Immigration for non US

[MTElkwhistle]

Can anyone tell me what time non US citizens have to clear Immigration in St Thomas and on return to Port Canaveral, on the Mariner, please. Also What is the set up, as we have only done Princess and Disney previously.

 

Thanks

[CaptData]

What ship date are you talking about. When we did this on Princess, we had to report to a lunge between 7 and 8 am. I'm Canadian. We were asked to bring our passport or ID. Once done they gave us a piece of paper that allowed us to leave the ship.

[JanineM]

My experience has been that everyone is called to go through immigration before 8:30 am. Those holding US passports go through one room, those holding other passports go through another room. It's very painless ... you'll need passport and seapass. But don't sleep in that morning! On our last cruise they kept calling for "Mr. Flanagan and Miss O'Brien to PLEASE report to Immigration". By about the 5th announcement I think the ship's reps were ready to start storming their stateroom!

 

As to a "required" time for immigration/customs at Port Canaveral, I'm sure there is a window that closes, but you will go through when your luggage tag is called. We have been the last people on Mariner, and we departed at maybe 10:25 am. I am always hauled off into immigration (I'm a dual US/Canadian citizen), and they were certainly open for processing at that time.

[Boo Boo]

What ship date are you talking about. When we did this on Princess, we had to report to a lunge between 7 and 8 am. I'm Canadian. We were asked to bring our passport or ID. Once done they gave us a piece of paper that allowed us to leave the ship.

 

Sounds uncomfortable - how long did you have to lunge for ;)

 

Have done Mariner Western (not Eastern) and then immigration was done at the port (not on the ship) - so we went through the same immigration lines as everyone else (disembark first, then do immigration in the terminal - before you collect your luggage). As "non-US" we got to "queue jump" (basically you get to walk past most fo the queue with US citizens in), but then we had to wait longer for the only immigration official handling non-US citizens (obviously it took quite a bit longer to process each non-US citizen...).

 

HOWEVER, if on the Eastern route you do St Thomas as the last port before returning to Canaveral, do you have to clear immigration again at Canaveral? Isn't St Thomas a US Virgin Island? Don't you clear immigration there? Am not sure, that is a question...

 

Hope someone who has done the Mariner Eastern route can give a definitive answer :)

 

Boo

[MTElkwhistle]

Unfortunately we do St Marten after St Thomas so we have to do the immigration thing twice. On Disney you have to be there at about 5:30 or some other unearthly hour (perhaps 6).

Princess wasnt that early but was still early - oh well, we will be at WDW nice and early in the day then.

[Boo Boo]

Then, I would imagine that, you would do exactly what we did for the Mariner Western itinerary (Oct 2006). RCCL handle immigration much better than Disney - look at what I said we did for the Western (two posts above).

 

Boo

 

Unfortunately we do St Marten after St Thomas so we have to do the immigration thing twice. On Disney you have to be there at about 5:30 or some other unearthly hour (perhaps 6).

Princess wasnt that early but was still early - oh well, we will be at WDW nice and early in the day then.

[BradnerBoy]

Can anyone tell me what time non US citizens have to clear Immigration in St Thomas and on return to Port Canaveral, on the Mariner, please. Also What is the set up, as we have only done Princess and Disney previously.

 

Thanks

We're Canadian and just came off the MOS today after doing the Eastern Caribbean - San Juan (Coco Cay port was closed due to high seas), St. Thomas and St. Maarten (Dutch side).

 

San Juan and St. Thomas are in the US Virgin Islands. Since you clear US Customs before boarding, you walk on and off the ship without further immigration clearance, regardless of nationality. Coco Cay would be different as it's part of the Bahamas.

 

Surprisingly, when we arrived in St. Maarten, we did not have any immigration checks getting off or back on the ship. We simply brought our Sea Pass and Passport (only as a form of picture ID).

 

We did a tour in Port Canaveral this morning before our flight out of Orlando, so we were ready to disembark at about 0715. Once we started off the ship at 0730, we were on the tour bus, with our bags and having cleared US customs in LESS THAN 30 MINUTES.

