Live from the Dawn - the update on boarding issues

Thanks for posting this question. I'm not too worried about getting on the ship. I'll just stay at the hotel later than planned. It does concern me with getting off the ship. I'm hoping that being in a suite will make it easier, and I can get off before the long lines start. I have some problems with my back, and it will be a problem for me standing in a line so long.

For the record as I've said previous, this neither worries or upsets me personally but I can see how others may be impacted or have issues. If you have any thought this may be a problem when you sail. Contact NCL and see about getting assistance, that would save you standing all that time.

Or choose a disembarkation colour that is at the end of the process if you are doing assisted (bags) disembarkation. If you are doing easy walk off, do the same as I intend to do. Find a comfy spot on the ship after the "get out of your cabin" time and relax with a nice cup of coffee, tea or whatever your choice is until they drag you off of the ship kicking and screaming. ;) Oooops sorry until the time they give you to be off of the ship. The lines should have dissipated by that time, since it appears everyone wants to be first off of the ship the same as they want to be first on.

I know if I had seen this before I booked my non refundable airline tickets, I would have never booked my cruise in April on the Dawn.

As NCL points out on this thread, they are aware of the issues and are working to improve them. As you can see they are now contacting passengers to tell them not to show up early, so they are doing more than they were say 2 weeks ago.

So you still have lots of hope that these issues will be resolved by the time April rolls around, that's 4 months away.

I hope NCL will address this issue at a deeper level than contacting guests ahead of time. I wonder if anything can be worked out with the port? Somehow seperating those 70 from the rest? NCL is known for innovation and maybe they can come up with a good solution.

The current situation creates inconvenience during embarkation and tangible problems to guests with flights during debarkation. It is such a pity. Because other than embarkation and debarkation, my 11/24 cruise was great. Lovely ship, friendly crew. I especially appreciate that the captain made the effort to reach all 4 ports on time while quite a few other ships missed ports due to the weather that week. I will definitely cruise NCL again. Just will try to avoid Dawn from Tampa. Lol

For the record as I've said previous, this neither worries or upsets me personally but I can see how others may be impacted or have issues. If you have any thought this may be a problem when you sail. Contact NCL and see about getting assistance, that would save you standing all that time.

 

Or choose a disembarkation colour that is at the end of the process if you are doing assisted (bags) disembarkation. If you are doing easy walk off, do the same as I intend to do. Find a comfy spot on the ship after the "get out of your cabin" time and relax with a nice cup of coffee, tea or whatever your choice is until they drag you off of the ship kicking and screaming. ;) Oooops sorry until the time they give you to be off of the ship. The lines should have dissipated by that time, since it appears everyone wants to be first off of the ship the same as they want to be first on.

Thanks for this suggestion. Im probably going to do this in conjunction with a later flight time. Tho Im not keen on waiting in an airport (or a cruise terminal) for longer than it takes to fly home :p

On the Dawn repo cruise (11/1-11/15), all non-U.S. passengers had to meet in the Spinnaker. Then, I believe that they were disembarked before any of the U.S. passengers were. We had a bit of a wait but, once we got moving, we were through customs in no time at all. Now, I could be mistaken about who went first(US or non-US) but the announcement was made over and over before we disembarked, telling all non-U.S. passengers to meet in the Spinnaker.

On the Dawn repo cruise (11/1-11/15), all non-U.S. passengers had to meet in the Spinnaker. Then, I believe that they were disembarked before any of the U.S. passengers were. We had a bit of a wait but, once we got moving, we were through customs in no time at all. Now, I could be mistaken about who went first(US or non-US) but the announcement was made over and over before we disembarked, telling all non-U.S. passengers to meet in the Spinnaker.

Odd that they disembarked at a different time. Usually we disembark at the same time. The meeting way before disembarkment even begins is to meet with border services to get cleared ahead of time so they just have to go through the normal questions and checks that all Canada/U.S. customs do when arriving in the country. Only of course they can avoid the question "how long have you been out of the country" :D think they have that one figured out. ;)

On the Dawn repo cruise (11/1-11/15), all non-U.S. passengers had to meet in the Spinnaker. Then, I believe that they were disembarked before any of the U.S. passengers were. We had a bit of a wait but, once we got moving, we were through customs in no time at all. Now, I could be mistaken about who went first(US or non-US) but the announcement was made over and over before we disembarked, telling all non-U.S. passengers to meet in the Spinnaker.

