how much time to clear customs at FLL

[NoWhiners]

Hi all

 

We are taking 2 cruises in Nov/Dec, one around the Med and Israel, the 2nd a TA back to FLL. We have a couple of choices for the flight home the day we disembark (Dec 8). I am wondering how long it will take to clear Customs when we get back?

 

Any recent experience with this you can share? We will walk off the ship at 7 am (or whenever they let us), then cab to FLL. One flight is at 10:00 am and the other at noon. We really want to take the 10 am flight but we're worried the Customs check will take so long we won't make it. The 10 am flight gets us home at about 2:30, and only a short time between flights. The noon flight would have us killing time in the HOU airport for 4 hours, so not ideal 😉

 

Any advice would be welcome.

 

Thanks.

[FOPMan]

Assuming the ship docks on time and is generally cleared for disembarking, individuals clearing customs and immigration, especially if they have nothing to declare, and are walking off among the first few off the ship and don’t need baggage assistance should not usually experience much of a delay.

 

If one has TSAPre, CLEAR, or other mechanism for getting through airport security efficiently, that can help reduce wait time and associated anxiety. Since you mentioned HOU, it’s probably relatively safe to assume you are flying Southwest. Southwest is usually efficient in checking bags curbside and is relatively close to the vehicle entrance to the airport.

 

Holiday travel can be disruptive l, and it is always good to have a plan B. Don’t stop for the restroom until you are at the airplane gate.

[NoWhiners]

This is helpful, thanks. I don't think we'll have anything to declare but DH is a sucker for T-shirts, so who knows 😉 Do you have sense of how long it would delay us if we have something to declare?

 

We don't have Pre or Clear, but are taking SW. I'll make a note of the 'no restroom' advice and not drink any coffee until we're at the gate.

 

Thanks.

Edited July 20, 2023 by NoWhiners
typos

[CruiserBruce]

I wouldn't worry about Customs...not much of a thing anymore. But Immigration is more serious. But biometrics have made it faster every day.

[NoWhiners]

Just now, CruiserBruce said:

I wouldn't worry about Customs...not much of a thing anymore. But Immigration is more serious. But biometrics have made it faster every day.

 

Yeah, I wondered about that but the facial recognition does seem to speed it up some. 

 

Do you think we could still make the 10 am flight, with those 2 checks?

 

Thanks.

[hrhdhd]

Customs is a thing, and one should declare if over the allowed limit/items. But you'd have to buy a lot of T-shirts to go over $1,600 (the combined limit for two married people traveling together).

 

Which cruise line are you on? Some of the terminals at Port Everglades have facial recognition for immigration and some don't. The former would obviously be faster.

[CruiserBruce]

2 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Yeah, I wondered about that but the facial recognition does seem to speed it up some. 

 

Do you think we could still make the 10 am flight, with those 2 checks?

 

Thanks.

The biggest issue that might hurt you is your ship appears to be arriving in the US after an extended period based out of the US. That can complicate things. I think I would book the noon, for that reason.

[NoWhiners]

"Customs is a thing, and one should declare if over the allowed limit/items. But you'd have to buy a lot of T-shirts to go over $1,600 (the combined limit for two married people traveling together).

 

Which cruise line are you on? Some of the terminals at Port Everglades have facial recognition for immigration and some don't. The former would obviously be faster."

 

 

Yeah, I was mostly kidding about that. I seriously doubt we will have anything to declare. We are on Princess and I haven't been on a cruise for so long, I can't remember the terminals very well. Plus, I think they were working on at least one of them, the last time we were there (March 2020).

 

Thanks.

Edited July 20, 2023 by NoWhiners
add info

[NoWhiners]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

The biggest issue that might hurt you is your ship appears to be arriving in the US after an extended period based out of the US. That can complicate things. I think I would book the noon, for that reason.

 

Well, actually, it will be 2 cruises, not back to back exactly but close. We sail on the Island Princess for the Med and Israel, then move to the Enchanted for the TA back to Florida. But, we will still have been gone an extended time. 

 

I'm starting to think we should just be conservative and take the noon (which is really 11 am, I read the times wrong!). There are worse things than hanging around the HOU airport for 4 hours.

 

Thanks.

[CruiserBruce]

6 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Well, actually, it will be 2 cruises, not back to back exactly but close. We sail on the Island Princess for the Med and Israel, then move to the Enchanted for the TA back to Florida. But, we will still have been gone an extended time. 

 

I'm starting to think we should just be conservative and take the noon (which is really 11 am, I read the times wrong!). There are worse things than hanging around the HOU airport for 4 hours.

