Mobile dis-embarcation

[scperk]

Just off the Elation yesterday and the disembarcation was a total screw up from the start..We were Tag 1 (Platinum) and decided to delay getting off a bit as we had not had breakfast..Got our suitcases from the room around 7:45 and could not get to the lobby from the crowds on the stair-cases and elevators..Then came the announcement that the gangway was closed and it did not re-open until 9:00..Finnally got to the terminal and the customs were so backed up it was unreal..They were training new officers and then we heard that the drugs dogs had scented a suitcase and they closed the gangway to prepare for arresting those people that claimed the luggage..This is the second time that the terminal was totally blocked as it was also that way as we disembarcked on May 15th..They need to send some of these people to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and teach them how to get people off the ship...I doubt that I will sail again any time soon from Mobile again.....:(.........Dennis

[BigDfromTN]

Sorry you had those problems.

 

Hopefully it will not be as bad in October for us....

[richcrow]

Just off the Elation yesterday and the disembarcation was a total screw up from the start..We were Tag 1 (Platinum) and decided to delay getting off a bit as we had not had breakfast..Got our suitcases from the room around 7:45 and could not get to the lobby from the crowds on the stair-cases and elevators..Then came the announcement that the gangway was closed and it did not re-open until 9:00..Finnally got to the terminal and the customs were so backed up it was unreal..They were training new officers and then we heard that the drugs dogs had scented a suitcase and they closed the gangway to prepare for arresting those people that claimed the luggage..This is the second time that the terminal was totally blocked as it was also that way as we disembarcked on May 15th..They need to send some of these people to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and teach them how to get people off the ship...I doubt that I will sail again any time soon from Mobile again.....:(.........Dennis

 

Sorry you had such a problem, but don't let Customs people keep you from visiting Mobile. DW and I were on the the May 15th Elation cruise and no problem at all with our disembarking.

[LHP]

Just off the Elation yesterday and the disembarcation was a total screw up from the start..We were Tag 1 (Platinum) and decided to delay getting off a bit as we had not had breakfast..Got our suitcases from the room around 7:45 and could not get to the lobby from the crowds on the stair-cases and elevators..Then came the announcement that the gangway was closed and it did not re-open until 9:00..Finnally got to the terminal and the customs were so backed up it was unreal..They were training new officers and then we heard that the drugs dogs had scented a suitcase and they closed the gangway to prepare for arresting those people that claimed the luggage..This is the second time that the terminal was totally blocked as it was also that way as we disembarcked on May 15th..They need to send some of these people to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and teach them how to get people off the ship...I doubt that I will sail again any time soon from Mobile again.....:(.........Dennis

 

 

Hey Dennis...

 

our 3 experiences with Mobile has been the EMBARKATION is hit or miss...we have never had a problem with DEBARKATION..but then we do the Platinum self assist that got us off the ship by 7:20 August 23rd.

 

Sorry that your cruise had to end on such a sour note.....

 

We are sailing from Mobile again in January....we will see how it goes...

[Tapi]

They need to send some of these people to Ft. Lauderdale and Miami and teach them how to get people off the ship...I doubt that I will sail again any time soon from Mobile again.....:(.........Dennis

 

Ironically, the BEST debarkation we've ever experienced was at the port of Mobile. Literally, it took us 15 minutes from the moment we left our cabin until we were sitting in our car, driving away from the cruise terminal!

 

And the WORST debarkation was....at the port of Ft. Lauderdale. It was 11:00am when we were finally allowed to debark because the customs agents were so backed up. Our luggage was nowhere to be found when we finally got off the ship, and to make matters worse, the air conditioner wasn't working, so it made for a looooong debarkation!

 

I remember thinking "the customs agents in Ft. Lauderdale should learn from the agents in Mobile how to get people off the ship, and be courteous while doing so!"

[Dive Master]

In February we got in line to leave the ship at 900 AM. We got to our car in the terminal at 1245 PM---over 3 hours standing in line to clear customs---never seen anything like Mobile and I don't plan on ever experiencing it again! The port of Mobile is completely FUBAR.

