Recent (December, 2013) Port Everglades Embarkations.....

[adrift@sea]

Speaking of disembarkation, it's not a day at the beach right now in Port Everglades. The actual process onboard was smooth, although, around 0930, the lines/calling of groups were /was held up for 10-15 min on orders of CBP because "the lines in the hall were backing up"

 

When you arrived "in the hall", actually Pier 22, and after retrieving your luggage, there were four CBP agents working two lines, one for U.S. residents, the long one, and the other for non-U.S. residents. The "slinky" process to be seen took approx. 35-40 minutes.

 

Once outside, if you didn't have the HAL transfer bus, private/your own transportation, or a helicopter, you were in for a challenge, I kid you not. The taxi line, to the left, had at least 200+ former NADM pax in it and moved as slow as molasses with one, two, sometimes, three taxis rejoining the line after dropping off pax at Celebrity Silhouette, across the street at Pier 24. We lucked out after about an hour in line when a min-van entrepreneur came walking down the line offering to take FLL pax there for $11 pp

 

Our experience was a bit different than yours. The backup was on the ship. As we were scheduled to be off early between 8.15-8.30 we sat in the Pinnacle Bar (from about 7.40) and watched total chaos unfolding.

 

We saw a number of problems in the disembarkation process. The first was people were lining up from the gangway door aft towards the dining room, a second line formed around the staircase by the Pinnacle Grill towards the elevators and a third eventually formed from the gangway door forward. In addition, people were being allowed to approach the gangway from the elevators. And at some point shoreside decided those that were lined up around the staircase were not really in line and needed to go to the end of the line which by this time had reached the dining room.

 

The second problem was the number of people that carried off their own luggage. I am not talking about one rolling piece, we are talking full sets with carryons. There were hundreds of people taking off their own luggage (including children) and it was obvious many could not handle it. But the real problems began when people that had chosen to roll off their own luggage were not part of the expedited group, a great many were waiting for their color/#s to be called long after the expedited groups had departed.

 

When debarking passengers, who were converging from all of the lines, reached the area just before security, shoreside staff were requesting to see your tickets with color/#. And if you couldn't produce it, you were being held, blocking the line from moving. Even when people were able to produce their tickets with the correct colors/#s, shoreside was telling people that their color/#s were not called. Needless to say many arguments occurred. The shoreside staff could not get their act together. An announcement was made calling color/# and shoreside kept stopping everyone because they did not hear who was called and would radio to whoever the young lady was making the announcements. We found many of the shoreside people to be quite abrasive.

 

When we were actually able to get off the ship (somewhere near 9 am), we collected our luggage, found someone to move it, got on line and cleared in less than 15 mins. I believe there were 2 lines moving quickly through the 4 CBP lanes. Actually, as I recall their was only 1 person waiting on the non-Citizen line. There were no crowds outside the terminal, taxis were abundant and there were no lines.

 

One point to make here is that Nieuw Amsterdam appears to be the last ship to dock at Pt. Everglades. We were tying up our lines around 7.30 so it is obvious that it will take a few minutes before people can start leaving the ship.

 

We had similar experiences last year on the Eurodam, not as bad, but not good which is why we chose to disembark early. IMO, the earlier you are able to get off, the faster, and maybe easier, your experience will be.

 

Embarkation was a breeze, we arrived around 10.45 am. There were no lines, maybe a dozen people already checked in and sitting around the terminal. We filled out medical form, one party ahead of us on line, checked in, and was sent to the smaller lounge to wait. We boarded around 11.30 and cabins were ready.

 

We have found shoreside staff to be very good with embarkation, no problems, no waits, etc. but disembarking is a whole different story.

[Froghead]

Our embarkation Jan. 5th, on the NA was rough I thought. We arrived I think around 11:30, security line was almost to the entrance of the building but moving along fine, until they shut it down for about 10 minutes. Wondered why, but after proceeding up escalator and seeing Disneyland on a busy day snaking line, figured they had to stop security line because there was no more room in the check-in line. Took us about 30-45 minutes to get through that line, keeping in mind perceptions of wait times always seem longer for the tired, impatient person waiting. We were in boarding group 15, but by the time we finished check-in, all groups were boarding. Two lessons learned for us: do not take free car rental port shuttle, quite an experience, and arrive at port a little later.

 

Debarking was easy since we did Luggage Direct and off the ship early. Happy to get through fairly short Customs line, then did transfer to FLL so did not take notice of taxi situation. Security line at FLL was already getting long when we arrived around 8:30, and gate seating was filling up. Only flights leaving between 10 and 2pm were allowed through security. People with later flights were piled up near security, with their luggage. Later heard many people complaining about long security lines and not enough gate seating. I think airport issues were also a good reason to get off the ship ASAP, unless you have a later flight. Luggage Direct is a life saver for us.

[ON cruiser]

We embarked Dec. 6, 2013 on Noordam--arrived at port about 12:15-ish, and before 12:45-ish were already seated in dining room for first lunch. Very easy check-in (in Neptune suite, so shorter line).

 

Disembarked (reluctantly) on Dec. 23/13, note, it was a Monday so not nearly as hectic as Sunday or Saturday. Easy exit from ship that day and customs line not long at all. In fact, at 8:30 a.m., we walked right up to an agent! On Dec. 16/13, as we had to exit the ship on that "turn-a-round day", and decided to take a tour, we found that day that the US customs lines were longer--unpredictable, it seems, so best to allow time to get through before going to the airport.

 

On either day we saw plenty of taxis, but again, this was not a weekend.