Excruciatingly long immigration in NYC

[Jazzbo]

We are currently awaiting immigration processing on the Eclipse after docking at approximately 9:00 am this morning. Passengers were told to present themselves at the Celebrity Theatre at 9:00 this morning to receive a numbered ticket. Passengers with ship excursions, suite passengers, and Elite and above were given numbers in their cabins last night. Passengers were to wait in public areas for their group number to be called, and immigration would process passengers in groups.

 

No one can re-board the ship until all passengers and crew have been processed and have departed the ship. Celebrity estimated this could take as long as 5 hours 1:00 pm).

 

We went to the theatre at 9:10, since our first scheduled event (late lunch with family members living in Brooklyn and some driving in from Connecticut) is not until 3:00 pm.

 

It is now 1:00 pm and they have just called tickets 11, 12, & 13! Passengers are very unhappy, and so is the crew. I have no idea how late we will be meeting our family. Why would customs & immigration not schedule more staff on a Tuesday morning to process arriving passengers and crew???? There is nothing Celebrity or the passengers can do, but add this to terrible delays in immigration in major airports coming back in to the US, and it's clear that Congress needs to authorize more funding to address the shortage of customs officers. But even with full funding today, it would take a year or two to hire and train the additional staff.

This is certainly not the way for us to welcome visitors to our country!

[Iamthesea]

Sorry :( What number are you?

[Jazzbo]

35.

[RDC1]

Normal reaction by government departments when their budgets are cut or limited. They reduce the positions that provide services for the public and keep all of the management and back office positions staffed. That creates the out cry that they need more budget and staffing. Kind of a cynical approach but it does work.

 

Happens all the time at pretty much all levels.

[Iamthesea]

35.

 

 

Goodnight! ...literally! :eek: Hopefully, the numbers will speed up in time for you to make your lunch.

Edited November 18, 2014 by Iamthesea

[Sloop-JohnB]

Hi JAZZBO,

 

Do appreciate your LIVE reports...

 

Hopefully you will be off soon so you can meet up with family.

 

I remember reading last week (after the last round of Celebrity TAs that found themselves in similar delays) here in a Canadian Ntl Newspaper that Interpol was stating they are seeing an increase in the use of Cruise Ships as a means of "radicals" making their way to joining Extremist Groups in the Middle East

 

Now of course that would be ships cruising OTHER parts of the world

 

But, it could account for longer delays / heightened security too at US Ports, as I am sure that when something is an issue in one part of the world when it comes to security... It means that US Homeland Security raises the bar here

 

Cheers!

Edited November 18, 2014 by Sloop-JohnB

[rbuenger]

We are currently awaiting immigration processing on the Eclipse after docking at approximately 9:00 am this morning. Passengers were told to present themselves at the Celebrity Theatre at 9:00 this morning to receive a numbered ticket. Passengers with ship excursions, suite passengers, and Elite and above were given numbers in their cabins last night. Passengers were to wait in public areas for their group number to be called, and immigration would process passengers in groups.

 

No one can re-board the ship until all passengers and crew have been processed and have departed the ship. Celebrity estimated this could take as long as 5 hours 1:00 pm).

 

We went to the theatre at 9:10, since our first scheduled event (late lunch with family members living in Brooklyn and some driving in from Connecticut) is not until 3:00 pm.

 

It is now 1:00 pm and they have just called tickets 11, 12, & 13! Passengers are very unhappy, and so is the crew. I have no idea how late we will be meeting our family. Why would customs & immigration not schedule more staff on a Tuesday morning to process arriving passengers and crew???? There is nothing Celebrity or the passengers can do, but add this to terrible delays in immigration in major airports coming back in to the US, and it's clear that Congress needs to authorize more funding to address the shortage of customs officers. But even with full funding today, it would take a year or two to hire and train the additional staff.

This is certainly not the way for us to welcome visitors to our country!

 

Short answer is that staffing levels at CBP were impacted by the Government Sequestration and this has greatly impacted the amount of agents that are available......

[jelayne]

Normal reaction by government departments when their budgets are cut or limited. They reduce the positions that provide services for the public and keep all of the management and back office positions staffed. That creates the out cry that they need more budget and staffing. Kind of a cynical approach but it does work.