[cruisinmeme]

only experienced mobile once and it went pretty good. you have people that was doing self debark that wanted to make their own rules and go with the first group of self debark, even with it NOT being their turn. that jammed up the hall and stairs big time. their luggage tags from embarkation gave there location so this was not just guess work.

worse debarkation was in galveston and they were training new customs agents. why cant they just do a few at a time, rather than mess up the whole thing.

i guess they wanted the gangway shut down in case they had to fight or shoot someone druggie. so again the good has to suffer for the rule breakers.

so all this mess probably had people lining the interstate super big time (mobile).

we are going out of mobile again in january and sure hope we can be lucky. bringing my brother and his wife and this will be their first cruise. we always cruise november-april and never have had a delay from fog or bad weather so don't want to start now.

[steveNcindy]

They were training new officers and then we heard that the drugs dogs had scented a suitcase and they closed the gangway to prepare for arresting those people that claimed the luggage..

 

This might explain why we haven't heard from Nunu yet :confused:

[leedm]

Customs was just trying to extend your Elation Cruise. I'm suprised you got upset. Sometimes at the end of our cruise we are forced to get off the ship by 0830. Hope you are forced off early on your next cruise.

 

Sometime you just have to roll with it.

 

leedm :confused:

[scperk]

Sorry you had such a problem, but don't let Customs people keep you from visiting Mobile. DW and I were on the the May 15th Elation cruise and no problem at all with our disembarking.

We got off at noon on the 15th after the Fantasy left....There were NO cabs and No rental cars...There was a LPGA going on and all the BP people were still there....It was horrendous getting out of the terminal and getting to the airport.......Dennis

[rkbeaux08]

We had the same problem in New Orleans in April with customs. People blocking the exists. The November before the debark out of N.O. went great and real smooth. In April we were one of the last to disembark and customs was running the drug dogs thru suit cases that we still at the terminal waiting to be picked up. We where real surprise at that. I was waiting by our luggage while my husband went to get the porter and had to move out of the dogs way. I guess this is just part of cruising with patience.

[Cruzman]

Bottom line is ....; if customs wants to create lots of delays, it can do so, no matter where your debarkation port is located. It is totally out of the control of the cruise line or the port authority. My 6 cruises from the port of Mobile have all gone quite smoothly.

[Hunwolf]

Somebody mentioned a problem at Port Everglades.

 

We found that port to be an incredibly easy one to be honest. Very smooth on and off the ship.

 

Amazing how the experiences vary.

[joepeka]

This might explain why we haven't heard from Nunu yet :confused:

That's funny! ;)

[luckycruzer]

Am Platinum too..expierenced nothing of a sort, was out of breakfast just b4 840:a.m. was in the library, and was escorted thru..lots of "self assist".fooey on that!...cripes..spend extra $$ for a porter, breeze thru..out the door, got my car..off by 9:10..never heard announcements....sorry for your wait.

[F22Smitty]

The majority of the delays during debarkation are caused by the folks that haven't paid there S&S bill, or the non-citizens that haven't cleared customs.

 

How many times have you heard, "will ------ please call ext. 7777". As long as they keep paging that someone calls ext. 7777, no one is going anywhere.

[LHP]

Somebody mentioned a problem at Port Everglades.

 

We found that port to be an incredibly easy one to be honest. Very smooth on and off the ship.

 

Amazing how the experiences vary.

 

Port Everglades wasn't a problem for us at Pier 19 because we were not driving. (We stayed at the Hampton Inn - Plantation and had them drop us off and pick us up....)

 

But their automobile, bus etc area is a mess. And lots of folks complain about the lack of convenient parking.

 

But when you have to use the Pier 29 (not normally used for Carnival) it is chaos. We arrived for a back to back with NO porters. Since the first cruise was only a 2 day, the port decided folks didn't need ports. They were not counting on 124 of us doing a back to back.

 

We did learn that our full sized luggage would go through the security carry on scanner...which was a shock.

