NCL Escape Sail Dat 10/21/18 Disembarkation disaster!!

[Cruising Chuck]

😣 Was anyone else part of the DISASTER disembarking the Escape on 10/28/2018?  Oh my God, it was AWFUL....From the front of the ship to the back winding through the Casino floor, thru the Manhattan room dining room , Seriously zigzagging back toward the front of the ship, zigzagging through Osheehans and then to only have ONE lady scanning Keycards to get off....dont get me started on the gangway and the Customs Portion.....THIS WAS AN EPIC FAIL.  shame on you Norwegian.  

 

ps...i HATE complaining, so on a positive note, other than the weather, which NCL cant control, the rest of the SHIP, STAFF and CASINO were great. Food was decent to Better in the specialty restaurants.  The ports of call were GREAT....weather could have been better in Port Canveral, but hey, NCL cant control that either.  STAFF WAS FANTASTIC as usual.  Looking forward to the Dawn in March, just hoping DE goes better.  

 

Let me know your thoughts if you were on the ship!

[Laszlo]

What time did you line up to get off?

[mjkacmom]

It’s not NCL, it’s the cruieport. We’ve disembarked 4 times there, only had 1 disaster, lined up at 7 only to clear customs close to 11. When customs backs up, they won’t let NCL to let passengers off of the ship. We now know to be one of the first ones to disembark, and if customs is jammed, grab a porter after we retrieve our luggage and breeze through their dedicated customs agent.

[shof515]

part of the problem was the USCG inspection that was going on too. 

[Cruising Chuck]

we lined up about 830.....the time for our self chosen color coded DE timeframe.  MJKACMOM, cruiseport and customs has nothing to do with NCL making us go Fore to Aft to Fore all zigzagging thru the ship......But, I do agree NYC Passenger Terminal and customs share the blame for only having like 6 lanes open for Customs and Immigration....

 

Like I said, I dont like to complain, but it was very unnecessary to DE like that.

[tallnthensome]

My disembarkation on the Escape back in 2016 was the worst we have ever experienced in our cruise history. We know your pain. 

[mjkacmom]

But NCL needs everyone out of the common areas for turnover. I feel your pain, we got stuck on an outside deck in November and were freezing, with kids an senior citizens, and almost missed dd’s confirmation at noon. This seems to happen in several sundays out of the year.

 

Out last cruise was on a Saturday, they pretty much made us run off of the ship and through customs, it was actually funny.

[JamieLogical]

I just disembarked from the Escape the week before you (on the 21st) and it was smooth, quick, and easy. Routed through O'Sheehan's and that was it. Wonder what the difference was.

[BalconyGal]

Welcome to cruise critic.  Sorry you had an awful end to your vacation.  😞

 

[rtkenmore]

2 hours ago, Cruising Chuck said:

😣 Was anyone else part of the DISASTER disembarking the Escape on 10/28/2018?  Oh my God, it was AWFUL....From the front of the ship to the back winding through the Casino floor, thru the Manhattan room dining room , Seriously zigzagging back toward the front of the ship, zigzagging through Osheehans and then to only have ONE lady scanning Keycards to get off....dont get me started on the gangway and the Customs Portion.....THIS WAS AN EPIC FAIL.  shame on you Norwegian.  

 

ps...i HATE complaining, so on a positive note, other than the weather, which NCL cant control, the rest of the SHIP, STAFF and CASINO were great. Food was decent to Better in the specialty restaurants.  The ports of call were GREAT....weather could have been better in Port Canveral, but hey, NCL cant control that either.  STAFF WAS FANTASTIC as usual.  Looking forward to the Dawn in March, just hoping DE goes better.  

 

Let me know your thoughts if you were on the ship!

 

Was this your first NCL cruise?

[schildiams]

my parents were on the gem that returned on 10/20 - there was a barge blocking their pier and disembark started 2 hours late. When they got off (yellow priority tags) there were THREE available porters for a huge line of people who needed assistance including my mom with a cane and others in wheelchairs. Seems that they all flocked to greet the incoming passengers and left the disembarking ones to fend for themselves. After almost one hour, my dad had to struggle to drag the bags himself. He says that he doesn't want to use the NYC port ever again, bc of this situation and also bc of how they are making people cross the highway to get picked up.

[OceanBlueWaters]

Yes.  Disembarking was painful.  It took over 2 hours to get off and I was in line early to walk off with my luggage.  I got on line at forward and they said they were full so sent me aft.  Spent a ton of time in that line winding down to aft.  When I got to aft, they spun us back around to forward.  I am not sure what the problem was.  Maybe people totally disregarded what time they were supposed to disembark and it became a free-for-all?  If so, that is not Norwegian's fault.  It's just stupid people.  The USCG Inspection may have had something to do with it, but I don't know that for fact.  Anyway, it was the worst disembarking experience I ever had.  Other than that, the cruise was GREAT!!!🙂

[Askmelanie]

The cruise got in late due to port traffic. Yes was in the mess too. Didn’t ruin it though, just annoying. Our one complaint was no World Series games on the ship!

