It was definitely a confusing experience. The letter said all excursions go at the earliest time, but the cruise directors’ announcement made it seem like they were releasing the excursions by deck. We decided to ignore what she was saying and we’re able to bypass most of the nightmare. Also, the agent barely looked at our passports and seemed like they were just trying g to get through everyone. It didn’t seem very thorough.
I really feel for the non-US citizens. Their process took forever and we still saw people waiting in line when we returned from exploring the area. The process wasted their day.
This is our first cruise so we didn’t know what to expect, but hope this is not the norm.