Sept. 24, 2007 — Ten calls by the Princess Cruises ship Sea Princess are back on the calendar after the governor urged U.S. Customs and Border Protection to assign more agents when the ship calls on St. Thomas.
Princess Cruises announced in early September that it had canceled 10 calls to St. Thomas because it took too long for its passengers to clear customs.
Most of the 1,990 people aboard the ship are British. Because they are foreign nationals arriving from a foreign port, customs inspections take longer than for other passengers, said Government House spokesman Jean Greaux.
To resolve the issue, Gov. John deJongh Jr. contacted both Stephen Nielsen, Princess Cruises' vice president of Atlantic and Caribbean shore operations, and Tarance Drafts, customs' port director for the Virgin Islands. Also playing key roles in the negotiations were Port Authority Director Darlan Brin and Steve Vasaturo, St. Thomas port agent for Princess Cruises, the governor said in a news release issued Monday.
"The cruise ship industry and our relationship with Princess Cruises is too important for us not to have initiated immediate action to address the situation and get the decision reversed," he said. "My long-term goals for the territory in this area require that a partnership exists between all the parties, and that we be able to discuss areas of concern and those requiring some change in policy."
Because customs will allocate additional agents, "Princess Cruise Lines is happy to reinstate our calls to St. Thomas," Nielsen said, noting that St. Thomas is a popular port.
The Sea Princess will call at 6 a.m., an hour earlier than the originally scheduled 7 a.m. arrival, to help facilitate clearing passengers, Greaux said.
The additional customs agents are coming from Puerto Rico, Delegate Donna M. Christensen said in a news release issued Monday. It's a temporary solution, she said.
"I have written a letter to Commissioner Ralph Basham of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency asking for additional personnel to process non-U.S. passengers aboard cruise ships visiting the territory,” Christensen said.
As a member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over Customs and Border Protection, Christensen is requesting that more permanent staff be assigned to the territory. Other U.S. ports don't have this problem, she said.
The ship will leave London Oct. 13 and ply routes that include St. Thomas between Oct. 27 and March 29, 2008, according to Princess Cruises' website, princess.com. The first call of the Sea Princess on St. Thomas will be Oct. 31, according to Julie Bensen of the Princess media office.
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