Customs in Portland

[AKR2011]

Hello,

 

I received an email from the tour company that I booked in Portland concerning our scheduled tour. We are supposed to arrive at 11am and tge tour leaves at noon and is a 20 minute walk away. The tour operator is worried about customs. Is anyone familiar with the amount of time it takes to go through that? Should I cancel this tour? I appreciate any help. Thanks, all!

[tring]

53 minutes ago, AKR2011 said:

Hello,

 

I received an email from the tour company that I booked in Portland concerning our scheduled tour. We are supposed to arrive at 11am and tge tour leaves at noon and is a 20 minute walk away. The tour operator is worried about customs. Is anyone familiar with the amount of time it takes to go through that? Should I cancel this tour? I appreciate any help. Thanks, all!

 

I do not know the specific port, but worldwide the ships have to be cleared before anyone can get off and clearance usually takes a good half hour, perhaps nearer to an hour at some ports.  Also, although ships are often in a bit earlier than scheduled, it could be later, or the schedule could change nearer to the arrival date.  Not something I would consider risking and even sounds like the tour company are thinking the same.  You will not be alone in wanting to leave he ship either, so you cannot expect to be walking down the gangway as soon as the ship is cleared.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by tring

[1025cruise]

Is Portland your first US port? If so, you will need to clear immigration.

[AKR2011]

20 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

Is Portland your first US port? If so, you will need to clear immigration.

Yes, Canadian ports before that. So I should cancel our tour?

[jdavid]

Why would the tour company leave without its guests from the ship? Before cancelling, I would ask if other guests aboard are part of the tour 

[AKR2011]

10 hours ago, jdavid said:

Why would the tour company leave without its guests from the ship? Before cancelling, I would ask if other guests aboard are part of the tour 

This was the email. I also followed up to see if he could offer another tour later in the day since it would likely get full too,  ht that was a no. I guess tgis is not the best company to use unfortunately: 

 

This is Derek with The Real Portland Tour in Portland, ME. I am reaching out to folks who have booked my 12:00 tour on August 30th that may be arriving on the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship that day. The ship is arriving at 11:00 from Canada, which means folks arriving on this ship will have to go through customs, which takes a very long time here in Portland, sometimes a couple hours or longer. My tour starting point is a 15-20 minute walk from the terminal, and is not coordinated with the cruise ship schedules in any way. If you are arriving on this ship, you will not make it on time for the 12:00 tour. I am a one man company with one vehicle, and my tour is a public tour that sells out daily to customers visiting here who are not on ships. I have a no refund/reschedule policy within 24 hours of the tour time, so if your ship makes any last minute changes, or you are delayed getting through processing and miss the tour, you will not be refunded or rescheduled. The tour will be leaving promptly at 12:00. I make sure to make this clear ahead of time to any cruise ship passengers that may have booked my tour, so they know the risk they are taking if they want to keep their booking. The tour sells out with 13 people in the van. I unfortunately have no room for animals, walkers/wheelchairs, or luggage in the van. If you are arriving on this ship and need to cancel your booking, please let me know.

[jdavid]

Well that is quite clear. I do a few private tours in Halifax if my schedule allows and they are dedicated only to Cruisers so am 100% flexible to the ships arrival. 

[1025cruise]

At least the tour provider is being honest and letting you cancel.

 

[AKR2011]

12 hours ago, jdavid said:

Well that is quite clear. I do a few private tours in Halifax if my schedule allows and they are dedicated only to Cruisers so am 100% flexible to the ships arrival. 

Do you have any lighthouse tours? Let me know! 😀 My parents have their lighthouse passports and were so looking forward to this tour. Such a bummer 🙁

Edited June 30, 2023 by AKR2011

[princeton123211]

On 6/28/2023 at 6:39 PM, AKR2011 said:

The tour operator is worried about customs

They're not worried about Customs-- you aren't going through Customs. You're going through Immigration. Ships typically clear Immigration ahead of time before arrival and by the whole ship. 

[1025cruise]

7 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

They're not worried about Customs-- you aren't going through Customs. You're going through Immigration. Ships typically clear Immigration ahead of time before arrival and by the whole ship. 