[scperk]

Am Platinum too..expierenced nothing of a sort, was out of breakfast just b4 840:a.m. was in the library, and was escorted thru..lots of "self assist".fooey on that!...cripes..spend extra $$ for a porter, breeze thru..out the door, got my car..off by 9:10..never heard announcements....sorry for your wait.

Yeah you must have not been listening because they announced at least 3 times the gangway was closed between 8:00 and 8:45....don't know how you got to the library because the front elevators were completly blocked from deck 6 up and deck 8 down... It was customs holding us up because they have more authority that the FBI, I had to deal with them when I worked at Fed Ex.....won't do Mobile again anytime soon...Twice is enough for me.......:(:(....Dennis

[patattack]

My grandson and I sailed out of Mobile Aug 4. Now that was one big mess trying to disembark. I usually do self assist, but the night before decided against it for some crazy reason. Getting off the ship took a lot of time, but the main issue was the line getting up to Customs. There were many upset guests complaining loudly. Other than that, we loved the cruise and will probably be back on her next year.

[laurafergie]

I just got home from Mobile and logged on here to see what had happened in Customs. My family and I stood in line for 2.5 HOURS. 10:00 am - 12:30 pm. We made it back to the Hampton Inn to pick up our car about 1pm.

 

This was our first cruise and I said to my husband that if this how disembarking works - I don't know if I want to go on another. :( Though the cruise itself was a really great time.

[idlenote]

We were on a cruise out of Mobile in June. We will never cruise out of there again. This is one seriously messed up port. Galveston is sucky but nowhere this bad.

[luckycruzer]

Yeah you must have not been listening because they announced at least 3 times the gangway was closed between 8:00 and 8:45....don't know how you got to the library because the front elevators were completly blocked from deck 6 up and deck 8 down... It was customs holding us up because they have more authority that the FBI, I had to deal with them when I worked at Fed Ex.....won't do Mobile again anytime soon...Twice is enough for me.......:(:(....Dennis

 

 

250 peeps waiting in the line to go thru customs, as we walked right thru..As we sat in the library, the door was closed..and a Crew member walked us off to the terminal..ship happens

[UpstateCruizer]

Wow ...sorry OP that you had such a bad experience getting off the ship. I wouldn't have wanted my cruise to end that way either. The problem with debarkation is that you never know what you are getting into once you get in line to get off any ship. One snag could cause a number of other issues. Most debarkations run smoother than what you experienced.

 

For those that have issues with debarkations PLEASE make sure you send Carnival Guest Relations a follow up letter when you get home. Carnival does listen to the letters and you will receive a response. Here is the address for Guest Relations:

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Carnival Place

3655 NW 87 Avenue

Miami, Fl. 33178-2428

 

 

[Cruzman]

Wow ...sorry OP that you had such a bad experience getting off the ship. I wouldn't have wanted my cruise to end that way either. The problem with debarkation is that you never know what you are getting into once you get in line to get off any ship. One snag could cause a number of other issues. Most debarkations run smoother than what you experienced.

 

For those that have issues with debarkations PLEASE make sure you send Carnival Guest Relations a follow up letter when you get home. Carnival does listen to the letters and you will receive a response. Here is the address for Guest Relations:

 

Carnival Cruise Lines

Carnival Place

3655 NW 87 Avenue

Miami, Fl. 33178-2428

 

 

 

You can write a letter to Carnival every 5 minutes, but it won't change US Customs procedures. Carnival has ZERO control over their activities.

[jetskier]

You can write a letter to Carnival every 5 minutes, but it won't change US Customs procedures. Carnival has ZERO control over their activities.

 

So true, when Customs says dont let anymore people off the ship, no more people come off the ship.

 

Cruzman,

Wont be able to make the Oct 30 sailing as my daughters cannot miss that many days of school plus we have burnt out our supply of babysitters. Send KY my regards. Hopefully he is better in person than behind a keyboard.

 

We are going to go on the Oct 9th sailing as they have two days off from school due to a Fall Break.

Dave