Loved the Facial Recognition At Canaveral!!

[GTO-Girl]

Loved how fast we were able to get off the Harmony in Port Canaveral using facial recognition!!  

 

We barely slowed down and were out the terminal door in a flash!!

[Ourusualbeach]

That will certainly eat into the porters tips.  We always used a porter just to bypass the line.

[GTO-Girl]

32 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

That will certainly eat into the porters tips.  We always used a porter just to bypass the line.

 

People with a lot of luggage like us were still using the porters.  

 

They were busy!  

[legaljen1969]

43 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

That will certainly eat into the porters tips.  We always used a porter just to bypass the line.

I don't think it will cut into their tips all that much. Plenty of people will still be more than happy to have the porters help with luggage.   I never understood how you avoid customs by having a porter.  Is that what you mean by "bypass the line?" 

[Ourusualbeach]

6 minutes ago, legaljen1969 said:

I don't think it will cut into their tips all that much. Plenty of people will still be more than happy to have the porters help with luggage.   I never understood how you avoid customs by having a porter.  Is that what you mean by "bypass the line?" 

You don’t avoid customs, the porters had their own line that was much shorter.

 

On our last cruise out of PC there were only 3 agents.  1 for porters and 2 for everyone else.  The line for everyone else was huge.  $10 for a porter and we were in the parking garage in under 10 minutes. 

[Ourusualbeach]

20 minutes ago, GTO-Girl said:

 

People with a lot of luggage like us were still using the porters.  

 

They were busy!  

No doubt, I just know that I base whether we use the porters on how the lines are.  There are 4 of us and 4 bags so carrying the luggage isn’t an issue.   I’m sure there are others that do the same.

[Fun2snorkel]

How does this work?  Does a regular Passport work?

[GTO-Girl]

12 minutes ago, Fun2snorkel said:

How does this work?  Does a regular Passport work?

 

Anyone that had their passport scanned upon checkin will be directed to the facial recognition line when getting off the ship.  Go stand in front of a camera for 2 seconds and you are gone!!  You don’t even have to show your passport to customs!  

 

It was sweet!!

[BirdTravels]

We used the facial recognition off of the Symphony last year. As fast as you could walk through the baggage hall and into customs area, you were out on the curb. Wonderful!  

 

People with birth certificates have to stop and talk to the limited number of CBP officers. 

 

We were on the Harmony at PC earlier this year, we had the regular stop and check,,,, but the CBP officer said the facial recognition was coming. Happy to hear that it has arrived. 

Edited September 8, 2019 by BirdTravels

[GEORGIEGIRL]

Is this available for just US citizens or can green card holders (specifically a Canadian passport) use it as well?

[GTO-Girl]

1 minute ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Is this available for just US citizens or can green card holders (specifically a Canadian passport) use it as well?

 

I am not sure.  I just know as we approached they had one line for passports (facial recognition)  and the other line for birth certificates.  

 

I didn’t hear them ask or say anything else...

[brillohead]

I just got off Majesty this morning.  I did a B2B that instead of being two 5-day cruises became a 7-day and a 3-day, courtesy of Hurricane Dorian.  

We originally departed from Terminal 18, but when we returned (two days later than we were supposed to be there) we had to dock at Terminal 19 next door, because Allure was at Terminal 18 that morning.  

There were SEVERAL times that they announced that they had to pause the debarkation process because the line was backed up too much because of CBP (actual agents, as Terminal 19 wasn't set up for facial recognition), and they didn't make the "all luggage numbers are available and everyone who is not staying must debark NOW" announcement until at least 10am, maybe closer to 10:30.  

This morning, we were able to dock back at Terminal 18 again, with the facial recognition up and working.  The "get your crap and get off our ship, everyone's luggage is now available" announcement was made at 8:20 -- two full hours sooner than it had been on the previous cruise.  

Of course, I'm sure the fact that were almost more crew members on board than passengers for the shortened cruise had a significant impact in the total time it took to get everyone and their luggage off the ship... but not ONCE did they announce that the line was too backed up and they had to stop calling numbers until it eased up, and they would have had the same issue even with the smaller number of passengers.



 

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Is this available for just US citizens or can green card holders (specifically a Canadian passport) use it as well?

The signs this morning when I got off Majesty simply said "passport" with an arrow to the right and "birth certificate" with an arrow to the left.  There was no mention of nationality or immigration status, just passport or no passport.  

[Fun2snorkel]

Thanks GTO girl!  We have passports!

 

 

[mets123]

The procedure is also in place at Cape Liberty.

[nalrudaini]

6 hours ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Is this available for just US citizens or can green card holders (specifically a Canadian passport) use it as well?

 

We are not US citizens, and the facial recognition thingie worked well for us.

Just as it was mentioned earlier, if you had your passport scanned at check-in, then you are good to go.

[twangster]

Yet another reason to obtain a passport for cruising.  Worked awesome in Miami.

[TripleQ]

14 hours ago, GEORGIEGIRL said:

Is this available for just US citizens or can green card holders (specifically a Canadian passport) use it as well?

 

We used Canadian passports and the facial recognition worked for us.  Very quick!

[rhuntington3]

Wow!  Neat!

[lake show cruiser]

Anyone know if it matters if you use a passport card? Seems like it would be same as passport book. 

[Clarea]

2 minutes ago, lake show cruiser said:

Anyone know if it matters if you use a passport card? Seems like it would be same as passport book. 

 

Same as a passport for closed end US based cruises.

[lake show cruiser]

Thank you sir! 

[CRUISEFOUR]

Does this process eliminate the need for using Mobile Passport at PE Terminal 18?

[brillohead]

2 minutes ago, CRUISEFOUR said:

Does this process eliminate the need for using Mobile Passport at PE Terminal 18?

Yes.  

You don't fill out ANYthing anymore, you don't declare anything, you don't swear upon your grandma's grave that you haven't visited a farm... if you have a passport and scan it as your document at check-in, you leave without doing anything Immigration- or Customs-like other than look at a tablet screen.

[CRUISEFOUR]

NICE!!!