Every Passenger Off, Six Blocks of Queue: Norwegian Joy’s Seattle Customs Day, Explained

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One passenger lives in Portland. They had no plans to set foot in Seattle. They used to come up for work every week, so they had seen it.

They got off anyway, because everybody had to. Hours later, that passenger was sitting in a restaurant on the pier with a glass of wine, watching a queue for their own cruise ship run out of the terminal building and “six or seven blocks down the street.”

This was Norwegian Joy in Seattle on Friday, October 2, 2026. It was day one of a five-night trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and every passenger on board had to walk off the ship and clear US immigration in person, at the same time, in the middle of the cruise.

It wasn’t a glitch in the rules. It is the rules. Here’s what happened at Pier 66, why a cruise that started in Canada triggers it, and how to tell from the itinerary whether your own sailing has a day like this hidden in it.

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Everybody Off

Norwegian Joy had just finished her Alaska season. Her next job was a “Pacific Coastal” repositioning cruise: depart Vancouver at 2:30 a.m. on October 2, call at Seattle from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. the same day, then Astoria, Oregon, and San Francisco, arriving in Los Angeles on October 7, according to CruiseMapper’s itinerary listing. From Los Angeles she goes on through the Panama Canal to Miami for the winter.

Seattle was the ship’s first US port. That meant every guest had to see US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) face to face before the ship could carry on as normal, as Cruise Fever and TheTravel both reported. Even guests who meant to stay aboard all the way to California had to get off, queue, clear immigration and get back on.

It did not go quickly. Cruise Fever quotes a Reddit thread in which one guest said it took “2 and a half hours to disembark through customs,” and “longer for non US citizens.” Another described “a very hot enclosed hallway” and called the crush “extremely unsafe, especially for children and elderly.” Cruise Fever also mentions reported computer glitches in the terminal. We couldn’t confirm those independently.

The Portland passenger’s account appears in both Cruise Fever and TheTravel. They waited for the last group to be called, got off at about 5:15 p.m., and didn’t think anyone was let back on until after 6 p.m. “All aboard was supposed to be 7, but the line is still out the building and six or seven blocks down the street,” they wrote. “I feel really bad for the crew that’s going to have to deal with an onslaught of hungry disgruntled passengers.”

By 7 p.m., the local TV station had a call. KIRO 7’s late-night report said a viewer rang “around 7 o’clock tonight” from the cruise terminal. People in line told the station that no one was allowed on the ship “because of an immigration and customs check,” and that they’d left from Vancouver “and were taken to Seattle to clear immigration.” A woman who said she’d been cruising for 40 years put it simply: “this is not a normal night.” She added: “This immigration process is so unusual.”

The Six Who Didn’t Show Up

The detail everyone has repeated comes from one Reddit post, and it needs a health warning. Quoted by Cruise Fever, a guest wrote: “I’ve been told by one of the crew there were 6 people that didn’t disembark for customs that they had to track down. It held up 3,000 people.”

That’s one guest repeating what one crew member said. Norwegian hasn’t confirmed it, and neither has CBP. Cruise Fever states as fact that CBP needs 100% of the manifest accounted for before boarding can begin, but doesn’t cite a rule, and we couldn’t find one we could quote. It’s plausible: if every person aboard must be inspected, the job isn’t finished until the last six are. But treat it as a passenger’s account, not an established fact.

The ship did get going. Cruise Fever reported on October 3 that Norwegian Joy was back on schedule and calling at Astoria. Neither Norwegian nor CBP had commented publicly in the coverage we read, and KIRO 7 said it had asked both.

Seattle, Hour by Hour

When (local time)	What happened
Fri Oct 2, 2:30 a.m.	Norwegian Joy scheduled to leave Vancouver
1:30 p.m.	Scheduled arrival at Pier 66, Seattle, the first US port
Afternoon	Guests called off by group to clear CBP in person; one says it took 2.5 hours
About 5:15 p.m.	Last group off the ship, according to one guest
After 6 p.m.	Reboarding begins, by the same guest’s account
7 p.m.	All-aboard time; the line is still “six or seven blocks” long. A viewer calls KIRO 7 from the terminal at about the same time
7:30 p.m.	Scheduled departure (the actual time wasn’t reported)
11:31 p.m.	KIRO 7’s report is published online
Sat Oct 3, 1 p.m.	Scheduled arrival in Astoria, Oregon, where Cruise Fever reported the ship back on schedule

Why Everyone Had to Get Off

Start with the federal rule. Under 8 CFR 235.1(a), “application to lawfully enter the United States shall be made in person to an immigration officer at a U.S. port-of-entry.” US citizens included: paragraph (b) says a person claiming citizenship “must establish that fact to the examining officer’s satisfaction.”

