Canadians clear immigration early in the am on day of disembarkation??

[CruzinWithMom]

After reading reviews, I noticed that Canadians are required to clear immigration before 7:00am on day of disembarkation??? I will be travelling with my Mom who is a senior and was wondering if she has to attend immigration clearance or can I complete whatever paperwork for both or us without having to get her up extra early and take her down to wherever do this ??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

[CANBRFAN]

After reading reviews, I noticed that Canadians are required to clear immigration before 7:00am on day of disembarkation??? I will be travelling with my Mom who is a senior and was wondering if she has to attend immigration clearance or can I complete whatever paperwork for both or us without having to get her up extra early and take her down to wherever do this ??? :confused: :confused: :confused:

I can only speak from my experience, maybe someone else had a different one but all of us had to be in the room together, at the same time. However, it was not as early as 7:00 am but they won't let anyone off until all non us residents have cleared customs. What was good about it was that we were one of the first off the ship, the clearance goes by really fast.

[MommaOML]

I think it depends on where you've been and what port you are returning to.

 

Last year, we cruised from Tampa, with ports at Grand Cayman & Cozumel. We had to clear customs the morning of debarkation (at 6:30 am). There were no exceptions. I had to drag my 7 month old son out of bed in order for him to clear customs.

 

This year, we cruised from San Diego, and all 3 ports were in Mexico. We were not required to clear customs ahead of time ... we just filled out our paperwork and presented it to the customs official after we'd collected our luggage.

[CruzinWithMom]

Thanks for the info. We will be leaving/arriving in Tampa so I guess I have to get my Mom up early for immigration. I also read that non-US residents are NOT allowed to self-disembark??? Did I read this correctly??? :confused: :confused:

[AandBmom]

DH and I are Canadian and we just came back from our cruise on the Legend in and out of Tampa two days ago.

 

We were told to attend in the lounge at 6:15am on the last morning to clear customs. We got there at about 6:25am and the line was very very long. We went back to our cabin, showered, dressed, packed up, etc. then returned at 7am and had to wait about 15 minutes in line. We're glad we didn't wait there the whole time as there was no point. We were both required to attend but we didn't have to bring any luggage.

 

As for self disembark, you can only do that if you're an American. Otherwise you have to put your luggage out by midnight the night before. The room stewards bring your luggage to storage then it's offloaded into the terminal in Tampa. You will get a number 1-19 which will go on your luggage. In the morning they let all the self assist people off first (8am-9am). Then around 9am they start calling numbers 1-5, then 6-10, etc. to let people off the boat. When your number is called you get off the ship then go to a giant storage room in the terminal where you find your luggage then get in a line to hand in your customs form and carry on your way.

 

We had a really late flight so we were trying to get off as slowly as possible and we were on our way by 9:50am or so. We had a number 5, but waited until they called 19 before we left the ship. We sat in the lido restaurant snacking and sipping drinks (non alcohol at that point). Everyone was off by 10am.

 

If you have a really early flight you can bring your flight info to the purser's desk the afternoon before and ask to be let out with the self assist people and they say they will accomodate you.

 

I hope this helps.

[Toddcan]

It's not that bad, but yes, you have you go to a non-resident line (room) to disembark. Just to be sure, attend the information session they hold which explains the disembarkation process. They ususally hold it in the main theatre 2 days or so before the end of the cruise.

 

Luggage must be left out the night before, no self-embarkation for us Canucks.

[CANBRFAN]

Thanks for the info. We will be leaving/arriving in Tampa so I guess I have to get my Mom up early for immigration. I also read that non-US residents are NOT allowed to self-disembark??? Did I read this correctly??? :confused: :confused:

This will be our 3rd time on the Miracle out of NYC and each time, we had self-disembark. Maybe it was because it was NYC, not sure but we had no problems and were off the ship in no time.

[KTownGirl]

We cruised out of Tampa in April '07. We were initially told that the self-debark was for American citizens only. But after a lot of asking around and talking to the Cruise Director after the disembarkation talk, we were told the following.

If you are not an American citizen:

1. you cannot leave the ship until all foreign passengers have cleared customs.

2. you cannot leave the ship during the general "self-assist" passenger debarkation.

BUT

once they start calling colours, that means the ship has cleared customs and any foreign passengers doing "self-assist" can leave the ship.

We were off the ship pretty quickly without any problems.

I would still confirm this just in case it has changed since our cruise.

 

Enjoy your cruise!!

[KruznKel]

I posted this on another thread I thought it was the same as this one ... but anyways..

 

Why is Tampa port different from any other:confused:

 

Because of Belize and Roatan??

[smceown]

We have had to go through the immigration for non US citizens (we are Canadian) on at least 3 cruises - and it was at 7:00 AM and the whole family had to attend. However the last couple cruises it wasn't required - just got off the Imagination Eastern last week and we didn't have to do this.

