Bad experience on the Explorer

[John Reid]

I read somewhere else that a woman fell and that was part of the holdup yesterday.

 

Bayonne port is "the armpit of cruising" - wow.

 

I don't know about "armpit," but. . .

 

I've cruised out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle (Pier 91), Redhook Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Bayonne. Some comparisons are apple to oranges. Comparing Bayonne to Brooklyn and Baltimore is more apples to apples.

 

I know there are things at Bayonne that RCI cannot control, but they don't come close to those other locations in efficiency for what they can control.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my cruise on Explorer and wish she were remaining so we could continue to sail her. That said, their procedures pale miserably compared to Princess in Brooklyn and, most fairly compared, to RCI in Baltimore. They need to send staff to replicate the Baltimore procedures.

 

It may not be the armpit, but it is certainly by far the worst I have experienced.

[Maraprince]

Besides the bus to the ship, the other negative is having both arrivals and departures at the same place at the same time without any system in place. While I realize the space contraints, how about designating one part of the tent area just for drop offs and the other part for people returning? It is a wonder than no one is injured by a car.

 

One time I was in the tent area awaiting my pickup to go home and one of the porters wanted to check my luggage in for the sailing leaving later that same day! :confused:

 

You must have had the same person who was screaming at everyone in the "departure" area that "If I didn't call your number for the bus, go and sit down." Really a very nasty person and not the first impression you wish to meet with. RCCL's cabin prices are not cheap but this guy is nowhere near a classy person.

 

Any type of handicap is really a problem with the bus. People just jump ahead of anyone standing there without regard to their physical condition. There is a big step up or down from the street to the bus if you do not get a handicap bus.

 

As far as departure from the ship, we like to be among the last to leave. Less pushing and shoving and very easy to find your luggage in the terminal.

 

Self-disembark seems to bring out the worse in some passengers. Yes, we've seen them with loads of full size suitcases being dragged down the steps. Yes, you cannot get off the elevators on the lower level due to the masses of people with nowhere to go, etc.

 

On boarding once, we waited almost 45 minutes to get an elevator since most of the elevators were being used to move the luggage from the pier to the ship. No respect for those waiting as people just jumped ahead. If you were on a lower deck and had virtually no luggage, some passengers just walked up the steps in frustration.

 

MARAPRINCE

[Tucker in Texas]

 

Solution don't take off your own luggage and wait to get off.

 

I carry my own luggage off not because I am in a hurry but because 1) the last two out of three times I let the ship do it, it was screwed up--not where it was suppose to be or anywhere close to the location it was suppose to be taking a long time to track down (twice); completely missing taking the rest of the day to locate it. Fortunately, we were staying overnight and had a hotel concierge working for us. The cruise line could have cared less it was gone.

 

2) I worry about putting an unattended bag outside my door the night before. Not what could be taken out but what could be put into it.

 

3) I don't have to worry about packing something the night before I may need the next morning and didn't think about.

 

I wait it out but aviod making any air bookings before 1:00 p.m. May spend a lot of time twiddling my thumbs at the airport sometimes but would rather do that than the stress of fighting the mobs even though I am D+ and get priority.

 

Tucker in Texas

[yogimax]

This is also a heads up to people who ask about taking early flights from any port. Stuff happens. We had a rotten debarkation from Liberty in Fort Lauderdale. It seems Oasis and Allure use their own terminal and are assigned numerous customs agents. Liberty, though, is at a secondary terminal and customs assigns a minimum of agents. This was our worst debarkation from any RCCL ship.

[Ramblin' Ma'am]

This is also a heads up to people who ask about taking early flights from any port. Stuff happens. We had a rotten debarkation from Liberty in Fort Lauderdale. It seems Oasis and Allure use their own terminal and are assigned numerous customs agents. Liberty, though, is at a secondary terminal and customs assigns a minimum of agents. This was our worst debarkation from any RCCL ship.

 

I was on Liberty last week and debarkation took three hours! I had a 1:00 flight but had to call the airline to reschedule! I got the last seat out on a later flight.

 

Customs was blaming RCI for the delays, RCI was blaming customs--just a mess all around.

 

This was my first cruise--next time I know to get off the ship as soon as I can, even if it means waiting at the airport for a long time!

[OCruisers]

Not a fun way to end an otherwise good cruise! Certainly seems disembarkation was handled poorly. :(

LuLu

[sealeggs]

OP, like you wanted off the ship fast it appears now a days that half the people want the same thing.