As I posted earlier, Princess does this "triage" procedure and this eliminates part of the problem. If the root cause is lack of agents to process at time of disembarkation then they try the above method before they start the cattle call.

We did the lifeboat drill at 4:30 and departed sometime after 5:30 and people were trickling in after the Lifeboat drill.

This is our third straight cruise out of Tampa. Paradise, Legend and now Dawn.

There were no major delays at all on the previous two getting off and through customs. (getting on the Legend sucked as it was late due to fog)

Costa Maya is kind of a cool looking port and the Chacoobean ruins are well worth it.

As I posted earlier, Princess does this "triage" procedure and this eliminates part of the problem. If the root cause is lack of agents to process at time of disembarkation then they try the above method before they start the cattle call.

I really hope that isn't how they plan to handle this like other ships handle this "triage" procedure.

Our clearance on NCL in the past had been quick and painless. Yes we did have to get up at some ungodly hour in the morning to meet with border officials which really wasn't an overly big deal to us since we are early risers and we were allowed to bring our coffee with us, thank goodness :confused: We did have to stand in a line, we did have to meet them but then we were on our way.

But the nonsense we had to do on our last Carnival cruise was ridiculous. It was well over an hour (sorry I didn't time it). They had everyone in the room from us non-U.S. citizens to those U.S. citizen's that overspent their quota and had to declare it. OK not a big deal but unfortunately we had to sit and wait for everyone involved to get there before they would start. They knew who was suppose to be there so then they had to go on a search of the ship for those that didn't show up for whatever reason. It was organized at least by the crew, not the passengers that didn't bother to show up on time. But a very painful and unnecessary procedure. They could have just started processing us when we got there.

I think there is some confusion here (not just at NCL!), and Aquahound, jump in and help me here.

The Dawn repo cruise, and I believe the Princess cruises mentioned were open loop cruises, but did not embark anyone at a port other than the original US embarkation port. Clearing of non-US citizens on a cruise like this is fairly simple, because as Aquahound points out, the original passenger manifest has been in CBP's hands for several days.

Once you embark passengers at a foreign port, the cruise must be treated as if you are coming from a transatlantic, for instance, and everyone must go through full CBP immigration check. So you could not just separate those who got on in Cozumel, and allow everyone else to disembark normally. Once you embark passengers in a foreign port, you are just like arriving on a plane from overseas, US citizen or not, you are going to go through CBP.

While this does sound like a bad idea from the get go, and probably not thought through completely, as Aquahound has said, the sequestration and government shut down have affected CBP just like other agencies.

I am in the UK & they are taking booking for next year on all of the ships.

We are coming from the UK to take the 22Dec Xmas cruise from Tampa. I did not see any mention here from any TAs of boardng this cruise from Cozumel, so let us all hope that there will be no extra "Brits" joining at Coz & causing all this chaos at border control Tampa. Although, having been forced to wait ages at Chicago O'Hare airport en route to a previous Eastern Caribbean cruise, all I can say is..That's US customs for you. Heathrow is pretty bad too:D

I think there is some confusion here (not just at NCL!), and Aquahound, jump in and help me here.

 

The Dawn repo cruise, and I believe the Princess cruises mentioned were open loop cruises, but did not embark anyone at a port other than the original US embarkation port. Clearing of non-US citizens on a cruise like this is fairly simple, because as Aquahound points out, the original passenger manifest has been in CBP's hands for several days.

 

Once you embark passengers at a foreign port, the cruise must be treated as if you are coming from a transatlantic, for instance, and everyone must go through full CBP immigration check. So you could not just separate those who got on in Cozumel, and allow everyone else to disembark normally. Once you embark passengers in a foreign port, you are just like arriving on a plane from overseas, US citizen or not, you are going to go through CBP.

 

While this does sound like a bad idea from the get go, and probably not thought through completely, as Aquahound has said, the sequestration and government shut down have affected CBP just like other agencies.

FWIW I did understand that and was just responding about the clearing in general of us non-U.S. citizens on cruise ships and hoped that NCL didn't change the way they did that in the past.

