Port of New York

Don't be surprised when you're forced to disembark by about 10 am. You're going to have to find something to do in the city to occupy your time until your 7 pm flight.

What's there to do in a little hick town like New York? LOL

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You have to be a native of the area to call it "the Port of Authority" . ;) I'll bet there's a good chance you also call the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade the "Macy's Day Parade". It's music to this Manhattan-born poster's ears. :)

 

Seriously...the Port Authority doesn't own or run the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, it's the NYCEDC (New York City Economic Development Corporation). The cruise terminal is actually managed under contract by Ports America. Issues of clearance of the ship for disembarkation and processing of passengers through customs and immigration is under the control of CBP...they give the orders that everyone else has to follow.

Yes, north Jersey, I grew up about 15 miles from Manhattan and my parents both grew up in Queens.. I do pronounce my R's though so not exactly a "New Yorker" but close enough.

Thanks for the information.

They did that from one US port to another?

Yes, our cruise started in NJ, did a stop in Bar Harbor and then on to some ports in Canada, our last stop was Portland Maine where immigration made us all carry off our passports. It was the craziest thing because they hardly looked at them and after a while no one looked at them at all..

You got off easy. It took us over two hours including an hour spent crammed in the stairs. It was awful.

 

While the delay was likely not caused by NCL, they did absolutely nothing to ease the chaos. Instead, they continued calling zones, further contributing to the congestion. There was zero organization on the cruise line's part and it left me with a poor final impression too.

You said they continued to call zones? Can you explain, I have never heard of that.

You said they continued to call zones? Can you explain, I have never heard of that.

Tag colors, rather, that indicated the time in which you were to debark.

I did the walk off once...I've never been so hungover (actually I was probably still drunk). It was a nightmare. Never tried it again even though I don't drink like that anymore. I always have a relaxing breakfast and then just sit and wait. There is the added problem with the first off-walk off people that many who chose a color/time for debarkation decide they are also going to walk off and then they congest things when their luggage isn't available yet. Also, they hold the line for anyone with priority disembarkation - suite and platinum guests.

Yes, our cruise started in NJ, did a stop in Bar Harbor and then on to some ports in Canada, our last stop was Portland Maine where immigration made us all carry off our passports. It was the craziest thing because they hardly looked at them and after a while no one looked at them at all..

OK, that makes sense. The ship reentered the US after being in foreign ports . . . That generates a passport check. We have had that situation on cruises that had stops in St. Thomas, St Croix as well as San Juan. In those, we had the passport check in the theater and it was announced in the daily and several times the evening before.

ETA: Surprising that the ship and the immigration people didn't communicate better. Unlikely to be Isis related.

Yes, our cruise started in NJ, did a stop in Bar Harbor and then on to some ports in Canada, our last stop was Portland Maine where immigration made us all carry off our passports. It was the craziest thing because they hardly looked at them and after a while no one looked at them at all..

If the ship was returning from Canada and re-entering the US at Portland then Customs & Immigration has to clear everyone. There should have been no surprise and the cruise line should have told everyone that passports are required. When we cruised from Vancouver to LA we had to be cleared at Seattle (every passenger had to disembark whether they wanted to or not) and then we still had to clear AGAIN at the end of the cruise in LA after visiting two US ports, San Francisco & Santa Barbara.

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Embarkation & disembarkation has never been anything but a cluster every time I've done it.

At this point unless we have a suite & priority access we just assume it will be a disaster & hang out someplace relatively quiet until the hubbub dies down. It's soooooo much more civilized then trying to be the 1st people off the ship. The pushing, the complaining, the interminable lines . . . not worth it.

Just assume you will be last off & it is so much saner.

OK, that makes sense. The ship reentered the US after being in foreign ports . . . That generates a passport check. We have had that situation on cruises that had stops in St. Thomas, St Croix as well as San Juan. In those, we had the passport check in the theater and it was announced in the daily and several times the evening before.

 

ETA: Surprising that the ship and the immigration people didn't communicate better. Unlikely to be Isis related.

If the ship was returning from Canada and re-entering the US at Portland then Customs & Immigration has to clear everyone. There should have been no surprise and the cruise line should have told everyone that passports are required. When we cruised from Vancouver to LA we had to be cleared at Seattle (every passenger had to disembark whether they wanted to or not) and then we still had to clear AGAIN at the end of the cruise in LA after visiting two US ports, San Francisco & Santa Barbara.

