First time ship is at port - problems?

[tbmrt]

I seem to remember being on a cruiseship in the Caribbean that caused the cruisers a huge problem when it docked for the first time at a new port.

 

I don't remember all the details, but we had to get out of bed at 6am or so and head to the ballroom with our shipcards and/or passports (don't remember which).

 

People were lined up everywhere awaiting the entrance of "the local officials" to check these things.

 

Has this happened to anyone and do you remember why this occurred? Are problems to be expected when ships visit a port for the first time?

[xxHadleyxx]

I have never had that happen, thankfully. Way back when we had to get up and line up like that going into St Thomas on Disney cruise lines as it was "reentering" the US after being out of it at St Maarten and the Bahamas, but we knew ahead of time and that policy (which was law, not cruise line policy so far as I understood it) has since changed.

 

I know we were on the Disney Magi's first visits to Tenerife, Cadiz, Gibraltar and Barcelona an we did not have any issues whatsoever there.

[Paulxyz2004]

To me this sounds not like an issue with a ship visiting the first time but more to do with immigrations and ship clearance by the local authorities.

 

Of course with everything done for the first time there is the possibility of hiccups. But if an issue with having ships visit ports for the first time we would hear about it all the time. There´s several new ships coming out every year and all the ports visiting will be "first time visits" for them. The there is the new itinerary thing where a ship while not on it´s inaugural will visit new ports for the first time.

 

I don´t think this is anything to worry about.

[BillB48]

It has been a long long time since I have experienced anything like what the original poster describes... in fact IRC that did happen to us one time, however I believe it was US authorities had everyone parade through the theater so they could eyeball your docs. Now we have been on a ship where they would not let you off because the local authority had their shorts in a bunch, most likely a disagreement on some technical issue that off loading a little extra booty rectified the problem.

 

The last ship I was on where I was aware that it was a first time for the ship to call at that particular port was on the Independence, last year. No issues at all.

[tbmrt]

It has been a long long time since I have experienced anything like what the original poster describes... in fact IRC that did happen to us one time, however I believe it was US authorities had everyone parade through the theater so they could eyeball your docs. Now we have been on a ship where they would not let you off because the local authority had their shorts in a bunch, most likely a disagreement on some technical issue that off loading a little extra booty rectified the problem.

 

The last ship I was on where I was aware that it was a first time for the ship to call at that particular port was on the Independence, last year. No issues at all.

 

As I think we all know, no cruise is perfect and we deal with things as they come up......We actually laugh about some of the bad experiences that weren't pleasant when they occurred.

[BillB48]

As I think we all know, no cruise is perfect and we deal with things as they come up......We actually laugh about some of the bad experiences that weren't pleasant when they occurred.

 

Exactly... Even the time I got very familiar with the inside of the police station in Guaymas, Mexico (land vacation) makes for a great laugh... now! Don't leap to the wrong conclusion... I was on the wrong end of a robbery... went to the police station to fill out all the paper work and there was a lot of that. The police were as nice as they could be... didn't do anything but they were nice!

[MADflyer]

Many things can and do go wrong at various ports of call around the world. Some of these are caused by the cruise ship and her personnel, some by the local authorities and some by the home office of the line. I have been on over 90 cruises and have had major problems only around six times. If I was to detail all of these I could write a book.

 

Warning.... Skip this long post by noting that this is a less than 10% bad sailing percentage.....

 

While all passengers to a ship's theatre at 6 am would today be unusual as all ships have digital information to provide local authorities it can be the request of local authorities or called if the ship was to provide poor information to the port. The ship will always blame this on local authorities no matter what the true reason.

 

I had a preview sailing on Carnival Splendor which transited Amsterdam and they blamed disembarkation chaos on local authorities only to find later that they had only one passport agent for their ship as that was all they had paid for and not at the choice of the local port.

 

I saw how much can go wrong on Vision of the Seas last week.