 

Happens all the time at pretty much all levels.

 

Agree !

[cruisestitch]

Passengers are now beginning to return to the barely-heated terminal from being in the city but final passengers still aren't off the ship so we are not being allowed back on.

 

I, for one, am canceling next year's westbound TA on Eclipse as this trip has put me off.

 

The change in itinerary ( skipping Bermuda) means we won't have to go through this twice. But next year's itinerary has the double immigration scenario (Boston and Miami) and I am not of a mind to repeat this experience.

[Wj420]

Just returned through fl l on the silhoutee. Ship was late due to the allure pulling in ahead of us but departure was close to one time. Customs line did get long but seemed to move quickly. I'm not surprised nyc would take longer due to world conditions. We try very hard never to do immigration twice. We learned our lesson when on a family New Years cruise, we had to present ourselves in the theater at 7:00am on New Years day! Omg! That was a rough morning to be in St thomas! Most festive New Years though!

[cle-guy]

What ticks me off about the whole thing, is we passengers actually pay an itemized, specific fee for the immigration process, on airline tickets it's itemized out even!

 

So we pay the fee and don't get the services we are paying for, they just take the money and move to someplace else and leave us waiting in huge lines.

 

TSA (not immigration related) for example just upped the fee to process us at airport screening. I paid $11.20 for my last round trip with no stops. I read that the new law says if you shave a layover of more than something like 4 hours, they will charge the fee again....So that could mean $10 to screen me at each flight, and they can do 1 person every 30 seconds or so....so they collect $20 per minute, $1200 per hour, $12,000 per day for a 10 hour workday, per security aisle at the airport! so much wast has to be going on with that money.

[Turtles06]

Passengers are now beginning to return to the barely-heated terminal from being in the city but final passengers still aren't off the ship so we are not being allowed back on.

 

I, for one, am canceling next year's westbound TA on Eclipse as this trip has put me off.

 

The change in itinerary ( skipping Bermuda) means we won't have to go through this twice. But next year's itinerary has the double immigration scenario (Boston and Miami) and I am not of a mind to repeat this experience.

 

Sorry you are having this bad experience!

 

My spouse and I have just returned from a wonderful TA on the Silhouette, and have been booked for quite some time on the Nov. 2015 Eclipse westbound TA. While we were aboard the Silhouette, we realized that much of what we enjoy about the sea says on a TA is being outside -- reading on our balcony or on the pool deck, walking on deck, swimming, simply staring at the water for hours on end, etc. Because the more northern route of the Eclipse TA may force us indoors, we started to re-think the booking. And now the (double) immigration hassle may be another deterrent...

 

I hope things pick up for all of you on board!

[Full90]

Normal reaction by government departments when their budgets are cut or limited. They reduce the positions that provide services for the public and keep all of the management and back office positions staffed. That creates the out cry that they need more budget and staffing. Kind of a cynical approach but it does work.

 

Happens all the time at pretty much all levels.

 

You hit the nail on the head! I wish more people understood this about our government and yes at all levels. School boards are the worst with this tactic.

[Jazzbo]

We made it off the ship and through immigration just in time to catch for family driving in from Connecticut to pick us up outside the cries terminal at 2:30, but the lines were much longer for non-US passport holders. The immigration officer said the delay was because we were on such a big ship, and I must admit that every booth was staffed. Maybe Manhattan Cruise Terminal isn't properly configured/equipped to handle larger cruise ships? I shudder to think how long it would take to clear an Oasis-class ship!

 

By the way, it is freezing (literally) in NY today!

[Iamthesea]

Thank you for the update. Hope you had a good lunch and afternoon. :)

[Andy]

We made it off the ship and through immigration just in time to catch for family driving in from Connecticut to pick us up outside the cries terminal at 2:30, but the lines were much longer for non-US passport holders. The immigration officer said the delay was because we were on such a big ship, and I must admit that every booth was staffed. Maybe Manhattan Cruise Terminal isn't properly configured/equipped to handle larger cruise ships? I shudder to think how long it would take to clear an Oasis-class ship!

 

By the way, it is freezing (literally) in NY today!

 

Thanks for the update. I hope you had an enjoyable time with your family !

[Andy]

Passengers are now beginning to return to the barely-heated terminal from being in the city but final passengers still aren't off the ship so we are not being allowed back on.

