honesty is the best policy

upon disembarking in fort lauderdale, passengers need to clear customs before finally heading home. this is u.s. law and there's no getting around it, not even - or especially - for a former u.s. senator.

one of our suite guests from the previous voyage found this out the hard way when he falsified the information on this customs form so he could go through the process faster and make his flight. unfortunately for him, customs officials discovered the inconsistencies in the information he provided and they leaned on him quite a bit.

they asked him about his activities in the different ports, particularly if he went shopping in st. thomas (a brief fyi: the allowance per person is doubled to $1600 if any purchases are made in st. thomas). instead of telling the officials that he and his family went on a tour in st. thomas, he decided to lie and say that they didn't even go ashore in st. thomas. the customs officials checked the ship logs and, of course, found out that they did go ashore. so they leaned on him some more and proceeded to thoroughly inspect their bags.

our hotel manager witnessed all this and tried to help our guest by reminding one of the officials that he is a former u.s. senator and actor. the official told him that no one was exempt from the process. our hotel manager then told the wife to just tell the truth so they could clear customs and catch their flight.

maybe it's because our hotel manager's dutch and they didn't want to be further embarrassed in front of him in their territory, or maybe they simply thought that he made sense. whatever the reason, they decided to heed his advice and cooperated with the customs officials. they were cleared in no time at all.

our hotel manager told me and my co-concierge this story earlier this evening and we couldn't believe it. personally, i felt embarrassed for him and very disappointed as well. he's a former u.s. senator. he was even his party's presidential candidate once upon a time. he's supposed to uphold his country's laws and he couldn't even comply with simple customs rules.

i just hope america is in better hands with the new administration.