Not the case for the first stop in the US. A face to face with an agent is required. I'm not sure exactly how its handled in Portland, but I have heard it can be a mess. I know in Bar Harbor, they come aboard either the first tender or the pilot boat and set up shop. You're not allowed off the ship without visiting them, and aren't allowed back on until they are done.

[jdavid]

18 hours ago, AKR2011 said:

Do you have any lighthouse tours? Let me know! 😀 My parents have their lighthouse passports and were so looking forward to this tour. Such a bummer 🙁

There are many lighthouses in Nova Scotia. We even have a Lighthouse Route. The most famous of all lighthouses is in Peggy’s Cove. It is the most visited and photographed. Many cruisers take this tour but it tends to me a visit of less than an hour. There is a lighthouse that can be viewed as you come in the harbour and their is one on George’s Island across from where your ship docks. I am not aware of a specific tour dedicated to Lighthouses only but I’m sure one can be designed easily. Here is pic of the Peggy’s Cove light I took a few days ago.

[Joanzzzz]

Just watched a recently posted video where someone was on an MSC ship last fall, and although it began in New York, it then went up to Canada, then re-entered the US at Portland  where passengers had to have face to face with immigration.  The ship held 4000 passengers.  All passengers on the ship were allocated a time, and the line up was from one end of the ship to the other and took hours.  Don't know if it's the same with every ship, but it sounds like your tour guide has had similar experiences and that's why they are warning you against the short time frame.    

[tring]

On 6/27/2024 at 9:50 PM, Joanzzzz said:

Just watched a recently posted video where someone was on an MSC ship last fall, and although it began in New York, it then went up to Canada, then re-entered the US at Portland  where passengers had to have face to face with immigration.  The ship held 4000 passengers.  All passengers on the ship were allocated a time, and the line up was from one end of the ship to the other and took hours.  Don't know if it's the same with every ship, but it sounds like your tour guide has had similar experiences and that's why they are warning you against the short time frame.    

 

That's the sort of experience we expect for US immigration if on a British ship. May be different if there are a lot of US nationals on a ship which sails from N America, but if mainly non US passengers, I would be expecting chaos, with immigration taking at least half a day and can be mid or late afternoon for everyone on board to go through immigration, particularly in some ports, even when a ship arrives early morning.  That is not for particularly large ships either.

 

The op started this thread a year ago now, so they will have likely have already travelled and would be interesting to know how many non US passengers were on their ship and how the US immigration proceeded.

 

Edited June 28 by tring

[TMLAalum]

I shudder to think about customs in Portland based on our experience disembarking the CAT ferry. There are @750 passengers on the CAT and it took us nearly 2 hours to be on our way!

 

We don't have Nexus but do have GE which only helps when flying from Canada. Why is re-entry into the US from Canada, whether by sea or land, such an ordeal! 

[garyc20]

What if Portland is your first U.S. port and you do not get off the ship? Next port is Boston …do you have to go through customs there if you get off the ship??

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, garyc20 said:

What if Portland is your first U.S. port and you do not get off the ship? Next port is Boston …do you have to go through customs there if you get off the ship??

You have to be cleared by USCBP at your first US port call regardless of whether you're getting off the ship there.

[1025cruise]

11 hours ago, garyc20 said:

What if Portland is your first U.S. port and you do not get off the ship? Next port is Boston …do you have to go through customs there if you get off the ship??

You do it in Portland. If they require you to get off the ship to do so, you get off the ship and do so. This is not an optional thing. You will be holding up fellow cruisers by not doing this. 

[Firefly74]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:11 AM, 1025cruise said:

Not the case for the first stop in the US. A face to face with an agent is required. I'm not sure exactly how its handled in Portland, but I have heard it can be a mess. I know in Bar Harbor, they come aboard either the first tender or the pilot boat and set up shop. You're not allowed off the ship without visiting them, and aren't allowed back on until they are done.

Just finished a Princess cruise that had a Portland stop as its immigration entry. It was a mess. We (US citizens) stood in line for 1.5 hours. We docked at approximately 7:45 a.m. and we personally were not clear of immigration until 1:15 or so. The line behind us looked as though it would take at least another hour or so to clear. Everyone, even those not going ashore, must clear immigration. The total process took from docking until 5:30 p.m. according to the captain's announcement.

