Constellation disembarking mess

[Silver Jo]

Im new to C.C. and have twice tried to get my review pubished. They wont do that as they say each segment needs to be more detailed. Anyway, maybe I can finally be heard here. We returned last wk from the Panama canal cruise. Had so much fun and enjoyed meeting lots of nice people. Spent each eve in Michaels w Perry laughed ourselves silly. Had a great time until the mess at disembarkation. After giving us all luggage tags and rounding us up into the theatre, we were delayed for hours as some passengers had not gone through immigration. Finally one color group was called. THEN--it was announced that everyone could leave. What a mess. We were herded through the narrow hallways at snails pace. Of course we missed our flight. I think the person who made the decision to let everyone go at once should be fired. There were many negative comments and some said they would not sail w Celeb. again. We are booked for another cruise next yr and are thinking it over. Isnt there a way to expedite this process?

[C 2 C]

That's San Diego.

 

The Homeland Security guys are the ones responsible for the hold up.

 

I don't think any port that Celebrity uses is as bad as San Diego.

[hcat]

That's not what I want to hear....--I didn't think anything could be worse than San Pedro!

[hcat]

..........Had a great time until the mess at disembarkation. After giving us all luggage tags and rounding us up into the theatre, we were delayed for hours as some passengers had not gone through immigration. Finally one color group was called. THEN--it was announced that everyone could leave. What a mess. We were herded through the narrow hallways at snails pace. Of course we missed our flight. ?........

 

What time was your flight & how late were you ?

[cruisestitch]

As I read it, the Guest Services staff made a poor decision. I've seen the same thing happen when something went terribly wrong on embarking at Buenos Aires. What made us upset was not that there was a problem with the port/facilities, but how it was handled (or in our case, not handled) by Celebrity. I suspect that's how the OP feels. San Diego TSA staff caused a problem, but Celebrity staff made the problem worse.

[ARetiredGuy]

That's San Diego.

 

The Homeland Security guys are the ones responsible for the hold up.

 

I don't think any port that Celebrity uses is as bad as San Diego.

 

Why do you blame Homeland Security? What is your source of info?

[Silver Jo]

What time was your flight & how late were you ?

Our flight back to Phx was to have been at 12:45. The others in our color tag group on that flight were called and left. Since our # on the tag wasnt exactly the same , we foolishly waited. They made the flight and we were caught in the stampede. We were reschuled on a flight at about 4:30 or so. Maddening and a lousy end to a nice cruise.

[C 2 C]

Why do you blame Homeland Security? What is your source of info?

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)[1][2][3] is a federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, and enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, drug and immigration laws.

 

Wikipedia.

[hcat]

Our flight back to Phx was to have been at 12:45. The others in our color tag group on that flight were called and left. Since our # on the tag wasnt exactly the same , we foolishly waited. They made the flight and we were caught in the stampede. We were reschuled on a flight at about 4:30 or so. Maddening and a lousy end to a nice cruise.

 

We have decided to walk off the ship with our luggage even tho' it is a 10 day cruise & we wil lhave a few bags.. It is on Radiance & Royal C seems to have a good walk off program...worked great for us in Jan on Navigator at Miami... Once off, we will grab a cab & hope for the best...

 

In the past, we have found that X is not that well organized or disembarkation--as Elites we were sent to Michaels Club on Solstice for priority disembarkation--meanwhile everyone else lined up in the corridor--so eventually we got smart & joined them & got off the ship ..Had we stayed we would have really been late getting off.....

[ARetiredGuy]

I don't understand how your response answers my question. Homeland Security is doing its job.

It is the crew of the Constellation that failed to present the Non-Americans and the Non-Canadians to immigration in a timely manner. They knew who they are. Figure out a way to get them to where they need to be!

 

Why couldn't Celebrity arrange to have immigation board in Cabo and do the process while we were at sea on Friday?

[cruisestitch]

There is another thread about this issue -- seems to indicate that this is happening often on the left coast.

[C 2 C]

I don't understand how your response answers my question. Homeland Security is doing its job.

It is the crew of the Constellation that failed to present the Non-Americans and the Non-Canadians to immigration in a timely manner. They knew who they are. Figure out a way to get them to where they need to be!

 

Why couldn't Celebrity arrange to have immigation board in Cabo and do the process while we were at sea on Friday?

 

Homeland Security apparently is not doing its job. Celebrity provides the manifest to DHS prior to docking, they knew nearly 600 people had to be processed. Passengers start lining up at 7 am. How many agents are required to process that many people? Why do they have to start the process by having a coffee break before they process the first passenger?

Why does the DHS not allow American passport holders get off the ship to be processed at the same time as "foreigners" on board the ship. That is the process in Florida.

