New England & Canada- CDN custom/immigration?

[phabric]

We will be Princess New England & Canada, New York to Quebec City.

 

The Ports are -

New York, NY

Newport,

Boston

Bar Harbor

Saint John, NB

Halifax, NS

Sydney, NS

Charlottetown, PEI

Quebec City, Quebec

 

Where will we have to go through CDN custom/immigration?

Edited May 22, 2019 by phabric

[Host Carolyn]

2 hours ago, phabric said:

We will be Princess New England & Canada, New York to Quebec City.

 

The Ports are -I

New York, NY

Newport,

Boston

Bar Harbor

Saint John, NB

Halifax, NS

Sydney, NS

Charlottetown, PEI

Quebec City, Quebec

 

Where will we have to go through CDN custom/immigration?

 In Quebec....

[martincath]

Actually with that list of ports Saint John should be where you do Immigration - but Customs might be at Quebec City (depends if Duty Free is open on the ship between any of the Canadian ports - if so they'll probably leave that until the end so they don't have to issues two sets of forms, and since you're Canadian they will definitely want to know if you've been buying a bunch of stuff you should be declaring!!!)

 

You generally always do immigration at your Port of Entry - the first port in any new country - unless you've already been Precleared in advance (this happens in Vancouver heading into the US, but while we do have the same right to set up Preclearance operations on US soil for Canadian immigration, it's never been made use of). Generally Canadian cruise port immigration is handled very sensibly - hand in any required forms to reception, and a full passenger manifest is transmitted to CBSA in advance for everyone to be checked before the ship even arrives.

[Host Carolyn]

We have never had to do any sort of customs or immigration form for Canada until we disembark at the end of cruise. This must be relative new or handled " behind the scene"

[martincath]

That makes sense Carolyn - Customs form right at the end so all the Duty Free and stuff bought in the US prior to cruising is handled at the same time, with immigration done behind the scenes. Canada may not  deploy the same degree of visible security theatre as the US, but we still don't let folks just wander into our country without knowing who they are... the 3 days in US waters is plenty of time for CBSA to run the profiles of everyone on board. You've probably heard announcements for 'passenger X' to report to a specific location on the ship the morning you arrive in your first Canadian port - these would be the folks on the 'naughty list' who need to meet CBSA for interview before they're allowed to get off the ship.

 

Since it's a one-way cruise they risk being sent back to the US right away if they are not allowed in, whereas in Victoria on Seattle RT cruises just flagging their cruise cards so they are not able to disembark is the normal process (since the ship will take them back to the US the same day, it's much easier than hauling them off the ship and dragging them to the airport!) With the change of DUIs into Serious Crimes at the end of last year, I'd expect an awful lot more US citizens to be refused entry this year as they will no longer be eligible for the 'Deemed Rehabilitated' exemption with that change.

Edited May 24, 2019 by martincath

[*Miss G*]

This morning we arrived in Halifax, NS, following departure from Bar Harbor yesterday.  There was a Canada Customs declaration card in our room when we boarded in Boston.  We filled that in then dropped it off at Guest Services.  Halifax is our first Canadian port.  When we arrived we had to wait for CBSA to clear the ship.  It took them about 30 minutes and then we disembarked without further processing.  (They had the same process when we did this itinerary last September.) Keep in mind that the preceding is how things go if Canada does not have any issues with your entry. 

Edited May 27, 2019 by *Miss G*