Customs in Portland

[Firefly74]

1 hour ago, Freckles1983 said:

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.   

They put the people on Princess excursions through early and waited for them

[Firefly74]

36 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

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.

Yes. The difference in timing at 11:45 a.m. was 30 minutes. I know because I had been in line for 30 minutes when I saw Canadian friend (made on the ship) get into the end of their line. We both finished at the same time.

[joeflow80]

5 hours ago, Freckles1983 said:

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.   

I was also on this recent Princess cruise. From what I heard from staff, those with ship-sponsored tours were given the earliest time slots. Everyone else was supposedly given a random time slot. However, as mentioned above, those time slots weren't followed by many. Nor were they enforced by staff.

 

There was still enough time to do some sightseeing on shore since they had a later back-onboard time. We did a 2-hr bus tour that didn't start until 1:30 that we booked when we got off the ship. Plus a fair amount of walking around. Just don't expect to do any full-day-type tours.

[TMLAalum]

On 7/15/2024 at 11:27 AM, 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.

 

This is an unacceptable scenario except there seems to be no choice but to accept it.

 

We are scheduled there on a Saturday from 9:30 - 6. Wonder if CBP will be understaffed from the # of agents you mentioned since it is a weekend day. We did book a private schooner cruise with a 1:30 departure time so fingers X'd.

 

I suspect that Portland souvenir shops and restaurants aren't thrilled that cruisers time in port is reduced to nearly nil thanks to this.

[Firefly74]

24 minutes ago, TMLAalum said:

 

This is an unacceptable scenario except there seems to be no choice but to accept it.

 

We are scheduled there on a Saturday from 9:30 - 6. Wonder if CBP will be understaffed from the # of agents you mentioned since it is a weekend day. We did book a private schooner cruise with a 1:30 departure time so fingers X'd.

 

I suspect that Portland souvenir shops and restaurants aren't thrilled that cruisers time in port is reduced to nearly nil thanks to this.

 

It's unacceptable--and it's not clear what to do about it.

[Freckles1983]

21 hours ago, joeflow80 said:

Just don't expect to do any full-day-type tours.

We are scheduled to dock at 9am and my tour is scheduled from 10:15am-3:00pm.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

[zqvol]

Don’t forget that the larger the ship, the longer it takes to for customs to do their job. 

[TMLAalum]

1 hour ago, Freckles1983 said:

We are scheduled to dock at 9am and my tour is scheduled from 10:15am-3:00pm.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

It sounds as if you are on a ship-sponsored excursion you will be ok.

As for me, no lobster roll lunch ashore probably😡

[Firefly74]

19 minutes ago, zqvol said:

Don’t forget that the larger the ship, the longer it takes to for customs to do their job. 

Especially when staffing is completely inadequate

[lx200gps]

5 hours ago, Firefly74 said:

 

It's unacceptable--and it's not clear what to do about it.

We're on board the Emerald now as well, scheduled into Portland on Saturday. For this specific C/NE itinerary, the only practical option, if the port schedules allow it, would probably be to put Portland at the beginning rather than the end of the trip. Boston to Portland no customs/immigration issues. Portland into Canada no issues either, just fill in the Canadian CBSA form, hand it to your Steward and all is done. Then the final leg would be Canada direct Boston so clear customs/immigration at a relatively large port like Boston should be easier than doing so in an out station like Portland. I assume that Boston isn't sophisticated enough yet to have facial recognition like the big ports in Fort Lauderdale or LA but should be much better staffed than little Portland.

[TMLAalum]

@lx200gps

That would make sense! Our first US port stop after a TA was Boston. I don't recall any delays in leaving the ship for a day of sightseeing. From there we sailed to Manhattan for an overnight, Bermuda for an overnight, then Nassau and ended the cruise in Miami, without issue. 

By putting Portland at the beginning of the itinerary, we'd have a sea day before disembarking in Boston, which IMHO eliminates having to pack up after Portland for arrival the next day in Boston as our itinerary has us doing.

[lx200gps]

On 7/15/2024 at 11:27 AM, 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.

We just went through the exercise here on the Emerald today. Seems they are somewhat improving the whole process. We were originally scheduled to arrive for 10AM, but based on the past bad experiences, the captain gunned it and we pulled in at 8AM instead. The USCBP agents were on board and starting the interviewing around 9AM. We had Group 5, non-US citizens and were to go to the Wheelhouse bar when our Group was called. By 9:30, 1/2 an hour after starting, they were already calling Group 4. We walked to where the head of the line was to be, and the officer manning the ropeline told us to go in anyway as the lines were very short. We stood in line for less than 7 minutes and were completely through and clear to leave the ship by 9:45AM. Us non-US folks had 4 agents doing the interviewing, I don't know how many were handling the US folks. Sadly, as I write this at noon, they are still calling US citizens, Group 11, so all the non-US have long since been cleared.  Given the overwhelming majority of US citizens on a sailing like this, having so few agents devoted to clearing them is idiotic,.

[Firefly74]

17 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

We just went through the exercise here on the Emerald today. Seems they are somewhat improving the whole process. We were originally scheduled to arrive for 10AM, but based on the past bad experiences, the captain gunned it and we pulled in at 8AM instead. The USCBP agents were on board and starting the interviewing around 9AM. We had Group 5, non-US citizens and were to go to the Wheelhouse bar when our Group was called. By 9:30, 1/2 an hour after starting, they were already calling Group 4. We walked to where the head of the line was to be, and the officer manning the ropeline told us to go in anyway as the lines were very short. We stood in line for less than 7 minutes and were completely through and clear to leave the ship by 9:45AM. Us non-US folks had 4 agents doing the interviewing, I don't know how many were handling the US folks. Sadly, as I write this at noon, they are still calling US citizens, Group 11, so all the non-US have long since been cleared.  Given the overwhelming majority of US citizens on a sailing like this, having so few agents devoted to clearing them is idiotic,.

