Live from the Dawn - the update on boarding issues

[itchintocruise]

For those traveling on any upcoming Dawn cruises, would you please post your embark and disembark experience. Thanks.

[che5904]

For those traveling on any upcoming Dawn cruises, would you please post your embark and disembark experience. Thanks.

 

Oh I'm sure every Sunday night or Monday morning, if there continue to be issues we will hear big time. You could pretty well bet on that.

[H&J]

I called NCL this afternoon and specifically asked if the DAWN would be embarking any additional passengers in ports other than Tampa on the 2-16 cruise or the cruise immediately prior to that. I was told they would not unless someone missed a departure and had to meet up with the ship at a later port.

 

I specifically asked and told the representative that if embarkation or debarkation was other than what was listed in my cruise documents, it would effect my travel arrangements, i.e. I need to know now as opposed to a week before my cruise. I was told that other than someone missing the ship, the schedule should be as listed.

[gaylemh]

How exactly did you loose miles on an award flight. All of the airlines I have used just credit the miles back to your account. Granted, some do charge a cancellation or redeposit fee but I have never heard of outright loosing them.

 

Please tell me which airline you lost these miles on so I can make sure to never ever fly them in the future.

 

It was with United. They will charge me $150 for each flight, to credit back miles for a flight that cost $124 if I paid cash. $300 not worth it, I'd rather just loose the miles. Their fees have gotten crazy this past year. I was also planning on canceling my Mileage Plus CC before the renewal date. Not worth the $95 yearly fee. I'll just use my American Express Blue Sky to book Jet Blue when I can. They give you $100 of travel credit (cruises, flights, hotels with no restrictions) for 7500 points.

[bguppies]

I called NCL this afternoon and specifically asked if the DAWN would be embarking any additional passengers in ports other than Tampa on the 2-16 cruise or the cruise immediately prior to that. I was told they would not unless someone missed a departure and had to meet up with the ship at a later port.

 

I specifically asked and told the representative that if embarkation or debarkation was other than what was listed in my cruise documents, it would effect my travel arrangements, i.e. I need to know now as opposed to a week before my cruise. I was told that other than someone missing the ship, the schedule should be as listed.

 

Call them back and get an e-mail address from whoever you speak to and send them this link...

http://www.playadelcarmen.com/general-info/cruise-from-cozumel-with-norwegian/

 

SAILING DATES

November 2013: 22nd, 29th

December 2013: 06th

January 2014: 10th, 17th, 24th & 31st

February 2014: 07th, 14th, 21st & 28th

March 2014: 07th, 14th, 21st & 28th

April 2014: 4th, 11th & 18th

 

The only sailings NOT having people embark in Cozumel is from this week's sailing through the New Year's cruise. (since NCL did not need to fill cabins during the holidays apparently)

 

Your sailing would be the passengers joining the ship on Feb. 21st in Cozumel.

 

When I spoke to the NCL representative, she asked me to e-mail them that link from the Travel Agency and the various posts in here about the embarkation/debarkation problems.

 

Bill

Edited December 14, 2013 by bguppies

[gaylemh]

I called NCL this afternoon and specifically asked if the DAWN would be embarking any additional passengers in ports other than Tampa on the 2-16 cruise or the cruise immediately prior to that. I was told they would not unless someone missed a departure and had to meet up with the ship at a later port.

 

I specifically asked and told the representative that if embarkation or debarkation was other than what was listed in my cruise documents, it would effect my travel arrangements, i.e. I need to know now as opposed to a week before my cruise. I was told that other than someone missing the ship, the schedule should be as listed.

 

I can't see much changing, they have a contract to do the Cozumel pickups until April 2014. I'm glad I was before final payment when all this started.

I hope things improve in time for your cruise.

[bugeater2]

It was with United. They will charge me $150 for each flight, to credit back miles for a flight that cost $124 if I paid cash. $300 not worth it, I'd rather just loose the miles. Their fees have gotten crazy this past year. I was also planning on canceling my Mileage Plus CC before the renewal date. Not worth the $95 yearly fee. I'll just use my American Express Blue Sky to book Jet Blue when I can. They give you $100 of travel credit (cruises, flights, hotels with no restrictions) for 7500 points.

 

You are throwing away 50K miles and 25% cruise fare over an issue that NCL will have at least 10 more sailings prior to yours to fix.

 

Do you think they are really going ignore this problem week after week.

