TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin New Arrival Hall

Arrived Saturday on JB from Boston. Pulled up to the jet way and deplaned without incident. We did have wheelchair transport for my wife, so we were brought to the manned immigration booth. They also have scanners for your passport, and take a picture of you. Not sure if it is actually a photo or facial recognition matching to your passport photo.
Two people traveling with us did use the new system. They said they had no problem, there were enough kiosks and they were all working. They got through very quickly, and were only a few minutes behind us.
That said, a Saturday arrival at 10:30 AM, and the only large jet in at the time, may not be the best test!

Did you fill out the digital ED card online prior to your arrival? How were the baggage carousel? Did the bags come out pretty quickly?

Thanks for the report, but as you say, a 10:30 AM arrival is not really indicative of what happens later in the day.

Anyone else come in since the new arrival hall became available?

yes, we filled out the ED card on Friday. As it turned out we did not use the new system.

yes the bags came out within 10 minutes of our arrival at the carousel. But...we were the only plane in at the time.

My guess would be that things are probably going to be working pretty well and many of the problems will be user error. People are going to show up and not have completed their ED card online which will prevent them from using the kiosk. But, they will park themselves in front of that same kiosk as they then try to fill out the digital ED on their phone, preventing someone else from going through. And, no doubt, they will bitch and moan the whole time, while they themselves are the problem.

There are 3 luggage carousel plus one for oversized items. The space looks quite large. I'm excited.

We came in Saturday at 2:06. The new system was not working consistently, probably only 5-10% of the time did it work. So we stood in line to get to it, were rejected and then had to get in line for the normal passport processing. We had completed the entry form prior to arrival. We did not get our bags until 3:30.

Thanks for the note, tbone. Hopefully things will work better from here on.

Doesn't surprise me at all. So much for the new system and baggage control.

I'm sure there will be kinks to work out. Especially people needing to know that they need to fill out the online form.
I saw a post on Facebook where the arrivals hall was completely full of people (probably around 2 in the afternoon) and they were complaining about the system. In this case, I am betting it is a lot of people needing to know they need to fill out the online form as well as the system not working completely correctly.
Airlines could do a lot to help that. Since we all need to arrive several hours before leaving, many people could be filling out their forms (if they haven't already) while waiting to board the plane!

I looked at the initial page or two of the form (as far as I could get without actually filling it out). Perhaps I missed this in previous discussion, but are we to fill out the "group" option if traveling with several people / a family, or is it advisable for each person to just fill out individually? We don't visit again until March so hopefully things are running smoothly then, but I'm just curious how people are filling out the form - individual, or group.

I read on FB that the "group" option was for large numbers of people arranged by a travel agent, for instance. Family members should each complete their own form.

OK thanks for sharing that.

Everything worked great yesterday. Stepping off the plane to walking out the door was no more than 20 minutes including a bathroom stop

Thats great Tony! Can't wait for December to experience it.

Tony--what time did you arrive? Any other planes in at that time?

We got in at 11:30. Did not see any other planes yet. Yes, timing is important, but the flow through arrivals was good. However, if you get in after a wide body, all bets are off. But that is true anywhere.

Tbone you say you didn't get bags until 3:30. You state you spent time in lines so were the bags already there at 3:30 or did you still wait after clearing lines?

T-bone, do you know why you were rejected at the kiosk?

Arrived today on Jet Blue 887. The new system with kiosks took 15 minutes and with no luggage we were out and on our way.