Dawn boarding delay dec 6

[AllAmericanAmy]

I was one of the people disembarking on 12/6. NOT a suite guest, so I can't speak to how well informed by NCL they were. Just a regular passenger here!

 

Yes, seas were rough on Saturday but We were docked by 7:30 (so not late). We were informed Saturday night to expect to disembark beginning around 9am after cleared by customs. Sunday morning we were told repeatedly over the loudspeaker that customs was NOT going to have us cleared until at least 9 am and PLEASE wait on deck 12 and enjoy a cup of coffee until your group is cleared. This was announced many many many times over and over. Got kind of funny cuz we were thinking "how much coffee can people drink". Little knowing many many many people ignored the announcements and were lined up on deck 7 to get off ship quickly. There must have been close to 1000 people crammed all OVER deck 7. And they waited. and waited. and waited beginning around 7:30. Must have been miserable time.

 

My family and I waited on deck 12 in Garden Café then relocated to the library where it was nice and quiet and we could hear the announcements clearly. While sitting in library, Andre the cruise director popped in for something and was very frustrated by the delay in disembarking. The hold up is CUSTOMS bringing the drug/explosive dogs on board and searching cargo holds, crew quarters, etc before clearing us. Andre said in Los Angeles they have even been running the dogs thru the passenger quarters before allowing disembarkation to begin.

 

FYI: 1st group of passengers began disembarking around 9:15 - 9:30. we walked off the ship around 12:30 and there were still a few hundred passengers behind us.

 

Happy sailing all!

[don't-use-real-name]

My post was to humor the folks on the NCL SKY which had an intruder alert (someone got

on board without scanning their sail & sign card) then the darn government agents got involved

and held up the boarding for hours.

Fast forward to the NCL DAWN now it the darn government again holding up the disembarking.

 

Darn government - can't live with-em and can't live without-em (SS checks/pensions).

Getting on and off cruise ships is getting the same fan-fare as the TSA airport stuff !

So - so much for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness !

Never the less like Arnold - "I'll be back" !

[Travelicious]

I learned a helpful trick a few cruises ago. Ask a porter to assist with your luggage, and tip him $5. There is apparently a customs officer dedicated to those using porters, and you go directly to the front of the line. At least it has always worked for me since I started doing this.

[SuiteCruiser]

I learned a helpful trick a few cruises ago. Ask a porter to assist with your luggage, and tip him $5. There is apparently a customs officer dedicated to those using porters, and you go directly to the front of the line. At least it has always worked for me since I started doing this.

 

We tried that in Miami because I have a strange issue where I can't stand and breathe at the same time. I can stand, but not for longer than a minute. We got caught in a very long debarkation coming off of the TA, so I sat on the floor in the upper area waiting as they temporarily closed us down, and as we got downstairs, we grabbed a porter, and we were put into the back of the line, so that doesn't work in Miami. My friends were going to wait in line and I would join them at the end, but the folks in the customs area wouldn't let me use any of their chairs in there.

 

I was able to grab a wheelchair, but they couldn't leave it for my friends to push, so I had to go through right away, and they only let one person clear with me, so I ended up clearing customs with the luggage of 5 people as the porter came with me. Bad set up, what if I'd been pulled into secondary, or if my friends were? We asked the rep and they just kept saying "one person to accompany" over and over.

Edited December 8, 2015 by SuiteCruiser

[mugtech]

My post was to humor the folks on the NCL SKY which had an intruder alert (someone got

on board without scanning their sail & sign card) then the darn government agents got involved

and held up the boarding for hours.

Fast forward to the NCL DAWN now it the darn government again holding up the disembarking.

 

Darn government - can't live with-em and can't live without-em (SS checks/pensions).

Getting on and off cruise ships is getting the same fan-fare as the TSA airport stuff !

So - so much for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness !

Never the less like Arnold - "I'll be back" !

Get used to it. Went to the hospital at 6:45 AM for blood tests, and for the first time ever they had guys in the parking lot directing us where to park, wanted to know why we were there. They asked for no proof of anything, so it was just a waste of time, no one was any safer.

[linbobky]

I don't know if this had any thing to do about being late getting off the ship but, we had a friend who fell early in the morning and was in the infirmary all morning and when they released her they started the boarding process!:)

 

does everyone have to be cleared off the ship before customs says it is ok to embark the ship?

 

we were also on the ship and after all the mess of getting on ship and getting off the ship, we had a great time on this cruise!!:)

[garbailian]

AllAmericanAmy gave a very accurate description of what occurred on 12/6. Andre was on the PA at least every ten minutes giving updates. People don't realize how vulnerable a cruise ship is and the overwhelming task it must be to keep one safe. Our ship was under surveillance the entire time we were in a port of every single stop until we returned, ON TIME!!!, including New Orleans. That cop waving at the ship when we left was there to make sure the ship was safe on departure, he wasn't just being friendly. Did everyone see the guys on top of the roofs at some of the ports with binoculars? Customs has a job to do. I would rather be delayed an hour than have some kind of security breech because of complacent measures. I had breakfast at 8:30 am and then got in the walk off line at 9am. The line started moving about 9:30am and there were some delays through Customs, not Norwegian's fault. They were cleaning the ship and restocking while we were leaving. I was through customs, walked to my truck, loaded the bags and left the Julia Street parking lot and was out of the Port area and heading up I 10 at 10:45 am exactly. My job in the military was Logistics, which included load planning ships and the movement of troops to and from an area of operation. The job these cruise lines do is very impressive and organized. The one thing I agree with is that there needs to be a sign at the entrance to the terminal directing new arrivals to the processing lines. Once we got pointed in the right direction everything went as anticipated from start to finish, with the exception of a security delay. As for the people who had priority debarkation, I wish that hadn't happened to you. That would be rather annoying since you paid your hard earned money to have that level of service given to you but did not receive. I had a cheap room on the 9th deck and got pretty good service for what I paid. M2C

[pathubia]

AllAmericanAmy gave a very accurate description of what occurred on 12/6. Andre was on the PA at least every ten minutes giving updates. People don't realize how vulnerable a cruise ship is and the overwhelming task it must be to keep one safe. Our ship was under surveillance the entire time we were in a port of every single stop until we returned, ON TIME!!!, including New Orleans. That cop waving at the ship when we left was there to make sure the ship was safe on departure, he wasn't just being friendly. Did everyone see the guys on top of the roofs at some of the ports with binoculars? Customs has a job to do. I would rather be delayed an hour than have some kind of security breech because of complacent measures. I had breakfast at 8:30 am and then got in the walk off line at 9am. The line started moving about 9:30am and there were some delays through Customs, not Norwegian's fault. They were cleaning the ship and restocking while we were leaving. I was through customs, walked to my truck, loaded the bags and left the Julia Street parking lot and was out of the Port area and heading up I 10 at 10:45 am exactly. My job in the military was Logistics, which included load planning ships and the movement of troops to and from an area of operation. The job these cruise lines do is very impressive and organized. The one thing I agree with is that there needs to be a sign at the entrance to the terminal directing new arrivals to the processing lines. Once we got pointed in the right direction everything went as anticipated from start to finish, with the exception of a security delay. As for the people who had priority debarkation, I wish that hadn't happened to you. That would be rather annoying since you paid your hard earned money to have that level of service given to you but did not receive. I had a cheap room on the 9th deck and got pretty good service for what I paid. M2C

 

I wonder if this is the reason for increased security. There were 5 men arrested in Roatan the day we were there with stolen passports.

 

http://www.newsmax.com/CharlesFaddis/Emerging-Threats-Homeland-Security-War-on-Terrorism/2015/12/08/id/704993/