Crown Princess Puerto Rico Immigration Line...Any Improvement?

[josassoc]

We are sailing in Crown Princess on July 14th, and I've got a special surprise for my husband in PR. But, I hear it takes forever to get off the ship if you don't have a ships excursion. Any ideas if the immigration lines have shortened or improved...or are they still ridiculous? Any ideas of how to circumvent the wait time. I'm willing to stand in line early. Or come before wait time? Any ideas?

[Stevesan]

Every cruise I've sailed no one is allowed to disembark until all passengers have cleared their on board accounts. That usually delays things more than immigration.:(

[mrrobby]

I was on the Crown about 12 days ago in Puerto Rico.We didn't have any excursions planned.We waited only about 20-25 minutes or so to get off the ship.I don't think you will have any problems.Don't worry about it.We were off very early in the morning.

 

Rob

[josassoc]

For clarification, the Crown is cruising out of NY with a stop in PR from 10am to 11pm. I've heard that its necessary to go through customs before getting off of the ship for the day. And, that cruisers without Princess excursions have been waiting in ridiculous lines. I'm trying to get around that...

[CathyK2]

Josassoc,

 

I was on the Crown with that same itenary as yours that got back on June 8th. I wish I had known of this delay BEFORE getting on since I understand the trick is to get in line EARLY. Meaning, get in line BEFORE the first time is listed. We made the mistake of waiting until the time that was given for our deck and even went ten minutes early, only to find that line already one lap around the entire deck and curling for a second round.

 

So in hindsight, I heard that the ones that ignore the time that you will be given and just go on down, they don't check to see if you are in the right time for your cabin number and just want to look at your passport and give you a card that they don't even look at when you get off the ship. Hahahaha.

 

Hope your surprise goes smoothly and you will definitely have the upper hand by knowing the problem even exists. Good luck!

 

Cathy

[Stevesan]

Josassoc,

 

I was on the Crown with that same itenary as yours that got back on June 8th. I wish I had known of this delay BEFORE getting on since I understand the trick is to get in line EARLY. Meaning, get in line BEFORE the first time is listed. We made the mistake of waiting until the time that was given for our deck and even went ten minutes early, only to find that line already one lap around the entire deck and curling for a second round.

 

So in hindsight, I heard that the ones that ignore the time that you will be given and just go on down, they don't check to see if you are in the right time for your cabin number and just want to look at your passport and give you a card that they don't even look at when you get off the ship. Hahahaha.

 

Hope your surprise goes smoothly and you will definitely have the upper hand by knowing the problem even exists. Good luck!

 

Cathy

 

Absolutely. Rules are for all those other people, not us!:rolleyes:

[josassoc]

I love this board. It's a vital part of my cruise planning each year. And, I do travel each year.

 

So, I posted this thread in an effort to improve my cruise experience, with a willingness to personally stand in line earlier (and let my husband relax in the room or nearby) in an effort to salvage an anniversary surprise that could be ruined by a 1-2 hour immigration wait.

 

Next time, if you see a post looking for help. Save your "flaming" comments for another poster. I'm tired of happily looking through threads on this board, getting great advice, only to ONCE AGAIN find a post by someone who has nothing to offer but a chastisement.

 

Go find a formal dress code thread, and educate them about jeans onboard.

 

(I've always wanted to say that!!! These guys bug me...maybe I'm the only one, but I doubt it!)

[josassoc]

I appreciate your helpful response.

[UT-Volsfan]

Princess also doesn't provide very good instructions for what to take to the immigration check. We got off the Crown on June 8. We had a noon shore excursion so we went to the Theatre with everybody else that had a morning tour. They said bring your ID (passport or photo ID and birth certificate) with you. Nothing else was mentioned in the paperwork. When we finally got to the door, the Princess staff was turning people away unless they had their tour tickets with them for admission. I don't know how many people were like us having to go get their tour tickets just to get in the door.

 

We also sat around in the theatre over an hour before getting started - they said several times that Princess was at the mercy of the immigration personnel arriving and getting to work.