[kitty9]

I don't understand how your response answers my question. Homeland Security is doing its job.

It is the crew of the Constellation that failed to present the Non-Americans and the Non-Canadians to immigration in a timely manner. They knew who they are. Figure out a way to get them to where they need to be!

 

Why couldn't Celebrity arrange to have immigation board in Cabo and do the process while we were at sea on Friday?

 

 

This is not just an issue for Celebrity. I've had similar problems when non-US citizens, for whatever reason, thought they were above the rule of reporting for Immigration clearance. This has happened on Carnival, RCI, Regent, Princess, NCL and Celebrity cruises I've been on. And to blame the staff on the ship is just plain wrong. When you have literally hundreds of non-US citizens on a cruise ship, how are they supposed to round them up? They could be in any number of places on the ship. When you keep hearing your name and cabin number announced over and over again, in your language, when you receive written information in your cabin, again in your language, telling you when and what time to report, what the heck do you expect the crew to do? It's up to the individual to do what's expected of them. But I guess as with all things, you can't fix stupid or rude, and that's what's basically the reason why people don't do what they're supposed to do on disembarkation morning.

[Snowbird48]

I mentioned in the other thread on this topic that we Canadians also received letters telling us to report to immigration along with the other non US citizens. I heard that about half the passengers were non US citizens. Sending that many people to The Bar at the End of the Earth was crazy as it couldn't handle the volume of people. It took me about 45-50 minutes once I got off the elevators to actually make it into the bar area to see the immigration officials. There was a line snaking its way back & forth in front of the elevators. People newly arriving had trouble exiting the elevators due to the crowd & then didn't know where to go. People already in line were getting upset because some people with later times to report had shown up 1.5 hours early making the crowds even worse. Some people cut in front of others.... a real mess. It was horrible crowd control.

 

I do have one question: Did US citizens have to go through immigration on-board & if so, where did they send you?

[C 2 C]

We get to experience this process again in just over two weeks. We are about to sail on Infinity from Florida to San Diego and back. I will report back when I can get some questions answered of why this is a continuous problem.

[ARetiredGuy]

This is not just an issue for Celebrity. I've had similar problems when non-US citizens, for whatever reason, thought they were above the rule of reporting for Immigration clearance. This has happened on Carnival, RCI, Regent, Princess, NCL and Celebrity cruises I've been on. And to blame the staff on the ship is just plain wrong. When you have literally hundreds of non-US citizens on a cruise ship, how are they supposed to round them up? They could be in any number of places on the ship. When you keep hearing your name and cabin number announced over and over again, in your language, when you receive written information in your cabin, again in your language, telling you when and what time to report, what the heck do you expect the crew to do? It's up to the individual to do what's expected of them. But I guess as with all things, you can't fix stupid or rude, and that's what's basically the reason why people don't do what they're supposed to do on disembarkation morning.

 

Celebrity is in the travel business. If this type of experience is common, they need to find a solution.

[mamadot]

Another vote for San Pedro!!!

[C 2 C]

Another vote for San Pedro!!!

 

But once you survive the bedlam it is so nice to be able to walk downtown in San Diego. For that reason I still like to cruise to San Diego as a turn around for B2B cruises.

[mgcarnut]

When we disembarked in Miami from our Panama Canal cruise in January, we were given CC class "Light Blue 5" luggage tags and told to assemble in the Cinema where our numbers would be called. The attendant in the cinema seemed very confused and was on the hand-held radio to someone near the gangway. Seems there was a Customs hold-up in the terminal so they were holding groups past their scheduled disembark time. We got revised time estimates from the attendant that varied from 20 minutes to 2 hours. By the time our color was called, we were stuck in a slow-moving line to Customs, and when we finally got to the baggage claim area ours were the ONLY bags left on the carousel! Either our tag color/number was called earlier and we were never notified, or every other Light Blue 5 passenger decided to disembark on their own. I'm surprised Homeland Security hadn't removed our bags and detonated them, thinking they were abandoned.

 

The good news was we didn't have to catch a flight that day (just get to FLL and rent a car), and while inching along in the Customs line we met a great guy from the UK that shared my interest in obscure aviation trivia.

 

Cheers,

mgcarnut

[kitty9]

Celebrity is in the travel business. If this type of experience is common, they need to find a solution.

 

What would you do to solve the problem? Perhaps round up all the non-US citizens and keep them in a holding tank overnight, so that when the Immigration people come on board the next morning, they don't have to hunt for them? Perhaps have armed guards knock on their cabin doors at 4am, and physically escort them to the theater so they're ready for Immigration? How do you think that would play in the court of public opinion. Can you see the headlines on CNN??? "Cruise ship passengers forced to leave their cabins at an ungodly hour to pass Immigration inspection." If passengers get hacked off when their steak doesn't arrived perfectly prepared, can you see what would happen if any cruise line started employing police state tactics to get passengers to follow directives?

