Loved the Facial Recognition At Canaveral!!

[brillohead]

16 minutes ago, CRUISEFOUR said:

NICE!!!

Not gonna lie, it was pretty spectacular, and no lines!!!!!!!

As I was getting off Majesty, the port employee was telling everyone to have their passports in hand, but this wasn't necessary at all -- you don't scan your passport or anything when they have the facial recognition set up.  You literally walk up, look at the Customs and Border Patrol tablet, and then it sends you on your way, maybe ten seconds total.  

One thing that surprised me was you go through CBP first, before going to get your luggage in the main hall.  I'm used to finding the luggage and then getting in line for the CBP agent.  But the tablets were set up in the upstairs part of the building as you come off the gangway, before you go down the escalator to the luggage hall.  

I scanned off the ship, walked down the gangway, scanned through CBP, went down the escalator, got my luggage and then exited the building and got a taxi.  

One thing to note -- CBP agents seem to be having a bit of short-man-syndrome or something, worse than usual.  When I got to my suitcase, I unzipped it to transfer the bag with my dirty clothes from the last night and my pajamas out of my carry-on and into my suitcase. It would have been a quick procedure, just move the bag of dirty laundry from my carry-on to my suitcase, zip it back up and done.  But this CBP agent comes scurrying over and starts yelling at me that I can't open my bag in the building, I have to go outside and do it on the sidewalk, blah blah blah.  Does she really think I'm assembling a bomb in a building that is basically a huge empty warehouse, for crying out loud?  I guess maybe she's feeling like she's been replaced by a $100 tablet on a microphone stand, so she has to do something to justify her government job.  

[Clarea]

5 hours ago, brillohead said:

...
One thing that surprised me was you go through CBP first, before going to get your luggage in the main hall.  I'm used to finding the luggage and then getting in line for the CBP agent.  But the tablets were set up in the upstairs part of the building as you come off the gangway, before you go down the escalator to the luggage hall.  ...

 

Port Canaveral used to be this way several years ago when we used to use Terminal 10.  Much faster than finding luggage and then getting back in line for CBP.  I don't know why they changed to getting bags before CBP when they went to Terminal 1.

[Johnnyc_25]

21 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Same as a passport for closed end US based cruises.

 

Any experience(s) with Nexus cards? I know previously when returning to Port Evergaldes (before any facial recognition), there was a small sign and line for "GOES" (when we asked, the Security guard confirmed that Nexus would work in this lane too) - saved us probably close to an hour as the line-up fro Customs was very long - only 2 people in front of us in the Nexus line

[orville99]

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 9:48 AM, twangster said:

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

Experienced (or rather witnessed) another great reason to have a passport while we were on the Harmony 11 night/3-night Dorian cruise for the last two weeks. Between the second and third times we ported in Cozumel, there were ~2,800 passengers who left the ship to fly home rather than stay onboard until we finally got back to Port Canaveral on Thursday. Mexican CBP came on board to process everyone who wanted to leave the ship, and those without passports, or just had passport cards or birth certificates, were not faring at all well in the process.

[Clarea]

29 minutes ago, Johnnyc_25 said:

 

Any experience(s) with Nexus cards? ...

 

I don't know if that card can act as the sole means of identification.

[orville99]

22 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Same as a passport for closed end US based cruises.

The only difference is you can't use a passport card to fly into the U.S. from a foreign country.

[Clarea]

4 minutes ago, orville99 said:

The only difference is you can't use a passport card to fly into the U.S. from a foreign country.

 

Correct, that's why I qualified the post with the usage restricted to closed end US based cruises.

[brillohead]

14 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

Port Canaveral used to be this way several years ago when we used to use Terminal 10.  Much faster than finding luggage and then getting back in line for CBP.  I don't know why they changed to getting bags before CBP when they went to Terminal 1.

It makes sense to get your bags before going through CBP if they think you are suspicious and they want to search your bags for contraband, etc.  If you already have your bags, they can do it there or escort you directly to a search area.  If you still have to get your bags, they have to escort you to collect your luggage, then escort you to a search area. 

However, I think they've realized that cruise passengers really aren't a huge smuggling risk.  They can use sniffing dogs to detect drugs and agricultural products in the bags and pull those aside, but the vast number of people just need their identity/immigration status confirmed and wave them on through.