 

I moved from Majesty of the Seas with a perfect disembarkation where they let me be in the last group without question after I had first received the wrong tags. They then executed an absolutely perfect disembarkation at Miami Terminal F. They are normally at Terminal G, but Vision was given F.

 

I then was able to just walk over to Terminal G and was in line by 10:15 processed and on the ship by 11:00 AM and then cabins opened early by 12:20.

 

This was a short two day cruise that followed a one day 'preview' cruise. Well, I did not know that this great embarkation was going to lead to major problems for me later as this ship had not had to clear US immigration for the first cruise as they did not officially leave the USA.

 

I was one of about 60 passengers that were transiting to Panama on Vision. Well, first I was one of 3 passengers not on the list even though the first thing I did on the 2 day sailing was verify that I was a back-to-back passenger and they put a blue sticker on my sea pass.

 

Well, As Vision was struggling with disembarkation we were forced to wait almost an hour past our time for disembarkation. We were led off the ship and put in a line next to immigration. We then were told we had to stand there until the ship was at zero. Well. This went on for over 2 hours. In the middle I had helped about half the group to escape as I just asked, 'Can these passengers that just want to visit Miami not just exit with the final passengers?" They had been forced to wait about 2 hours more than they needed to just get off to see Miami. This was caused by poor communication by Vision, but they would never say that as they took the route that they did no wrong.

 

I had a problem. As I was moving from a JS to a GS, I had to pack and let them move for me. I did have all my 'valuables' in a carry on bag. Well, I was not allowed to exit as I had a bag, was not allowed to call my family waiting outside and joining me on the crossing to Panama as I was in a secured area and we were not allowed back on the ship. I kept just asking if they could have someone with me while I made a call, if I could get the bag back onboard and then be allowed to exit, how long was this going to take? You get the picture... I had at least 20 contacts with ship's personnel with no assistance and was a suite guest.

 

Well, when we hit the 4th hour of waiting I was finally allowed to leave the terminal and meet my family. I had all the cruise documents with me. No one on the pier was there to assist them. No one did anything!

 

I had my 88 year old mother in a wheelchair and moving toward the terminal within about 20 minutes, parked the van in the garage (still had to return the rental) and we were onboard as suite passengers by 1:30 PM. I had told them to arrive at around 10:30. They had already let all others on the ship. It turned out that we out on the pier in transit, were being 'held' longer for some reason. Well, at least I could take them right to their suites as they were open before we got onboard.

 

On all of my last few sailings I have had bags delivered just after the 1 pm opening of cabins. I found my own bags on the first Vision sailing and just took them. Well, as suite passengers we did not get our final bags until just before 7 pm even though we had sailed at 4 pm and did muster at 3:15 pm.

 

Well, the point of this long post. Do not expect problems. Usually everything goes perfect, but when things go wrong they go very, very wrong and you have no power to control them, no matter how much you have planned in advance. Even previous good experience can be put to shame by poor communication by one ship, the attitude of one agent or the lack of respect for passengers when put in a bad situation. Just enjoy the cruises that do go well and hope you do not get treated as I was on Vision last week.

 

I was just happy I was able to spare those 40 others the grief I was put through and the fact I was not allowed to communicate with my family was the real upsetting part.

Edited November 23, 2013 by MADflyer

[Clarea]

I seem to remember being on a cruiseship in the Caribbean that caused the cruisers a huge problem when it docked for the first time at a new port.

 

I don't remember all the details, but we had to get out of bed at 6am or so and head to the ballroom with our shipcards and/or passports (don't remember which).

 

People were lined up everywhere awaiting the entrance of "the local officials" to check these things.

 

Has this happened to anyone and do you remember why this occurred? Are problems to be expected when ships visit a port for the first time?

We did a similar thing once on a Voyager cruise out of Miami. We went to Nassau first, then Labadee, then St. Thomas. For some reason, we all had to go through customs the morning we arrived in St. Thomas. People were lined up all the way down the Promenade moving into the dining room were the customs agents were checking passports. We've never had to do this again.

Edited November 23, 2013 by clarea