Dawn Boarding issues in Tampa

[gaylemh]

Over on the carnival site they are saying any cruise stopping in Belize gets a full customs check now..

 

Did I miss something? Why is ships stopping in Belize getting full customs checks? Anyone with experience cruising in a suite? Did you have to stand in line for hours getting on and off the ship? I'm beginning to rethink my April cruise on the Dawn.

[cacj]

NCL just called us with a robo call announcement that "due to seating limitations in the Port of Tampa, all guests are asked to arrive no earlier than 1 PM." They mentioned that guests could find themselves standing in line for as long as 2 hours. Glad to see that NCL is reaching out to inform all arrivals about the port congestion and very long lines.

[Laszlo]

Did I miss something? Why is ships stopping in Belize getting full customs checks? Anyone with experience cruising in a suite? Did you have to stand in line for hours getting on and off the ship? I'm beginning to rethink my April cruise on the Dawn.

 

Thats incorrect…. at least for the Dawn. What we were told two weeks ago by 3-4 people working the port was the Dawn cruise was not a closed loop. They picked about about 70? passengers in Cozumel. This caused the entire ship to go thru a full customs check. The three agents I saw working were going as fast as they could and were very polite. They clearly pass US citizens thru faster than foreigners. I know, my wife and I zipped thru, when we finally made it up, the family of 4 in front of us from Poland took a good 5-7 minutes. Now times that by the amount to passengers and thats why you have a delay. The port is working with what they have, with that said I would not go out of Tampa again until they get more workers or change the system

[DCP]

I am guessing it is a customs issue - there is talk of the same problems on the Carnival pages too. (it has something to do with anyone who has been to Belize?) It isn't anything NCL can do (IMO) to remedy it when it isn't their company causing the problem. We're just taking an extra dose of patience in advance for the embarkment/disembarkment procedures. There isn't anything we can do - I am not letting it put a damper on my vacation!

[vols_159]

Thats incorrect…. at least for the Dawn. What we were told two weeks ago by 3-4 people working the port was the Dawn cruise was not a closed loop. They picked about about 70? passengers in Cozumel. This caused the entire ship to go thru a full customs check. The three agents I saw working were going as fast as they could and were very polite. They clearly pass US citizens thru faster than foreigners. I know, my wife and I zipped thru, when we finally made it up, the family of 4 in front of us from Poland took a good 5-7 minutes. Now times that by the amount to passengers and thats why you have a delay. The port is working with what they have, with that said I would not go out of Tampa again until they get more workers or change the system

 

Why would that matter ? Just curious they could of made the 70 people declare first before letting anyone off the ship why hold up 3,000 people for a few 70

[Laszlo]

Why would that matter ? Just curious they could of made the 70 people declare first before letting anyone off the ship why hold up 3,000 people for a few 70

 

I have no idea

[time2cruise1]

Clearly there is some issue with Customs and Border Patrol this year. I did the Dawn last year and the Star the two years prior, same itinerary, but not the current issues. Maybe they are just working slowly in an effort to get more agents assigned. No matter what all passengers are funneled thru the only 4 agent stations.

 

 

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Edited December 3, 2013 by time2cruise1

[Laszlo]

Clearly there is some issue with Customs and Border Patrol this year. I did the Dawn last year and the Star the two years prior, same itinerary, but not the current issues. Maybe they are just working slowly in an effort to get more agents assigned. No matter what all passengers are funneled thru the only 4 agent stations.

 

 

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More slowly? Do the math. Three agents…..means basically each one is seeing about 800 people. Lets say it take 2 minutes to get a couple or family thru. Thats 30 couples or families an hour. If thats the drill every Sunday, its going to take hours to clear everyone. Sailing twice on the Gem out of NYC I saw 8-10 agents

[time2cruise1]

More slowly? Do the math. Three agents…..means basically each one is seeing about 800 people. Lets say it take 2 minutes to get a couple or family thru. Thats 30 couples or families an hour. If thats the drill every Sunday, its going to take hours to clear everyone. Sailing twice on the Gem out of NYC I saw 8-10 agents

 

There are 4 one mainly for non US citizens ( the slow line :D ). As far as timing when I got off the Dawn repo it was less then 15 seconds for the check. Quick glance at my declaration form and passport. That's 240 an hour X 4 or 960 passengers. On a perfect day they should be able to get everyone cleared in just over 2 hours.

 

 

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[rmandmm]

Did I miss something? Why is ships stopping in Belize getting full customs checks? Anyone with experience cruising in a suite? Did you have to stand in line for hours getting on and off the ship? I'm beginning to rethink my April cruise on the Dawn.

 

We were in a suite. We still had to wait until everyone had debarked then we were the first ones on. It was around 1:15 or 1:30.

 

When we got off, we walked off before 8:00 and were through customs before 9:00. We weren't the first ones off but we were close. It was not a big deal to us.

[time2cruise1]

More slowly? Do the math. Three agents…..means basically each one is seeing about 800 people. Lets say it take 2 minutes to get a couple or family thru. Thats 30 couples or families an hour. If thats the drill every Sunday, its going to take hours to clear everyone. Sailing twice on the Gem out of NYC I saw 8-10 agents

 

I did the math. Keep in mind there are 4 agents and when no non US passengers the forth takes US citizens. That is the agent I went thru. It is very possible to get a family or couple thru in under a minute. The longest it took me to get off a ship was in NYC on the Epic even with 8 agents it was almost 3:00 before the last passengers were cleared.

