Fort Lauderdale disembarkation fiasco again

[Gordoncruickshank]

My personal opinion is that it the people employed by Homeland Security at FL are the root of the problem. It would appear that the obnoxious, rude and sloth minded people who previously worked (sorry, turned up) at Miami Airport were re-deployed to FL because of complaints, as they are deemed unsackable by the Union.

 

I have to say that I have never found that at any time. They have a process that they have to go through, there just aren't enough of them. thye are trying to clear 2850 people over a 3 hour window which means that each one needs to do at least five people a minute. That is too much pressure and too few people in my opinion.

 

The reason that we try for a later disembark is the fact that we don't travel back straight away and our hotel room isn't ready until much later - in the future we will go for an earlier one and just dump the luggage with the hotel until we can get into our room.

[teajak]

If we're not in a hurry to go anywhere - no flight, staying in the area for 3 more days - would you recommend waiting as long as possible to get off or still trying to get off early (they usually give us an early number because of our status).

Our car is waiting at park-n-go, we have coffee and our Kindles,we wait.It is amazing watching people carry,or attempt to carry all that luggage off.The one elevator is for the disabled or parents with strollers so they must use the escalators.Quite a juggling act.:eek:

[ilovetexas]

I wish I had read all this prior to booking a cruise out of Port Everglades; there's nothing worse than a poorly handled debarkation process!

 

Does anyone know how this would work with a "shore excursion" after the cruise? We have a very late flight so I thought we'd take the Celebrity excursion to the Everglades to kill some time; then they drop us at the airport. We did this in Vancouver years ago but I can't remember how the whole luggage/customs thing worked.

[BugsyCruiser]

While I am looking forward to my first ever Celebrity cruise aboard Silhouette, after reading this thread and several others about disembarkation from a Celebrity cruise I decided to play it safe and reschedule my return home flight for Monday and I'll stay an extra day in Fort Lauderdale. So for me the chance of missing a noon flight on Sunday has now become a non factor :D

[alexspepa]

While I am looking forward to my first ever Celebrity cruise aboard Silhouette, after reading this thread and several others about disembarkation from a Celebrity cruise I decided to play it safe and reschedule my return home flight for Monday and I'll stay an extra day in Fort Lauderdale. So for me the chance of missing a noon flight on Sunday has now become a non factor :D

 

We are on the 3/31 Silhouette sailing and we also booked a Monday flight out - we did that because the airfare was about $500 cheaper for the two of us, and I figured we might as well stay for that amount. We'll just hang out on the ship until they kick us off.

[BugsyCruiser]

We are on the 3/31 Silhouette sailing and we also booked a Monday flight out - we did that because the airfare was about $500 cheaper for the two of us, and I figured we might as well stay for that amount. We'll just hang out on the ship until they kick us off.

 

Yep, that way I figure I'll be one of the last ones called off and won't have to worry about crowds

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Does anyone know how this would work with a "shore excursion" after the cruise? We have a very late flight so I thought we'd take the Celebrity excursion to the Everglades to kill some time; then they drop us at the airport. We did this in Vancouver years ago but I can't remember how the whole luggage/customs thing worked.

 

We did a Celebrity excursion in Ft. Lauderdale several years ago. Everyone met in comedy central and disembarked the ship at the same time. You get your luggage, go through Customs and meet at the bus.

 

Mary Lou

[Gordoncruickshank]

If we're not in a hurry to go anywhere - no flight, staying in the area for 3 more days - would you recommend waiting as long as possible to get off or still trying to get off early (they usually give us an early number because of our status).

 

We were due to leave the ship at 10am. Our group number came up at the same time as they advised that all passengers could leave the ship.

 

We couls have stayed on no more than another 15-20 minutes as they were trying to get the ship cleared.

 

As I said in another posting, I think we will try and leav as early as possible and dump our luggage at whatever hotel we stay in.

[Miss SeaBee]

Others have disagreed with me when I have said this here on CC, but I will say it again. I have always had a better disembarkation experience from Port of Miami than from Port Everglades. I now consider port of departure when selecting a cruise. One of the main reasons we chose Reflection for April.

