QM2: Tips re: Brooklyn Embarkation Process

[TouchstoneFeste]

23 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Isnt it the port people who organise all this? Presumably they are not Cunard employees.

I was surprised by this, too, but on my May 1 boarding the only people not in Cunard staff uniforms were the ones running the actual security operation, like the X-ray. The people organizing the crowd, checking boarding papers, guiding people to the security lines, etc., (both before and after the security check), appeared to be Cunard staff.

[ak1004]

29 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Isnt it the port people who organise all this? Presumably they are not Cunard employees.

I hear this excuse over and over again. In our case, all people except for security were wearing Cunard uniforms. Not sure why would they do it if they are not Cunard employees.

[newjoisey]

We have about 14 cruises out of red hook and had only 2 slow motion check ins ....one was gold status and the other a line pre-x ray . Platinum always wisked through 

[Host Hattie]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

I hear this excuse over and over again. In our case, all people except for security were wearing Cunard uniforms. Not sure why would they do it if they are not Cunard employees.

It's unlikely that they are Cunard employees, at Southampton the terminal staff just change their badges depending on which ship is in port that day. There are companies that specialise in providing services at cruise terminals.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

I was surprised by this, too, but on my May 1 boarding the only people not in Cunard staff uniforms were the ones running the actual security operation, like the X-ray. The people organizing the crowd, checking boarding papers, guiding people to the security lines, etc., (both before and after the security check), appeared to be Cunard staff.

 

Well, certainly at Southampton, they are dressed in Cunard neck scarves one day, and Celebrity the next, and P and O the next. The person I spoke to said they came in whenever required for whatever line. Of course, whether there are enough of them is another matter.

[exlondoner]

18 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

It's unlikely that they are Cunard employees, at Southampton the terminal staff just change their badges depending on which ship is in port that day. There are companies that specialise in providing services at cruise terminals.

 

Sorry,  Hattie, I posted my bit before I read this.

[Victoria2]

6 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Sorry,  Hattie, I posted my bit before I read this.

and you two posted before I had a chance to post the same.

[TouchstoneFeste]

37 minutes ago, exlondoner said:

 

Sorry,  Hattie, I posted my bit before I read this.

 

Yeah, I didn't realize that bit about generic staff in multiple uniforms. Not sure it excuses Cunard, however. They really should insist on better treatment for their customers.

[exlondoner]

A lot of the problems seem to be caused by everyone turning up together, despite Cunard allocating spaced out times. It is difficult to see what they can do about this. Sending people away would create traffic chaos and a lot of even crosser people. As it is some people are cross at being expected to fill in stuff on line rather than at check-in. They sent me a helpful list of what paper would be required at the terminal. Even more helpful and time saving would be if they had listed it in the order it would be required. On my embarkation the longest queues were at security and were partly caused by people (invariably men) failing to remove their multiple layers until they got to the very front of the queue, despite large notices telling them they had to do so. What do you do about that? Hold literacy classes? 😀

[Victoria2]

13 minutes ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

 

Yeah, I didn't realize that bit about generic staff in multiple uniforms. Not sure it excuses Cunard, however. They really should insist on better treatment for their customers.

and you know they haven't tried?

[Host Hattie]

It doesn't seem to have gone that well in Manhattan either this year - 

Horrendous Embarkation in Manhattan

[RalphWiggum]

The Brooklyn and Manhattan terminals are managed by same company.  All lines have the same issue with people showing up early.  And the other lines sailing out of manhattan are using much bigger ships with double passenger amounts.  Employees of the same company out of Manhattan manage a much quicker organized process.  I don’t know, true.  None of us do.  But I’m not inclined to give Cunard a pass.  
 

don’t see why Manhattan accepts online photos but Brooklyn makes you retake.  Again I think that’s Cunard who sucks at almost everything computerized/online.  Also Manhattan used my boarding pass and health Q. (I did have to test at pier to be fair, which took 45 minutes too). 
 

For example, re Cunard technology issues,, i was asked again to upload my emergency contact info,which has not changed since 2018.  And which I added when I booked my May EB this year and then had to login again a month before because Cunard said it was missing.  
 

And I’m being asked to do the same for my July WB. And I know they have this info and I know I spent the time filling out all blanks whe I booked.  But yeah.    Cunard. 
 

and let’s not talk about the cruise app.  