 

Solution don't take off your own luggage and wait to get off.

 

Totally agree. Would hate to schlep all of our luggage in a bag drag all over the ship to get off. Let them do the work and collect the bags in the waiting area.

[Life is Good Cruising]

Quite often on Explorer people disembark before their designated time, which causes problems and delay. Everybody wants to get into those elevators which are always filled. Then if you have an alpha code called, it just adds to the delay.

I try not to let it stress me out, life is too short.

[Guest maddycat]

We debarked from the Explorer on Sat. May 3rd. We did not do self debarkation. Our debarkation went very smoothly. We waited to be called in the dining room on deck 5 and were called 15 minutes before our scheduled time. A bus was waiting for us when we left the ship. We went directly to the terminal. There wasn't any back up of buses waiting to unload passengers. We got our luggage and breezed through customs.

 

We got our car and started driving home. The drive that usually takes us 45 minutes took 1 1/2 hours due to construction on the NJ Turnpike extension. It was down to one lane. This was a Sat. so things might be different on a week day.

 

Since our cruise was a 9 night (more luggage than the 5 night Bermuda cruise) there might have been fewer passengers choosing the self debarkation. Also, the weather was great when we debarked from our cruise so more passengers were probably waiting on the outside decks and not clogging the stairs and halls.

 

Something else......our cruise was a motorcycle cruise. 33 motorcycles were taken off of the ship before any passengers were allowed off. Even that did not delay debarkation.

[Rudyard]

If you are going to offer express walk-off, you have to assign enough staff to faciliate the process and make sure cruisers follow procedures.

 

We had a similar experience to the OP on our last cruise. We did self disembark and were told to wait in the theater. People who had arrived there before us refused to move into the theater and instead hung around the doors so they could be at the front of the line to get off. There was only one staff person to try and keep things organized. She was trying to herd people into the theater but they wouldn't budge. Total chaos until they finally started letting us disembark. The ironic thing was that the people who wouldn't let us in the theater ended up being behind us to get off anyway.

[krazy_dave]

Fortunately, after quite a while of no visible progress, there is real movement/progress on the new terminal.

 

Then the bus process will no longer be used, and you will board the Quantum/Liberty/Anthem as you would any other ship.

 

:)

 

My understanding of the situation, and with all due respect to the 9/11 families, a lot of the delay in construction was due to people protesting a temporary move of a 9/11 memorial (ironically to keep it from being damaged). Now that issue has been taken care of things are back underway.

[marci22]

One problem is they don't know how to keep things organized. The crew running the debarkation will stand around with their walkie-talkies joking and chatting with each other, and tell nothing to the people waiting.

 

Meanwhile, the people inside whatever venue it is, will hear infrequent, muffled announcements. People don't know what's going on, they get annoyed, and start going to the elevators. Once people start moving out, it is very hard to re-contain them.

[Clarea]

This is also a heads up to people who ask about taking early flights from any port. Stuff happens. We had a rotten debarkation from Liberty in Fort Lauderdale. It seems Oasis and Allure use their own terminal and are assigned numerous customs agents. Liberty, though, is at a secondary terminal and customs assigns a minimum of agents. This was our worst debarkation from any RCCL ship.

We had the same experience with Liberty about 18 months ago.

[dacsmom]

That sounds like a horrible debarkation. To the poster who equates it to waiting in an airport, I do not think it is the same thing. In an airport you are comfortably sitting in a seat waiting to board not standing crowded with hundreds of people in a stairwell.

[luvscruising2007]

Chaotic disembarkation can happen at any terminal. We experienced this in Boston upon our return from a TA. They stopped making announcements and there were lines everywhere. They blamed lack of customs and immigration agents.

 

I actually think many times the passengers just want to be first and create some of the crowded conditions. In OP's situation if the weather was bad it makes things worse. And as others have posted, at Bayonne people are arriving and departing at the same time. Perhaps those embarking should delay their arrival until later. Do you really need to be the 1st ones to board a ship?

[Tucker in Texas]

[quote name='dacsmom']That sounds like a horrible debarkation. To the poster who equates it to waiting in an airport, I do not think it is the same thing. In an airport you are comfortably sitting in a seat waiting to board not standing crowded with hundreds of people in a stairwell.[/QUOTE]

You are correct but I don't stand in a stairwell. I go up by the pool or some other non-crowded place and wait it out.

Tucker in Texas