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Does US Customs ever make you open your bags on arrival?

Turbo6ta

By Turbo6ta,
in Ask a Cruise Question

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Turbo6ta

Turbo6ta

Posted
Posted

I have been lucky in that I have never had my bags checked by US Customs when returning for an overseas flight (mostly, returning from the Philippines and Japan).

 

Been able to get away with more than the 200 cigarettes (1 carton) limit per passenger.

 

How about these cruise lines after retuning from Cozumel or someplace like that?

 

Declaring items will surely make it so Customs checks your bags.

 

How about not declaring anything .... anyone here still have there bags opened by Customs on your return to the US if you didn't declare anything?

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Turbo6ta

Turbo6ta

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Well, if Customs finds more than 1 carton of cigarettes in your bag when retuning from Mexico to the US, they will either confiscate them or make you pay the tax on any amount of cigarettes over 200.

 

Just wondering if Customs opens many bags from passengers coming off cruise ships .... You don't see it much happening with bags coming off international flights.

 

Myself, I have only seen it once. That was a flight from the Philippines to Guam. US Customs in Guam had every passenger open there bags. They were even squeezing toothpaste out of the tubes ..... obviously they had a tip that someone was carrying drugs or diamonds (or something illegal) on the plane.

 

For the last passengers off the plane, they were delayed at least 6 hours because of this mess.

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Turbo6ta

Turbo6ta

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I'm not telling anyone they should bring more than 1 carton of un-taxed cigarettes or more than 1 bottle of un-taxed liquor back to the US.

 

I am just asking if many people coming off cruise ships have there bags opened up by Customs.

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tk22

tk22

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I have been lucky in that I have never had my bags checked by US Customs when returning for an overseas flight (mostly, returning from the Philippines and Japan).

 

Been able to get away with more than the 200 cigarettes (1 carton) limit per passenger.

 

How about these cruise lines after retuning from Cozumel or someplace like that?

 

Declaring items will surely make it so Customs checks your bags.

 

How about not declaring anything .... anyone here still have there bags opened by Customs on your return to the US if you didn't declare anything?

 

My husband was pulled aside once - had a small soft-sided cooler with his left over Pepsi in it and they called us both into a room with our luggage, but all they checked was the cooler. I assumed they were checking to make sure we didn't bring any food/fruit off the ship.

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S.S.Oceanlover

S.S.Oceanlover

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Just to clarify my situation. I was Still in the shower about 7:30 AM when the phone rang and the guest services desk had called and said we had to get off the ship immediately.

 

We went to the guest services desk and where you were immediately taking off the ship and not told what was going on.

 

No breakfast or anything.

 

We had also paid for luggage express if that has any bearing on the situation.

 

And just something else to add they did not look at our customs declaration so after we were called down so declaring or not declaring would have no bearing on this.

 

Bill

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Ehpride

Ehpride

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No, but last time, I declared vanilla but didn't think to mark yes to food and the customs agent wasn't too happy about that. I'm guessing that agent probably would have hassled me and opened my luggage if there'd been any other suspicions.

 

Other times, I've barely had them look at the form.

 

So, I'm going with it's the luck of the draw.

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S.S.Oceanlover

S.S.Oceanlover

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I've never been checked, but we send our bags via luggage express, so all we have is our backpacks and carry-ons

 

I modified my post a couple minutes before you posted.

 

Luggage Express does not exclude you from a search as you can see from my post.

 

After our bags were searched and WE put everything back, then the bags were taken to the truck for transport to the airport.

 

Bill

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Not_Done_Living

Not_Done_Living

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I have been pulled aside and had my luggage searched in Miami -- but was expecting it as one of the guards was basically trying to insert his dog into butt from the moment we entered the luggage/customs area.

 

Not that the dog was interested in me, but the handler certainly was. It was clear he thought I had something.

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kingoftheicedragons

kingoftheicedragons

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We have never had our bags inspected by Customs after arrival back from a cruise, though on a couple of occasions, I have seen people pulled off to the side, so I know that it can and does happen. We very rarely buy much when we're on a cruise anyway except for a handful of souvenirs and maybe a bottle or two of liquor.

 

I can say that I've had my car searched when doing a land crossing from the US into Canada when I declared that I had a diamond necklace (my now DW's birthstone). They were trying to get me to confess to smuggling diamonds across the border all over a necklace that was bought at Sears.

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rvsullivan

rvsullivan

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Been checked both when declaring something on the customs form and not. Others are correct that after they go through everything, you have to refold and repack everything. Not a pleasant experience. We were told afterward that a percentage of each trip are checked, something like 5% or so. If you have something to catch their attention or are a random number. At times it has been only 5 minutes or less, other times 30-45 minutes. Never had anything found or any issues, just a hassle to deal with.

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NMLady

NMLady

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Just to clarify my situation. I was Still in the shower about 7:30 AM when the phone rang and the guest services desk had called and said we had to get off the ship immediately.

 

We went to the guest services desk and where you were immediately taking off the ship and not told what was going on.

 

No breakfast or anything.

 

We had also paid for luggage express if that has any bearing on the situation.

 

And just something else to add they did not look at our customs declaration so after we were called down so declaring or not declaring would have no bearing on this.

 

Bill

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

People using the Luggage Direct program or the BAGS program are supposed to be among the first off the ship in case Customs wants to randomly or for a purpose open their bags. However I'm surprised they did it that early.

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NMLady

NMLady

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We were searched by US customs in the airport after flying from Amsterdam after a cruise of the British Islands that had ended in Amsterdam.

They barely moved anything in our luggage though after asking us several questions. I guess we didn't act like smugglers.

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ducklite

ducklite

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I have been beyond over the limit on alcohol many times and they have never charged us duty--they have always said the couple dollars wasn't worth the paperwork. The last time we came back in from Canada by car we had four cases of beer and two cases of wine. Last summer we came back from Europe with 14 bottles of wine.

 

If you declare your alcohol/cigarettes they will generally not charge duty unless you've got so much that it's obviously for resale. If you don't declare and they search and find the items, the fines can be steep--far more than the small duty, if it's charged at all.

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spookwife

spookwife

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How about not declaring anything .... anyone here still have there bags opened by Customs on your return to the US if you didn't declare anything?

 

they are called RANDOM checks for a reason.

 

I gotta wonder why people are so hell bent on saving a few bucks by being willing to commit a crime.

 

are the customs charges that outrageous past the allowed limit? I never thought so, even adding those charges on to the price I still made out on the cost.

 

Oh and BTW, at least 1/3 of the time when I HAVE Declared stuff, and been over the allowed, I have NOT been charged.

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