A Question about Customs

[lyteforce]

My wife & I are booked on the Explorer of the Seas in September to do a roundtrip sail from Seattle down to San Francisco and back. With an "international" stop in Victoria on the way back to Seattle, I'm curious if anyone has any experience on what going through customs will be like for a couple Canadians like us?

 

Will we be going through Canadian Customs to get off the boat in Victoria? With us being Canadian, I'm assuming we'll be declaring at that point if we are? And on the return to Seattle, are we headed through US Customs again?

 

This is all new to us and I'm just curious what to expect.

[CGinMTL]

My wife & I are booked on the Explorer of the Seas in September to do a roundtrip sail from Seattle down to San Francisco and back. With an "international" stop in Victoria on the way back to Seattle, I'm curious if anyone has any experience on what going through customs will be like for a couple Canadians like us?

 

Will we be going through Canadian Customs to get off the boat in Victoria? With us being Canadian, I'm assuming we'll be declaring at that point if we are? And on the return to Seattle, are we headed through US Customs again?

 

This is all new to us and I'm just curious what to expect.

You sound like me. I had the same question when we did the Alaska Cruise.

Basically, you are just getting off the ship like any other port. as you are not staying, you to not "clear customs". at the end of the cruise in Seattle, when you come back to Canada " officially. Just answer what they have in the computer. I always answer questions in such a way that I am not lying but I match the data they have.

.

Hope that helps.

[Langley Cruisers]

What usually happens is that a Canadian Customs Declaration card is left in your stateroom; you fill it in and return it to the Guest Relations desk, where all the cards are rounded up and passengers are "cleared" behind the scenes. Then you walk off in Victoria as you would at any other port once all passengers are cleared.

 

When you disembark in Seattle, you will then clear U.S. Customs and Immigration, as you are returning to the States after having ported at a foreign port. It's all very easy and such - no worries for Canadians and nothing different for us.

 

Crossing the border back into Canada to go home, you have already legally declared your goods on the Victoria port stop; anything acquired between Victoria and the day you cross back is a new declaration.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Do you have Nexus?

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[lyteforce]

What usually happens is that a Canadian Customs Declaration card is left in your stateroom; you fill it in and return it to the Guest Relations desk, where all the cards are rounded up and passengers are "cleared" behind the scenes. Then you walk off in Victoria as you would at any other port once all passengers are cleared.

 

When you disembark in Seattle, you will then clear U.S. Customs and Immigration, as you are returning to the States after having ported at a foreign port. It's all very easy and such - no worries for Canadians and nothing different for us.

 

Crossing the border back into Canada to go home, you have already legally declared your goods on the Victoria port stop; anything acquired between Victoria and the day you cross back is a new declaration.

 

Hope this helps.

Okay, that sounds easy enough. It also means my wife & I should keep in mind we'll only be in the US "overnight" upon our return to Seattle (our plan is to take the evening train back home).

 

Do you have Nexus?

I do. My wife, not so much. I keep asking/hounding/pleading for her to apply for one.

[Langley Cruisers]

...It also means my wife & I should keep in mind we'll only be in the US "overnight" upon our return to Seattle (our plan is to take the evening train back home).

 

Nice, that's a beautiful trip. Are you leaving from King St. Station in Seattle? Heads up that it's a long line and you should get there early, like really early... 6 am. Sorry ;) If it's possible and do-able for you, I highly recommend getting Business Class seats for the train trip home. You get to disembark first and go through Customs and Immigration first, plus there is a separate check-in at the train station.

[lyteforce]

Our plan is to take the evening train down from Vancouver down to King St Station the night before the sail (a friend hooked us up with a F&F rate at the Grand Hyatt) and then make our way to the boat around noon. On the way back, we'll grab the evening train home which I believe is a 6:30ish PM trip. We should be good for time getting off the boat - just need to figure out what to do with our luggage.

 

We actually took the train down last year from Vancouver to Seattle and thoroughly enjoyed it (even if we had to make the final bit of the trip by bus due to a landslide).