Cruisers = Complainers?

Written 315pm, Sunday 2 September, on Crown Princess at Crown Bay

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been struck by how many folks on the cruise love to complain.

This morning we got to see a bit more of that phenomenon.

As I reported in a prior post, we were ordered to appear for a mandatory immigration inspection this morning, upon docking at St. Thomas.

This was quite clearly not something folks wanted to do early on a Sunday morning, especially since a lot of folks apparently had a very good time on Sint Maarten.

The Princess folks were pretty good about it, apologetic, despite the verbal abuse they received from a couple of passengers. (Although, I did hear one crew member quip, “Don’t blame me; I’m Canadian. It’s your President who says we have to do this”—a comment that got a chuckle from several of us who appreciated the sentiment, but which, strictly speaking, isn’t exactly professional. I won’t report her if you won’t.)

The process was quick and relatively painless—the queue moved quickly, we handed over our “order to report letters”, immigration officers quickly looked at our passports, and we were given landing cards.

A lady and a small boy cut in front of us in the line, and complained the entire way into the lounge where the formalities were taking place. She tried to argue with one of the immigration officers who, perhaps because of dealing with grumpy passengers, or perhaps because of having been given professionalism lessons at the DMV, responded in kind. As we left, that particular officer was trying to over-talk the lady suggesting, “if you have a problem with this, write George Bush at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC”.

I can understand why the feds have become paranoid about who is setting foot on the soil of the homeland or its possessions. I can even understand why they did the inspection first thing in the morning (i.e., immediately upon arrival), rather than at sea last night (when we weren’t in U.S. territory) as several passengers wished.

However, I do think this would have made a bit more sense if they simply set up passport control on the pier, rather than making everyone get up early and join the conga line, regardless of whether they were actually going ashore.