 

It ultimately is your miles and money but it seems wasteful to me.

[che5904]

Call them back and get an e-mail address from whoever you speak to and send them this link...

http://www.playadelcarmen.com/general-info/cruise-from-cozumel-with-norwegian/

 

 

 

The only sailings NOT having people embark in Cozumel is from this week's sailing through the New Year's cruise. (since NCL did not need to fill cabins during the holidays apparently)

 

Your sailing would be the passengers joining the ship on Feb. 21st in Cozumel.

 

When I spoke to the NCL representative, she asked me to e-mail them that link from the Travel Agency and the various posts in here about the embarkation/debarkation problems.

 

Bill

 

Thank you for posting this. So in other words if there is still problems noted this Sunday when the ship returns, it will mean it has nothing to do with the pick ups and drop off in another port, but something else completely. Interesting.

 

And if it is the pick up and drop off, they will have many weeks to get something worked out before the January affected cruise.

This actually looks more promising to find a solution without anyone else being affected.

Edited December 14, 2013 by che5904

[gaylemh]

You are throwing away 50K miles and 25% cruise fare over an issue that NCL will have at least 10 more sailings prior to yours to fix.

 

Do you think they are really going ignore this problem week after week.

 

It ultimately is your miles and money but it seems wasteful to me.

 

 

I'm before final payment, so no loss on the cruise. The flights that were booked I got for 12,500 miles each. On the flight going I would have to pay $150 to refund the miles and on the return, which was booked after the cancellation policy increase, it would cost me $200 to credit the miles. I don't fly that often only every couple of years, so for me to pay $350 to get the miles back and another $95 yearly for the cc renewal just isn't worth it for me. The cruise would have cost me $3000 solo in a suite. Plus hotel and transfers. For that money, with resident rates, I got 16 nights on Royal Caribbean in a balcony cabin. Not a suite but, 9 nights more on a cruise, and not months of stress wondering if the mess at Tampa will get better.

[CruisinMaterial]

Folks - can I just say that we are a couple of Brits who will be boarding the Dawn at Cozumel on 21 February. Please don't be unfriendly towards us as we didn't know the cruise started at Tampa and the problems this has caused.

 

We simply picked up a Virgin Cruises brochure and saw this cruise advertised sailing from Cozumel for 7 nights. Interesting though, the package is offering a free tour of Tampa and St Petes on the Sunday, now I know why.....

 

No one should be directing any anger or any other comments to your group boarding in Cozumel. You booked your holiday (aka vacation) without knowing this was involved. The fault lies solely with NCL for making the contract with whatever companies to allow boarding in Cozumel and the subsequent mess ups it causes by Tampa's lack of staffing by Customs and Boarder Patrol.

 

I hope you have a great voyage and bon voyage to you! :)

[H&J]

No one should be directing any anger or any other comments to your group boarding in Cozumel. You booked your holiday (aka vacation) without knowing this was involved. The fault lies solely with NCL for making the contract with whatever companies to allow boarding in Cozumel and the subsequent mess ups it causes by Tampa's lack of staffing by Customs and Boarder Patrol.

 

I hope you have a great voyage and bon voyage to you! :)

 

Thank you to the person who posted the website regarding the Cozumel cruises. I am going to wait until Monday to see what happens in Tampa tomorrow. If NCL can get its act together and get passengers on and off the ship as advertised, great but I don't buy excuses like computer problems or lack of personnel, NCL or customs. NCL has more than enough corporate clout to get adequate customs employees at the ready.

 

If there is a repeat of the past fiasco tomorrow, I'm going to be on the phone on Monday to NCL corporate. What really irritates me is that the customer representative lied to me today or is incompetent and shouldn't be working at that job; and it's their job to KNOW the answers (he put me on hold to check, I presume with a supervisor).

 

Because of my wife's employment, we can't just cancel and hope to book another cruise line at this late date or cancel our travel arrangements without taking a financial hit. Plus, what's the chances of getting a prime suite on another line for similar money two months out? I expect and DEMAND what I already paid for and that includes getting on the ship, comfortably, on the schedule NCL has traditionally provided me. Where I come from, if you advertise specific goods or services, take the money and then substitute them for something of lesser, cheaper value; it's called "bait and switch".

 

My ire is not directed at the passengers boarding in Cozumel, they might be people I sit next to up at the Star Bar (hoping NCL reinstates Happy Hour).

