Does Carnival really report purchases.

[princesstiffany]

I had heard a rumor from "them" (who knows who the original "them" ever are) that Carnival reported purchases or at least large purchases to Customs. There was a guy on the last night of our last cruise purchasing at least 20-30 fairly expensive watches.

Now I can't imagine that they were all for him or even for gifts. I also can't believe he would buy that many onboard if he was planning to declare them at Customs and pay the duty on them. Does anyone know if Customs would have really been flagged by this large purchase?

[jimbo5544]

I had heard a rumor from "them" (who knows who the original "them" ever are) that Carnival reported purchases or at least large purchases to Customs. There was a guy on the last night of our last cruise purchasing at least 20-30 fairly expensive watches.

 

Now I can't imagine that they were all for him or even for gifts. I also can't believe he would buy that many onboard if he was planning to declare them at Customs and pay the duty on them. Does anyone know if Customs would have really been flagged by this large purchase?

Yes, someone in our group was caught by just that problem. They asked her twice if she had purchased something then produced the bill.

[H184A]

Carnival does report large charges in the gift shop to customs. We were flagged last year getting off the Freedom.

[sparks1093]

I had heard a rumor from "them" (who knows who the original "them" ever are) that Carnival reported purchases or at least large purchases to Customs. There was a guy on the last night of our last cruise purchasing at least 20-30 fairly expensive watches.

 

Now I can't imagine that they were all for him or even for gifts. I also can't believe he would buy that many onboard if he was planning to declare them at Customs and pay the duty on them. Does anyone know if Customs would have really been flagged by this large purchase?

 

Don't know for sure but wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that all of the cruise lines report large purchases from the ship's store. As far as the whole gift thing goes if Customs asks him and he says that they are gifts there probably isn't a whole lot they can do.

[sparks1093]

Yes, someone in our group was caught by just that problem. They asked her twice if she had purchased something then produced the bill.

 

That seems to be conclusive proof that they do report.

[jimbo5544]

That seems to be conclusive proof that they do report.

Not only that, but she purchased it the last evening and paid directly to her credit card as oppposed to the S&S bill. Snagged big time, I had to wait for her while the rest of the group went to the airport.

[Chigirlcruzin]

Don't know for sure but wouldn't be surprised at all to find out that all of the cruise lines report large purchases from the ship's store. As far as the whole gift thing goes if Customs asks him and he says that they are gifts there probably isn't a whole lot they can do.

 

Yes, they do report large purchases.

 

Does customs really care if they're gifts or personal use? Of course, the duty rate will vary if they are intended for business purposes or for gifts for friends.

[topofE]

how would they know who was who? Your room number isn't on your passport...or are the customs agents all searching for a handful of names? Like 3000+ passengers and all the agents are on the lookout for Mary Smith who bouught 4 bottles of rum the last night on her cc?

[sparks1093]

Not only that, but she purchased it the last evening and paid directly to her credit card as oppposed to the S&S bill. Snagged big time, I had to wait for her while the rest of the group went to the airport.

 

Ouch, tough lesson but at least she wasn't taken into custody.

[sparks1093]

how would they know who was who? Your room number isn't on your passport...or are the customs agents all searching for a handful of names? Like 3000+ passengers and all the agents are on the lookout for Mary Smith who bouught 4 bottles of rum the last night on her cc?

 

That's what computer databases are for;).

[Beebob1]

how would they know who was who? Your room number isn't on your passport...or are the customs agents all searching for a handful of names? Like 3000+ passengers and all the agents are on the lookout for Mary Smith who bouught 4 bottles of rum the last night on her cc?

 

Guessing a "flag" list is on each agents list/pc to match up to the ID being used.

[njsbrown]

I'm not sure how they knew, but several years ago I got the dreaded call to report to customs.

 

My ex had purchased some jewelry on the ship for me, but not thousands of dollars, just hundreds. However, we had all our kids on our S & S and our bill looked like the national debt. Pages and pages. Anyway I took the jewelry with me. The customs lady was very nice, went thru my entire S&S bill, looked at my new jewelry and sent me on my way. To this day I don't know why I was flagged, other than the total amount of our account??? Oh well, it all ended nicely.

[beachbum53]

how would they know who was who? Your room number isn't on your passport...or are the customs agents all searching for a handful of names? Like 3000+ passengers and all the agents are on the lookout for Mary Smith who bouught 4 bottles of rum the last night on her cc?

 

That's why you're required to fill out a Customs Declaration form prior to disembarkation. I would imagine that as long as you're honest about your purchases and don't try to hide anything, you'll get through Customs a lot more smoothly.

[Sea Turtle]

Your room number isn't on your passport...

 

 

But your passport or other ID is on your room number. Purchases are initially associated with cabin numbers which are then traced to ...

[gail811]

Yes they do. We were pulled out of line getting off the Freedom in Ft. Lauderdale. Actually the alarm went off when my DH put his card in to leave the ship. They wanted to be sure we had claimed everything we purchased. Also took a couple in line behind us. The woman that escorted us to the "interrogation area" said it was "random", but after talking to the other couple we figured out that we had both made sizable purchases from the gift shop.

[SadieN]

"They" know more about you than you think "they" do.

 

George Orwell was right, just a few years too early. Big Brother IS watching and getting better all the time.

[satbeachbill]

We got off the Valor in Miami on Dec 9th. As we exited through customs, the guy had a list and was cross referencing every guest. I'm sure it was from the onboard gift shops. He looked at our declaration form, then the list and waved us through. Yeah, the are looking!