 

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by RalphWiggum

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

It doesn't seem to have gone that well in Manhattan either this year - 

Horrendous Embarkation in Manhattan

 

And the other mystery with Southampton is why it has got so much worse since Covid? I certainly never had a wait of more than a few minutes previously.

[RalphWiggum]

Also I’m sure the poster who had a bad experience on a NCL cruise out of Manhattan is correct.  But I’m sorry, the fact that some post Covid Manhattan departures had issues does not prove the point that all NY departures are delayed.  As many NCL departures have been seamless.  Mine was back in December.  
 

Perhaps if someone - who was not Platinum or above) - can tell me that they had a quick and easy process (arriving mid day because I’m sure if you arrived first or last you might sail on) on QM2 out of Brooklyn I’ll change my mind. But I read the NCL and Cunard boards for NY sailings and have not heard about good Cunard embarkations out of Brooklyn post Covid. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by RalphWiggum

[BklynBoy8]

12 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

I had added photos to our online check in but they still took them dockside in Brooklyn earlier this month.

Boarding was a long, slow, tedious process.

 

Cunard needs to look into having passengers standing for 2 1/2 hours with no effort to improve conditions for the boarding passengers. In my post cruise feedback I gave them several  suggestions on how to improve things such as have more staff checking Covid info, have somebody circulating with cups of water, get the Cunard musicians to perform to the queue to take the misery out of the situation. 
 

It wasn’t the start to a luxury cruise I had anticipated.

 

 

I do agree this is no way to start a sailing. This is the first time we may experience this at Brooklyn after all the years we've came out of there.  Hoping this is resolved by September.

 

The old days in Manhattan Terminals they did have Water available and remember music played while on line. Especially on Carib Cruises we were delighted with Steel Bands playing.

 

And there were loads of folding chairs available till they called certain groups.

[ak1004]

6 hours ago, exlondoner said:

A lot of the problems seem to be caused by everyone turning up together, despite Cunard allocating spaced out times. It is difficult to see what they can do about this. Sending people away would create traffic chaos and a lot of even crosser people. As it is some people are cross at being expected to fill in stuff on line rather than at check-in. They sent me a helpful list of what paper would be required at the terminal. Even more helpful and time saving would be if they had listed it in the order it would be required. On my embarkation the longest queues were at security and were partly caused by people (invariably men) failing to remove their multiple layers until they got to the very front of the queue, despite large notices telling them they had to do so. What do you do about that? Hold literacy classes? 😀

 

And yet somehow the other companies figured it out, and even much larger ships sometimes have shorter embarkation times.

What they can do? A lot.

 

1. Hire more staff. 

2. Provide people with water at the very least.

3. Be more efficient. For example, one out of 5 stations was dedicated to filing the same questionnaire that people filed at home (the health declaration).

4. Don't ask people to upload their photos and then take one anyway at the terminal (we had the same photos uploaded at Oceania sailing in December and they were perfectly acceptable).

[exlondoner]

10 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

And yet somehow the other companies figured it out, and even much larger ships sometimes have shorter embarkation times.

What they can do? A lot.

 

1. Hire more staff. 

2. Provide people with water at the very least.

3. Be more efficient. For example, one out of 5 stations was dedicated to filing the same questionnaire that people filed at home (the health declaration).

4. Don't ask people to upload their photos and then take one anyway at the terminal (we had the same photos uploaded at Oceania sailing in December and they were perfectly acceptable).

 

I think Cunard is not the only company with problems, and not all Cunard embarkations are tedious. However, I must say I'm not optimistic for our trip in July.

 

1. There  may not be more staff to be had. 

 

2. Good from a welfare point of view, but very unlikely to speed up the process.

 

3. Doing the health questionnaire twice does seem daft. But if they ditched one, which one do you think it would be? One that could be done three days in advance or one done at the moment of departure?

 

4. They retook our photo on embarkation, but certainly didn't retake everyone's. And it only took a couple of minutes, so hardly a major cause of delay.

 

The various processes do take a little time,  but not nearly as much as the queues caused by a large volume of people.

Edited June 19, 2022 by exlondoner

[IDLnyc]

I’ll share our experience from our June 5 embarkation.(NYC to Hamburg).  The process took 2 1/2 hours.  We took a taxi from our NYC home and arrived slightly ahead of the requested time, 2:15p  We had all our papers and had uploaded our photos in advance.