[bguppies]

Thank you to the person who posted the website regarding the Cozumel cruises. I am going to wait until Monday to see what happens in Tampa tomorrow. If NCL can get its act together and get passengers on and off the ship as advertised, great but I don't buy excuses like computer problems or lack of personnel, NCL or customs. NCL has more than enough corporate clout to get adequate customs employees at the ready.

 

If there is a repeat of the past fiasco tomorrow, I'm going to be on the phone on Monday to NCL corporate. What really irritates me is that the customer representative lied to me today or is incompetent and shouldn't be working at that job; and it's their job to KNOW the answers (he put me on hold to check, I presume with a supervisor).

 

Because of my wife's employment, we can't just cancel and hope to book another cruise line at this late date or cancel our travel arrangements without taking a financial hit. Plus, what's the chances of getting a prime suite on another line for similar money two months out? I expect and DEMAND what I already paid for and that includes getting on the ship, comfortably, on the schedule NCL has traditionally provided me. Where I come from, if you advertise specific goods or services, take the money and then substitute them for something of lesser, cheaper value; it's called "bait and switch".

 

My ire is not directed at the passengers boarding in Cozumel, they might be people I sit next to up at the Star Bar (hoping NCL reinstates Happy Hour).

 

There should not be any problems with this week's cruise, as they did NOT pick up anybody in Cozumel yesterday, nor will they for the next 3-4 cruises.

(although they still had to drop off last week's Cozumel boarders, so maybe still tomorrow)

 

The test for NCL will be if they do ANYTHING to address the issue in the 4 weeks they have.

Or if they just say, "Thank God, we have a 4 week break with no problems" and then let the backlogs begin, the 2nd cruise of the new year after doing jack, squat.

 

Bill

Edited December 14, 2013 by bguppies

[Love my butler]

What really irritates me is that the customer representative lied to me today or is incompetent and shouldn't be working at that job; and it's their job to KNOW the answers (he put me on hold to check, I presume with a supervisor).

 

Most NCL reps are both imcompetent and dispense untruthful information. If they don't know the answer, they make one up. Your rep put you on hold and had a cigarette. At least let's hope so because if he really did 'check with a supervisor' then the imcompetence goes up the ladder and NCL has big problems.

[mrs.cool]

So...does anyone who got off the last two cruises have any information for those of us yet to sail on how this all went? Any improvement seen?

[Demonyte]

So...does anyone who got off the last two cruises have any information for those of us yet to sail on how this all went? Any improvement seen?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1970052

 

So yes, it seems that the problem is mostly fixed (probably by separating all non-us passengers from us passengers in order to make disembarking for us passengers faster).

[polySeraph]

We left our cabin at 8am and were through the terminal building and outside by 8:30. They let US citizens doing the self-disembarkation get off first, followed by other groups. Non-US citizens and the groups that embarked in Cozumel were processed separately. The changes appeared to have improved things. Someone else on another thread (who left the ship later than I did) reported a similarly easy disembarkation.

[mrs.cool]

Thanks all!! Good to hear!

[Hey Wang]

Nice!!!

Edited January 14, 2014 by Hey Wang

[erinm03]

I got off the Dawn a couple days ago and disembarking went fast. We had suite privileges but others who didn't were getting off at the same time we were. We didn't even opt to carry off our own luggage and we were at the airport by 9:30am to make our 11am flight.

[AH090206]

We also disembarked on January 12th with no issues- we had aqua (9:45) luggage tags and we waited for a porter, made it through customs, waited for the hotel shuttle, waited for our valet parked car at Embassy Suites, and loaded...and were still on the road before 11am. Let's hope that's the case from now on!

[Gloobnib]

I, too, was on the 1/5 to 1/12 sailing of the Dawn. Like others reported, disembark was relatively smooth. We are lazy late risers and took the last available debark slot (orange). We were scheduled to debark at 10AM, they called our group at 9:45.

 

The longest wait was to simply exit the ship. The line to scan off the ship was about 10 minutes long. The wait at customs was about 5 minutes. Routine customs screening consisted mostly of the customs agent joking with my daughter about how much she's grown in the past 5 years.

 

From the time we left the spinnaker lounge until we were in the taxi on the wait to our hotel was 30 minutes, tops.

 

As others have reported, there was a lot of special instructions for non-us citizens and those who boarded in Cozumel.

 

Hopefully this is "issue resolved".

 

Gloob