WARNING for NON-US cruisers debarking in a NON-US port!

[olafLover]

It's not so much about assigning blame but figuring out what happened - unless the problem can be traced, it is hard to ensure that it doesn't happen again (not for you to ensure it doesn't happen again, but for DCL and/or CBP to ensure that it doesn't happen again).

I know but I've been called out for blaming DCL for "everything", so I want to make clear I don't care where the blame is. But yes, I'll keep contacting DCL with each new case I'll be made aware of and urge them to evaluate their process. I'd be interesting if there are cases on the July 29th Alaskan cruise or one of the later cruises since DCL was made aware of it on July 25th

 

[finchy3]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We're due to book up to do the Alaskan DL cruise in 2021 and this has us worried.

It's a disgrace how this has been able to happen and not be addressed.

 

[Dug720]

Oh, I don't think it's that Dug720 doesn't understand. I think it's more that they were so adamant they were right, when they really had no idea, and now aren't willing to meet in the middle and admit that.

You see it all the time on social media, the moment proof pops up that proves someone wrong, they disappear in the blink of an eye.

No, I truly did not understand. Thanks for the insult though.

 

[jrabbit]

But they are not. Alaska cruises leave from Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA. They return to Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA. That is not a US port and is not controlled by US CBP.

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out, but the cruises out of Vancouver (Canada) go to Alaska (USA), so therefore they need the Visa's. Trust me, on my first reading of the issue I had your exact same thoughts. In this case the cruses are GOING to the USA and then LEAVING the USA to return to Vancouver. Therefore boarder control is involved. It is a little different than leaving Florida and going to Europe, but in the end it is still the same.

 

[jrabbit]

That makes zero sense. Why would they be doing US customs in Canada? I could see if if they left Canada, returned to the US or the other way around. But they are not in the US.

I have flown to the USA through Vancouver and Toronto. There are signs IN the airport that say that you have entered the USA even though you are still on the ground and in the airport. I'm sure the same is for the cruises to Alaska out of Vancouver, otherwise we all would be going through passport control in each port (yes I know that we do that by proxy when we enter a port - with the information provided to the cruise line - and therefore this is where the problem comes in, Boarder Control has the info that we have arrived, but not left .. I guess)

 

[FigmentSpark]

Hmm. I wonder if a person can insist on having their passport stamped as they exit? Shouldn't have to do this sort of thing, though.

 

[olafLover]

There is nobody to insist this at unfortunately. But we never had our passports stamped leaving the US (which I always found odd, I travel a lot, also to Africa and Asia, it’s the only country where I don’t have exit stamps).
First time we walked to Canada, Canadian border Protection must have let the US know.
After our honeymoon we had en flight from Hilo to Denver and from Denver to Washington. That flight was delayed and we were freaking out if we would make our connection because we expected we needed to pass border protection, but no, we just had to walk two gates over, no stamp, but our departure was registered correctly

 

[olafLover]

Oh I just remembered CBP also asked for a list of your travels to the US. I don’t know if they need a full list or only of your current ESTA, but for us it was the same so I listed all three trips (the two listed above and the trip where it went wrong). You need to list arrival and departure location and dates. (Will add this to the second post with information to send to CBP)

 

[scottishclover]

I know but I've been called out for blaming DCL for "everything", so I want to make clear I don't care where the blame is. But yes, I'll keep contacting DCL with each new case I'll be made aware of and urge them to evaluate their process. I'd be interesting if there are cases on the July 29th Alaskan cruise or one of the later cruises since DCL was made aware of it on July 25th

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We were on the July 22nd to July 29th cruise travelling on British passports. I have just checked and our travel history and it states we departed USA on 27th July from “unavailable” location( this would be correct as on 28th we were in Canadian waters) so looks like the issue has been rectified. Thanks to olafLover for providing the link to check.

 

[olafLover]

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We were on the July 22nd to July 29th cruise travelling on British passports. I have just checked and our travel history and it states we departed USA on 27th July from “unavailable” location( this would be correct as on 28th we were in Canadian waters) so looks like the issue has been rectified. Thanks to olafLover for providing the link to check.

Interesting (and promising!) thank you for letting us know!
Our location is also shown as unknown (although I think it should be Miami), but this might mean they found the error and rectified it in time for you and the sailings after!

