US CBP Didn’t Allow Us To Enter Our Own Country

Weather and circumstance conspired to return to the US earlier than expected, but we weren’t allowed to enter our own country. 

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Dodging Bad Weather

My family and I were recently on a cruise evaluating the world’s only six star luxury cruise. I will cover this 250 passenger mega yacht in another post, but for the time being, I’ll just say that we had the most amazing service on the most unfortunate sailing. A hurricane was building in the Bahamas, where we were intended to spend three of our four days onboard. Rather than travel at our intended pace to a destination which had bad weather (even though the hurricane had not yet fully formed) the ship slowed to an average of 10 knots per hour and slowly inched toward the islands while we waited for developments.

From another traveler on a different sailing in the Bahamas at the time, I can be sure that the experience would have been miserable. Cold, driving rain, rocky seas, and high winds made it unpleasant for our friends and we had no interest in sailing into the same situation. Still, it made it hard at sea for several days in a row not knowing if we would reach our ports or when we would see land again.

Separate from this issue was a medical issue with our son while onboard. It was one time where we really wished that we could shorten the cruise despite the incredible time we had onboard.

Docked in Miami, but not going anywhere. At least our son was feeling better.

Home Sweet – Not Quite – Home

After stopping in Freeport, Bahamas for two days and one night, we moved back out to sea to explore a shipwreck and nearby island. The expedition team deployed to the shore of this island that was less than a quarter mile long but could not find a suitable entry point for guests. They deployed the helicopter for some sightseers, returned it to the helipad after a few runs and that evening we headed back to Miami early in the evening. We were not due to arrive until the early morning. This is an important detail.

We had family arriving the same day we would return and after the issue with our son and the slow trek south we were ready to go home. I booked some award flights for later that night but didn’t cancel my flights for the following day. We packed our things and collected our passports ready to disembark. But then the captain came on the speaker and indicated that we would not be disembarking in Miami upon arrival.

Confused, I went down to the service desk to clarify. Though we would be back in the United States, Customs & Border Protection would not allow us to re-enter the country. They confirmed this ludicrous stance and said that the CBP didn’t provide further information. The thought was that they might not have staff available to process those there for a night out in Miami but continuing on and those fully disembarking and entering the United States.

As we came into the Port of Miami and sidled along the terminal it was a strange terminal to be captive in your own country.

A Gut Punch From CBP

Later in the evening, after I had cancelled my award flights home that would have put us in our beds some 18 hours ahead of schedule and given us some much needed time to prepare for our family, I was walking through the lounge. As I live and breathe, the gangway door was open, stairs were extended to the dock, and I confirmed we could not exit.

As if that wasn’t close, but not quite close enough, two CBP officials in uniform were onboard chatting with the staff and guests casually but not processing anyone.

Had we not dodged the weather at sea for days, and if our son had not been ill, we wouldn’t have been in any rush to depart. But given those circumstances it was a little tough to understand how CBP had staffed the port, they literally had nothing going on so they just came onboard to chat, and yet we couldn’t re-enter our own country.

I’m not suggesting that CBP should have called in additional staff and disembarked the ship on our account, but there was a strange feeling of captivity on our front door that’s hard to describe. For what it’s worth, Global Entry kiosks are not widely available at cruise ports but if they were, the two officials onboard would have been more than sufficient to process us in just a few minutes.

Though we were already docked, in port, and CBP officials had been onboard, we still didn’t get an “all clear” to disembark until after 8:30 AM. When we did so, a team of CBP staff were on hand to process our very small ship.

Conclusion

While we were happy to be in port, it was a strange feeling to not be able to get off the ship in our own home country. For us, personally, it it would have been tremendously helpful, and while I understand they cannot adjust for just us, we felt unwelcome in our own country.

What do you think?