Horizon disembarkation the worst ever!

[tallyho8]

I've sailed on 72 cruises on 6 different cruise lines and never seen a disembarkation as horrible or dangerous as the one on the Horizon on January 6, 2024. Even though there were crowds of people trying to get off the ship, they kept calling more groups to disembark. There was a huge crowd on deck 3 and the line was not moving and people were coming down the elevator and could not get off due to the crowd so they had to wait in the elevators. This made many people have to wait for an elevator for a half hour and they try to walk down the stairs with all their luggage. The stairs were packed shoulder to shoulder and if one person had slipped it would have caused a domino effect where dozens would have fallen down the stairs creating a panic at the third floor where people would have been trampled with hundreds injured or killed. I saw 2 people vomit in the crowd as they were stressed out and overheated waiting for such a long time in the heat and carrying their luggage.

 

If the fire department had knowledge of that situation, Carnival would have faced a hefty fine and have to change their debarkation procedure. It is a wonder that no one appeared to be injured during this time although one lady had a panic attack and some kids were crying. Imagine standing on the stairs with people crowding you so tight you could not move or sit down or even have a place to set your luggage down for over a half hour. I complained to a worker who was holding people back in line and he just smiled and said there was nothing he could do about it. 

 

Once outside we waited for our Uber in the designated area for Lyft and Uber rides but it was full of shuttle buses so many of the Ubers could not stop there and parked in an undesignated area where patrons could not find them. Ours left after a few minutes and charged us for missing the ride. We were finally able to get another one after 45 minutes. Luckily we had a late flight because we heard many people talking about missing their flight since it took them over 2 hours to get off the ship and get on to a ride to the airport. 

[mz-s]

Sounds dreadful! I wonder why debarkation was so horrible that day? 

[Colorado Beach Bum]

We’ve had a couple that were complete chaos.  We were Diamond but did not go to Diamond meet up as we were traveling with others.  We started to leave as soon as first group was called and couldn’t even get down to debarkation level before they were calling the last group.  It was awful experience 

[mz-s]

Even before we were platinum we would always do self-assist disembarkation unless we had a late flight, in which case we would be among the last off. Maybe this is normal and I have just never dealt with it having never tried to debark during the thick of it.

[Ranyw]

We try to make arrangements to be able to get off the ship as late as possible.  We are usually one of the last to get off the ship.  Less crowds, and most of the luggage was picked through so we could find our bags more easily.

[tradewinds traveler]

We had the same problem on the Celebration in May. They kept calling #s to come down. People were in the stairway & they couldn't move. They want everyone off quickly but they don't know how to handle it on these larger ships.

[MMfan14]

My last couple of cruises, debarkation seems to be a free for all with I'm getting off the ship now and don't care what my deck is attitude. 

[pe4all]

We also have had these issues with debarkation in Miami.  Sometimes it is due to customs backups, sometimes due to people not following instructions on when to debark.  We do not use the Diamond debark as we don't want to sit in the airport for over 4 hours.  Wish they would maybe have an "early" Diamond/Plat debark and one maybe an hour later!

[groundloop]

Carnival does a very poor job of moving people and badly needs to put some thought into this issue, especially now that they're sailing with packed ships. 

 

In addition to badly disorganized debarkation they have issues with water shuttle ports as well.  On our Greenland cruise last August, for instance, there were LONG waits to get back on the ship at two of the water shuttle ports.  One was an hour and 15 minutes for us, and the line was even longer by the time we got on the shuttle.  In this case if they could have been running a couple of extra life boats at the peak times and it would have greatly alleviated the problem.

 

I'm convinced that a good industrial engineer on their staff could help immensely, I have to wonder why Carnival doesn't seem to realize that they have a problem in this area.

[cruizinisthebest]

Once the noticed the bottleneck, they usually will stop people from coming. Then there's people who simply do not listen. They want off period.

 

Sounds dreadful. Unless we have an early flight, which we avoid, you'll find us amongst the ones they are throwing off as late as possible!

[mjkacmom]

BTDT once at the Manhattan cruise terminal on NCL. Lined up before 7 am, was off the ship at 10:45. They are sometimes short customs officials and it just backs up with the ship wanting folks out of common areas so they can clean. Spent an hour on an outside deck freezing.

[fuddrules]

I've had a few rough ones but we just debarked the Carnival Miracle in Long Beach on 1/6 and it couldn't have been faster.   I never came to a complete stop at all during debarkation.  They would "ding" people off the ship almost in stride.  I guess technically I stopped to scan my face at customs, didn't even have to get my passport out.  That took, maybe, 15 seconds, otherwise it went as quick as you could walk. Perfect coordination all the way around.

Edited January 8 by fuddrules

[pcvtmom]

I wonder about the reason for this.  This past summer, we never stopped walking until we reached the outside of the terminal.  We were on the Horizon, but all had passports.  We were in a group of 14 people traveling together, too. 

[pc_load_letter]

In all of our cruises, we've never had a problem.

 

Check your bags and pick them up off the ship. Give yourself a cushion for time. If you have to catch a flight at noon and you disembark at 10am, I have no sympathy.

 

I've never understood why people are in such a hurry to get off the ship. It's really amazing to me.

Edited January 8 by pc_load_letter

[karriec]

I feel your pain Tallyho8.  We had the same issue the Sunday before getting off the Horizon in Miami.  We attempted to debark when our luggage group was called but ended up backed up on the stairs for a long time.  Despite the back up they continued to call the luggage tag groups.  The luggage area was also a mess.  Seemed way too small of an area to handle the amount of light and people.  I definitely prefer Port Canaveral. 

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, pc_load_letter said:

In all of our cruises, we've never had a problem.

 

Check your bags and pick them up off the ship. Give yourself a cushion for time. If you have to catch a flight at noon and you disembark at 10am, I have no sympathy.

 

I've never understood why people are in such a hurry to get off the ship. It's really amazing to me.

Well, when we experienced short port staffing that lead to hours to disembark, we were trying to get home (20 minute ride) for our daughter’s confirmation, needed to be at the church at noon (we made it), if we had a 1 pm flight we probably would missed it. Most of the time a1 pm flight would be fine. I wouldn’t place blame on those who booked safe flights.

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

I love Charleston's silent debarkation! It is by far the smoothest that i have encountered. To bad more ships don't use it.

[pe4all]

2 hours ago, pc_load_letter said:

In all of our cruises, we've never had a problem.

 

Check your bags and pick them up off the ship. Give yourself a cushion for time. If you have to catch a flight at noon and you disembark at 10am, I have no sympathy.

 

I've never understood why people are in such a hurry to get off the ship. It's really amazing to me.

You have been lucky, then.  We never book a flight before 12:30 pm, and are always off the ship by 9.  We leave our luggage outside our door the night before.  Last cruise we started to debark at 9, made it to the walkway overlooking the seating area of the terminal, and were at a dead stop for 40 minutes.  It was hot, people were upset, and when we finally got down the escalator the facial id was not working.  Our luggage was supposed to be in a certain area, and wasn't.  We had to run around looking for it and finally found it ( #1 tags still on, so it wasn't as if they had to guess where it went) then onto the customs line.  Still had plenty of time to get to MIA, but it definitely could have been better.

[DallasGuy75219]

7 hours ago, pe4all said:

Our luggage was supposed to be in a certain area, and wasn't.  We had to run around looking for it and finally found it ( #1 tags still on, so it wasn't as if they had to guess where it went) then onto the customs line.

I've had that happen too many times... my bag is not in Group 1 and I have to go looking in other groups,.only to find the Group 1 tags still on when I finally locate it.  Some of the port employees just don't care.