 

[olafLover]

No response from Cruise Critic, but I'm not a regular there, so I don't know if that means anything or not (posted in the Alaska portion, my post UK cruisers doesn't seem to get accepted).

Just to indicate the impact on people of this whole visa fiasco, I was in DLP this weekend. Yesterday, while standing in the middle of the Fast Pass frenzy of Rock 'n' Roller coaster (it was the last day and if you entered with a (paper) Fast Pass, you got a magazine, but they were delaying the time you were allowed in, it was a bit of a madhouse) and somebody came up to me (with a stroller, so she wasn't doing the ride) to ask if we were on the EBTA and thank me for the efforts to get the visa issue resolved.

 

[olafLover]

It seems about the amount of time has passed it took CBP to resolve the issue for the people on the Magic, how are your statuses looking @p17blo and @SundayGirl?

 

[SundayGirl]

It seems about the amount of time has passed it took CBP to resolve the issue for the people on the Magic, how are your statuses looking @p17blo and @SundayGirl?

@olafLover It was a bit of a joke to say the least. Basically I got an automated response to my email submission from the CBP telling me I needed to submit information and supporting etc etc but if they had read my email properly, I had already submitted all information and supporting document as you instructed in your first post!!!

Clearly it wasn't looking good, and judging from the posts here I knew I probably wasn't going to get any satisfactory response from the CBP over the internet. So I did the next best thing and contacted my local US consulate to speak to a human. The CBP representative told me there's basically nothing we can do, but hold onto our supporting documents and be prepared to have it ready and leave plenty of time in the future for any future ESTA application.

My one consolation is that, though my latest compliance record via the I94 website states that my travel status is unavailable, my travel history record also obtained via the I94 website now records a departure on 7/14 and we disembarked on 7/18 for what its worth - location is marked "Unavailable".

Nothing we can do but hope for the best, leave plenty of time for any future ESTA application and have all supporting documents on hand. The CBP representative I spoke to at the US consulate mentioned that further supporting documents in addition to what Disney have issued, would be flight tickets showing any other foreign travel between your US trips, credit card bills which show transactions outside the US etc.

Fingers crossed we won't get the 10 days left before overstay email or we will be re-living the angst...

 

[olafLover]

@olafLover It was a bit of a joke to say the least. Basically I got an automated response to my email submission from the CBP telling me I needed to submit information and supporting etc etc but if they had read my email properly, I had already submitted all information and supporting document as you instructed in your first post!!!

Clearly it wasn't looking good, and judging from the posts here I knew I probably wasn't going to get any satisfactory response from the CBP over the internet. So I did the next best thing and contacted my local US consulate to speak to a human. The CBP representative told me there's basically nothing we can do, but hold onto our supporting documents and be prepared to have it ready and leave plenty of time in the future for any future ESTA application.

My one consolation is that, though my latest compliance record via the I94 website states that my travel status is unavailable, my travel history record also obtained via the I94 website now records a departure on 7/14 and we disembarked on 7/18 for what its worth - location is marked "Unavailable".

Nothing we can do but hope for the best, leave plenty of time for any future ESTA application and have all supporting documents on hand. The CBP representative I spoke to at the US consulate mentioned that further supporting documents in addition to what Disney have issued, would be flight tickets showing any other foreign travel between your US trips, credit card bills which show transactions outside the US etc.

Fingers crossed we won't get the 10 days left before overstay email or we will be re-living the angst...

It looks like you currently have the same status as we're having, so I think it's good. Never got any notification either, but it shows up like you describe, so it might be handled.
In the mean time I have asked (and received) DCL to send the letter by mail, because we don't have US Letter paper and can't print margin less, so it'd look really fake if we showed up with our own print out

 

[SundayGirl]

It looks like you currently have the same status as we're having, so I think it's good. Never got any notification either, but it shows up like you describe, so it might be handled.
In the mean time I have asked (and received) DCL to send the letter by mail, because we don't have US Letter paper and can't print margin less, so it'd look really fake if we showed up with our own print out

Thanks so much for that! That's a really good idea, I'll ask DCL to send us hardcopies too - to be on the safe side.

 

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