A ship arriving from Canada is arriving from abroad, so everyone on it is entering the United States, and the first US port is where it happens. Norwegian said exactly that in April, when the same thing happened to a sister ship (more on that below): “As per federal regulation, all passengers are required to go through an immigration screening at the first U.S. port when returning from an international destination,” the line told NBC Bay Area, as Cruise Hive also reported.

CBP treats that first arrival differently from later ones. When it approved a lighter process for Great Lakes cruises in 2019, which hop between US and Canadian ports, it told Seatrade Cruise News that “standard processing will still be required at the first port of arrival in the US.” Only later arrivals on the same cruise could use the modified procedure. Before that change, the article says, CBP “carried out a full inspection, meeting with each passenger” every time a ship came in from Canada.

So Why Is It Usually Painless?

Because on most cruises you hit that moment at a time and place built for it. There are three ways it can go:

Your cruise	Where you meet US immigration	What it’s like
Round trip from a US port (e.g. Seattle–Alaska–Seattle)	At the end, in the home port, as you leave the terminal with your bags	CBP’s facial comparison at seaports verifies identity “within two seconds,” CBP says. People leave a few at a time over the morning
Alaska from Vancouver	Before you board, at Canada Place	Part of check-in. Port of Vancouver: passengers “must go through US Customs and Border Protection before they embark on ships cruising to Alaska”
Starts abroad, then calls at a US port (Norwegian Joy, October 2026; Norwegian Encore, April 2026)	Mid-cruise, at the first US port	Every passenger at once, during what was meant to be a port day

The normal end-of-cruise process really is fast. CBP says passengers “pause for a photo” that’s matched against their passport or visa photo, with an accuracy rate of more than 98%, in about two seconds, and that the system is used at seaports in Washington among other states. On an ordinary disembarkation morning, guests trickle off over several hours. On Norwegian Joy, about 3,000 people (the figure in one guest’s post) had to go through in one afternoon. Foreign nationals face more checks than citizens, since CBP takes biometrics from them, as it explained after the April case.

One question remains unanswered: why weren’t these passengers precleared in Vancouver, as Alaska passengers are? A guest asked exactly that online, according to TheTravel. The port’s own description covers ships “cruising to Alaska.” No source we found explains why this sailing wasn’t precleared, and Norwegian and CBP hadn’t said, so we won’t guess.

It Happened in San Francisco Too

In April 2026, Norwegian Joy’s sister ship Norwegian Encore arrived in San Francisco from Cabo San Lucas on a repositioning cruise from Miami. San Francisco was her first US port, so every passenger and crew member had to be screened. She docked at about 7:30 a.m., and it took nearly nine hours before some passengers could get off, according to NBC Bay Area and CruiseMapper. Those who went ashore couldn’t get back on until the screening was finished.

Here CBP did explain itself, and it’s a useful list of what can go wrong. According to NBC Bay Area, the ship docked three hours late. A passenger who had died aboard had to be handled by the coroner before screening could start. About half the passengers were foreign nationals needing an interview and fingerprinting. And the facial recognition system used for US citizens was broken, so everyone got the slower process.

	Norwegian Encore, San Francisco	Norwegian Joy, Seattle
Date	Late April 2026	Friday, October 2, 2026
Came from	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico	Vancouver, Canada
Who was screened	About 3,100 passengers and 1,700 crew (a passenger’s figures)	Every passenger; about 3,000, per one guest’s post
How long	Nearly nine hours for some	About 2.5 hours, per one guest; line out the door at all-aboard
Reasons given	Docked three hours late, a death aboard, many foreign nationals, broken facial recognition (CBP, via NBC)	No official explanation; reports of computer glitches and six missing guests are unconfirmed

What Norwegian’s Contract Says You’re Owed

You won’t like it. Section 7(e) of Norwegian’s US Guest Ticket Contract (February 2026 version) reads:

“The Carrier shall have the absolute right, without liability for compensation to the Guest of any kind, to comply with governmental orders, recommendations or directions, including but not limited to those pertaining to health, security, immigration, customs or safety… The Guest assumes all risks and losses occasioned by delay or detention howsoever arising.”

