Navigator check in process today

[brenderlou]

Local newspaper (Sun-Sentinel) has a short article that there was a power outage at Terminal 18 and checking had to be done manually. Surprised no one has posted that went through it.

Posted a pic of article.

[Cruisin Dave]

FYI, the NOS is just now leaving. I wonder if the power outage caused a delay.

[Retired LEO]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2278841

[Merion_Mom]

Local newspaper (Sun-Sentinel) has a short article that there was a power outage at Terminal 18 and checking had to be done manually. Surprised no one has posted that went through it.

Posted a pic of article.

 

I am currently on the Celebrity Equinox. WE used Terminal 18 on Monday. No computer outages.

 

ETA: ship's internet seems to have disrupted the dating of posts.

 

"Never mind"

Edited November 11, 2015 by Merion_Mom

[shay1]

Just got off the NOV and the boarding was the worst in all of our 35 cruises! We were luckier than most we got on after 1pm. This was after a couple of false starts. At first they told us there was problems with the card readers and it would take around 15 to 20 min. Then the lights went out. Others were not so lucky they did not get on until 5:30 or later. And they had horror stories about standing for hours no A/C, no bathrooms, they finally bought in large fans but then they moved them to another building with no fans. Those that were carrying on luggage had to open it and security to check by hand. Then they had to use wands to check passengers. We were told that they could not use the bathrooms unless emergency. It took RCCL a long time to bring in water for them also. This was said to be the ports problem not RCCL. But RCCL should have emergency plans to be able to handle emergencies! Which this was.

On the NOV they kept having to change our life boat drill times due to passenger still boarding. And they closed the bars early due to the life boat drills that was delayed. Some of the passengers that finally got on board were so upset when they tried to get a drink and were told sorry we are closed until after drill!

Some people did not get there luggage for a couple of days. NOV had several hick ups on this cruise. We heard one gentleman while we were in line to leave that he bought liquor in Cozumel that was to be delivered to his stateroom before disembarkation but he never got it! The sea pass account statements were not even delivered to the staterooms until after 6 am.

We did self assist and it was a mess we stood in line only to have the ones at the back of the line the first to start going off! Again one of the hickups that the NOV did not handle too well.

We had a good time in spite of the hick ups, good service and good food.

[depplep]

Interesting.. my parents are on Nos now.Took them 4hrs to board.

[shay1]

We were told by one of the Diamond+ members that this was a fairly new Captain on the Navigator. We were not impressed with him. I just read on our Roll call that it took some of them 2.5 hours to disembark! It is a shame that this cruise was a mess from getting on board and getting off board. So glad we did the self assist even though that was screwed up but at least we got off the ship earlier than the rest of the passengers.

[acstall]

We were on the Navigator for the 10/10/15 sailing. Luckily, we arrived about noon and got on fairly quickly. We did have to wait about 30 minutes in line on the ship where they were taking the photos instead of in the terminal. The machines did not work at first, but once they did, we were through. I think that must be about the time the power went off in the terminal because no one came up the gangway behind us. It was very odd. Also, the Windjammer was very quiet -- a nice plus for us but not for those waiting in the terminal.

 

However, because of the power outage, none of the credit card information we had provided in the terminal was transferred to the ship. I was unable to use my seapass for purchases. We discovered on the second day that the only reason my husband's card worked was because the ship had created a cash account for him. We waited in line at guest services for about 45 minutes to get our cards added to our accounts. Since we were traveling with our grown son and granddaughter, my husband and I were in separate rooms in order to get the diamond cabin discount. They never did get the accounts assigned correctly to my husband and son and at one time put all my son's charges on my husband's account. My son got a notice the third day that his account was not active, so he also had to go to guest services to add back his credit card to the account.

 

We tried to keep up with charges on the tv. However, they kept moving charges around and it was impossible to figure out, so we decided to deal with any discrepancies once we received the printout on the last night. That was a bad decision. The line to guest services was backed up further than I could see. We will call RCCL and hopefully get some of the charges cleaned up -- for example, we were charged gratuities multiple times and I haven't sat down yet to figure out how many extra days were charged to our family.

 

Getting off the ship was the worst experience we've had in 14 cruises and for some people in line completely negated the enjoyment of the cruise. Not hearing that anything was amiss, we left our rooms at 8:00 which was the time we were informed we had to be out. It was also about the time our number was to be called. Unfortunately, DS had experienced a terrible bout of probable food poisoning the previous night and was not feeling well. We got in line outside the dining room on Deck 4 and weaved through the dining room and outside a side door. This took about 90 minutes. Once inside the terminal, we waited in line another hour to get down the elevator, pick up luggage and get through customs. It would have been another hour, but finally an RCCL official took pity on my son and let us go through a special needs line at customs to get us out of there before DS passed out. (I reached a very helpful Hilton reservation agent who found a room for us where we could do early check-in so DS could rest until our late afternoon flight. This was a lifesaver.)

 

It was really aggravating to see about 4 lines open in customs, yet 10 agents standing around laughing and carrying on in the terminal. We saw many of these same agents in a break room while we were waiting to get inside the customs area. I have no idea what that many of them would be doing. Certainly, no one was going to be getting on the ship until all the passengers were off. This seemed to be a waste of manpower and money.

 

I realize that things happen and long lines can't be avoided at times. However, there was not one announcement in any of the waiting areas on the ship about what was going on. This is where I see a real failure on RCCL's part in customer service. There was nothing to drink and nowhere to sit once in line. While we are physically able to get on and off the ship, that much time standing takes a terrible toll on bad knees and sciatic nerve problems. I can barely go up and down our stairs today.