 

It makes no difference what ANY cruise line does. If the non-US citizens have their heads up their collective behinds and refuse to get themselves to the appointed room at the appointed time, what are they supposed to do?

 

Where, in God's name, does personal responsibility begin?

[Snowbird48]

What would you do to solve the problem? Perhaps round up all the non-US citizens and keep them in a holding tank overnight, so that when the Immigration people come on board the next morning, they don't have to hunt for them? Perhaps have armed guards knock on their cabin doors at 4am, and physically escort them to the theater so they're ready for Immigration? How do you think that would play in the court of public opinion. Can you see the headlines on CNN??? "Cruise ship passengers forced to leave their cabins at an ungodly hour to pass Immigration inspection." If passengers get hacked off when their steak doesn't arrived perfectly prepared, can you see what would happen if any cruise line started employing police state tactics to get passengers to follow directives?

 

It makes no difference what ANY cruise line does. If the non-US citizens have their heads up their collective behinds and refuse to get themselves to the appointed room at the appointed time, what are they supposed to do?

 

Where, in God's name, does personal responsibility begin?

I'm not sure if the missing passengers were fellow Canadians or not. I do think that there was some confusion created when the Celebrity TODAY stated as disembarkation info: "US & Canadian Citizens : The inspection will be held in the cruise ship terminal after disembarking the vessel." I believe it was a memo under our door that stated we now needed to go to the Bar at the Edge of the Earth. I was in a cabin with 2 other women & one of them picked up the memo & placed it on the desk with the tons of other papers that had accumulated. I never saw the memo until later that last day. This was the first time I've ever had to go through customs on board & I was surprised. If a similar thing happened to the people that didn't report on time to immigration, then I think perhaps Celebrity does need to look into the situation. They could have made announcements stressing that there was a CHANGE in the disembarkation process - the operative word being CHANGE so that people would realize that the information they'd already received was no longer valid. I have no idea why it took so long for the people being paged to report to immigration. Perhaps they were on deck partying or dozing with the intention of disembarking late, not realizing that NOBODY could get off the ship. Again, as per Celebrity TODAY: Please note: Celebrity Constellation will not be cleared for disembarkation until all NON-US & NON-CANADIAN GUESTS HAVE PASSED THROUGH THE IMMIGRATION INSPECTION. They may not have been aware that they were preventing the whole ship from beginning the disembarkation process!

[paall]

I have been on 10 cruises with 4 different lines, have never had a problem with security issues, never been held up waiting to disembark longer than 20 minutes, common sense to follow the instructions, which are easy to follow.

[2nd chance]

We had a great cruise until the disembarkation in San Diego which ended up as a cattle drive out to buses to the airport knowing we had missed our flight. Our insurance has covered about 2/3 of the cost to get home.

Was not impressed with the emergency safety drill and it does not compare to the one that Holland America uses.

[caripoo]

I do not know who messed that up, but we have sailed on 16 Celebrity and RCCL ships and NEVER have had trouble leaving the ship and making our flight, if anything we have been dropped off at airport TOO early. This has been true domestically and internationally.

 

Don't cancel Celebrity next year Maybe make your flight later!!

[Hflors]

Im new to C.C. and have twice tried to get my review pubished. They wont do that as they say each segment needs to be more detailed. Anyway, maybe I can finally be heard here. We returned last wk from the Panama canal cruise. Had so much fun and enjoyed meeting lots of nice people. Spent each eve in Michaels w Perry laughed ourselves silly. Had a great time until the mess at disembarkation. After giving us all luggage tags and rounding us up into the theatre, we were delayed for hours as some passengers had not gone through immigration. Finally one color group was called. THEN--it was announced that everyone could leave. What a mess. We were herded through the narrow hallways at snails pace. Of course we missed our flight. I think the person who made the decision to let everyone go at once should be fired. There were many negative comments and some said they would not sail w Celeb. again. We are booked for another cruise next yr and are thinking it over. Isnt there a way to expedite this process?

 

We experienced the same thing disembarking in San Diego. First we hit rough weather coming from Cabo which made us late getting into port, then many people who were supposed to report to Customs did not. They didn't start to disembark until after noon! We were called at about 12:30 pm and before we could get down to exit the last call for passengers disembarking was called. We were not worried as from my sister's past experience and what I read here on cc we booked flights for the next morning.

 

I am surprised that there were any announcements made. OUr last cruise with Celebrity this past january each group went into a public place and only the crew with the walkie talkies could hear who should be disembarked. But there were still people with the wrong colors at the disembarking point.