Coral Princess-Disembarkation disaster

[Coral]

Coral - Just to set the record straight, Bob & I were doing the self disembarkation from the same cruise, and were to meet in Michaelangelo DR at 7:15.

 

Unfortunately, for obvious reasons we couldn't do self-disembarkation. We went to the casino where they have those with disabilities go. We couldn't hear when they were disembarking colors as they called us by name to disembark within our room (supposedly according to when the colors are called). They handle things differently when you have a disability as everyone in the room is disembarking at different times. So we left, when they called us by name which usually is the same time as the color is called. By the people who I was hanging out with for an hour, we did disembark at the same time with those with our color.

 

If one did self-disembarkation or did ex-check (which we couldn't do due to our airline), it would have been fine. For those of us who had to find our luggage, it was a mess as the luggage wasn't out on time. It was far delayed compared to any other cruise I have ever been on. I have never walked out and not had our luggage out. We had not heard that the ramp was not working (not sure if that had to do with the luggage leaving the ship).

[davekathy]

Our disembarkment out of FLL on the Crown yesterday ranks as my worst disembarkment ever.

 

It probably worked fine for those who had ezcheck-in but I flew Southwest for the first time and they did not offer this service. We walked out on time only to find out that none of the suitcases had been unloaded. We had to sit there and watch for over an hour suitcases being unloaded. There were probably 10 luggage guys in the room I was in and at any given time, only two or three were unloading luggage from the large crates. All suitcases had to be out before we could grab ours. It would make sense to maybe put the first colors out and then let those people go. I did complain to the Princess person who was in the area and he scolded me for not using EZ-Checkin. I then said that SWA was not on the list. SW did have a truck outside of the warehouse and was collecting luggage there and checking people in (for a few but somewhat less then ez-checkin).

 

I have never experienced leaving when my time is called (and I wasn't in the first group by any means) and not seeing one suitcase out.

 

I am also sort of surprised that we had to go through customs in Bar Harbor (first US port) and then again in FLL (I understand the Bar Harbor process). While we didn't fill out the forms in Bar Harbor, it would have been a whole lot easier to do it all at once then go through it again yesterday. Though, by the time we got our luggage (everyone with ezcheckin had already left), the customs line was not bad.

 

Thankfully I made it to the airport in plenty of time for my flight.

 

 

What is EZ-Chech in? How do I find out what Air Lines are on the list and who has the list?

[geoherb]

This past Thanksgiving cruise was our first chance to appreciate the Platinum lounge. We were on the Emerald--disembarking in Fort Lauderdale. According to the woman in charge, disembarkation was delayed due to Customs and Immigration. But we enjoyed waiting onboard the ship since it delayed waiting at the airport.

 

I've booked us on 11 a.m. flights coming back from our next cruise. We may try to do self-disembarkation if we can get down to two checked bags.

[Coral]

What is EZ-Chech in? How do I find out what Air Lines are on the list and who has the list?

 

EZ Check is a program where you pay a fee ($20 - $25 plug bag fees) and you receive your boarding pass and luggage tags for your flight on the ship. You put your luggage outside your door at night and in FLL - you don't see your luggage until you arrive at your home airport.

 

Tak8 who is on the Ruby right now mentioned these airlines in his life post: Most major airlines are included from Ft. Lauderdale: Delta, Air Tran, Northwest, Jet Blue, United, and US Air.

 

There are some specifics in the fine print and if you qualify, it works great!

[davekathy]

EZ Check is a program where you pay a fee ($20 - $25 plug bag fees) and you receive your boarding pass and luggage tags for your flight on the ship. You put your luggage outside your door at night and in FLL - you don't see your luggage until you arrive at your home airport.

 

Thank you

[happy cruzer]

Dumb question

 

When the embarcation is messed up, i.e. there is a huge crowd of people in one area, why do folks just not go to another part of the ship and wait until it clears out? Is it because you have made early travel arrangements?

 

I've seen the madness on various cruises and have learned to just not join in.

 

and I agree with Bruce, the cruise line has limitations that they are operating under, they can not always have unlimited resources to fix things that change like weather, customs procedures, etc. sometimes they will be overwhelmed and it usually is made worse by everyone rushing and being rude to each other. Sometimes we have to take responsiblity for ourselves and just not join into the mob.

 

We always have self disembarc but you can still wait till it all calms down.

 

I am sorry for anyone who experiences the disembarc mob, but they do happen and you do have control to avoid it by waiting it out and not joining in.

[Pia1913]

Just as a FYI, we disembarked the Coral in FLL on Tuesday and I have never had such an easy time. True, we were not in a hurry and dawdled as long as we could, but we were off at 9:30 and just walked right through immigration. Something certainly went very right that morning.

[travelcoupletoo]

We also disembarked the Coral on tuesday in FLL and we were in the early independent travelers group. We were off and cleared customs by 8:30 am. It was the fastest and easiest we have ever experienced. We were at the FLL airport by 9:00 am. Great job Princess.