Boarding during an overnight visit....

[cranethie]

Hello there

 

We are cruising a segment of The Grand Asia voyage on the Amsterdam this coming November. We board ( mid cruise) in Hong Kong which is an overnight stop - board on November 1st, sail November 2nd. Sydney bound :)

 

This is a first for us - every other cruise we've boarded on day 1 of a cruise - so I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone who has been in this situation will answer for me.

 

 

1. I assume we clear customs/emigration during the boarding process so what happens when we want to go ashore? Do we have to go through immigration/emigration again?

 

2. As new passengers our muster drill be on day 2 just before departure won't it?

 

We will be in Hong Kong for a couple of days prior but I am hoping there'll be some more onshore time available during these 2 extra days.

 

Looking forward to your answers and any other information you may have.

Cathy

[ski ww]

We've done segments of cruises. Once you're on board checked in it's the same as if it's the first day of a cruise. Safety drill is normal, just before departure. Once you have your key card you can get off / on as always. Enjoy your cruise.

Allan

[catl331]

We joined a Grand Med cruise in Barcelona. Our only customs/immigration check was at the airport. At the ship we were escorted to the front desk for check-in. After that we could come and go just like at any port stop. Our muster drill was the next day, for about 30 people only.

[Essiesmom]

We joined a Grand Med cruise in Barcelona. Our only customs/immigration check was at the airport. At the ship we were escorted to the front desk for check-in. After that we could come and go just like at any port stop. Our muster drill was the next day, for about 30 people only.

 

 

This. You clear immigration (no customs) at the airport when you enter the country. No customs until you return to your home country. EM

[OlsSalt]

You will need to go through security again if you leave the ship and then come back after your embarkation - there can be lines for that function. However, there is usually a special by-pass line for pre-checked in passengers if you leave and come back to the ship.

 

Port escorts will sometimes direct you to the initial embarkation lines if there is crowd, so be sure to seek out the by-pass line for checked in passengers. Same for priority boarding passengers - sometimes there are crowds outside the terminal and you can get shuffled into the regular check-in lines well before you enter the terminal.

 

Worst experience we had though was in San Diego where all passengers for two large ships that day had to go through security together first before they could separate out into the different ships, let alone priority boarding and regular boarding.

 

It as a massive and very unhappy serpentine of lines and long, long waits standing and grumbling. I understand San Diego has taken steps to change that prior practice , but not sure. In that setting even if you were a pre-checked in passenger, it did not look like there was any special by-pass lane. Maybe there was that we did not see, but all we got were cattle prod directions from the staff to get into that one huge line regardless of any priority status.

[Sir PMP]

Hello there

 

We are cruising a segment of The Grand Asia voyage on the Amsterdam this coming November. We board ( mid cruise) in Hong Kong which is an overnight stop - board on November 1st, sail November 2nd. Sydney bound :)

 

This is a first for us - every other cruise we've boarded on day 1 of a cruise - so I have a couple of questions that hopefully someone who has been in this situation will answer for me.

 

 

1. I assume we clear customs/emigration during the boarding process so what happens when we want to go ashore? Do we have to go through immigration/emigration again?

 

2. As new passengers our muster drill be on day 2 just before departure won't it?

 

We will be in Hong Kong for a couple of days prior but I am hoping there'll be some more onshore time available during these 2 extra days.

 

Looking forward to your answers and any other information you may have.

Cathy

 

We boarded the Amsterdam in Hong Kong this March to join the 2nd part of the World cruise on its overnight stay, after normal clearing at the airport we took the shuttle (thru Hal ) straight to the ship and since we had done our pre check in papers we went straight to the front desk and were in our room in 30 minutes. However, the only problem we could have had was the terminal, we took the shuttle to the old terminal (container port) which was on our papers, but when we were on board, the ship was just leaving for the new terminal downtown, so we could have missed it and had to to take the cab bak to the new one. There's not much you can do because it was a last minute captain's decision. By the way this was at 10:00 pm at night after a direct flight from SFO..

 

]e

[cranethie]

Thanks for all your answers - I thought it couldn't have been as difficult as I imagined. Just me making a mountain over a molehill and overthinking :)

[cranethie]

OlsSalt - we have boarded twice in San Diego.

 

2012 for the Panama Canal on the Amsterdam. No problems - lines just kept moving.

 

2016 for Hawaii Tahiti and other places on the Westerdam. Oh my what a schmozzle. I know Kazu and others have written in great depth about it. Started outside the terminal and continued all way onboard. It wasnt until the security chap scanned my key card and said 'Welcome aboard - Welcome back' did I relax. Well, if the truth be told I didn't actually give a sigh of relief until I saw our luggage waiting for us in our stateroom :)