Caribbean Explorer II

[Frank Storms]

Anyone been on this trip leaving from St Kitts lately?
We are booked for May 19 and already running into problems;
We were told by Explorer booking that we cleared US Customs coming
back in St Maarten, so we booked a US Airways flight from St Maarten
to Charlotte with a one hour 16 minute layover for our connecting
flight. Now I learn that Charlotte is our POE, with no later flights home.
Is it possible to do the customs/immigration process in an hour?
And how about the 50 pound bag limit on Liat and $70 for an
additional bag for the flight from St Maarten to St Kitts!!
Frank

 

[Doubler]

Maybe if you are a "Trusted Traveller". Go to the Global Entry program website and sign up. It is not free but does speed up immigration and customs. Otherwise there is no way.

 

[shmuggy]

The 50 pound limit is more the norm these days unfortunately. But it can be done when you are going on a liveaboard. When you don't have to pack shoes and hair dryers, etc it helps. Hopefully you can also use the carry on to help you with those extra pounds. My husband and I each carry a backpack and I carry a huge purse and have never been challenged or charged.

Getting through Customs that fast is not realistic. Please let us know if you go through the trusted traveller program and if it works. It might be cheaper to get a room near the airport and get out the next day.
Hope you have fun on the trip. Please let us know what you experience on this boat.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Actually, going through customs by a US citizen returning home is not usually a big time drain, and is more a function of the number of flights returning from international travel around the same time as yours. My wife and I breezed through on a return through Charlotte after a trip to the Caymans, last year (or was it 2010?)
As for a bag fee, if you are dropping 4k on a trip, pay the fee, pack a second bag and take the gear you want. Debbie and I always budget for extra bag fees because we always take our own stuff. NOTE: check in early for the flight from St. Marten to St. Kitts to be sure your bags make the same plane as you do.
I think you will make your connection from Charlotte. Tell a flight attendant your itinerary, and get assistance exiting the plane quickly, walk fast to be at the head of the line, and etc. BTW, we did the Explorer II a few years back- great diving!
DivemasterDennis

 

[BigJimDiver]

Just did the CEXII a little over a week ago. Will try to post a trip report shortly, but to answer yourquestions:
1) The Captain of the CEXII clears you thorugh St. Maarten Customs. They took care of our customs/mmigration clearances in Saba and St. Maarten (we were on the St. Kitts-St. Maarten itnerary). There isn't US customs clearance at SXM for US bound travelers that I am aware of.
2) I travel extensively, but pretty much always through Newark and not through Charlotte. As DivemasterDennis pointed out, the speed at which you can get thorugh Immigration and Customs and drop your bags off at a bag check is usually a funciton of timing. If you arive at the same time as 5 widebodies from Europe it'll take a while. Often the late day International inbounds from teh Caribbeam or a sporadic 737/A320 so you can be lucky and breeze right through. FWIW on our trip back on April 8th I think we were through Immigration, got our bags, and through customs within ~25 minutes of getting to the gate.
3) as for Liat: a) they will defintely hit you for every fee possible. b) they will weigh your carry on, and will make you check it or move stuff to checked luggage if your carry on is over 15 lbs. There are many passengers who have to repack at teh chekc in counter. c) they only allow 1 carry on. I had a back pack camera bag and a small mesh beach bag (pretty much the size of a woman's large purse) and it took all kinds of discussion for them to allow me to take these both on as carry ons. c) they only guarantee 1 piece of checked luggage per person will make the flight. All excess luggage flies "stand by" even though you pay $60 per extra piece. We had 4 checkd bags total, they all made it but I was a little concerned about some being delayed in St. Maarten to a later flight. We flew in a day early just in case.

 

[GramercyGirl]

Sorry, unfortunately Global Entry is not yet in effect at Charlotte. Global Entry

I'm a member and was disappointed it was not available in Charlotte. I went through Immigrations and Customs there in December on the way back from GCM and got through pretty quickly, but like the others have mentioned, you just don't know what will be doing the moment you arrive.

Good luck!

 

[Frank Storms]

Waiting for that trip report...

 

[RJP]

1hr 16min for a connection? I wouldn't book such a connection WITHOUT customs, much less WITH. Don't forget that not only do you need to clear customs and get to your next plane... so do your bags. You'll need to clear passport control, claim your bags, clear customs, then re-check your bags to send them on to your next flight. That assumes that your first flight arrives on time into Charlotte.

Good luck. You'll need it.

 

[Shasta_man]

This is too late but for perspective, any overweight bags on our Singapore Air flight from Bali to SFo was auto charge of $330. Checking another bag was $130, but added extra 50 lbs of storage. Easy choice and just another fat drop in the trip bucket.

 

[Frank Storms]

Okay. Just got back from our week aboard the CE II.
We made all our airline connections going and returning. Had a two hour wait for Liat (LATE) from St. Marteen
to St. Kitts, but no hassle over baggage.
The week on the CE II was great--the staff was friendly, attentive and professional.
The diving around Saba was particularly good, St Kitts so so due to bad visibility.
I would recommend this trip for anyone interested in macro photography for the unique creatures around Saba.

Frank