Mariner 11 25 2012 worst

[Ladysilver]

I was also on the 11/25 cruise.

 

Out of my 14 cruises, 8 of them with RCI, this was an absolute disaster both ON and Off the ship.

 

The cruise itself was wonderful! The staff great, the experience wonderful. Getting on and off though was horrible and almost inexcusable.

 

Embarkation: We arrived early because of needing to get transportation for 9 to the ship. Me and my boyfriend were dropped off with all the luggage at approx. 10:30am. We knew we would likely need to wait for 30 minutes to a hour before getting into the building. No problem there. However, it was complete chaos. Starting about 10:45am a lot of people were starting to form lines, haphazard and no one around to direct. We got a good line going. then about 11:30am, many more people getting dropped off with no where to stand. About 11:50 they finally opened the door to start letting people in, but it appeared only a few at a time. About 12:00, they came down the line and tried to get all the Plat and up to the front of the line. We worked our way up, but then other passengers (who, I may add, arrived much later than we did, but somehow were able to get to the front of the line because they didn't notice the line that had already formed) started getting angry. It ended up being a disaster. There was a line about 100 people wide and 100 people deep trying to get into one single door! Once inside the building we were able to finally go through security and to check in. *Note: We did bring wine in our carry on and had to go to another table to declare our wine, have them mark down what cabin we were in and then sign it, slowing things down as well. They apparently abandoned this practice a little later as the rest of my family who all had wine as well were not required to go to that table.

 

After we checked in, they still had not started boarding yet. We sat in the chairs to wait. When they finally started with the priority tags, people were all trying to board because the workers did not announce to the crowd they were boarding "priority" only. Then another worker started directing Platinum and above to board, even though we had tags 1 or 2 which they hadn't started boarding yet, causing more confusion. It was just really poorly handled.

 

Total time: arrived at 10:30, was finally onboard at 12:50am and was among the first to board. The rest of my family who had arrived around 11:15 got on board at 2:30! Just to note, I did expect to wait at least an hour since we arrived SO early, but I thought it was crazy how that all occurred outside.

 

For disembarking:

 

We had tag #3 and were called shortly after the self disembarking line. It was approx. 8:50 (original time said 8:30 so not too bad in the scheme of things). Leaving was much easier, although it got much worse later. The bad part was getting the luggage and then going through customs. Because of our large family, we needed a porter. We had to stand in a "porter" line. It took over 45 minutes to get to the front of that line. Once with the porter, we quickly loaded up the luggage and then had to stand in line with him to go through customs, tying up his time and the cart. That was crazy. With Tag #3, we did not get out of the terminal building until 10:15! Then our party had to go get the vehicles, etc. Our flight was at 2:30 out of Hobby and we did make it in time, but I can only imagine people with tags 7 or later. By the time we were leaving, I saw the lines triple as long as what we stood in.... I know of some folks we ran into at the airport that had missed their flight. It seemed senseless to me.

 

I agree with others, I won't be going back through Galveston anytime soon. I felt bad for my family as it was most of their first time on a cruise. I think RCI could have been more organized and communicated better for the arriving passengers. In the whole time we were outside, I only heard from the employees 1 time. I did hear there were problems getting everyone off the ship from the previous cruise, which is no surprise after witnessing it myself. I could not imagine our cruise being cleared by 11:30 to board if I didn't get out until 10:15 with a low tag #.

 

This definitely won't make me not cruise with RCI in the future, but will make me think second about Galveston...or any ship that has only been back for a week or two from Europe. I have also sent an email to RCI to ensure they are aware of the disaster at the port in hopes they put something into place quickly for the upcoming passengers so they don't have to go through the same.

 

 

I'm really hoping your email to RCI will "fix" things before I board on Sunday. Thanks for thinking about me. :cool:

[AFsouth]

Really, 4 post in the last year and 2 of them were on this post with not one comment about the cruise itself? Have been on 8 cruises from this port with no problems. Please don't start something over a rare incident.