 

Using group numbers, not times, likely is already a bit of an improvement. If they were not repeatedly telling people not to come down early, but not suggesting any enforcement, that too is an improvement. Did you see long lines around the ship for the US citizens? If not, that is an improvement as many people struggled with standing that long.

 

But the bigger problem is the slowness of US citizen clearance and that does not sound like the improvements have been more than incremental.

[lx200gps]

1 hour ago, Firefly74 said:

 

Using group numbers, not times, likely is already a bit of an improvement. If they were not repeatedly telling people not to come down early, but not suggesting any enforcement, that too is an improvement. Did you see long lines around the ship for the US citizens? If not, that is an improvement as many people struggled with standing that long.

 

But the bigger problem is the slowness of US citizen clearance and that does not sound like the improvements have been more than incremental.

I wouldn't say I was seeing long lines for US citizens, though there are lines which have 20-30 people in them. Certainly no lines snaking around the ship as described in previous posts. That being said, it's currently 13:40 and they are still calling US citizens (last call was for Group 26!). The other thing that is worrying is that we have yet to hear a single announcement reminding us that EVERYONE has to go through the process, even if you aren't planning to get off the ship. I have little doubt that some folks on board never read the in-room papers explaining the process in detail and think they don't have to go through Immigration since they plan to stay aboard. We spoke earlier this AM to a lovely older lady who stopped us to ask which way she had to go to get off the ship. Turns out she was planning to simply walk off and had absolutely no clue about the mandatory CPB interview. Didn't know anything about her Group # etc.

[1025cruise]

I haven't cruised on Princess where I've needed to go through this process. but on NCL, they mark your card that you've gone through CBP. No mark, you don't get off. They also had the "dingers" there to scan you as you went through so they can keep track. I assume Princess does something similar.

 

One thing to note, people won't be allowed back on until the process is complete.

[zqvol]

3 hours ago, lx200gps said:

We just went through the exercise here on the Emerald today. Seems they are somewhat improving the whole process. We were originally scheduled to arrive for 10AM, but based on the past bad experiences, the captain gunned it and we pulled in at 8AM instead. The USCBP agents were on board and starting the interviewing around 9AM. We had Group 5, non-US citizens and were to go to the Wheelhouse bar when our Group was called. By 9:30, 1/2 an hour after starting, they were already calling Group 4. We walked to where the head of the line was to be, and the officer manning the ropeline told us to go in anyway as the lines were very short. We stood in line for less than 7 minutes and were completely through and clear to leave the ship by 9:45AM. Us non-US folks had 4 agents doing the interviewing, I don't know how many were handling the US folks. Sadly, as I write this at noon, they are still calling US citizens, Group 11, so all the non-US have long since been cleared.  Given the overwhelming majority of US citizens on a sailing like this, having so few agents devoted to clearing them is idiotic,.

Might be because so many US citizens on closed loop cruises sail with a birth certificate and ID instead of a passport. 

[lx200gps]

45 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

I haven't cruised on Princess where I've needed to go through this process. but on NCL, they mark your card that you've gone through CBP. No mark, you don't get off. They also had the "dingers" there to scan you as you went through so they can keep track. I assume Princess does something similar.

 

One thing to note, people won't be allowed back on until the process is complete.

Definitely. At the exit from the Immigration area, immediately upon leaving, our Medallions (like cruise cards) are scanned. That way the ship's system knows we have been cleared and we were them able to walk off the ship.  Had we tried to walk off without having been scanned outside the Immigration area we would have been instantly stopped.

[TMLAalum]

Happy for non-US citizens that you were able to clear CBP in a timely manner!

Livid to hear that US citizens cannot easily be re-admitted into their homeland!

Fingers X'd that our loyalty status gives us an early time slot when we dock in Portland.

[lx200gps]

5 hours ago, TMLAalum said:

Happy for non-US citizens that you were able to clear CBP in a timely manner!

Livid to hear that US citizens cannot easily be re-admitted into their homeland!

Fingers X'd that our loyalty status gives us an early time slot when we dock in Portland.

It was utterly preposterous, that's for sure. When it was all over, the Hotel Director came on the PA again and apologized profusely for the fact that the last US citizens weren't cleared until almost 2:30PM (the processing having started at 9AM). He laid the blame squarely on the CBP folks who, he said, caused the problems because they steadfastly refused to treat the US citizens differently from us foreigners. Hence they had as many officers processing the THOUSANDS of US citizens as they did for the few hundred of us non-US. Also, I can't say whether the four CBP agents who worked on us foreigners in the Wheelhouse Bar then went to Club Fusion to double the number of agents handling the US citizens. It wouldn't surprise me if they simply walked off the ship. I honestly don't know how you can avoid the delays, unless Princess, in handing out the Group#s, prioritizes them according to whether you have an excursion? I can't say whether loyalty status applies; We're Elite and our non-US Group 5 was through is less than 45 minutes. Maybe other folks who went through US processing early, with or without status, can chime in so we can get a feel for whether higher status gets us earlier times. I would expect that having a ship's excursion would though, but that's speculation on my part.

 

The only upside to the whole mess was that with so many people getting cleared to leave the ship so late, by dinnertime the ship was still half empty. Those of us who did get on and off in a timely manner had the ship to ourselves. It was eerie to be in Crooners at 4:30 and the place was almost deserted ;o)

Edited July 22 by lx200gps