 

Thanks.

I am not talking about you, I am talking about the ship, and by extension, its pax and crew, have been not based in the US for awhile. Usually, the Immigration folks take closer looks at this situation. Last summer we arrived in BOS on a ship that had been out of the US for 4 months. Nobody was even screened until 7:30, and the ship was cleared at 10:30. And the ship was only about 60% of capacity.

[NoWhiners]

Just now, CruiserBruce said:

I am not talking about you, I am talking about the ship, and by extension, its pax and crew, have been not based in the US for awhile. Usually, the Immigration folks take closer looks at this situation. Last summer we arrived in BOS on a ship that had been out of the US for 4 months. Nobody was even screened until 7:30, and the ship was cleared at 10:30. And the ship was only about 60% of capacity.

 

Oooh, I misunderstood. That's a really good observation. We'll go with the 11 and be sure.

 

Thanks for your help.

[PacnGoNow]

2 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

Hi all

 

We are taking 2 cruises in Nov/Dec, one around the Med and Israel, the 2nd a TA back to FLL. We have a couple of choices for the flight home the day we disembark (Dec 8). I am wondering how long it will take to clear Customs when we get back?

 

Any recent experience with this you can share? We will walk off the ship at 7 am (or whenever they let us), then cab to FLL. One flight is at 10:00 am and the other at noon. We really want to take the 10 am flight but we're worried the Customs check will take so long we won't make it. The 10 am flight gets us home at about 2:30, and only a short time between flights. The noon flight would have us killing time in the HOU airport for 4 hours, so not ideal 😉

 

Any advice would be welcome.

 

Thanks.

No way would I risk a 10 am flight from FLL.  Too many things can happen that could delay you.  We’ve cleared late before after a TA.  They do a great job in customs with getting you through, but you never know.

 

The flight guidelines that PCL states is: Take a flight that is 4.5 hours after you ship’s arrival for FLL.  
 

You also don’t have Precheck/Clear, etc.  There may be long lines and multiple ships in.  

[NoWhiners]

22 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

No way would I risk a 10 am flight from FLL.  Too many things can happen that could delay you.  We’ve cleared late before after a TA.  They do a great job in customs with getting you through, but you never know.

 

The flight guidelines that PCL states is: Take a flight that is 4.5 hours after you ship’s arrival for FLL.  
 

You also don’t have Precheck/Clear, etc.  There may be long lines and multiple ships in.  

 

Yeah, I think you're right. If a miracle happens and we get thru everything early, we can aways ask SW if we can switch to the earlier flight. I know...but I can dream!!

 

Thanks.

[FOPMan]

21 minutes ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Yeah, I think you're right. If a miracle happens and we get thru everything early, we can aways ask SW if we can switch to the earlier flight. I know...but I can dream!!

 

Thanks.

A safer choice, to be sure! Be sure to get at least wanna get away plus fares so you ha e access to same day change/standby lists. Regular wanna get away fares DONT include standby privileges.

[NoWhiners]

17 minutes ago, FOPMan said:

A safer choice, to be sure! Be sure to get at least wanna get away plus fares so you ha e access to same day change/standby lists. Regular wanna get away fares DONT include standby privileges.

 

Good point, thanks.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

4 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

Hi all

 

We are taking 2 cruises in Nov/Dec, one around the Med and Israel, the 2nd a TA back to FLL. We have a couple of choices for the flight home the day we disembark (Dec 8). I am wondering how long it will take to clear Customs when we get back?

 

Any recent experience with this you can share? We will walk off the ship at 7 am (or whenever they let us), then cab to FLL. One flight is at 10:00 am and the other at noon. We really want to take the 10 am flight but we're worried the Customs check will take so long we won't make it. The 10 am flight gets us home at about 2:30, and only a short time between flights. The noon flight would have us killing time in the HOU airport for 4 hours, so not ideal 😉

 

Any advice would be welcome.

 

Thanks.

 

You mentioned not a lot of time between flights. You need to factor in that issues arise causing delayed departures thus missing connection. Play it safe and take later flight even if you have a 4 hour layover. 

[NoWhiners]

36 minutes ago, D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL said:

 

You mentioned not a lot of time between flights. You need to factor in that issues arise causing delayed departures thus missing connection. Play it safe and take later flight even if you have a 4 hour layover. 

 

Yep, exactly what we decided. Play it safe and allow time for flight delays. We can relax in the HOU airport for a few hours.

 

Thanks.