 

And don't count on Global Entry. It's irrelevant in Portland. They do not have enough agents and the picture-taking routine backs everything up.

[shipgeeks]

But if sailing to Portland prior to Canadian ports, there is no Customs process. We regularly sail from Baltimore to Boston, Portland, and then to Canada. After Halifax we return by sea to Baltimore.  No formalities that affect us at any point.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, Firefly74 said:

Just finished a Princess cruise that had a Portland stop as its immigration entry. It was a mess. We (US citizens) stood in line for 1.5 hours. We docked at approximately 7:45 a.m. and we personally were not clear of immigration until 1:15 or so. The line behind us looked as though it would take at least another hour or so to clear. Everyone, even those not going ashore, must clear immigration. The total process took from docking until 5:30 p.m. according to the captain's announcement.

 

And don't count on Global Entry. It's irrelevant in Portland. They do not have enough agents and the picture-taking routine backs everything up.

Thanks for the heads up. We're currently on the Emerald, scheduled to arrive in Portland at 10AM on the 20th. Sounds like we will be spending the day in a lineup and not even bothering to get off the ship. How did they prioritize passengers, i.e. by nationality, NEXUS/GE status etc? How did you know where and when to get in line?  It's a shame they can't bother to get facial recognition set up to speed things up. At least with entry into Canada all we had to do was fill in the usual Customs form and hand it to the steward, and we should just be able to walk off the ship tomorrow in Halifax.

[Firefly74]

26 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

Thanks for the heads up. We're currently on the Emerald, scheduled to arrive in Portland at 10AM on the 20th. Sounds like we will be spending the day in a lineup and not even bothering to get off the ship. How did they prioritize passengers, i.e. by nationality, NEXUS/GE status etc? How did you know where and when to get in line?  It's a shame they can't bother to get facial recognition set up to speed things up. At least with entry into Canada all we had to do was fill in the usual Customs form and hand it to the steward, and we should just be able to walk off the ship tomorrow in Halifax.

They sorted into (1) US passports and (2) all others. Screening was on the ship. Stewards left information letters in the rooms a few days ahead. The letters had assigned times on them.

 

Lining up and screening was done on the ship. Time cheaters were rampant (among the Americans.) The ship accidentally encouraged cheating by making an announcement every 15-20 minutes begging people to stick to the given times. What it actually did was send the message that everyone was cheating and following the rules would hurt you. (I am a crazy rule-follower so I didn’t cheat but they made it tempting.)

 

NEXUS and GE were irrelevant—to the dismay of even the customs agents (who said they were not set up for it.) 
 

There were 4 agents in one lounge to screen non-US citizens. 3 for all the Americans.

 

Bottom line: it was pretty bad.

[Freckles1983]

How did this affect tours booked through the cruise line?  I’m on a CA/NE cruise in sept that stops in Portland after leaving Canada so I imagine this will be where the issue is.  I’ve got a ship booked tour at 10;15 am and I’m wondering if I’ll even make it to that.   

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, Firefly74 said:

They sorted into (1) US passports and (2) all others. Screening was on the ship. Stewards left information letters in the rooms a few days ahead. The letters had assigned times on them.

 

Lining up and screening was done on the ship. Time cheaters were rampant (among the Americans.) The ship accidentally encouraged cheating by making an announcement every 15-20 minutes begging people to stick to the given times. What it actually did was send the message that everyone was cheating and following the rules would hurt you. (I am a crazy rule-follower so I didn’t cheat but they made it tempting.)

 

NEXUS and GE were irrelevant—to the dismay of even the customs agents (who said they were not set up for it.) 
 

There were 4 agents in one lounge to screen non-US citizens. 3 for all the Americans.

 

Bottom line: it was pretty bad.

Sounds like we're in for a wonderful time ;o( Are you saying that there were four agents for non-US and only three for all US citizens (who are by far the majority of the passengers) for a total of seven US agents?  If so, I would think that us Canadians will be processed faster since there are far fewer of us with more agents to process us through.

[1025cruise]

Excursions booked through the cruise line will have a specific meeting place and will be most likely brought in as a group to clear to make your tour on time.