 

 

 

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No...passport checks upon first reentry the US when the cruise is coming from Canada or in the Caribbean are not always carried out. On our most recent Canada/ New England cruise (taken a bit over a year ago) on the Gem there was no immigration check for US citizens until the end of the cruise in New York. We made three stops in New England after leaving Canada...Bar Harbor, Boston and Newport with no passport check until final disembarkation.

Same for a stop in St. Thomas this spring after having been in St. Maarten.

CBP changes its procedures based on the government's assessment of the current terrorism threat level. They are currently on a heightened alert level due to the ISIS situation...hence the more stringent requirements. Until recently the perceived threat was much lower and CBP's approach was much looser.

No...passport checks upon first reentry the US when the cruise is coming from Canada or in the Caribbean are not always carried out. On our most recent Canada/ New England cruise (taken a bit over a year ago) on the Gem there was no immigration check for US citizens until the end of the cruise in New York. We made three stops in New England after leaving Canada...Bar Harbor, Boston and Newport with no passport check until final disembarkation.

 

Same for a stop in St. Thomas this spring after having been in St. Maarten.

 

CBP changes its procedures based on the government's assessment of the current terrorism threat level. They are currently on a heightened alert level due to the ISIS situation...hence the more stringent requirements. Until recently the perceived threat was much lower and CBP's approach was much looser.

I'm not overly of the "secure border" mindset, but I find what you experienced troubling. Every one of the similarly routed cruises we took, and some were while the WTC was still operational, required a document check on the ship and usually in the theater for US citizens.

Our disembarkation fromBA in NY in May wasn't smooth. Long lines. So, I would imagine an elevated security threat with more stringent passport review does a lot to turn a "not so great" disembark to one of chaos. I'd say partly the fault of security efforts in NY ( which I am happy to stand in line for if that's what we need to to) and partly the fault of BA/ NCL ( which I am not so happy to dismiss as necessary). It wasn't such a smooth boarding process either although the security pot portion was swift and well- organized, the actual boarding of the ship was not.

OK, that makes sense. The ship reentered the US after being in foreign ports . . . That generates a passport check. We have had that situation on cruises that had stops in St. Thomas, St Croix as well as San Juan. In those, we had the passport check in the theater and it was announced in the daily and several times the evening before.

 

ETA: Surprising that the ship and the immigration people didn't communicate better. Unlikely to be Isis related.

The cruise director told us they had no idea we needed passports and that they had to follow orders from immigration at the port. I do remember doing this in St. Thomas in the theater on past cruses, I guess its the same thing. Wondering why this came as a surprise to the cruise line? weird, right..

I understand folks saying not to blame NCL for delays likely caused by Customs. But Scott appears to have first hand knowledge of the situation. Why would they continue to call zones if they were not ready for the next group? This then would indicate that NCL is at least partially to blame for the congestion. In turn this would not help an already slowed down disembarkation process.

Rochelle

NCL calls zones as they offload baggage and that zone's baggage is available for pickup on the pier, that's been my experience. Those are facts they can keep aware of just from onboard ship communication capabilities.

That's the reason you should never leave the ship until your zone is called, you'll just be in the way of everyone else waiting for your baggage on the pier.

There's no practical way for the staff aboard the ship to know how well customs is doing clearing passengers. Customs' and the ship's hand held radios use different frequencies and can't communicate with one another.

NCL calls zones as they offload baggage and that zone's baggage is available for pickup on the pier, that's been my experience. Those are facts they can keep aware of just from onboard ship communication capabilities.

 

That's the reason you should never leave the ship until your zone is called, you'll just be in the way of everyone else waiting for your baggage on the pier.

 

There's no practical way for the staff aboard the ship to know how well customs is doing clearing passengers. Customs' and the ship's hand held radios use different frequencies and can't communicate with one another.

I have had priority disembarkation for some time now so I guess Im not on the ship when there calling zones. Is it the same as colors? Is each color a zone? Just curious.

The cruise director told us they had no idea we needed passports and that they had to follow orders from immigration at the port. I do remember doing this in St. Thomas in the theater on past cruses, I guess its the same thing. Wondering why this came as a surprise to the cruise line? weird, right..