[KreinKrunker]

4 hours ago, NoWhiners said:

 

Yep, exactly what we decided. Play it safe and allow time for flight delays. We can relax in the HOU airport for a few hours.

 

Thanks.

Good choice.  The whole crew will probably have to go through immigration, since the ship is arriving back in the US.  Facial recognition speeds things up, but 4700 passengers and crew will still take some time.  Plus, the Coast Guard usually does some type of inspection on reentry.

Edited July 21, 2023 by KreinKrunker

[CruiserBruce]

20 minutes ago, KreinKrunker said:

Good choice.  The whole crew will probably have to go through immigration, since the ship is arriving back in the US.  Facial recognition speeds things up, but 4700 passengers and crew will still take some time.  Plus, the Coast Guard usually does some type of inspection on reentry.

But the pax go before the crew. Or certainly in a different process than pax. The Coast Guard inspection seems to require a seriouseff, but also separate from pax. But in the situation mentioned at Boston above,  the USCG was clearly setting up to do their thing as the ship was clearing pax.

[capriccio]

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The biggest issue that might hurt you is your ship appears to be arriving in the US after an extended period based out of the US. That can complicate things. I think I would book the noon, for that reason.

I agree.  The cruise lines know that ships and their crews returning to the US after an extended period outside of the US (in other words, most trans-Atlantics and trans-Pacifics) are subject to additional inspections.  Sometimes they will notify those embarking passengers that embarkation may be late but most times they don't.  I've never heard of them warning arriving passengers that disembarkation may be delayed. 

 

Now this doesn't happen in all cases but we are batting 100%.  We have been passengers on one TA where even though we arrived on time, disembarkation didn't begin until around 9:30 and was still going strong when we disembarked at 11 am.  On another cruise we were embarking passengers on a ship that arrived from a TA on time and at noon they had finally finished passenger disembarkation but CBP was still examining crew paperwork.  Luckily it was a small ship (680 passengers) but sail away was delayed about 3 hours in order to get all the provisions and supplies on board (it was a long Amazon cruise) because that couldn't be done until all government inspections were completed.

 

I would book definitely noon, not 10 am, and have a plan B for a worst case scenario.

[KreinKrunker]

On 7/20/2023 at 10:11 PM, CruiserBruce said:

But the pax go before the crew.

On 7/20/2023 at 10:11 PM, CruiserBruce said:

 Or certainly in a different process than pax. 

 

Last trans-Atlantic we took; they were clearing crew before we even disembarked.  It may be a different process, but it is using personnel that could be used to clear passengers, thereby slowing the whole process.  Then if the CDC shows up for an inspection, that adds one more thing going on.

Edited July 23, 2023 by KreinKrunker

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 7/20/2023 at 12:12 PM, NoWhiners said:

 

Yeah, I wondered about that but the facial recognition does seem to speed it up some. 

 

Do you think we could still make the 10 am flight, with those 2 checks?

 

Thanks.

We have cleared three times now using facial recognition and it's a snap.  Two cruises and one flight and we probably cleared the cruises in less than ten minutes and never pulled out our passports.  Flying back from Cabo to San Diego we did have Global Entry and again never showed a document just looked into a screen and got a green check and were on our way.  

[JGmf]

Just read this thread. We're rolling the dice.

 

FLL disembark in March.  Booked a 10:45am SWA flight.  We'll walk off with our bags.  Assuming Uber or cab drive to FLL airport is quick.  Assuming we'll be at the airport by 9am, 10 at the latest if there are delays.  Bought the 'Plus' ticket as there are likely other standby options through the day if something nuts happens for us to be late to the airport.

 

 

[AllTheSun]

Any experience with T26?

 

We're arriving on HAL and some googling says HAL usually uses T26. I have GE but I'm traveling with adult family who do not. Wondering if I should stick with them or go looking for the GE line & meet them later?

[NoWhiners]

12 hours ago, JGmf said:

Just read this thread. We're rolling the dice.

 

FLL disembark in March.  Booked a 10:45am SWA flight.  We'll walk off with our bags.  Assuming Uber or cab drive to FLL airport is quick.  Assuming we'll be at the airport by 9am, 10 at the latest if there are delays.  Bought the 'Plus' ticket as there are likely other standby options through the day if something nuts happens for us to be late to the airport.

 

 

 

That's a pretty good plan, maybe too many assumptions, but I think they are reasonable. I didn't know about the Plus fare until after we booked, so we didn't get that. I think that was a great decision to hedge your bets.

 

If you think of it, come back and post your experience.

 

Have a great  trip!