Customs o/r from P&O Med cruise?

[tom_uk]

I've read a comment in a review of a Med cruise on a P&O ship that said that on arrival at Southampton, once the passengers had recovered their bags, there was a considerable delay as Customs had a bit of a blitz. In this case the last port of call had been Gibralter. (I don't know if the cruise had otherwise been outside the EU.)

 

Are customs inspections on return to Southampton frequent? I haven't done a Med cruise with P&O, but we did do a Canaries cruise, and of course the Canaries are outside the EU customs union. In that case, however, the last ports of call were Lisbon & Vigo - perhaps the UK Customs were relying on Portuguese or Spanish Customs to inspect the ship on re-entry to the customs union?

[silver service]

we have returned back into southampton by ship 4 times so far.

from new york, med cruise, canaries and the 2 nighter. walking through the green chanel, not one custom person to be seen on any occassion!

regards, mike:)

[Johnthed0g]

The thing is IF you stop in Gib. then they KNOW that people can't resist buying too much stuff at duty free prices(Limits apply) as opposed to EEC local duty paid but more expensive,(no effective limits apply). So they lie in wait & pounce.

[tom_uk]

The thing is IF you stop in Gib. then they KNOW that people can't resist buying too much stuff at duty free prices(Limits apply) as opposed to EEC local duty paid but more expensive,(no effective limits apply). So they lie in wait & pounce.

 

Don't worry, I get the "why", it's the "how likely is it happen?" that interests me.

 

(Not from a contraband point of view - oh no! - but from a 'getting in the car for the long drive home as quickly as possible' point of view.)

[humpy]

hi tom we were on the oceana cruise that you are talking about and when we got off and went through customs there werent any customs people on duty in the green chanel.we have been on 9 cruises since 2006 and all from southampton and in that time we have only seen customs officers twice in the green chanel..happy sailing..humpy:)

[LibraLass41]

Like humpy I've done 9 cruises since 2006 as well and have seen customs men a few times - and I've seen them opening cases and some red faced passengers, so its hit and miss....who knows if they will be there when you return, I suppose not worth taking the chance... not much cheaper anyway abroad now....litre Baileys in my Morrisons this week £10:rolleyes:

[Johnthed0g]

Don't worry, I get the "why", it's the "how likely is it happen?" that interests me.

 

(Not from a contraband point of view - oh no! - but from a 'getting in the car for the long drive home as quickly as possible' point of view.)

 

Aha, I see.... well it did not delay us when they were out in force & last cruise on Arcadia there were not THAT many about but a lot more than usual. No delays really so don't worry.

[jamiedog11]

We came back from barbados into southampton and the place was full of customs and a lot of fags and drink was stocked piled where they had taken it of people

[K8T]

In all our cruises, we have never once been stopped by Customs coming into Southampton.

 

We did get a few looks coming into Manchester Airport once, carrying a huge carpet that we bought in Istanbul, but still weren't stopped and we would have been happy to pay the duty!!

 

Kate

[jocap]

Tom- it could have been my review of Ventura, which I recently posted on here and on the main UK site.

We were told by the cruise director the night before that they would be out in force, because we'd stopped in Gib.- and by golly, they were! This was V.'s last Med cruise before her transatlantic, arriving at Soton on Oct 23rd. this year.

I wrote about our long wait in that ghastly hall- 40 mins from finding the luggage; 1 hour from ship to coach. We were on a late call, leaving the ship at 10am, and our private coach didn't get away much before 11.30.

There was no "policing" of the area, so folk were pushing into the queues which stretched ALL the way down both sides of the hall. We bottlenecked at the entrance to the customs, where they were examining at least 1 in 5, especially groups with a large amount of luggage. An elderly lady passed thru' in front of us- husband was stopped, so she tried to go back in, and was shaking when she was refused entry. I didn't look to see what they were finding, as I was concentrating on just getting out of the hell-hole- no seats, elderly and disabled shuffling their suitcases an inch at a time. I've always refused to cruise from the States, after waiting for an hour to leave the port for the flight, and found this just as bad.

I did notice that anyone who used porter service, or was in a wheelchair, went straight to the head of the queue.

There again, I told a woman on board that Barcelona would be the cheapest place to buy tobacco- she bought quite a bit, then bought at least the same amount at the Bcn duty free shop at the port, and was angry with me for not telling her how cheap it was there- I tried to explain that she couldn't mix -free and -paid, but she sounded off quite loudly, and said that no-one ever stops you at Soton.

Perhaps someone on the same cruise who disembarked earlier will have a different story. We're self-disembarking next time, as we were out of Soton by 6am last time!- jocap.

[CASPALL]

We came off Oriana yesterday morning through City Terminal and no customs were present.

We've only seen customs once at Southampton. They stopped my husband and I was way ahead of him. As it was a shared case and I wasn't there, they had to let him go again.

We had absolutely nothing on us anyway that trip.

 

By the way - Gin was being sold on Oriana on Sunday for £7.50 per litre. Other drinks too were sold cheap.

 

Caryl:)

[Johnthed0g]

We came off Oriana yesterday morning through City Terminal and no customs were present.

We've only seen customs once at Southampton. They stopped my husband and I was way ahead of him. As it was a shared case and I wasn't there, they had to let him go again.

We had absolutely nothing on us anyway that trip.

 

By the way - Gin was being sold on Oriana on Sunday for £7.50 per litre. Other drinks too were sold cheap.

 

Caryl:)

 

Had you been to Gib?

[tom_uk]

JohnthedOg aked about Caspall's cruise:

 

Had you been to Gib?

 

I think the last call on that cruise was Vigo, although they had gone as far as Turkey.

 

(Nice cruise - 25 nights, 14 ports of call. They are certainly pulling some good longer itineraries out of the hat these days, for some of the ships.)

[Johnthed0g]

I asked if they had been to Gib. because that is what attracts the Customs out

[CASPALL]

No Gib thank goodness.

We'd been in 2 Turkish ports though.

Alcohol and perfumes were cheaper on the ship than any port we called at. Plus you get Portunis discount!

Caryl