There were three choke points:

1) Entering the building - a gatekeeper held the line as required by congestion inside the terminal.  I specifically asked the gatekeeper if there was a separate queue for Grills or higher tier passengers, and she said ‘no’.  

2) Getting through security

3) Having your required forms (boarding pass, negative Covid test, etc) checked.  This step took the longest and had the longest line- zigzagged the width of the terminal five or six times.  One elderly passenger, with twin canes, was brought to the front of the line only when she started to collapse.  There were a few chairs in the room but it seemed one would lose one’s place if one left the line to sit.  This function seemed by definition , grossly understaffed.  Of course we were jammed together and most people weren’t wearing masks.  (We did.)

4) By contrast, the final step, someone verifying your photo and credit card, took no time at all.  (We are platinum, and directed to a shorter line)

Two other observations.  A staffer in the “form-checking line” said she had been flown up from Florida that morning- so I’m guessing she was under contract by Carnival.  (Only Carnival Corp lines use the Brooklyn terminal)

Also, some man-in-charge kept saying the delays “were not their fault”- that the Coast Guard had delayed the boarding- hence the reason there were still crowds at 3p-4p?

The cruise itself was fine.  I thought the food is still the best of the “big ship” lines we sail, and the service staff was great.  But the horrible embarkation, with its slow-moving lines of unmasked crowds, set a negative tone.

AND we both got Covid, which meant we had to cancel the “Europe” part of our holiday- I’m still in isolation as I write this (which is how this post got so long- congratulations for reading this far.)

[esrs]

Question for Brooklyn embarkation - is luggage given to porters before you enter the terminal to join these long lines or later?

 

The last time embarked in Brooklyn (in 2013; in 2019 we embarked the QE from Manhattan) I believe we sent our luggage ahead and did not have to juggle at the terminal.  This summer we will be arriving in a vehicle with all our luggage and it will be too much to zigzag back and forth across the terminal.

 

Thanks!  I can cope with lines if I know what to expect.

[Kristal Blade]

On 6/18/2022 at 2:26 PM, exlondoner said:

 

Isnt it the port people who organise all this? Presumably they are not Cunard employees.

Yes, but when boarding a Cunard ship I thought there might have been some input from this 5* classes organisation, to make passengers feel the love as soon as possible.

[Kristal Blade]

5 minutes ago, esrs said:

Question for Brooklyn embarkation - is luggage given to porters before you enter the terminal to join these long lines or later?

 

The last time embarked in Brooklyn (in 2013; in 2019 we embarked the QE from Manhattan) I believe we sent our luggage ahead and did not have to juggle at the terminal.  This summer we will be arriving in a vehicle with all our luggage and it will be too much to zigzag back and forth across the terminal.

 

Thanks!  I can cope with lines if I know what to expect.

Yes, luggage is dropped as soon as you arrive. There were loads of guys doing the porterage job. Maybe they could have had some of them checking paperwork, hee hee.

 

We gave our luggage collected a nice tip and he was really chuffed and made sure we headed in the right direction to queue, but it was all pretty obvious.

[Victoria2]

9 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

Yes, but when boarding a Cunard ship I thought there might have been some input from this 5* classes organisation, to make passengers feel the love as soon as possible.

We feel the love as soon as we see the ship!🙂

 

[esrs]

4 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

Yes, luggage is dropped as soon as you arrive. There were loads of guys doing the porterage job. Maybe they could have had some of them checking paperwork, hee hee.

 

We gave our luggage collected a nice tip and he was really chuffed and made sure we headed in the right direction to queue, but it was all pretty obvious.

Thank you so much!  🙂 Forewarned is forearmed!

 

[exlondoner]

10 minutes ago, Kristal Blade said:

Yes, luggage is dropped as soon as you arrive. There were loads of guys doing the porterage job. Maybe they could have had some of them checking paperwork, hee hee.

 

We gave our luggage collected a nice tip and he was really chuffed and made sure we headed in the right direction to queue, but it was all pretty obvious.

 

At Southampton there has been no porterage since Covid, unless it was reinstated recently. We had to take our own cases to the drop off point. Not a thrilling start.

[TouchstoneFeste]

On 6/18/2022 at 12:35 PM, Victoria2 said:

and you know they haven't tried?

Sorry if I sounded contentious @Victoria2. I didn't mean to be. But it does sound like it's a persistent problem involving multiple lines (mostly or all Carnival at this terminal, yes?). They ought to be able to bring enough pressure to bear to get some action.