 

 

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[modfanmike]

Two years ago I sailed the star out of Tampa and the called the self walk off at 7:15 while we were at the buffet. We were at our airport gate in less than 1 hour. There were 4-5 customs agents and two of us had no passports just birth certificates.

[Laszlo]

Quick glance at my declaration form and passport.

 

Thats were your math is off. Everyone we saw had their passport ID number punched into the computer, (1 finger typing) Nobody on our cruise was getting a quick glance. It took about 2 minutes for my wife and I we had no questions asked, larger families took longer with 3-4 questions , we also only had 3 agents when we finally passed thru

 

Whatever the reason something is really screwed up in Tampa

[time2cruise1]

Thats were your math is off. Everyone we saw had their passport ID number punched into the computer, (1 finger typing) Nobody on our cruise was getting a quick glance. It took about 2 minutes for my wife and I we had no questions asked, larger families took longer with 3-4 questions , we also only had 3 agents when we finally passed thru

 

Whatever the reason something is really screwed up in Tampa

 

That's where they were slowing things down. When we passed thru a single question, quick look at the passport and declaration form. They can spend 15 seconds or 5 minutes per person. If they keep up the detailed screening nobody will cruise from here.

 

 

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[gaylemh]

What were the porters doing after they took your luggage? I can't imagine them waiting with a persons luggage for hours. I know any other port I sailed out of the porters would take your luggage through a separate line and I always got through customs in less than 10 minutes, most times less. Well worth the $5.00 tip.

[jsa1987]

So what is a good strategy? This will be the first cruise for both my girlfriend and for me, leaving this Sunday (12/8). If everyone arrives at 1:00, how will that be any better for lines than if we arrive at 12:00? Are they just counting on a certain number of people ignoring the message and arriving at 12:00 anyway?

 

When getting off the ship on the return to Tampa, is it possible to just hang out somewhere and wait until the line settles down, rather than standing for 2-3 hours?

[Laszlo]

Have your behind ready to get off the ship before it docks? Can't help you with departure........we had no issues. Got there at 10am and boarded at 11:15

[bakerintn]

So what is a good strategy? This will be the first cruise for both my girlfriend and for me, leaving this Sunday (12/8). If everyone arrives at 1:00, how will that be any better for lines than if we arrive at 12:00? Are they just counting on a certain number of people ignoring the message and arriving at 12:00 anyway?

 

When getting off the ship on the return to Tampa, is it possible to just hang out somewhere and wait until the line settles down, rather than standing for 2-3 hours?

 

If you have some way of knowing that the departure will be held up, you can certainly wait somewhere on the ship. I don't know if they will open the bars or not during that time, but you typically don't have to get off until 10 am and if the line is really long by that time, I don't think that they will bodily force you to stand in that line.

[jsa1987]

Have your behind ready to get off the ship before it docks? Can't help you with departure........we had no issues. Got there at 10am and boarded at 11:15

 

If you have some way of knowing that the departure will be held up, you can certainly wait somewhere on the ship. I don't know if they will open the bars or not during that time, but you typically don't have to get off until 10 am and if the line is really long by that time, I don't think that they will bodily force you to stand in that line.

 

Okay, sounds like I have a couple of good options for disembarking. Thanks guys!

[jackparts]

I question what I was told versus what I see on the posts. I was told they picked up 4 cabins of cruisers in Cozumel. Others were told 70. Why were they picked up when the cruise that picked them up was a sold out cruise? Where did they put 12 or 70 passengers? Only a two day trip but still a stretch. Now I question if this was true or something to pacify us. Either way, NCL owed us a phone call as they are doing now to tell us not to get to the port til after 1pm.

[Demonyte]

Why were they picked up when the cruise that picked them up was a sold out cruise? Where did they put 12 or 70 passengers? Only a two day trip but still a stretch.

 

The fact that ship has no available cabins publicly available doesn't mean that all cabins would actually be in use. NCL does each summer in Europe itinerary with Epic that has two or three embarkation ports during a week long cruise and each embarkation port has their own allocation of cabins - if the group picked up was a group of passengers on a TA arranged round trip using the ship for transportation as previously said here, they surely had the cabins allocated for them.

[che5904]

Either way, NCL owed us a phone call as they are doing now to tell us not to get to the port til after 1pm.

 

I'm rather curious. I know in your other thread you state that you arrived at the terminal at 10:30am. But what time were you told to be there?

 

I thought on my past cruises that NCL's recommendation was no earlier than noon. Since the passengers on the ship that are disembarking don't have to actually be off the ship until about 10 or 10:30 and would still have to go through customs.

[Twelvevman]

I question what I was told versus what I see on the posts. I was told they picked up 4 cabins of cruisers in Cozumel. Others were told 70. Why were they picked up when the cruise that picked them up was a sold out cruise? Where did they put 12 or 70 passengers? Only a two day trip but still a stretch. Now I question if this was true or something to pacify us. Either way, NCL owed us a phone call as they are doing now to tell us not to get to the port til after 1pm.

 

Since your cruise was the first out of Tampa that had boarding delays, how would NCL have known to call you to tell you not to show up early? They now know that there is an issue and have been notifying passengers a few days ahead of time.

[gaylemh]

I posted on the NCL FB page, NCL replied that it is a temporary problem with customs. We shall see if it improves.

 

I would post the link, but CC doesn't allow any FB links.

[time2cruise1]

I posted on the NCL FB page, NCL replied that it is a temporary problem with customs. We shall see if it improves.

 

I would post the link, but CC doesn't allow any FB links.

 

It has to improve. 3 years in Tampa and 90% of the time everyone cleared and VIP boarding started before noon.

 

 

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