nairnblue

Does anyone know where the PCR test will be carried out in Southamopton before joining Anthem on August 15?

We are travelling down fron the North of Scotland on August 12 so the test can be done in Southamoton and comply with the 72 hours condition.

Nairn Blue

On Gem right now.

Nobody has told us anything.

The front desk are towing the official line that they know nothing.

Man, it was announced to everyone else hours ago.

Don't even know if they are planning to be in New York on Saturday as scheduled.

Keep up the great PR Norwegian.

Pathetic

We too were on the Getaway transatlantic.

There is more to the crazy events than has been mentioned so far.

We could not get in to Ponta because of strong winds and there is no blame attached to NCL for that.

Instead of sailing to Brest in three days we chugged along much slower to arrive on the Thursday.

I had mentioned to friends that I had never seen a cruise itinerary that included Brest and indeed I was told that we were the first cruise ship to call there.

This begs the question as to why this commercial port was selected.

Did the NCL ops people do there homework properly given that it was a tidal port and that on that day the second ramp could not be used for most of the day as deck 4 was BELOW the level of the jetty.

The one remaining ramp was very steep, it was raining and getting off the ship was therefore very slow.

There were many elderly people that unfortunately were slow and needed assistance from the 10 or more crew members who were doing a great job helping people to get down the ramp.

This sowed down the whole process and as others have said the queue to get off stretched all along deck 7 and down to deck 6.

For those returning to the ship it was even worse. Many people needed assistance to get up the steep ramp, some needing three crew members to help.. People in wheel chairs had to be lifted up the ramp and their wheelchairs carried separately.

The ramp had a sign saying max 20 persons and this was completely dis-regarded. The port director spent most of his time sitting in a small portacabin oblivious the what was going on.

We were due to depart after 3.30pm. The second ramp was brought into use at 2.50 but even then the loval handyman had to go and get woon to make a ramp for wheelchairs.

All in all most people had to queue for 1hour 40 minutes to return to the ship.

It is possible that NCL were mis-led by the port authority but they certainly did not appear to have carried out their own checks.

I don't know how the azipod was damaged but were were told that arrival at Southampton would be delayed until mid day (from 8am).

Given that NCL had FOUR days to organise immigration at Southampton what ensued showed that they were totally out of their depth.

The immigration process did not commence till around 2pm and details of the queues and the time taken have been accurately described in earlier posts .

I joined the queue at about 3pm. I was asking a female crew member how long it would take and she could only shrug her shoulders. There was an officer nearby and I said "you have 3 stripes on your shoulder how do you explain this fiasco" to which his reply was " three and a half actually" At that point the completely stressed hotel director appeared. I then asked him why this was happening to which he replied that he was too busy to discuss the matter and promptly fled. He was responsible for the lack of organisation and for not arranging things better with the immigration people.

After a 2 hour wait I finally got to the front, there were only 3 immigration officers actually there at that point but there had been a fourth.

The officer that checked my passport was the senior one and I said to him that NCL were blaming Immigration and asked for his view. He told me that he had 12 officers ready to meet the ship at 8am but after he was informed that the arrival was delayed he had to re-deploy his limited resources elsewhere as there were other ships in port.

The hotel director in my opinion completely bottled it. The liaison with immigration was VERY poor. Crew members all seem to have been told to blame immigration which as already mentioned was not true.

So there you have it.

A poor choice of port at Brest, a complete lack of proper research. At least NCL recognised this and gave each guest $100 OBC.

A complete farce regarding immigration. Do the maths. Four officers to check almost 4000 passengers was going to take several hours.

Many of the earlier posts may not have explained all the facts as well as others, but some of the replies seem oblivious as to where the blame lay.

Make no mistake the blame for Brest and immigration rest with NCL.

The weather and missed ports, well weather is weather.

It is right by the pier

We are sailing on Norwegian Star Miami to Copenhagen April 27 to May 11.

Is it easier to get a taxi?

Do we have to pay in Danish Krone or do they take dollars or Euros.

Would it be easier just to transfer to the airport using the ship's transfer even though it may be dearer.

Thanks.