Was this YOUR experience?:rolleyes:

[reney313]

I'm really hoping your email to RCI will "fix" things before I board on Sunday. Thanks for thinking about me. :cool:

 

Ha! Doubtful it will be because of my email, but I do hope it gets better! I work in customer service myself for a large company. If our customers don't tell us what's occurring, then we wouldn't know either so I at least feel like the effort is warranted.

 

Enjoy your cruise! I did have a fantastic time and the onboard staff were absolutely wonderful! Just mentally prepare for the embarking and disembarking...and try to do self disembarking so the lines won't be backed up at that point!

[rharvey999]

Interesting to be sure. We'll be there mid-January. We have had two cruises out of Galveston but that was on the Rhapsody a few years back. Hope they have it figured out by then.

[Darkwolfe]

Interesting to be sure. We'll be there mid-January. We have had two cruises out of Galveston but that was on the Rhapsody a few years back. Hope they have it figured out by then.

 

I imagine they will be by that point. We were on at the end of January this year and while there was a wait before embarkation, it wasn't horrible. It was Customs that caused the delay too.

[pdmedic]

We were on the 11-25 sailing as well and the embarkation and disembarkation in Galveston definitely needed some work. Someone taking charge and getting the line started and enforced outside during embarkation would have been a big help. Not sure about during the disembarkation but additional porters and customs agents would have helped.

 

That being said once we were on the ship the service and everything else seemed very good to us. Then again this was our first cruise so we don't have a lot to compare it to.

 

Travis

[betsyl]

What time was your flight that you missed? My daughter has a flight leaving there at 1:50 after our cruise.

 

Other than the boarding and unboarding' date=' how was the cruise itself?[/quote']

 

Our flight was at noon. We caught the 1 p.m. flight to Dallas instead so it ended up being no big deal. Just stressful while it was going on. Other than the boarding issues, we had a wonderful cruise. We did MTD for the first time with reservations at 6:30 p.m. and really liked it. We were seated in the same area each evening without asking, and we had a table for 2 as we had requested. And the food was pretty good, in my opinion. It was very good in Chops and Giovannis - Chops especially.

 

Our favorite thing entertainment wise was the Fleur de Lis (sp...) trio of ladies who played the violin and piano at various times around the ship. They were really talented and we enjoyed it so much.

[Margy23]

We had a similar disembarkation on Jewel of the Seas returning to Tampa on 11/29. This was our 4th trip on the Jewel, but the first time they led us around and about the ship until we were worn out before we could get off. I have no idea why, but it dulled the great memories we were leaving with.

[39august]

Yes, unfortunately, looks like fog for Dec. 9. Guess we will be doing brunch at Casey's with a few bloody marys and in no hurry to board! The self-debark is a mess in Galveston because so many drive to the port and want to get off and to their cars and home ASAP.

[txlolly]

We were also on this cruise. They kept us at the airport because of a problem at the port so this put us behind all the other people when we got to the shore. There was NO

ORDER at the airport!!!

The service was kind of disappointing on this cruise. Also I bought a soda card which was a mistake because we tried both Coke and Sprite and both had a bad taste and we tried 3 different places, never finished a whole drink because of taste and they wouldn't let us have canned drinks without charging extra.

 

This was our 7th cruise, 2nd on Royal Caribbean and probably last.

[Krazy4Kruisin']

Our flight was at noon. We caught the 1 p.m. flight to Dallas instead so it ended up being no big deal. Just stressful while it was going on. Other than the boarding issues, we had a wonderful cruise. We did MTD for the first time with reservations at 6:30 p.m. and really liked it. We were seated in the same area each evening without asking, and we had a table for 2 as we had requested. And the food was pretty good, in my opinion. It was very good in Chops and Giovannis - Chops especially.

 

Our favorite thing entertainment wise was the Fleur de Lis (sp...) trio of ladies who played the violin and piano at various times around the ship. They were really talented and we enjoyed it so much.

 

 

My daughter's flight is back to Seattle, so not many choices if she misses her flight.

We have cruised out of Galveston several times, and have never had anything like what is being described here. I hope it is better for the Xmas week cruise.