestitch]

Have there been any California coastal itineraries since the change eliminating Monterey has been made?

Edited March 13, 2023 by cruisestitch

[Rtowncruiser]

34 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Hope this stays on the Celebrity pages for awhile as the ports of call section gets little visits.

 

Our cruise itinerary has changed to eliminate Monterey, and now includes a San Francisco stop right after Ensenada.  I remember years ago in a similar situation we had to do a customs check upon arrival.  At the time customs officers came onboard and we had to all go through Customs officially, showing passports and so on.  It took quite awhile.

 

Has anyone had to do that recently?  And in particular, has anyone experienced it in San Francisco?  If so, what was the process?  TIA

We have done annual Coastal Cruises many times and have never encountered what you described. But most were repositioning cruises.

Just got off Solstice last week and easiest embarkation/debarkation ever. However, debarkation as of now for March 25th will be on the outer pier which will require a shuttle (provided) back to main pier for those who drove.

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by Rtowncruiser

[xfer]

I'm curious about this too. We were on a Norwegian sailing that stopped at Norfolk coming back from the Bahamas. They made us exit the ship, walk a short loop on the pier and then get back on the ship. The customs officers were in the theater and there were long lines as we walked this odd loop through the theater, off the ship and then back on. But it didn't take that long, since the line kept moving.

 

It was very fast getting off the ship once we were back in New York. Since a lot of passengers hand carry their luggage in New York, it probably saved us time overall. 

[MarEll1]

Not the exact answer you’re looking for, but we disembarked  Solstice 3/4 in San Pedro. After Cabo, the next stop was San Diego. All passengers whether they had an excursion or not had to get off the ship with passport and go thru customs. It was very quick and easy with facial recognition. Customs official never even looked at our passports. And he was so much friendlier than any of the customs officials in FLL!

[hrhdhd]

If you have a check, it'll be immigration, not customs.

[MarEll1]

3 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

If you have a check, it'll be immigration, not customs.

I may be misstating it in my post above - immigration or customs I’m not sure but nevertheless the process was easy and then we didn’t have to do anything in San Pedro but collect our luggage.

[abbydancer2003]

Our February cruise had San Diego after Mexico before going back to LA, and yes, we had to do immigration there.

 

And if you cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, or down the California coast, you will do immigration in Vancouver.

 

We once did an Alaska cruise round trip LA.  Our first stop was Vancouver.  We had to do immigration before reboarding and if you didn't want to go ashore you still had to get off the ship. 

 

You have to do some sort of immigration on your first entry to the US.

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

What is the itinerary of your ship.  On a Pacific Coastal on Celebrity there are no checks at intermediate ports.  Only after you visited Mexico and ended your cruise in San Pedro.  If going north you would have a check in Canada if your cruise ends there.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Arizona Wildcat

[phoenix_dream]

Thanks for all the responses.  I should have said immigration I guess. Anyway,  we sail out of LA, and hit San Diego,  then Ensenada,  then San Francisco before sailing south to Santa Barbara.   Sounds like there will be some kind of immigration process in San Francisco. 

[Fly and Sail]

1 hour ago, abbydancer said:

 

 

And if you cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, or down the California coast, you will do immigration in Vancouver.

 

 

 

Not necessarily. The Pacific Coastal's down to California are often the last cruise before the Port of Vancouver shuts down for the season. Often times U.S. customs has already closed the Pre-Clearance facility, and in that case, customs takes place in San Francisco (or another port with the capability). Happened twice to us in the past.

[Jim_Iain]

If you are on the April 22 Solstice -  the last port will be Ensanada as a foreign port is required.    When you return to San Pedro you will go through a Electronic Immigration  when departing the ship.   Just walk up to a line and you will see a check mark and your cleared.  

Customs is like in Europe Red Lane Green Lane.

[hobo1937]

It's not just Celebrity passengers that are having this issue. We are on the Discovery Princess 4/8 Coastal out of San Pedro. Monterey was cancelled and substituted with Santa Barbara. But then they also reversed the last two stops so now we go to Ensenada, then San Diego before coming back to San Pedro. So we will also have to do immigration in San Diego and I am sure you will in SF. The port of SF does have facial recognition so that may help. 