[KAWS]

Wow - glad I read this before our cruise. And I'm even happier that our excursion NOT booked through Princess doesn't start until 1 pm so we just MIGHT make it on time!

 

Thanks for the info.

 

P.S. To the OP - Sure hope you make your excursion and suprise hubby for your anniversary. This is our anniversary cruise too and I know how important it would be to me to be able to pull off my surprise.

[josassoc]

I thought of just purchasing the cheapest excursion I could find for us (with no intention of going on it) to get out of the door early, with the excursion folks.

 

It might cost $60-80, but again save a few hours of aggravation. Can I get a realistic idea of the line...the ship is full on our cruise on 7/14.

[rdsqrl]

I thought of just purchasing the cheapest excursion I could find for us (with no intention of going on it) to get out of the door early, with the excursion folks.

 

It might cost $60-80, but again save a few hours of aggravation. Can I get a realistic idea of the line...the ship is full on our cruise on 7/14.

 

 

As I happen to be sitting here reading over the choices for my cruise (the one right after yours -- so don't sink the ship accidentally or drink up all the gin!), it looks like the cheapest San Juan tour is $39 per person -- depending on your surprise, it might be worth it to buy it as a back-up. You might also want to contact the front desk once on board and explain the situation and see what they suggest. Maybe they'd be willing to allow you to join the early group off, and you'd then have time to get a refund on those unneeded excursion tickets.

Once you're back, you'll have to write back in and tell us what the surprise was and how it went! Happy anniversary to you both.

[KAWS]

I thought of just purchasing the cheapest excursion I could find for us (with no intention of going on it) to get out of the door early, with the excursion folks.

 

It might cost $60-80, but again save a few hours of aggravation. Can I get a realistic idea of the line...the ship is full on our cruise on 7/14.

 

Well I just checked Princess and that excursion (cheapest) would be $39 each for the Old and New San Juan. Good idea for sure, but a pretty hefty price just to make sure to get off the ship in a timely way. A little rich for my blood since we've already paid over $100 pp for our excursion.

 

However, if you choose to do it, the tour is supposed to start at 10:30 so it will get you off quickly!

[UT-Volsfan]

The people with excursions are seated by the excursions and are called by the time their excursion is supposed to start. So an early excursion should get you off the ship in plenty of time.

[mrrobby]

We were on the the crown out of Brooklyn but we stopped in Puerto Rico from 8-3. We got on line fairly early with no excursion and were off the ship by 9A.M.I see yours is a bit later, just get there early and don't worry about which deck they say.Just make sure you go where the non-Princess excursion people are supposed to go.Bring your cruise card and your passport or official I.D.I don't think you will have a problem.I hope this helps.

 

Good Luck

Rob

[play21cw]

I took RCCL's explorer of the seas last year and waited an hour to get through immigration, then they said they would allow people to get off the boat, so we headed down the stairs and then announced they would be delaying it due to no shows, so we waited in the hot stair well for over an hour, NEVER AGAIN!!

 

i will go to the immigration line and then wait in my cabin until i SEE people getting off the ship.

[billet]

I was a non usa passenger for the past 5 cruises. The first 4 cruises cleared the non usa in about 1.5 hours (starting at 8:30). the last cruise cleared them in 45 minutes. The number of immigration officers allocated to the usa in club fusion and non usa in Michaelangelo dining room varies hugely and they seem to be trying to divide their efforts as much as possible to clear the shortest line first - that may be my faulty judgement though. Once you are through immigration you are given a landing card so that you can go ashore immediately and you do not have to wait for the ship to be cleared. I did not keep an accurate record but my recollection is that the broadcast that the ship was now cleared was always made around 10:30 to 11:00. When my mother was onboard we sat in the Piazza at 9am , had a pleasant coffee and pastry and when he had finished were able to walk straight into the dining room to be cleared within 10 minutes. I have no experience of the US passenger line.

[mynextcruise]

We just got off the Crown today--wonderful trip. We went down to immigration at the time listed; the line was LONG (which worried me)....but it only took about 10 minutes to get through.