The CBP officer went out of her way to tell me the GE would be useful for returning from, say, Europe via USA, so your cruise example would be a yes, if you had the fingerprints and enrolled in GE. I'm not sure where else the GE machines are located in, say, Florida, etc. You'd think they would have them for international arrivals.
Provided you had your GE fingerprints taken and enrolled in GE, you use the passport (or, apparently, the NEXUS card) to activate the GE machine and do the onscreen Q&A and fingerprints and it prints out your card/photo that you hand to the officer.

Not intentionally yet at all... I have, however, had conversations like: "hey, I need your boarding pass" me: "but I gave you the GE card". "I need to stamp your boarding pass". me: "oh right. sorry". So much faster, and will only get better once I stop making novice omissions like that.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but I thought I'd check here to be sure. I want to fly a dozen Timmy's doughnuts into the US to educate my Bostonian colleagues on how much better Timmy's is than Dunkin' Donuts. If I use GE, I don't need to declare the doughnuts, right? There are not meats/fruits/veggies/etc.

Thanks ;)

Yes, you should be able to, and I've done this too. However, I'm almost 100% sure that there is a downside to this, being that if one in your party is randomly (or otherwise) sent to secondary, you'll all need to go. With separate cards, this isn't the case.

If using the GE machines, yes, you are correct, no need to declare (though not sure if technically you might need to if you get some of the jelly filled ones).

Where are you flying from? Not familiar with all of the airports, but if you're leaving from YYZ or YVR, there is a Tim Horton's location airside in both, post pre-clearance and security, which solves the problem completely. Plus, you don't have to lug them around for as long. In fact, occasionally, I stop by the airside location to get a box of timbits for the flight crew.

I bought a box of Timbits in YVR for colleagues. The CBP officer explicitly asked me if I was carrying any snacks or anything like that. I'm definitely glad there was a Tim Hortons right outside the MLL :)

My wife had her NEXUS interview at the YYZ office last week Sunday. One of the regulations that the US officer went over with her related to entry into USA about food. He told her that everything - including candy, chocolate bars, chewing gum - anything consumable - needed to be declared, or else.....

What are other people's experiences taking food across the border, to USA?
What are other people's experiences taking food across the border, to Canada, from either USA or from abroad?

YYZ. There's the one Timmy's in the transborder terminal, but it's always so slow and I was worried they might not have any Canadian Maple doughnuts. My flight is also at 7.15 am which I figured may be a peak period.

That's true, I think, if you use NEXUS to enter the US -- since you fill out the blue form which asks if you have food. But with GE, you don't use the blue form and the machines only ask for meat/dairy/etc. But to be honest, I'm always worried about this...I usually now take cheese-filled blintzes from my grandmother across the border and figure those don't need to be declared. One time I went through the regular CBP agent and declared them and he said for GE I don't need to declare my blintzes :)

The airside Tim's is what makes me crazy about the no-undeclared-food rule. I can't take synthetic food i.e., running gel cubes without declaring them as food, but I can purchase baked goods containing eggs and dairy after I make the no-food declaration and take them with everyone's blessing.
However, I find the question moot since after the transition to the frozen product distributed from the central Tim's commissary, I find the products unpleasant and consume them only under duress. (I cannot, however, debate or deny how much worse they are at Dunkin', as I lack the data.)

Well, you know, the frozen product from the central Tim's commissary magically becomes biologically inert when it passes through the secured delivery door at the airport. ;)

Not that it's not otherwise biologically inert (since there's probably not much biological stuff left in it after it's been processed and frozen at the commissary)...

Do you mean inert? As in not much stuff left in it after it's been processed and frozen? As opposed to biologically ert if the bugs survive? :p

Long day yesterday. Still recovering. :eek:

Nexus and GE
 

I got my nexus card just over a week ago

Here is what my account on the goes web site says about nexus cards and GI kiosks:

Global Entry Benefit: As a NEXUS member, you can now use the Global Entry kiosks located at the top 20 major U.S. international airports to enter the U.S. To use the Global Entry kiosks, you must use a valid machine readable passport. Do not use your NEXUS card in the kiosk, but you may wish to carry it with you. There is no additional cost to use Global Entry, and you may use it for the duration of your NEXUS membership. Additional information about Global Entry can be found at http://www.GlobalEntry.gov/. If you do not wish to use Global Entry kiosks, please disregard this message.

Someone a few posts earlier suggested that a nexus card can be used, instead of a passport. However, the statement displayed on account with the web site says otherwise.

Just tried GE for the first time. Got a big X on the receipt and sent to passport control. Guy said it didn't read my fingerprints properly, machines are very finicky. Gave me a demo on the correct technique: lay your fingers flat on the glass, altogether. Don't spread. Don't curl.

0 for 2 on Nexus/GE this year.

I've never done it. My mom wanted to buy me some chocolates or candy or something when I was visiting her, and I flat out told her not to, because it would complicate my crossing the border :)

Really? When did this happen? :(