NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Jul 6th 2005, 8:56 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2005
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Posts: 279
NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Well hello again everyone, I am now officially in the USA as an immigrant.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
Jul 6th 2005, 10:09 am
#2
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Originally Posted by gooner81
Well hello again everyone, I am now officially in the USA as an immigrant.
Jul 6th 2005, 10:52 am
#3
Account Closed
Joined: Aug 2002
Location: Kentucky
Posts: 38,865
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Originally Posted by gooner81
Well hello again everyone, I am now officially in the USA as an immigrant.
Ian
Jul 6th 2005, 10:56 am
#4
MODERATOR
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 58,687
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Wonderful story!! Welcome to America! 
Rene
Rene
Jul 6th 2005, 11:50 am
#5
American Expat
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 7,598
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Originally Posted by gooner81
Well hello again everyone, I am now officially in the USA as an immigrant.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
Jul 6th 2005, 11:50 am
#6
Mrs Shep USCIS Graduate
Joined: Oct 2002
Location: ExPat Kiwi in Indiana USA
Posts: 1,865
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
How could you possibly think any of us would find that boring??
Great reading indeed. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip & fairly painless entry.
First July 4 fireworks are something quite special arent they? Glad you enjoyed yours & hope it was like a belated welcome to America for you.
Best Wishes
Shepslady
Great reading indeed. Sounds like you had a wonderful trip & fairly painless entry.
First July 4 fireworks are something quite special arent they? Glad you enjoyed yours & hope it was like a belated welcome to America for you.
Best Wishes
Shepslady
Jul 7th 2005, 12:05 am
#7
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2004
Location: UK to PA
Posts: 281
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Originally Posted by gooner81
Well hello again everyone, I am now officially in the USA as an immigrant.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
As my heading suggests my wife and I arrived in the US by Queen Mary 2 through New York. First off i'll go through what happened at POE then if you want to read about the cruise experience i'll put that at the bottom.
Just before arriving at the port all USC's have to report to the onboard planitarium to go through custom's to speed up the whole process, then once docked USC can just walk staright off the boat without needing their passport or anything. Unfortunately it is only for American passport holders so i had to wait until the boat was docked. Now you get off the boat anywhere between 7:45 and 10:30 depending on your coloured tags which depends on if you are using their provided transportation (at a cost) or self help disembarkation (the quickest but with our 6 suitcases and 4 heavy carry-ons this was never an option). I got off the boat relatively early at around 9 queued for a little bit then got to see someone. He looked pretty confused for the first couple of minutes but then talked to someone briefly and processed some of the stuff, then the annoying part, he needed an I-89, was there one at any of the stations of course not that would make to much sense. He told me to wait somewhere which i did and he didn't even seem to tell anyone to go get a form, luckily someone else was in the same situation and they had sent for some forms for him, however we found out that they don't keep them in that dock they only have offices in a few of the docks and this didn't happen to be one of them. So 25 minutes later a guy arrived with some forms and gave them to someone, who just ignored them for another 10 minutes until finally the other guy i was with grabbed someone and they finally picked up the forms and filled them out took our fingerprints and made us sign underneath it - they didn't really appear to know what they were doing and seeing as the form was double sided they didn't fill even 10% of the boxes in - weird but maybe they fill the rest in from the pack you give them. Finally after about 35 minutes i was allowed to go. Our bus to Penn Station was waiting and because of the hold up we were the last people by a long long way. As for customs that was a peice of cake we had so much luggage carried by a porter and they didn't even take an interested which was good. I didn't even get welcome to america which really sucked lol.
The Cruise itself was fantastic from start to finish. The weather sucked most of the time but i guess in the middle of the atlantic it will never be really hot and there is always quite a wind of some kind which makes it a bit cold outside. We got a free upgrade to a room with a balcony as we were only supposed to have just a window. The food was absolutely superb and the selection for breakfast, lunch and dinner was just amazing in the 6 nights your on board it would be so easy to put on so much weight you can have five course meal for every meal time if you wished plus extra lol and it's all free which is even better still. The entertainment was also amazing with its own on board theatre, planitarium and movie theatre, plus many more things including ballroom dancing which my wife got me doing, but it was all fun. Only got slightly seasick on the last day to when it was a bit choppy, there was also a fantastic storm on the first night and seeing fork lightning over the sea was a cool if not slightly worrying experience lol. Storage space in our room was also really good with 6 suitcases and 4 carry on's we only had 1 out on the floor that was visible so it does make immigrating much easier. Porters were also readily available to help us move from the baggage to our coach, then at penn station a fantastic red cap put all our luggage on the AMTRAC train that didn't have a special part for luggage he was great and even phoned ahead to DC to make sure someone met us the other end.
Just a quick note on the end as this is very long.
Went to July 4th fireworks in DC and sat on the capitol buildings steps and all i have to say is WOW to the fireworks 20 mins of brilliant fireworks the best i have ever seen, what a way to come to the US
Thank you to anybody who read this i know it was long and probably sometimes boring.
Glad you had a good trip and Welcome to America!!!
Jul 7th 2005, 10:07 am
#8
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2005
Location: Fairfax, Virginia
Posts: 279
Re: NYC Port POE & Cruise Experience (QM2)(long)
Originally Posted by Noorah101
Wonderful story!! Welcome to America!
Rene
Rene
and thank you for all your nice comments
