Customs & Excise.

[screwy]

Hi all. Not sure if this has been posted before but do customs exist at Southampton ? Iv'e never seen them whenever weve got off.!

[Quizzical Bob]

Hi all. Not sure if this has been posted before but do customs exist at Southampton ? Iv'e never seen them whenever weve got off.!

Yes they do. As you leave the Mayflower, for example you go through the exit at the far right-hand end of the baggage hall. There are windows for them to look through and they can pounce on anyone suspicious. Sometimes they will be on full view and I have seen them asking for cases to be opened. They tend to stop single young men, especially on ships returning from the Caribbean. After one cruise my wife raced on ahead and I was pulled over.

"Are you on your own sir?" he asked.

"No, that's my wife there getting a taxi".

"Then I suggest you go and join her" he said.

What a nice man

[Happydays]

Yes there are C&E at the port. I got stopped once, they just asked how many cigs I had the answer was none I don't smoke! I was then told to go, they didn't look inside an bags or cases!

[Quizzical Bob]

Yes there are C&E at the port. I got stopped once, they just asked how many cigs I had the answer was none I don't smoke! I was then told to go, they didn't look inside an bags or cases!

They are trained to identify those who are not entirely honest.

I don't know how you got through

[GillD46]

I have seen them several times. Last time was after a Fjords cruise! They had loads of passengers opening case on that occasion.

[oldbluefox]

I have seen sniffer dogs at Mayflower so I presume they will have been active around suitcases as they come off the ship. I also wonder what intelligence they will have on passengers even before they arrive in Southampton.

[Boris+]

We've never seen them at any of the Southampton terminals.

[Quizzical Bob]

I have seen sniffer dogs at Mayflower so I presume they will have been active around suitcases as they come off the ship. I also wonder what intelligence they will have on passengers even before they arrive in Southampton.

All this is true.

[david63]

Definitely - just wait until there is somebody on the ship smuggling drugs and they, along with the police, will be there in their droves. Good news for everyone else because they are not interested in them and you can just walk off with anything.

[Suekersh]

We went through a phase of being stopped regularly at Southampton. It started after our part world cruise when we got stopped at Manchester airport. Garry feeling tired, irritable answered the customs officer back. When he asked where we had been and had we enjoyed it Garry yes up till now. That was it bags were scanned we were searched and for about 4 times after that we were stopped at Southampton. Could be a coincidence but never been stopped before.

[screwy]

Mmm, hindsight Sue, Never ever upset Customs officers word does indeed spread.

[CaroleF]

For the first time ever we were stopped at Southampton when returning from our Adonia cruise in July. We'd been to Honfleur, St. Peter Port, Scilly Isles and Cork. The Customs Official wanted to know which ports we'd been to (I would have thought he knew that) and whether we'd got off at each port. We must have looked honest because he didn't make us open any cases - just wished us a safe journey home.

[david63]

We went through a phase of being stopped regularly at Southampton. It started after our part world cruise when we got stopped at Manchester airport. Garry feeling tired, irritable answered the customs officer back. When he asked where we had been and had we enjoyed it Garry yes up till now. That was it bags were scanned we were searched and for about 4 times after that we were stopped at Southampton. Could be a coincidence but never been stopped before.

We met someone on holiday several years ago with a similar experience. He had been to Hong Kong on business, bought some goods and declared them when he arrived back. The customs officer got a bit stroppy. Anyway after that he got stopped every time he came back into the country, be it from holiday or on business.

One day whilst looking at his passport he found a tiny staple in one corner so he removed it and guess what? He never was stopped again - may be coincidence

[Manoverboard]

As you enter the Customs area have a pretend natter and then a knowing glance at one of the passengers, keep having a peep in his/her direction to see how he/she is getting on ... it usually works a treat on the selfish passenger who kept trying to push past you !!

Regards CustomisedPlod

[oldtimer]

Cruised from Southampton 12 times never seen any sign of customs.

[RB1961]

We've been stopped twice. I used to put my training shoes and used socks all in the same bag...not nice when the geezer opened it..
Also we have seen the sniffer dogs, once after a cruise on Azura during school holidays.

RB

[Mervyn and Trish]

We've seen customs at the terminal but not been stopped so far. Hope that's not tempting fate. My thing seems to be to set off the alarms at airport security for no apparent reason.

[Ranchi]

We were stopped as a family (all over 18). The customs officer started off asking if we realised that we'd come through the green channel & were we sure we understood the implications of so doing. I said yes I understood but my son said he wasn't certain of the implications...just that he assumed it meant that we didn't have more duty free than prescribed ( we didn't). The Customs officer then asked how many cigarettes we were carrying. I replied none. He asked who each bag belonged to and then asked each of us if we smoked ( no one) He then asked which one of us was the smoker. At which we looked puzzled ( none of us had ever smoked). At which point he waved us on without looking at the cases. As we left the hall we saw a lady opening a case packed full of cigarettes. Don't know if it was mistaken identity or the sniffer dogs had spotted something in some similar luggage. Wasn't a problem, just strange.

[Silver_Shiney]

We got into a very long queue for the Green exit lane at one of the terminals a few years ago and a German couple, who felt that they were above queuing, marched quickly to the front and pushed in.

They were still being searched when we got into the customs hall....

[Raybosailor]

Our son has traveled all over the world with his job and strangely for a young man travelling alone he was never stopped, but when he was working in Gibraltar and living over the border in Spain he was hounded by the Gaurdia Civil and always on a Friday night. It wasn't at the border control in Gib but at a strategic point on the Carretera de Cadiz on his way home. One Friday while we were visiting him he asked us to come down to Gib and have lunch with him so we went down on the bus and had a day there, we returned with him in his car and guess what ? straight through the checkpoint.

The only problem we have had in our many years of travelling was trying to get our two grand kids through immigration in Florida because they both had different surnames and we weren't the natural parents, we had written permission of travel from their parents but they still interrogated the kids which seemed to stress the six year old until the officer gave her a Minnie Mouse badge but I must applaud them for being so thorough.

[Boris+]

We've been lucky - and have never been stopped at Southampton. In the ordinary route from ship to vehicle I've never seen C&E, but when doing a B2B at Ocean Terminal we did a short cut with shore passes to get back onto the ship, and we did actually see them. They were quizzing crew members.