At least got to see the final one at home!

[PTC DAWG]

I think this is a NY thing, never an issue in Miami, my neighbor, born and raised in NYC, says he would never, ever, sail from NY....

[adam_s_allen]

It wouldn't matter how many people NCL has scanning key cards to let people off. If customs is backed up you will wait in a line on the ship or in the terminal.

[e150club]

Mega ships with 4,000 + pax is part of the problem. I like smaller ships. I also check to see how many ships will be in port.

[April42749]

I took the elevator down to deck 7 @ 10:30.  I finished customs @ 11:45.  But, I was on the BA 5 times...and this was no different than any of those disembarkations.  The good news is that I walked into my apt @ noon!

I was on Carnival Horizon in June, also a mega ship.  We just walked off that one.

[OceanBlueWaters]

23 minutes ago, April42749 said:

I took the elevator down to deck 7 @ 10:30.  I finished customs @ 11:45.  But, I was on the BA 5 times...and this was no different than any of those disembarkations.  The good news is that I walked into my apt @ noon!

I was on Carnival Horizon in June, also a mega ship.  We just walked off that one.

Some people have flights to catch.  Glad you had no problem...

[barb65]

This past June, we did self-assist disembarkation on the Escape out of NYC in less than an hour. Yes, it was a lot of winding and walking, but it went very smooth.

[Beer Belly]

I was on the same Cruise with Barb65.....we well as far as I'm concerned

[Jetsterkitty]

We sail out of NYC regularly and there's really no rhyme or reason as to what kind of disembarkation we might get on any given cruise.  I've had the impossible waits and winding all over the ship to literally exiting our stateroom and being in our car 20 minutes later with our longest waits being Customs and waiting for the elevator to the roof parking lot.  I've seen lines for miles in Customs as well as almost walking right up and only waiting for a couple families in front of us.  It doesn't matter the size of ship either... it just seems like some day's you're the windshield... some day's you're the bug.  ;) 

 

As for the luggage tags... well that's a JOKE!  There are always sooooooooo many people with later tags in line in front of us and they are just allowed to leave with those of us that specifically picked the early self-disembarkation tags.  Personally, if you are in line with a later luggage tag I wish they'd pull those people aside and not let them off the ship until their time.  That would definitely help with some of the problem, but alas the "entitled" ignore the announcements and just do what they want, that's apparently the way the world works now. *insert sarcasm*

 

For people that really get super worked up about disembarkation I would suggest splurging and staying in the Haven as you get priority disembarkation, which is awesome and fast.  *Disclaimer: we sail a mix of Haven and regular cruises (Haven with Hubby and regular with my Sister on 'girl weeks') and have seen long and short lines in both cases, the only difference is you get to bypass the lines (if there are any) when you sail Haven which makes disembarkation even faster.     

[Vyhanek]

I've only been on the Escape once but I was off the ship, and all the way to the Ft. Lauderdale airport waiting at my gate for my flight by 9am.  

 

I have noticed every time a ship changes embarkation ports there are several weeks before all systems run smoothly with the ship, customs and immigration.   After a few weeks in each new port, they have the people in place and trained how to move people quickly.

[pieshops]

22 hours ago, Cruising Chuck said:

we lined up about 830.....the time for our self chosen color coded DE timeframe.  MJKACMOM, cruiseport and customs has nothing to do with NCL making us go Fore to Aft to Fore all zigzagging thru the ship......But, I do agree NYC Passenger Terminal and customs share the blame for only having like 6 lanes open for Customs and Immigration....

 

Like I said, I dont like to complain, but it was very unnecessary to DE like that.

You had to go fore and aft and zig zap because there were so many people lined up there was no place to put them, so the result js a crazy long line.   Customs in NYC really sucks and the fact that only 6 lanes  were open made the situation worse as the lines just get worse and worse.

another problem I have noticed is most disregard the colors when  called, if someone has a 10:30 disembark they line up at 8 which really exacerbates the problem

 

[albertamom]

We have booked NCL's city tour with transportation to the airport  when we disembark in a few weeks.  Will we meet, as with other excursions, and be taken off together, or will we be on our own?  This makes me very nervous about getting to the bus on time.

[FitchburgWIFamily]

3 hours ago, albertamom said:

We have booked NCL's city tour with transportation to the airport  when we disembark in a few weeks.  Will we meet, as with other excursions, and be taken off together, or will we be on our own?  This makes me very nervous about getting to the bus on time.

Excursions get their own luggage tag color, and in some cases get off even before Priority.  You will  meet together and all get off together.  You will not go through the line.  You will be fine.