But I did want to say that you explained this very well, who wasn't understanding the logistics behind it.

FWIW I did understand that and was just responding about the clearing in general of us non-U.S. citizens on cruise ships and hoped that NCL didn't change the way they did that in the past.

 

But I did want to say that you explained this very well, who wasn't understanding the logistics behind it.

Wasn't picking on you, just got the feeling that very few understood the significance of embarking passengers in the middle of a cruise.

Wasn't picking on you, just got the feeling that very few understood the significance of embarking passengers in the middle of a cruise.

Oh I understood that too, I just wanted to clarify my own post. All is good. You were a wealth of information.

Many people on these last couple of threads have stated that they didn't know this was an open loop and that this information would have been important to them. After researching the NCL cruises, I don't even know where NCL would state this before you booked the cruise. And even if they did, I'd have to bet most like me would not even realize that that information would impact their cruise in this way. (I can't be the only dumb, uninformed cruiser out there LOL).

Yes I had heard of open and closed loops prior to this but have never really researched how that would impact a cruise. I feel quite informed after this all took place. And appreciate the extra knowledge.

This all really puts me off a US cruise, think we will stick with Europe where someone just briefly glances at your passport, looks at you with disdain, and then waves you through with a slight nod of the head :)

We did the lifeboat drill at 4:30 and departed sometime after 5:30 and people were trickling in after the Lifeboat drill.

 

 

This is our third straight cruise out of Tampa. Paradise, Legend and now Dawn.

 

There were no major delays at all on the previous two getting off and through customs. (getting on the Legend sucked as it was late due to fog)

 

Costa Maya is kind of a cool looking port and the Chacoobean ruins are well worth it.

Thanks for the response. We plan to arrive later to the port, and don't want to miss muster if possible.

Hi again from the Dawn, Stabalizers went out last night the captain said, so a bumpy night, nothing major but way more movement, and the sea is not rough.

 

All the info I gave to you guys came from the officers at the CC meet & greet. The hotel director answered all questions posed to him about the 3 hours in the sun. The vast majority of passengers will have no idea they will likely miss early flights.

 

Also sorry I started a ruckus, not my intention.

 

Anyway the cruise is still going great.

 

Also they said this will occur on every voyage of the dawn this season out of Tampa except, the Christmas and New Years trip and the repositioning trip.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers

Thanks for the info! Good thing we are on the New Years cruise!

Just wondering, since we're now in a suite for the cruise leaving on the 8th, when we disembark, will we be able to be escorted off the the ship before the crowding begins? (never had that perk before, and hoping it comes in handy for this situation!)

Thanks for the info! Good thing we are on the New Years cruise!

I agree! As a Canadian we typically have to show up early in the morning of disembarkation, but only in Tampa!! We have flights just before noon so I hope that works out for us.

snow bunny

Odd that they disembarked at a different time. Usually we disembark at the same time. The meeting way before disembarkment even begins is to meet with border services to get cleared ahead of time so they just have to go through the normal questions and checks that all Canada/U.S. customs do when arriving in the country. Only of course they can avoid the question "how long have you been out of the country" :D think they have that one figured out. ;)

It wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong about the different disembarkations. All I know is, no one could leave the ship until ALL of the non-U.S. guests were in teh Spinnaker. I, personally, didn't mind it too much. Even after 2 weeks on the ship, I wasn't ready for it to end.

It wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong about the different disembarkations. All I know is, no one could leave the ship until ALL of the non-U.S. guests were in teh Spinnaker. I, personally, didn't mind it too much. Even after 2 weeks on the ship, I wasn't ready for it to end.

Unfortunately, that is not something NCL or any other cruiseline can do much to improve. That is all depending on how cooperative your passengers are.

As I stated earlier in this thread. On our Carnival cruise we waited forever for those passengers to get to the theatre. I can't fault the crew, they were trying very hard to contact them and get them down there.

They do leave letters in our cabin telling us that it is mandatory that we go there, they announce it on the PA. And I'm assuming by the flurry of the crew that had their checklists, they even probably phone the guilty cabins. So outside of looking their photo up on their computers and running around dragging them down there :eek:, they do do everything in their power to get the process moving as quickly as possible.

I think there is some confusion here (not just at NCL!), and Aquahound, jump in and help me here.

