Passengers onboard the P&O Arcadia have complained at being kept waiting for hours in Los Angeles when US Customs and Border Protection Officers decided to complete full security checks on all passengers, taking around 7 hours in total.
Around 2,000 cruise ship passengers were aboard and despite having filled in their details for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (the visa waiver porgram), they had to stand for hours to go through all of their details with CBP officers again.
Unfortunately many of the passengers were elderly and being forced to stand in queues for hours without food, water or restrooms meant that some passengers actually passed out.
The media relations manager from the Port has told reporters that the issue was completely out of their control and was handled by Customs and Border Protection.
A P&O Cruises rep has also placed the blame firmly at the feet of the CBP, saying that it was largely caused by computer system faults and that the situation was perhaps not helped by the “verbal approach” that some of the passengers took when they got frustrated. In other words, the CBP were retaliating by delaying people on purpose after getting a bit of abuse from the passengers! How very primary school!