[phoenix_dream]

1 hour ago, Jim_Iain said:

If you are on the April 22 Solstice -  the last port will be Ensanada as a foreign port is required.    When you return to San Pedro you will go through a Electronic Immigration  when departing the ship.   Just walk up to a line and you will see a check mark and your cleared.  

Customs is like in Europe Red Lane Green Lane.

No, I am on the 3/25 sailing out of LA.  We do San Diego, then Ensenada, then San Francisco before heading south back towards LA.  So I think we will end up going through immigration in San Francisco.  

[BEAV]

1 hour ago, phoenix_dream said:

No, I am on the 3/25 sailing out of LA.  We do San Diego, then Ensenada, then San Francisco before heading south back towards LA.  So I think we will end up going through immigration in San Francisco.  

 

You're correct, since SF is your first port of entry in the US after Ensenada. It's unfortunate, and hopefully SF will be staffed to make the procedure quick and painless. The "prize" will be no immigration upon arrival back in San Pedro!

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

4 hours ago, Fly and Sail said:

 

Not necessarily. The Pacific Coastal's down to California are often the last cruise before the Port of Vancouver shuts down for the season. Often times U.S. customs has already closed the Pre-Clearance facility, and in that case, customs takes place in San Francisco (or another port with the capability). Happened twice to us in the past.

Well, I should have said usually.

 

We actually had one cruise that was a Princess ship coming out of drydock in Victoria in December.  It was a straight 3 day cruise from Vancouver to LA.  We circumvented the customs area in Vancouver, and did it in LA.  

[phoenix_dream]

17 hours ago, BEAV said:

 

You're correct, since SF is your first port of entry in the US after Ensenada. It's unfortunate, and hopefully SF will be staffed to make the procedure quick and painless. The "prize" will be no immigration upon arrival back in San Pedro!

 

 

yes, we have an early flight out of LAX so not having to go through it again is a plus (although honestly it went pretty quickly we sailed in December out of San Pedro).

[zorb22]

On 3/13/2023 at 4:46 PM, phoenix_dream said:

No, I am on the 3/25 sailing out of LA.  We do San Diego, then Ensenada, then San Francisco before heading south back towards LA.  So I think we will end up going through immigration in San Francisco.  

What was your experience with this?

[Fly and Sail]

Any idea how this will work for the Panama Canal sailing that'll arrive in San Pedro (LA) next Saturday? Since we left from a U.S. port I wonder if it will be just electronic gates like FLL or immigration with the full shabang as in SF on our Pacific Coastal a few years back.

[abbydancer2003]

If LA is your first port after the foreign ports you might get electronic and facial recognition.    If you stop in San Diego you’ll do customs there.  It wasn’t electronic in February 

[phoenix_dream]

3 hours ago, zorb22 said:

What was your experience with this?

Truthfully it was a little bit ridiculous.  We had done this before in a different city and it was quick and easy.  In San Francisco we had to exit the ship, go around and around on a long walk through the customs area, and then a long walk back and to add insult to injury (ok, that's exaggerating a little) we even had to go through security screening again!  Why I don't know.  Was it the end of the world?  Of course not.  But way more complicated than it needed to be?  In my opinion yes.  We were in a suite so we had an early time assigned.  Not sure how long it took to clear the whole ship.  We were given a star sticker on our seapass card and once you had that you were able to disembark.

[zorb22]

13 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

Truthfully it was a little bit ridiculous.  We had done this before in a different city and it was quick and easy.  In San Francisco we had to exit the ship, go around and around on a long walk through the customs area, and then a long walk back and to add insult to injury (ok, that's exaggerating a little) we even had to go through security screening again!  Why I don't know.  Was it the end of the world?  Of course not.  But way more complicated than it needed to be?  In my opinion yes.  We were in a suite so we had an early time assigned.  Not sure how long it took to clear the whole ship.  We were given a star sticker on our seapass card and once you had that you were able to disembark.

Thanks for the information!