It was a surprise because requiring the passports has not been the procedure in recent times, and that requirement has apparently just been reintroduced due to the government's heightened alert status caused by the perceived threat from ISIS.

It's been quite some time (a couple of years as I recall) since they required an immigration check in St. Thomas as long as you were only coming from nearby Caribbean islands such as St. Maarten. If the ship had an itinerary that visited countries perceived to offer a greater threat such as Colombia, they still did the passport check in St. Thomas, but not for the nearby Caribbean.

CBP changes its procedures all the time just like the cruise lines change their menus in the dining room all the time. What was true last year or even last month isn't necessarily going to be true today, and it might change again tomorrow.

CBP does not tell the cruise lines about the changes in advance. That's why the cruise director didn't know.

I have had priority disembarkation for some time now so I guess Im not on the ship when there calling zones. Is it the same as colors? Is each color a zone? Just curious.

Yes, it's just colors.

As the OP, interesting comments everyone.

We had booked an 11:AM train from Penn Station, and in my experience that should be an easy make since it is a 10 minute taxi ride on Sunday. We phoned Amtrak from the pier when it was obvious we would never make our train and forked over additional money for seats on the 1:00PM. I will be the first to admit that is my problem, not NCL's.

Thinking back on this issue, NCL obviously made the decision to abandon the color coded system in favor of dumping the entire passenger roster at one time onto the pier. My speculation is that a.) they needed to clear the ship, and b.) they were getting big time heat from passengers with Noon - 1:PM flights. A mass dump solved both problems - at least for NCL.

We have been on 30+ cruises and this has only happened once before, at Miami about 10 years ago where CBP was also the issue. I think the passengers there were just as angry, maybe more so, then at NY. (3+ hours on that one).

I never make travel plans home before 3 pm. Who needs the stress of trying to get off the ship and to the airport in a rush?

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On our most recent NCL cruise on the Breakaway last Jan., the process of disembarkation was a total utter mess. We also had an Amtrak train to catch from Penn, but fortunately it was late enough departure time that we did make it. Worst disembarkation for us ever from NY.

As the OP, interesting comments everyone.

We had booked an 11:AM train from Penn Station, and in my experience that should be an easy make since it is a 10 minute taxi ride on Sunday. We phoned Amtrak from the pier when it was obvious we would never make our train and forked over additional money for seats on the 1:00PM. I will be the first to admit that is my problem, not NCL's.

Thinking back on this issue, NCL obviously made the decision to abandon the color coded system in favor of dumping the entire passenger roster at one time onto the pier. My speculation is that a.) they needed to clear the ship, and b.) they were getting big time heat from passengers with Noon - 1:PM flights. A mass dump solved both problems - at least for NCL.

We have been on 30+ cruises and this has only happened once before, at Miami about 10 years ago where CBP was also the issue. I think the passengers there were just as angry, maybe more so, then at NY. (3+ hours on that one).

When this happened to us, we were scrambling to make our daughter's Confirmation, taking place at noon (she was with us). We all made it (unshowered). On our previous cruises from NY, we were home by 9 am, so we figured there would be no issues. Lesson learned! You just never know.

It was a surprise because requiring the passports has not been the procedure in recent times, and that requirement has apparently just been reintroduced due to the government's heightened alert status caused by the perceived threat from ISIS.

 

It's been quite some time (a couple of years as I recall) since they required an immigration check in St. Thomas as long as you were only coming from nearby Caribbean islands such as St. Maarten. If the ship had an itinerary that visited countries perceived to offer a greater threat such as Colombia, they still did the passport check in St. Thomas, but not for the nearby Caribbean.

 

CBP changes its procedures all the time just like the cruise lines change their menus in the dining room all the time. What was true last year or even last month isn't necessarily going to be true today, and it might change again tomorrow.

 

CBP does not tell the cruise lines about the changes in advance. That's why the cruise director didn't know.

CBP and other officials are on board and in contact with ship's officers before they permit anyone to get off. Somewhere in the clearance process seems as though CBP would a inform the ship of any changes or respond to a question about what today's process will be. It's difficult to think that the first time any mention is made of a passport check is when pax attempt to get off the boat.

That said, I can easily believe that the extent of the examination of papers is not communicated in advance.