Bad disembarkation on Navigator in Galveston today

Not very happy with Royal at the moment. Had a relatively early flight (for Galveston from Hobby) but figured with the priority disembarkation I'm supposed to get as a D+ and we would be fine. And the flight was after the recommended time.

But customs had an issue that stopped disembarkation right before Group 4, the first of the Diamond Plus groups. When they allowed it to restart, instead of coming and telling us we could go, in an effort to clear the ship really fast, RCCL announced groups 1-10 (out of 20 - and that doesn't include the 6 self disembark groups) in the public areas but waited 15 minutes before coming and telling the Diamonds and Diamond Plus that were in the assigned waiting area that we could go.

As a result, instead of getting priority disembark we ended up behind over half the ship and it took 2.5 hours to get through customs - in an extremely hot and sweaty terminal. And we missed our flight home.

I understand about customs issues, but Royal made it 100 times worse by calling everyone at once, instead of sticking to the priority of groups that they assigned. This was the worst disembarkation I've ever experienced. My transatlantic was a breeze compared to this.

What time was your flight?

Ah, the joys of traveling. Such a shame to have a wonderful vacation end on that note.

What time was your flight?

12:45 out of Hobby. Made it to airport just after baggage check in cutoff.

So sorry. We were off in 30 min 3 weeks ago and did not even use a porter in group 4. It did get quickly backed up behind us. One bag was missing so I had to search for it thru almost half the bags but a helpful agent did help me or it would have taken even longer.

So sorry. We were off in 30 min 3 weeks ago and did not even use a porter in group 4. It did get quickly backed up behind us. One bag was missing so I had to search for it thru almost half the bags but a helpful agent did help me or it would have taken even longer.

Cousin was in first self disembark group and it took an hour for them to get through. We were in group 4 and it was 11:20 before we all got through. The end of the line was still stretching out of the luggage room.

Sorry Wrona, Galveston is a hot mess most of the time. And we live here (Texas) We have learned how to navigate it over the years, mostly by leaving early. But its hard to understand how they just don't get it with other ports like Cape Canaveral and Port Everglades doing such an outstanding job by customs. They are notorious!:cool:

We had a similar experience in Galveston on a foggy day, we docked around noon. RCL ordered everyone to disembark at the same time because the following passengers were ready to embark. We spent 5 hours in line to do customs. It was total chaos. Really bad way to finalize an amazing week.

Based on our personal experience, Galveston is the only port we will not consider cruising into ever again - for any price.

SNAFU is the usual order of things there.

Galvestion is a departure port we will not be repeating after the mess today. I thought disembarkation in PC when Explorer repo'd last year was a disaster- today's was worse.

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Bummer to hear. I have a 1:30pm out of IAH in 2 weeks, hope the immigration systems can hold up!

I am sorry this happened to you. I try to book later flights when our cruises dock in Galveston. And if I wanted to try an early flight, we'd do self disembarkation, as it is earlier than if we waited for D+. Our flight after November B2B Liberty cruise is 4:30 out of Hobby....should be late enough, even for the bigger ship.

Bummer to hear. I have a 1:30pm out of IAH in 2 weeks, hope the immigration systems can hold up!

Ask to be in the first group for express walk off. Or do a cruise line transfer as that was the first non-self disembark group they called.

I am sorry this happened to you. I try to book later flights when our cruises dock in Galveston. And if I wanted to try an early flight, we'd do self disembarkation, as it is earlier than if we waited for D+. Our flight after November B2B Liberty cruise is 4:30 out of Hobby....should be late enough, even for the bigger ship.

I was originally booked on a 2:30 flight but an airline schedule change a few weeks ago got us. There weren't any later flights to my town today. And canceling and rebooking was going to be too expensive.

I was originally booked on a 2:30 flight but an airline schedule change a few weeks ago got us. There weren't any later flights to my town today. And canceling and rebooking was going to be too expensive.

Call your airline or TA. They should waive the rebooking fee when they change the original time you booked. You may have to pay just for the fare difference.

 

 

I was originally booked on a 2:30 flight but an airline schedule change a few weeks ago got us. There weren't any later flights to my town today. And canceling and rebooking was going to be too expensive.

Ouch! That makes it even more painful. I hope the airline treated you well when you missed luggage check time.

Lucky you were not stuck behind Europeans doing the eye checks and finger prints.

This happened to Canadians in Galveston earlier this year as non US were all in one line.

My flight from IAH in November is not until 4 PM.

Call your airline or TA. They should waive the rebooking fee when they change the original time you booked. You may have to pay just for the fare difference.

The only later flights were on other airlines (Southwest). No US airline is going to rebook you to another airline for an advanced schedule change and even if they did, Southwest doesn't play nice with other airlines so it wouldn't have helped.

Ouch! That makes it even more painful. I hope the airline treated you well when you missed luggage check time.

They were good. I've had plenty of experience with flight issues this year too. This will be my third travel insurance claim opened in two months.

Galvestion is a departure port we will not be repeating after the mess today. I thought disembarkation in PC when Explorer repo'd last year was a disaster- today's was worse.

 

 

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Still a great cruise other than this, but we were not the only ones around us in line saying never again to sailing from Galveston.

Our worst experience for disembarking was off our LOS 2011 TA in FT Lauderdale. They were still getting off after 12 Noon and a lot of missed flight. We missed an 8:30 Post cruise tour which RCCL had to reimburse us for along with over 200 other people doing tours. They ended up calling in 2 /3 more buses to get us to the airport.

Kind of worrisome as Liberty comes in November with even more passengers. We are on that first Liberty cruise out. We only have a five hour drive but still want to leave customs before noon. If you can't get repeat customers to come to Galveston it will hurt business. We have kids who will need to get flights out in May after a cruise so I'd better be sure they don't book before 2 pm or even later.

Again sorry this happened. Did you use a porter? And was Belize included? Less agents due to the holiday weekend? Just trying to figure out why it was such a mess today. I think there were six agents/ lanes working three weeks ago.

So very sorry to hear the OP's travel nightmare. Shame on Royal for not communicating with their most valued Q&A members on a timely basis. We disembarked the Navigator this morning too. But, with self disembarkation and it was a breeze. We started departing the ship ahead of the scheduled start time of 7:30am. We were through US Customs, shuttled to parking and on our way home before 8:00am.

We have found self disembark to be a breeze and not any more difficult that wheeling your luggage through the airport. I highly recommend it for anyone with flight scheduled if at all possible for you to do.

 

I think there were six agents/ lanes working three weeks ago.

Wow! Six agents? I've never seen six agents in any port but I've never sailed out of Galveston either.

Again sorry this happened. Did you use a porter? And was Belize included? Less agents due to the holiday weekend? Just trying to figure out why it was such a mess today. I think there were six agents/ lanes working three weeks ago.

Belize was included. All customs lines (8 I believe) were opened, staffed and moving pretty quickly...at least for us on early disembarkation.

We are planning to buy a transfer to IAH, we can't seem to do it in advance so I really hope it's offered on board as I've seen in the past.