Immigration and customs are named in the clause, so a lost afternoon in Seattle costs Norwegian nothing under its own contract. Section 12 puts documents on you too: each guest “assumes all responsibility for obtaining” the passports and visas any government requires. Norwegian’s travel documents page adds that “a valid passport is required on all sailings that begin in one US port and end in another US port.” A cruise from Vancouver to Los Angeles is a passport trip, full stop.

How to Avoid Losing Your Port Day to a Queue

1. Find the first US port on your itinerary. If your cruise starts outside the US and later calls at a US port before the end, that call is your immigration stop. Common examples are Vancouver-to-California repositioning cruises, Panama Canal sailings into a US port and transatlantics. Expect every passenger to be processed.
2. Book nothing for that afternoon. No tight tour, no dinner reservation, no friend waiting on the pier. Joy’s call was six hours long, and one guest got off with less than two hours left before all aboard.
3. Go when your group is called, and don’t hide. If you’re tempted to skip it and stay in your cabin, don’t. If the crew member’s account is right, six missing guests held up thousands.
4. Have your documents in your hand. Bring your passport, plus any visa or travel authorization you need if you’re not a US citizen. Non-citizens face extra checks and, according to guests, longer waits.
5. Carry water, snacks and any medication. Guests described a hot, crowded hallway and a wait of hours. Pack for that, not for a stroll.
6. Don’t expect compensation. Norwegian’s section 7(e) covers exactly this. If you paid for a tour you missed, the tour operator’s terms decide what you get back. Our guide to avoiding long lines on a cruise covers the queues you can dodge.

The Bottom Line

Norwegian Joy’s guests weren’t singled out, and nobody broke a rule. A cruise that starts in Canada and stops in Seattle has to bring everyone into the United States at Seattle, in person, all at once. That’s how you get a cruise terminal turned inside out and a queue on the sidewalk at all-aboard time.

The fix isn’t a complaint letter. It’s reading your itinerary like a border officer would: find the first US port, assume that day belongs to CBP, and have your passport ready.

Cruise Chaos earns nothing from cruise lines and doesn’t run booking affiliate links. This story is based on KIRO 7’s broadcast, passenger accounts reported by Cruise Fever and TheTravel, the published itinerary, the federal regulation, CBP’s own descriptions of its process, and Norwegian’s live ticket contract. Norwegian and CBP hadn’t commented publicly on the Seattle delay when we published, and the reports of computer problems and six missing guests come from single sources. If we’ve got something wrong, tell us and we’ll correct it in the open.

Coming up on Cruise Chaos: more chaos from the high seas, with every fact checked.

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Keep Reading

• Do You Need a Passport for a Cruise? Every Itinerary Checked, From Alaska to Europe
• How to Avoid Long Lines on a Cruise: Every Queue, and How to Skip It
• The Whale on the Bow: Why Alaska Cruise Ships Keep Docking With Dead Fin Whales

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Sources

• KIRO 7: Norwegian Joy cruise ship passengers left stranded for hours (video report)
• Cruise Fever: 2.5 Hours in Customs Line: Cruise Passengers Face Unusually Long Delays in Seattle
• TheTravel: Norwegian Cruise Line Leaves Passengers Stranded Over Rare Immigration Issue at U.S. Port
• CruiseMapper: Norwegian Joy itinerary
• 8 CFR 235.1: Scope of examination
• US Customs and Border Protection: CBP and Norwegian Cruise Line Introduce Facial Biometrics at the Port of Boston
• Seatrade Cruise News: Great Lakes lines welcome CBP’s modified passenger processing
• Norwegian Cruise Line: Guest Ticket Contract, US, February 2026 (sections 7(e) and 12)
• Norwegian Cruise Line: Required Travel Documentation
• NBC Bay Area: Cruise ship passengers arriving in San Francisco held up by customs for hours
• Cruise Hive: Why Thousands of Cruise Guests Spent the Day Waiting to Step Ashore
• CruiseMapper: Extended inspection procedures disrupt Norwegian Encore’s call at San Francisco
• International Cruise & Ferry Review: Why Vancouver is an iconic cruise homeport (2019) and Vancouver Cruise Port Guide