 

I, for one, am canceling next year's westbound TA on Eclipse as this trip has put me off.

 

The change in itinerary ( skipping Bermuda) means we won't have to go through this twice. But next year's itinerary has the double immigration scenario (Boston and Miami) and I am not of a mind to repeat this experience.

 

Hi Cruisestitch,

 

Very sorry to hear of your experience. FWIW, I can't blame you for canceling next year, as it sounds like this was a difficult sailing, with poor weather conditions and the immigration issues. Of course, next year's Westbound TA might be fantastic... but it's offputting when you have a negative experience.

 

Are you staying on for the next sailing ? It would be great to see you again !

[upwarduk]

Passengers are now beginning to return to the barely-heated terminal from being in the city but final passengers still aren't off the ship so we are not being allowed back on.

 

I, for one, am canceling next year's westbound TA on Eclipse as this trip has put me off.

 

The change in itinerary ( skipping Bermuda) means we won't have to go through this twice. But next year's itinerary has the double immigration scenario (Boston and Miami) and I am not of a mind to repeat this experience.

 

 

I hope Celebrity are taking note, although I doubt there's anything they can do about it!

Edited November 19, 2014 by upwarduk

[Kitekat]

Will be on Solstice doing Trans Pacific in April next year. First US port of call is Maui. We have now sadly decided that we will not plan anything as US immigration seems to take all day for every cruise. What a waste of a day!

Edited November 19, 2014 by Kitekat

[junetraveler2014]

What ticks me off about the whole thing, is we passengers actually pay an itemized, specific fee for the immigration process, on airline tickets it's itemized out even!

 

So we pay the fee and don't get the services we are paying for, they just take the money and move to someplace else and leave us waiting in huge lines.

 

TSA (not immigration related) for example just upped the fee to process us at airport screening. I paid $11.20 for my last round trip with no stops. I read that the new law says if you shave a layover of more than something like 4 hours, they will charge the fee again....So that could mean $10 to screen me at each flight, and they can do 1 person every 30 seconds or so....so they collect $20 per minute, $1200 per hour, $12,000 per day for a 10 hour workday, per security aisle at the airport! so much wast has to be going on with that money.

I do like your posts very much. You are truly a learned traveler. Thanks for your input.

[mickey89]

.......................... so much waste has to be going on with that money.

 

No it's helping to support the $18,000,000,000,000 US debt I expect.

Most countries are cutting back on their Border Police, we the traveller will have to learn to be more patience but I hope we don't face the same degree of problems when we land in Miami in 3 days time !!

[4774Papa]

We generally have not experienced long delays coming back into the US.

 

Once we did have a bit of delay, flying back from a cruise into Miami International Airport, during a short shutdown of the government.

 

The line for non-US (which is usually longer than for US citizens) was very short, with the line for US being inordinately long.

 

We noticed that the non-US line went away after about half an hour and the INS even waited a bit to move some of their people over to the US citizen line.

It was obvious that they were trying to punish the US citizens and make a statement about the shutdown. The people in line were not amused.

[nijh]

Will be on Solstice doing Trans Pacific in April next year. First US port of call is Maui. We have now sadly decided that we will not plan anything as US immigration seems to take all day for every cruise. What a waste of a day!

 

 

They may come onboard the day before.

 

When we did the same trip on Century we did the whole immigration thing on the sea day before we got to Maui. I can't remember how they got on board - but they were the best US immigration officials I've ever had. Friendly, chatty, humorous - I guess living in Hawaii made the difference [emoji4]

[cruisestitch]

Sorry Andy, once again we will miss each other. I disembark the day you get on, and then on December 7 I get on as you disembark. Rats!

[herbanrenewal]

My cousin from Germany will no longer visit us in the US because the process is horrendous for international travelers. She says she is made to feel like a criminal, delayed for hours after a long flight, and pay ridiculously high fees for the privilege of stepping into the US. Other countries have heightened security processes, but few cost as much in time and money as the US...all without basic availability of food, water, seating, and/or toilet facilities for hours.

 

I can only think that we in the US are going to lose millions of visitor tourist dollars because of our inadequate immigration arrivals processes.

 

As bad as it is for returning citizens, its even worse for our visitors.