Sea Princess to Resume Calls at St. Thomas

12 October 2007 5:44am

Princess Cruise Lines reinstated ten calls to St. Thomas on the 1,950-passenger Sea Princess, a ship it markets primarily to U.K. passengers, after canceling them due to lengthy immigration procedures.

The ship’s mostly non-U.S. citizen passengers, disembarking the ship on Wednesdays, the busiest cruise ship day in St. Thomas, were experiencing lengthy clearance processing times, Princess said.

St. Thomas Governor’s office said that inspection of non-U.S. citizens typically takes longer than for U.S. citizens, but that through negotiations with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, the anticipated time would be reduced.

Stephen Nielsen, Princess’ vice president of Atlantic and Caribbean shore operations, said in a statement that the CBP would allocate additional resources to immigration inspection for arrival in St. Thomas.