No more customs forms?

Friends disembarking the Sky in Miami yesterday did not have to fill out the U.S. custom form. They only had to show their passport and driver's license. They were told this started about two weeks ago. Randomly people were pulled from the lines and interviewed.

Is this true across the fleet and/or only on Sky or in port of Miami? This would surely speed up the disembarkation process.

Tracy

We were off the CCL Splendor 3/5 at the POM. Still had the custom's form. Lines were very large to get through customs, but moved quickly. Don't know how they would do it without a "declaration"- though I am sure many do not declare what they bought anyway! Maybe if you have Global Entry or the Mobile Passport that would let you go through without a form?

We got off the Getaway on 3/12/17 at Port of Miami. The ship gave us the custom forms to fill out. When we went through customs, the agent returned the forms to us and told us that they are no longer needed at Port of Miami.

I was on the Getaway 3/12-3/19 and we did not have to fill out the customs form. I asked my room steward for the form the last night and he said they don't give them out anymore. I read through the debarkation paperwork and sure enough it said as of 3/1/17, you don't have to fill out the form anymore unless you have something to declare. I don't know is this is just for the Port of Miami, but it would be nice to not have to do this anymore for all ports. The customs line was pretty fast for US citizens and the agent just looked at our passports and off we went.

We got off the Escape in Miami March 18 and no forms. A notice on the ship said this is new and forms were only needed if you exceeded the limits. Btw, we're Canadian and it applied to us as well.

We did walk off with bags as we were catching an early shuttle to FLL and it was super fast through Customs, but it usually was in the past as well.

Fresh off the Pearl and was told the same thing. Showed our passports and the desk and moved on no issues at all. Nice to see them trying to streamline the process :-)

Mid-February they had stopped requesting the forms. A quick glance of your passport and off you go. (Unless you're one of the unfortunate ones selected for additional screening.)

This is great news.

This is the norm at many airports in Europe. In UK for many years they have had a "red" and "green" customs lane. They randomly stop people in the "green" lane and woe betide you if you're found carrying something that should have been declared :(

It makes things go quickly - unless you're stopped !

Still had to fill them out and present them to customs when returning to NYC on the Gem on 3/19.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I hope it is in effect in NY for foreigners in August!!

Based on comments so far, it seems that Port of Miami may be the only one doing this now. :D

Great news!

Tracy

as much as this might expedite custom checking, not only for those who are carrying anything declared or not, it just seems safe...i think it should be done for big cities

We just got off the Carnival Sunshine in Port Canaveral today and did NOT have to fill in a customs form. We were told that as of May 1, forms were not needed unless you had purchased over $800 worth of items or were bringing over $10K in cash into the port.

On our last three flights into the states from overseas, they did not use forms either. We use the kiosk with passport and can not remember if they even ask if you brought stuff back.

By the way, folks tend to mix customs and immigration. Two entirely different things that take place when crossing the border/entering the country.

Just got off the Dawn in Boston (May 12) and all non-US citizens were required to meet in the theater for customs / immigration check before disembarking took place. US citizens filled out the customs form and it was collected by a Customs official without checking it or passports..... hopefully this is now the norm

Got off the Gem yesterday in NYC and customs forms still required.

On our last three flights into the states from overseas, they did not use forms either. We use the kiosk with passport and can not remember if they even ask if you brought stuff back.

We used the kiosks for the first time in Vancouver airport two weeks ago and the questions that were on the old customs form are now presented on the kiosk. Made the experience much faster than before.

We used the kiosks for the first time in Vancouver airport two weeks ago and the questions that were on the old customs form are now presented on the kiosk. Made the experience much faster than before.

We did it there about 6 months ago; wonderful.

Still used the forms two weeks ago in Tampa.

This would surely speed up the disembarkation process.

Not really. CBP usually spends less that 5 seconds reviewing the customs form. It's pretty easy to see that all items are checked "no" and that you are not bringing alcohol or tobacco in excess of the limits.

This was not true in Los Angeles about 3 weeks ago when we got off the Jewel.

Not to worry ! If you over spend on the ship they will notify customs. No honest control of what is spent in ports (unless you use your ship charge in places like harvest caye)

My husband bought me a 5,000 ring on the ship plus we spent a bunch on ship and harvest caye. Us and about 10 other people was flagged as we left the ship and brought us straight to customs. We did catch a break because if an emergency and was let go before paying up.

The lady in front of us said "I thought it was tax and duty free" yeah up to 800.00 per person. So that nice watch you bought went over the 1600.00 total for you and hubby. Customs called us big spenders and told us next time to watch our spending. Hello then why all the stuff on the ship. We went over our limit by 4000.00 so we would of had to pay taxs on that. Last time it happen we paid like 3%

So really collecting the forms is a waste of time. People lie about their purchases. The ship reports it and those people are flagged. Makes things go faster. I just wish rather than hold up the lines they would call us aside ahead of time. The people was wanting to mob because the lines stopped.

Had them on the Dawn in April

I am convinced that the "no more custom forms" is NOT really just a "random" situation. I just got off a cruise with Royal C (the Allure) and 3 people appeared to be on the list of over 2,200 (small crowd due to Irma). I went to exit and it wouldn't let me and they told me to go back to the front desk, from there my wife and I were "escorted" off the ship by a ship Officer told to get our bags and come over to customs for further "search/interrogation". I must say this was scary as we felt we were being treated like criminals, told to go sit in a room away from our luggage and just wait to be called. Now to the "why" I feel we were "randomly" selected, I purchased a high end watch "on the ship" and this is why I feel I was selected, even the customs officers (yes plural) ask about my purchase. During the interrogation they immediately went after the watch purchase and the receipt and worked up a duty charge that we needed to pay. This isn't about declaring, we weren't even given a chance to declare, it is about (in my opinion and experience) the ship having knowledge and automatically notifying customs. I will never make a large purchase on a ship again after this experience, it was very scary and upsetting especially for my wife (who watches way too many 20/20 shows). Buyer beware now has another whole new meaning.

Mid-February they had stopped requesting the forms. A quick glance of your passport and off you go. (Unless you're one of the unfortunate ones selected for additional screening.)

Asounds great but when we got off the Breakaway in NYC in April we still had forms. :confused:

On at least the last intl flights they did not hand out forms at all.