 

I heard many people, including a travel agent say they would never sail with RCCL again given the problems getting on and off the ship. I don't feel that way. However, RCCL could help themselves if ship crew would be more proactive about telling their customers what is going on and what to expect.

[Funcruise66]

Yes it was a nightmare! Took us approx 3 1/2 hrs to get on the ship, no one was telling us anything, it was sweltering in the terminal & while we stayed calm, so many people were angry & irate it actually was getting scary. A few fights broke out, and we finally made it up to the desk at 5:30. I opted to use my cell phone flashlight for the poor woman trying to get us processed. In all of the cruising we've done, I have never come in contact with people that were throwing the f bombs around, yelling & complaining loudly once on the ship, to the point where I was hoping they would be escorted off the ship before it sailed. 2nd day people seemed chilled out & it was fun. We wanted just a quick getaway so it was only a 4 nt cruise. We only stopped in Cozumel & pre booked online Mr. sancho's. It was wonderful!!!!! A great choice! We chose self assist, so we were off the ship early enough that we didn't deal with the majority of crowds. Enjoys chops grille 2 evenings- it was wonderful! I wish I could get the recipe for the 3 cheese onion soup!

[vnyislesv]

this was my girlfriends 2nd cruise and 1st with me. we got to the port at 4 because of her wonderful time management skills. a cop came up to us and told us to grab water cause the power was dead and it was hot. we stood in the building with the fans for 2 hours and didnt really move. after 2 hours, the lines were flying until we made it into the 2nd building with security only to stand for about another 30-45 minutes. they had signs that said 'deck 2-3-4 here'... we followed ours to 8. after passing the sign, it was a free for all, the lady told me, you can go to whatever line you want.

 

unreal.

 

as for the food, maybe i was spoiled on the NCL Getaway but honestly this cruise had the worst food ive ever had on any cruise ship. so much so that all together, 4 of my other cruises combined i didnt have as many bad plates from the dining room to the buffet as i did here.

 

as for departing, it was another mess. we got downstairs at around 815 and people were entering the dining hall. the line was moving OK... as soon as we got to the door to exit, a lady near me who was sitting asked a royal employee. 'ive been sitting here 2 hours, when are you going to call my #?' the person walked away, another came up and said, we arent calling #s, you can just exit, all luggage is downstairs already'.

 

then not even 5 minute later, a lady was denied getting off by security because they said she owed money. she freaked out screaming YOU HAVE MY CREDIT CARD ON FILE, ITS TAKEN FOREVER TO GET OFF, IM GOING TO MISS MY PLANE!!!!

 

so after my gf and i walked off, we spent 1 HOUR in customs. the line zigzagged nonstop. it was insane. again, ive never spent so much time getting on and off.

 

this is my 2nd and final royal cruise. VOS was gross, small and the staff were morons. NOS was bigger and had fun parts like rock climbing, the ice show was really cool, upbeat staff, the comedian was very funny but honestly the food was absolutely brutal. i think the filet mignon and caesar salad was all i actually enjoyed the entire time. johnny rockets was a joke too.

 

back to carnival/NCL for me.

Edited November 16, 2015 by vnyislesv

[AlanFromFL]

Yeah, it was an overall good cruise, punctuated by a bad scene at the start and end. We fortunately arrived early enough at Terminal 18 so that when the power went out, we were already upstairs, awaiting boarding, so we managed to get on the ship shortly after 1p. Heard horror stories of people being turned away at the terminal gates, told to come back as there was no room inside for the sweltering multitudes forced to queue up for manual screening. At debarkation, fortunately we had discovered the credit card 'issue' early on and set up our account the first night so we didn't have to wait in what seemed an interminable line at Guess(t) Services; the party immediately in front of us was turned away from debarkation and was nearly in tears.

 

Not exactly RCCL's finest hour. If this had occurred when Oasis was in port, I can only imagine the horror.

Edited November 16, 2015 by AlanFromFL

[linedancer]

We got to the port at 1:45 and finally on the ship by 4:45. It was hot but we were in the shade. They did come around twice to hand out water, and to keep us informed as to what was going on. Getting off was just as bad. We left our cabin at 8am and didn't get to our car till noon. The only good thing was we waited in the coffee shop. So we were comfortable, had tea, coffee and water available to us. also food and a bathroom. I heard nightmares of people who cards would ding getting off and were sent back upstairs to guess services and ended up waiting in line for over 2hrs. What a nightmare. Now I am Diamond Plus and I know this is not normal but my Brother and SIL came with us and it was their 1st RCCL cruise. Do you think they really want to do this again? We had fun in between but lost 4 hrs the first day and never had a good meal the 1st day. We had pizza and sandwiches at the coffee shop at 5:45 then wasn't hungry at dinner time. Finally at 10:30 had sandwiches again. It really was a bad start. Then after that the toilet in my cabin wouldn't flush. Not a good start.

[shay1]

Wow! We just missed the worst parts getting on and getting off! We got on the ship after 1pm and we got off the ship using self assist early. We did have to stand in line on the ship and RCCL messed that up by taking all the ones at the end of the line to exit first instead of all of us that had been standing in line at the beginning. After that we sailed off the ship and right through customs. Thank goodness.

 

We are Diamond we booked a future cruise while onboard but after getting home and finding out that the Cruise Consultant opened a RCCL Visa credit cards for both us WITHOUT our permission! I just spent 45 min on the phone with BOA (who the card is through) fillling out a Fraud report for 2 separate credit cards that we never authorizied! I am so mad right now at RCCL.