As a Canadian I will not sale a cruise to Canada again

[JLA]

We went on the 5 day carnival cruise on the Victory out of New York.

 

The first thing they do is take away all non US citizen passports. We have never had this before and were a little taken aback. My Dad was fuming and refused to give it to them until they gave him a photocopy.

 

As you board the ship they ask for your Sail and Sign card and some photo ID. Ummmm....you just took it away from us. Oh right, ok go on then. Strange.

 

The night before we arrive back in New York City we receive a notice that all non US citizens need to gather in one of the lounges at 6:45 am, once we are all gathered we will be escorted off of the ship. Ok, fine. So we wake up the kids at 6:00 am, go eat breakfast, grab all of our stuff and proceed to the lounge. We then ended up sitting there for 1 1/2 hours. People are getting really pissed off. We find out they are waiting for 3 more cabins. They then start making announcements for these people to show up. I have no idea why they waited so long. Finally after 2 hours we are escorted off of the ship. Well that means standing in the hallway of deck 2 for another 30 minutes. It was so hot in there and we were so jammed together (there were about 500 of us). I know of one lady that passed out and smashed her head on the wall. I'm sure there were others. We finally got to the end of the line and they would allow about 20 people off at a time to go to a desk to collect our passports.

 

Our passports were sitting ontop of this desk in a box. I could've easily grabbed someones when the guy at the desk wasn't looking, totally unsafe. They we are escorted to a freight elevator and finally are allowed to collect our luggage.

 

We honestly felt like second class citizens and a bunch of cattle being herded.

 

I just wanted to warn all Canadians going on this cruise of what will happen.

[LeftcoastBC]

This just sounds like Carnival is stuck in the 90's. Used to happen all the time on RCCL and X

 

Hasn't for a number of years though. Doesn't need to either. If it is that bad still I agree with the OP 100%.

[ell52]

This seems to be more a problem with Carnival's procedures than with cruises to Canada, in general.

[Acey]

This is all standard on cruises - nothing unusual here. Not sure what Canada itinerary has to do with it or why warn specifically Canadians - same thing sailing out of any other port in the USA on all intinerarys. Think of the hassle to board or debark an aircraft of 150 people. Cruise ships deal with 2000-3500 pax so I don't think a couple hours to debark is unreasonable. Just my humble opinion. It can be expected ...

[EileenN]

You speak as through it only happened to Canadians. All non citizens go thru clearance more since 9-11. It is unfortunate that this has been necessary and that security has had to take it to this level. I understand that secruity entering Canada has also tightened up and had turned back more Americans than before. It's a tough world out there, but we need to make it a safer one unfortunately at cost of time and money to all of us. Some of your anger should be aimed at the few cruisers that did not report of time to the lounge. That happens on most cruises. The rest of us usually can't get off until you are cleared. It is an inconvenience to us all.

[LeftcoastBC]

I know that 9/11 has nothing to do with this. It doesn't happen on X anymore or at least the ones that I've been on since.

 

Certain cruise lines arrange Immigration services prior to landing back in USA.

I guess some don't. Which is what I think the OP's point was.

[nosmothj]

They would do that regardless of were you cruise to.

[cdnguys]

You waiting around for 2 hours has absolutely nothing to do with the cruiseline, and everything to do with US Customs. US Customs will not clear the ship until all cabins report to the lounge. Its not the cruiseline's fault people are not responsible enough to show up on time, and they can't force US Customs to not follow procedure and let people off. At this point you are at the mercy of Customs.

[vickie_bernie]

This is all standard on cruises - nothing unusual here. Not sure what Canada itinerary has to do with it or why warn specifically Canadians - same thing sailing out of any other port in the USA on all intinerarys. Think of the hassle to board or debark an aircraft of 150 people. Cruise ships deal with 2000-3500 pax so I don't think a couple hours to debark is unreasonable. Just my humble opinion. It can be expected ...

 

this is not the norm for non-US citizens. Yes we have to clear customs in a different area but that is it and it is ususally very efficient and done with class.

 

Sailed Carnival two years ago and it was done very well and smoothly. No one has ever taken my passport away only check and stamped it.

[Acey]

this is not the norm for non-US citizens. Yes we have to clear customs in a different area but that is it and it is ususally very efficient and done with class.

 

Sailed Carnival two years ago and it was done very well and smoothly. No one has ever taken my passport away only check and stamped it.

 

US Customs and the co-operation of pax control the tempo of disembarkment, not the cruiseline. The line is not culpable for the delays. It's like blaming Air Canada because you stood too long in the Canada Customs lineup at the arrivals hall of the airport - the only difference is the procedures are taking place on the ship. One could even argue it was the pax choice to be part of this log jam of 500 people waiting to exit rather than wait it out in the lounge until the crowd died down. Whatever the case, I hope the OP isn't turned off by cruises - if this is the first time this happened to them they are lucky. 6 out of my 8 cruises were like the situation the OP described.

[red knight]

I have had that in the Caribbean a few times. It is stupid. You have cleared US Customs Immigration to get to the cruise port, and again been verified to get on the ship. The ship knows and could report to US authority as to who is on board, and who is not a US citizen, but no! You cruise outside US waters for a couple of days, then on reentering US waters/port all non US types have to get up early, just to have their Passports stamped and generally ignored! Then a couple of days later at the end of the cruise, again you have to get up early to clear US Immigration, never having left US waters. I see it as a way for the Customs Agents to get free meals at Cruise Lines expense! It is not imho the fault of the Cruise Lines, they do what they are told by bureaucrats!

[Roadpossum]

The same thing happened to us after arrival in San Diego on the Carnival Spirit. Even as U.S. citizens, we had to wait almost 2 hours in one of the assembly rooms on the ship until they located passengers in 3 cabins to come to the Pursor's Desk to settle their bill. After numerous pages for those passengers, Carnival and Customs finally allowed us to leave the ship. And yes, we did feel like cattle being herded as we disembarked. I just chaulk it up to cruising post-911. We just accept it as being part of travel and book later flights on those days... just in case.

[Ephraim]

It's not the cruise line's fault. Of course CBP could make it all a lot easier, considering they have a manifest, every passport number ahead of time and know if anyone boarded the ship other than the originating port.

 

Is CBP allowed to accept food and drink from the cruise line? I would think that might be too open to abuse. There should be a rule against this. They should be shielded from anything like this.

 

I think the two worst that we have ever experienced have been in St. Thomas and in New York City. In St. Thomas they wake you up at a very early hour to do the processing and there was really no point. We couldn't leave the ship till 9AM yet had to be up at 5:45 for customs.

 

In New York city with NCL it was just disorganized (we have been to NYC with Princess and it wasn't disorganized... and it was the same pier.) We had to wait in the lounge for a very long time and without an clear indicator of what was going on. When I finally got to US customs I gave him my birth certificate and my driver's licence and he says "So what are you going to do next near when you need a passport?" What the hell did that have to do with the procedure? They doing a survey as you go through customs now? I replied "Probably not visit." Smart Alec that I am. And he gave me back my papers and let me go, so we could get in the car and drive back to Montreal.