Allure - Our room was raided and tossed!

[Trickie Dickie]

3 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

They knew there was nothing. Let's not be naive. They were harrasing the couple because they were gay. 

I have been harassed for being gay in the past.  To be honest it really didn’t feel like that.  The facial expressions that I’m used when being harassed (that lovely wince/snarl)  wasn’t present.  I kind of have a radar for that, like an internal self protection alarm 😄.  The bosses may  have targeted us but the officers were very professional. 

 

 

 

 

[LadyBeBop]

1 hour ago, Trickie Dickie said:

We were changing rooms and we had 4 big suitcases, 2 large carry ons and two backpacks.  The gays don’t pack light on a three week vacation. 😄

 

Must disagree with you there. For a three week vacation?  That’s light. 🙂

[HBE4]

7 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

13 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

They knew there was nothing. Let's not be naive. They were harrasing the couple because they were gay. 

 

That's a massive assumption

 

I just asked the same...well,similar...question.

 

EDIT: And I see that it's been answered.  Really need to take a speed typing class. I'm always 5 posts behind....lol

Edited April 3, 2019 by HBE4

[springfire]

5 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

I guess you did not realize that Customs Agents are armed law enforcement officers?   They always carry guns.

 

Heck, here in DC, even the ones working in the office carry guns.  It is part of their uniform.

 

Understood, however when you have 9 armed agents knocking on your door when you did nothing wrong, OP has stated he has no past criminal record and they are demanding to enter your cabin, it is hard to remain calm.   The OP has no idea what they are doing or what they are looking for.  It is amazing to me that the OP stayed  so calm.   Sorry some of you don't like the fact that I said the agents had guns, get over it, they did.  My point is the OP did an amazing job of staying calm in a very bad situation.  

[Trickie Dickie]

5 minutes ago, HBE4 said:

 

So, I've skimmed thru a lot of pages but I'm sure I missed a post or three.

 

Honest question - not being snarky - do you feel it was random or that you were targeted because you were a B2B cruiser, gay, a non-US citizen or some combination of all three?

 

The reason I ask is that what sounded like a cool, unique little story has somehow spiraled into a referendum on profiling, police brutality, unconstitutional actions, illegal searches, privacy violations....have I missed any think else?

 

Having said that, you seem to have handled yourself with class, respect and dignity.  I probably would have pooped my pants...which apparently is okay if you are a ESA.  Seriously, my hands would have been shaking the rest of the day. Not sure if I would have taken it personally but its good to know it can happen and the be better prepared (mentally) should it happen.

 

 

 

 No I don’t think it was random. No I don’t think it was because I’m Canadian.   Remember half the back to back passengers were also searched.   Yes I believe they did it because the next cruise was a gay cruise.  Gay cruises have a stigma with drug use.  I don’t know if drug use is truly higher with gay people  but it certainly gets a lot of press.  I wonder if they gave a regular cruise the amount of scrutiny that a gay cruise receives if there be an equal amount of drug busts. 

[mayleeman]

29 minutes ago, Trickie Dickie said:

 

Canadians are hardly rare in Florida in the winter 😄

LOL! But I meant the proprtion of cruisers getting a full blown cabin search!

[John&LaLa]

2 minutes ago, Trickie Dickie said:

 No I don’t think it was random. No I don’t think it was because I’m Canadian.   Remember half the back to back passengers were also searched.   Yes I believe they did it because the next cruise was a gay cruise.  Gay cruises have a stigma with drug use.  I don’t know if drug use is truly higher with gay people  but it certainly gets a lot of press.  I wonder if they gave a regular cruise the amount of scrutiny that a gay cruise receives if there be an equal amount of drug busts. 

 

The Atlantis cruise was a full gay charter correct? Last year a minor celebrity OD'd on the same cruise, correct? Pretty sure I think I read that they did arrest some drug smugglers trying to board. Not an expert, but I'd guess it would be easier to bring contraband aboard at a port stop with lax local security, than fro the US.

 

So, I'd say that law enforcement did have good reason to do some random searches of the B2B passengers. 

[Charles4515]

8 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

That's a massive assumption 

 

For sure it is an assumption. I have seen a bunch of police searches when I worked as crew in the transportation industry and they never spent anywhere that much time.  They did profile people although they often asked me to tell the passengers it was random. Sometimes they would search a few other passengers to make it look random but the way they found the passenger was they had a copy of the manifest. They usually had no idea where to find the passenger was located except they were onboard, they asked me where to find the person they wanted to search. 

 

 

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

For sure it is an assumption. I have seen a bunch of police searches when I worked as crew in the transportation industry and they never spent anywhere that much time.  They did profile people although they often asked me to tell the passengers it was random. Sometimes they would search a few other passengers to make it look random but the way they found the passenger was they had a copy of the manifest. They usually had no idea where to find the passenger was located except they were onboard, they asked me where to find the person they wanted to search. 

 

 

 

But remember,  the dog did indicate a false positive

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, John&LaLa said:

 

But remember,  the dog did indicate a false positive

 

We don't know that, we know the CBP agent said the dog hit on something, they could have just said that to get the OP to confess to something being in the cabin.

[Trickie Dickie]

2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

We don't know that, we know the CBP agent said the dog hit on something, they could have just said that to get the OP to confess to something being in the cabin.

 As I previously stated, I felt he was being dishonest with me to get me to confess to something.  This tactic probably works on the guilty. 