[Russterus]

The sequestration cuts have already begun. I see people talk about it only being a 2.4% cut, but that is the overall number, individual departments bear much more of the brunt of these cuts than others. TSA and Customs are two areas seeing substantial cuts and already we are seeing less personnel in both areas which is a contributor to the disembarkation problems. As with a business, when cuts come, the easiest and quickest is to cut personnel and that is exactly what is happening. Sometimes the cuts are elimination of overtime and other activities as well. We were off the Silhouette last Sunday with absolutely no problems, but there were only three customs agents and we were off fairly early in the process. Bottom line though, we will see longer lines at airports and any customs clearing area until or if they get the current budget problems solved.

[warmwinds]

We are not big shoppers so usually are well below our allotment, so we head for the line of "nothing to declare" and IIRC we've always just been waved through, never stopped at all.

 

Are those with these customs issues either non-US citizens or have items to declare?

[DocJohnB]

A combination of circumstances come into play here. In addition to the terminal the ship is assigned to, the number of ships in port on debarkation date and the number of customs/immigration personnel available play a part.

 

I have twice debarked from a Solstice class ship at the end of a transatlantic cruise. Both of these cruises ended up on weekend days. During peak season, Saturday and Sunday are, of course, the busiest days for embarkation. I believe on 3/9 there were either 6 or 7 ships in, including the Oasis of the Seas. Roughly 20,000 + people debarking.

 

The =X= ships are normally assigned to Terminal 24 if an Oasis class ship is in. This is actually a shared terminal, and if a ship is at Terminal 22 it does become a zoo. This terminal (24/22) is the absolute pits at this port (some would say arguably . . . not me).

 

There are only a finite number of customs/immigrations officers to handle all of these debarking folks.

 

Both times I came in from these transatlantics it was an absolute mess. 1.5 - 2 hours from leaving the ship to getting on the street outside the terminal (for pick up).

 

This year I was on the Equinox and we embarked on Friday and debarked on Monday. Night and day experience. From when our number was called till we were outside the terminal waiting our ride was at max 20 minutes. The difference . . . . . we were berthed at terminal 18, designed with the Oasis class in mind and it works.

 

As long as Oasis class ships are in port, and no improvements are made to current facilities, it is not going to improve.

 

One can either "go with the flow" or choose another port, ship or day.

[TNRVER]

We experienced similar problems long ago on Carnival. I think it is the nature of the beast when you have 2000+ folks wanting to get off of a ship. Also, I think the response above about too many folks feeling that "it is all about me" is right on target. I will never cruise again without leaving at least a day's flexibility at the end of my cruise to eliminate the stressful situation of running to make a flight.

[sabookkeeper]

Others have disagreed with me when I have said this here on CC, but I will say it again. I have always had a better disembarkation experience from Port of Miami than from Port Everglades. I now consider port of departure when selecting a cruise. One of the main reasons we chose Reflection for April.

I have never cruised out of Miami but we are going on the Reflection in February 2014. The main reason for this is because of the disembarkation with Celebrity ships in Port Everglades. We have made the decision that if we want to sail Celebrity it will be out of Miami and if that is not available to us, we will sail Princess out of Port Everglades.

[sabookkeeper]

We are not big shoppers so usually are well below our allotment, so we head for the line of "nothing to declare" and IIRC we've always just been waved through, never stopped at all.

 

Are those with these customs issues either non-US citizens or have items to declare?

I must have missed something when I disembarked off the Silhouette in February. We did not have an option as to which custom office we could go to. We waited in line and when a custom officer opened up, the next person was sent to them - is someone suppose to be asking us if we had something to declare or if we were not US citizens? I have to say, once we got to the customs officer, it took maybe 2 minutes as soon as he saw that we were Canadian.

[warmwinds]

Then since you're Canadian you'd fall under the non-US citizen category. Maybe I'm mixing up customs with immigration, but I'm pretty sure the customs (which I take to mean stop and pay the tax on whatever you bought) has been a non-issue for us. We have to show our passports at Immigration, and that's where we also stand in line, but declaring our purchases has never been a line.

[ellasnan]

I just put it down as a necessary evil now. Overall it's improved from say six years ago, but every so often it bites you back just to remind you!

 

Phil

 

I think you're right the Phil. Went through JFK last October and it took 15 minutes. It was the last flight out of LHR due to hurricane Sandy. The staff wanted us through so they could go home as the airport was closing!

 

Even before 9/11 it has taken two hours to go through Philadelphia. It depends on the staff! How fast the want to work, typical human nature . Some good some bad!

 

Don't let it put you off from having a great holiday on a great cruise line.