 

It isn't a very nice way to end the cruise, I am very thankful any time it isn't required.

[KandCsailing]

I've never heard of having to go to customs by 7 in the morning or not being able to do self-assist. We self-assisted our luggage on our first two cruises out of Port Canaveral and the 2006 one went to Belize as one stop. Last cruise was out of Fort Lauderdale and the only reason we didn't carry off the luggage was because DH's parents were with us. They need to warn people about the customs thing before you book; I'm not good with mornings.

[tatay]

We were on the Fantasy in August of 2006 Eastern Caribbean and I don't remember having to clear immigration early in the morning??

[KruznKel]

We have had to go through the immigration for non US citizens (we are Canadian) on at least 3 cruises - and it was at 7:00 AM and the whole family had to attend. However the last couple cruises it wasn't required - just got off the Imagination Eastern last week and we didn't have to do this.

 

It isn't a very nice way to end the cruise, I am very thankful any time it isn't required.

 

 

Did you ask WHY? you had to do the immigration before.. or just went with it?

[greencruiser17]

I am confused... I am Canadian and sailing out of San Juan Puerto Rico in August.... can someone tell me what I should be expecting..

Do I have to put my suitcase out the night before?

Do we have to be at customs @ 7am?

I am so confused:( :(

[smceown]

Did you ask WHY? you had to do the immigration before.. or just went with it?

 

It was not a voluntary event, we were told we had to do it and we just did. First time was Paradise Western 2003 - and I would say 10% or less of passengers were not US citizens.

 

On that cruise - and others - we also had to give up our Passport at check-in - we don't have to do that anymore either.

 

I don't argue with the immigration folks - I figure they have their reasons and I do as I am requested.

[magic&buddy]

We have cruised Carnival 3X and have not ever needed to clear customs on the ship at the end. We have always cruised from Miami. Is this an issue only in Tampa?

[smceown]

We have cruised Carnival 3X and have not ever needed to clear customs on the ship at the end. We have always cruised from Miami. Is this an issue only in Tampa?

 

Every cruise we had to do this was out of Miami - but we haven't had to on the last 2 or 3

[smceown]

I am confused... I am Canadian and sailing out of San Juan Puerto Rico in August.... can someone tell me what I should be expecting..

Do I have to put my suitcase out the night before?

Do we have to be at customs @ 7am?

I am so confused:( :(

 

You only have to put your suitcases out the night before if you are not going to haul them all off the ship yourself - and in the past you had to be a US citizen to do this but it sounds like that has changed by other posts.

 

It didn't seem like an advantage to do this on my cruise last week - unlike previous cruises, they did not let all the self-assist off first - they called different floors at the same time as all the others - so the self-assist were stuck waiting in the lobby with everyone else - with ALL their luggage.

 

We have not had to go through the immigration for non US citizens in the past 2 or 3 cruises - maybe it is a thing of the past?

[misguidedangel]

I got off the ship like everyone else, didn't have to do anything special at all...

 

January 2007--Miami--early flight at 1pm--met lounge, along with all the shore tour people. Off the ship around 9:30am, along with others Canadian, American, and Europeans alike...No special clearance from US customs. Cleared customs in the terminal in a separate line for Foreigners (All foreigners went through ONE LINE!!!)--waited around 5 minutes. American's had FIVE lines, even though 1/3 of the ship was from outside the US....

 

September 2007--Miami--Clear customs at St. Thomas after visiting Half Moon Cay. No other special US custom clearances. Off the ship at 9:30 along with everyone else in my number code. Self Assist is NOT for Americans only. A couple I flew from Toronto to Miami did self assist and they are from Saint John, New Brunswick (Canada for you Americans). Customs at Miami was everyone and anyone in any line. I passed through quickly because I was Canadian. Canadian Customs at Toronto was just as easy, but waiting for the bags took forever...

 

February 2008-Just like both Miami cruises, quick, easy, simple. We had an early flight so we had to be in the show lounge at 7:45, along with EVERYONE else who had early flights, Canadian and American's alike....

 

I have found that clearing customs has been so easy. The only time I waited to clear customs was when we had to clear at St. Thomas--and that was only 15-20 minutes. All they checked was to see if we were who we were!!

[mr. cruiser]

I posted this on another thread I thought it was the same as this one ... but anyways..

 

Why is Tampa port different from any other:confused:

 

Because of Belize and Roatan??

It has nothing to do where you have been I believe but which port you are disembarking at. Each Port has a different way of doing things.

[KruznKel]

It has nothing to do where you have been I believe but which port you are disembarking at. Each Port has a different way of doing things.

 

Alright thanks.. I was just curious as to why Tampa would be different from Miami.;)

[big_duck]

I posted this on another thread I thought it was the same as this one ... but anyways..

 

Why is Tampa port different from any other:confused:

 

Because of Belize and Roatan??

 

Because of lack of proper facilities in the terminal.