 

The Dawn repo cruise, and I believe the Princess cruises mentioned were open loop cruises, but did not embark anyone at a port other than the original US embarkation port. Clearing of non-US citizens on a cruise like this is fairly simple, because as Aquahound points out, the original passenger manifest has been in CBP's hands for several days.

 

Once you embark passengers at a foreign port, the cruise must be treated as if you are coming from a transatlantic, for instance, and everyone must go through full CBP immigration check. So you could not just separate those who got on in Cozumel, and allow everyone else to disembark normally. Once you embark passengers in a foreign port, you are just like arriving on a plane from overseas, US citizen or not, you are going to go through CBP.

 

While this does sound like a bad idea from the get go, and probably not thought through completely, as Aquahound has said, the sequestration and government shut down have affected CBP just like other agencies.

I really wish I could help more, but while familiar with Immigration, it isn't my field of expertise. As far as I can tell, this itinerary is an Open Loop cruise. However, unless I missed it somewhere in this thread, I haven't seen a requirement for U.S. passengers embarking in Tampa to have a passport. I would think it would be mandatory on this cruise.

I'm sure you have plenty of experience clearing U.S. customs having worked so long at sea. As you know, sometimes it's easy and others, it leaves you scratching your head. Multiple embarkation ports has been fairly common for years now in Europe. But it just doesn't work here...not with our policies.

I really wish I could help more, but while familiar with Immigration, it isn't my field of expertise. As far as I can tell, this itinerary is an Open Loop cruise. However, unless I missed it somewhere in this thread, I haven't seen a requirement for U.S. passengers embarking in Tampa to have a passport. I would think it would be mandatory on this cruise.

This is a little concerning to me. DH and I have passports but our DD & DSIL were planning to use their birth certificates and driver's licenses. I'm betting that they are not the only ones planning to show up at the Port of Tampa with a BC/DL combo.

How would I go about determining whether they need a passport for this particular cruise? They still have enough time to get expedited passports, if necessary, but they are a little cash-strapped (grad student married to a musician) at the moment. OTOH, I'd hate for them to show up and not be allowed to board.

IAs far as I can tell, this itinerary is an Open Loop cruise. However, unless I missed it somewhere in this thread, I haven't seen a requirement for U.S. passengers embarking in Tampa to have a passport. I would think it would be mandatory on this cruise.

Now see this is what I find interesting. If the border services were treating this differently for everyone onboard than a normal cruise because they were picking up passengers in Cozumel, I would also think it was mandatory for U.S. passengers to need a passport.

Granted I am a Canadian citizen but I doubt very much that NCL has customized my edocs because of that. Looks like their standard statement "valid passport is strongly recommended for all guests for any itinerary where there is a stop in a foreign port. In addition to your passport, a visa maybe required and visa requirements vary by country and are subject to change. For the appropriate requirements based on your itinerary and nationality please contact your travel professional, local immigration office or www.ncl.com/traveldocs. It is the guest responsibility to obtain required visa's and other documentation prior to sailing, including vaccinations for infectious diseases."

But if NCL does not note that this is an open loop and seriously I have looked everywhere to see if this is stated anywhere. There would be no way of U.S. passengers to know that. So that being said, they must not require a passport, otherwise this board would be really hopping from those that couldn't board the last few ships going out because of improper paperwork.

So either the open loop does not require passports, the open loop is not really the reason for all the delay. Or the fact that NCL is not telling their passengers that they will need passports for this one and that is holding up the checking process because it doesn't make for easy checking of those coming back into your country.

I'm kind of leaning toward your first thought of maybe this has more to do with lacking personel because of the gov't shut down.

This is a little concerning to me. DH and I have passports but our DD & DSIL were planning to use their birth certificates and driver's licenses. I'm betting that they are not the only ones planning to show up at the Port of Tampa with a BC/DL combo.

 

How would I go about determining whether they need a passport for this particular cruise? They still have enough time to get expedited passports, if necessary, but they are a little cash-strapped (grad student married to a musician) at the moment. OTOH, I'd hate for them to show up and not be allowed to board.

Call NCL tell them that you have just discovered this may be an open loop cruise and you want to verify what paperwork is required. Peace of mind, if nothing else.