[Sam Ting]

So I guess it’s best if you have something and are on back to back cruises to hide it in a public space like a bathroom where there are no cameras  the night before turnaround day and retrieve it after the ship leaves. Is that the moral of the story? 

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, Trickie Dickie said:

 As I previously stated, I felt he was being dishonest with me to get me to confess to something.  This tactic probably works on the guilty. 

 

I know you have said that, I was disagreeing with John's statement that we know there was a false positive hit.  I absolutely think the agent was trying to make you talk.  🙂 

[Charles4515]

11 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

But remember,  the dog did indicate a false positive

 

The dogs do pretty good but that is not uncommon. Most of the time no matter what the dog indicated or they said the dog indicated nothing was found. Very few times were any drugs found. But they were found. 

Edited April 3, 2019 by Charles4515

[xpcdoojk]

40 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

That's a massive assumption 

 

Which he is massively skilled at doing.

 

jc

[Pratique]

9 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

The dogs do pretty good but that is not uncommon. Most of the time no matter what the dog indicated or they said the dog indicated nothing was found. Very few times were any drugs found. But they were found. 

Would they typically keep the dog in the cabin for so long? On every reality cop show on TV, they seem to back the dog off after the hit. Just curious.

[HBE4]

32 minutes ago, Trickie Dickie said:

 No I don’t think it was random. No I don’t think it was because I’m Canadian.   Remember half the back to back passengers were also searched.   Yes I believe they did it because the next cruise was a gay cruise.  Gay cruises have a stigma with drug use.  I don’t know if drug use is truly higher with gay people  but it certainly gets a lot of press.  I wonder if they gave a regular cruise the amount of scrutiny that a gay cruise receives if there be an equal amount of drug busts. 

 

Good question. Perhaps because a gay-charted cruise is portrayed as this massive, uninhibited party with lots of EDM music. Every EDM club I've ever been to has people openly using drugs (For the record, I don't use drugs nor am I gay).

 

But I've never taken a B2B cruise or been on a gay cruise so take that for what's it worth. In your experience of 28 cruises, have you noticed more drug use on a gay cruise vs a regular cruise?

 

Also, I did go to the Atlantis website and watched a few YouTube Videos....all I can say is that I really have to the gym. 💪

 

[John&LaLa]

26 minutes ago, Sam Ting said:

So I guess it’s best if you have something and are on back to back cruises to hide it in a public space like a bathroom where there are no cameras  the night before turnaround day and retrieve it after the ship leaves. Is that the moral of the story? 

 

Dogs might do a sweep of the ship

Edited April 3, 2019 by John&LaLa

[CelticMCO]

Not going to bother reading much more than I have.  You are at a Port of Entry to the United States, you have zero, repeat zero, expectation of privacy or exemption from search.  Everything is subject to search, without warrant.  You are crossing the border.  Customs law is clear, your cabin, bags, the ship itself and everyone on it is subject to inspection.  As far as guns, yes, the big mean scary police man carry guns, get over it.  You were not "raided"; good grief.  Try some foreign ports, especially in the far east/legacy UK ports, and you will see just how professional our CBP folks are.          

[John&LaLa]

26 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

I know you have said that, I was disagreeing with John's statement that we know there was a false positive hit.  I absolutely think the agent was trying to make you talk.  🙂 

 

I'm just trying to look at all the angles. We can think whatever we want. 😉

[John&LaLa]

27 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

The dogs do pretty good but that is not uncommon. Most of the time no matter what the dog indicated or they said the dog indicated nothing was found. Very few times were any drugs found. But they were found. 

 

Ok, were back to planting evidence now. 🤔🤣

[Trickie Dickie]

Not going to bother reading much more than I have.  You are at a Port of Entry to the United States, you have zero, repeat zero, expectation of privacy or exemption from search.  Everything is subject to search, without warrant.  You are crossing the border.  Customs law is clear, your cabin, bags, the ship itself and everyone on it is subject to inspection.  As far as guns, yes, the big mean scary police man carry guns, get over it.  You were not "raided"; good grief.  Try some foreign ports, especially in the far east/legacy UK ports, and you will see just how professional our CBP folks are.          

That’s OK I only read the first sentence of your response. I have a feeling, call it an instinct that the rest of your response isn’t positive.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[John&LaLa]

17 minutes ago, Pratique said:

Would they typically keep the dog in the cabin for so long? On every reality cop show on TV, they seem to back the dog off after the hit. Just curious.

 

This is obviously where most of our experts get their information on drugs busts. 😉

Edited April 3, 2019 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

12 minutes ago, CelticMCO said:

Not going to bother reading much more than I have.  You are at a Port of Entry to the United States, you have zero, repeat zero, expectation of privacy or exemption from search.  Everything is subject to search, without warrant.  You are crossing the border.  Customs law is clear, your cabin, bags, the ship itself and everyone on it is subject to inspection.  As far as guns, yes, the big mean scary police man carry guns, get over it.  You were not "raided"; good grief.  Try some foreign ports, especially in the far east/legacy UK ports, and you will see just how professional our CBP folks are.          

 

I'm fine with raided in the title, but I have a hard time getting past 'tossed' 🤣

[sockmonkeygirl]

13 minutes ago, CelticMCO said:

  As far as guns, yes, the big mean scary police man carry guns, get over it.  You were not "raided"; good grief.  

What, to you, constitutes a raid?  Because if they had found something of interest in his cabin, this would have played out exactly like a raid.