 

I travel to the US a lot and I was VERY impressed with how easy and fast it was to get off the ship (and back on again after visting the ports).

 

hth.

[KoolKruzer81]

I sailed on Mariner in July 2005, and this is how it was handled back then.

 

The day prior to arrival in St Thomas, you will get a schedule for Immigration. It is a time window, something like 7am-9am, and you show up in the dining room for immigration whenever you want during the time window. The one thing to consider is that if you are taking an excursion in St Thomas, you need to get to immigration early enough to ensure that you are finished by the time that your excursion departs. All of this information is detailed on the flyer that you will receive.

 

In Port Canaveral, you do not need to get up for Immigration at all. It is simply handled as you are leaving the ship, once inside the terminal. Prior to picking up your luggage, you will go through US Immigration booths, just like the set up in airports. There will be one line for US Citizens, and one for non US Citizens.

[Boo Boo]

I would guess that BradnerBoy (who got off of Mariner today) and my experiences (Oct 2006) are probably morte current.

 

Boo

 

 

I sailed on Mariner in July 2005, and this is how it was handled back then.

 

The day prior to arrival in St Thomas, you will get a schedule for Immigration. It is a time window, something like 7am-9am, and you show up in the dining room for immigration whenever you want during the time window. The one thing to consider is that if you are taking an excursion in St Thomas, you need to get to immigration early enough to ensure that you are finished by the time that your excursion departs. All of this information is detailed on the flyer that you will receive.

 

In Port Canaveral, you do not need to get up for Immigration at all. It is simply handled as you are leaving the ship, once inside the terminal. Prior to picking up your luggage, you will go through US Immigration booths, just like the set up in airports. There will be one line for US Citizens, and one for non US Citizens.

[KoolKruzer81]

I would guess that BradnerBoy (who got off of Mariner today) and my experiences (Oct 2006) are probably morte current.

 

Boo

 

I would have to disagree.

 

BradnerBoy's itinerary was modified in that they went to San Juan instead of CocoCay due to weather. Your cruise was the western itinerary, so you didn't have to worry about immigration in St Thomas.

 

If the ship calls on CocoCay (or any other foreign port) prior to arrival in St Thomas, everyone will have to go thru US Immigration in St Thomas. If the ship goes to San Juan instead of CocoCay, no immigration inspection is necessary in St Thomas, as there will not be any foreign port calls prior to arrival in St Thomas or San Juan.

[KoolKruzer81]

Looking at a Cruise Compass that someone posted from several weeks ago, it looks like the times for Immigration in St Thomas are 8:45-10:45 for US Citizens, and 9:00-10:15 for non US Citizens.

[Boo Boo]

I would have to disagree.

 

Sorry, I may have misred something in your preious post... :o

 

Boo

[ljpjr]

O.K. I'm confused. We went on a western itinerary last year and never had to go through customs. We are booked for next March on eastern with Liberty we stop at San Juan,St.Maarten and Private island well we have to go through customs before we get off in St.Maarten?

[billylen]

We were a mixed group traveling on the Mariner last summer. One student was from s. america. We did visit St Martin and then St. Thomas. His passport was taken when we boarded the ship in Port Canerval and returned the last night of the voyage. Once we arrived back in the US we went through the usual customs lines. One for US passengers and another for Non US.

 

They pulled him aside and asked a few question, but the whole experience was pretty quick and painless.

[jstewie23]

I am a US citizen and my wife is Canadian. She has her green card (permanent resident) and when we come through airports, she gets to go in the US customs line with me even though she has a Canadian passport. Going through immigration on the cruise ship/ports, can she go in the US line or will she have to go through the non-US line???

[uksimonusa]

I am a US citizen and my wife is Canadian. She has her green card (permanent resident) and when we come through airports, she gets to go in the US customs line with me even though she has a Canadian passport. Going through immigration on the cruise ship/ports, can she go in the US line or will she have to go through the non-US line???

 

A green Card, is normally treated in the same way as a US passport. It is a legal travel, work and residence document issued by the US government. In my Green card days, I always used the US line, both at airports and sea ports