Terrible disembarkation at Port Everglades 3/26

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[Setting sail for fun]

I think Indy has had the problem since it switched to 4/5 day cruises and used terminal 25.

 

We cruised on Indy late August for a 7 night cruise and we had no problems. I think we had terminal 18. Allure was still in Europe.

 

The end of November we went on a 5 night cruise on Indy and it was the worst process getting off the ship that we have ever experienced. Agree with the comment regarding shortage of custom agents. However, the process seemed very disorganized to just get off the ship. I have never seen anything like it - there were no crew members providing any type of guidance. It was as if they were all somewhere getting ready for the next set of cruisers.

[ExpressoMama]

We were on this Indy sailing, too that arrived yesterday, Saturday to Port Everglades. We were group #10, with a 8:45 time to be at the theature (4th deck). We received no updates from the crew and I agree with the other poster that there were virtually no crew members around during the entire exiting process. Another pax came in to the theature about 10:00 and told us that numbers 1-18 had already been called. Talk about a "hot" crowd when we heard this..and yes, I'm including myself. This ended up to be a slight exaggeration as when we made it to a crew member the # s were only up to #12. Then we stood in the long winding lines and finally made it to our vehicle at 11:30. There were only 3 customs agents checking pax out so this added to the issue and a crew member told a friend who was also on this sailing that they had a very large number of self disembarks on this sailing that started the back up. In my opinion, as more and more folks are choosing to depart this way RC needs to adjust their ways and maybe try to get the customs agents increased. Probably easier said then done.

[Firefighterhoop]

Port Everglades has been horrible this year. I've had many more extremely slow experiences than normal.

 

This issue stems from a few years ago from the federal Sequester that hit Homeland Security and US Customs very hard. For some reason Port Everglades was hardest hit, and the last two years have been very slow going for debarkation.

 

If you aren't one of the first off it can take well over an hour to clear the terminal.

[vickiw0318]

There was a huge difference between self disembark on my February Indy cruise and the one on my Galveston cruise on the Navigator. The Navigator required that you sign up for self disembark and you were assigned to a debark group based on the time you got your request in. Groups were assigned to different waiting spots and were called in order. You could not get off the ship without handing in your group assignment. The staff was very vigilant - no cutting in line. People who showed up with luggage and hadn't signed up for self disembark were sent off to cool their heels. It was a delight!

[jrm9999]

I was quite surprised to see this post as I came on here tonight to post a question about disembarkation at PE. We were on Oasis last year for the cruise that came back the Saturday before Easter. Waited in line for over 3 hours. It appeared there were only 3 customs agents. I thought that maybe it was a fluke since a holiday weekend but from what i am reading here it sounds like a real continuous problem with PE on numerous ships. I have been hesitant to book another cruise sailing from PE for this exact reason. I can't believe they let this continue on a regular basis and don't address the problem.

[Paulette3028]

I was quite surprised to see this post as I came on here tonight to post a question about disembarkation at PE. We were on Oasis last year for the cruise that came back the Saturday before Easter. Waited in line for over 3 hours. It appeared there were only 3 customs agents. I thought that maybe it was a fluke since a holiday weekend but from what i am reading here it sounds like a real continuous problem with PE on numerous ships. I have been hesitant to book another cruise sailing from PE for this exact reason. I can't believe they let this continue on a regular basis and don't address the problem.

 

Easter Weekend regardless of whether it is in 2015 or 2016 or in years to come, probably has less port workers including customs agents working. Simple as that, is what I would think. Workers have to be able to use their vacation and personal time and you cannot insist upon a worker working on their religious holiday. There may not be enough workers that do NOT celebrate the holiday to add more people to the staffing those days.

[jrm9999]

Easter Weekend regardless of whether it is in 2015 or 2016 or in years to come, probably has less port workers including customs agents working. Simple as that, is what I would think. Workers have to be able to use their vacation and personal time and you cannot insist upon a worker working on their religious holiday. There may not be enough workers that do NOT celebrate the holiday to add more people to the staffing those days.

 

 

 

True there may be even more staffing shortage with the holiday but others are reporting long delays other weekends as well. While I realize things happen from time to time it sounds like this happens quite often in PE.

[Cruisin'Kim]

We used self assist off of the Allure on January, off the ship and through customs in 1/2 an hour. Perhaps the trick may be to do the self assist and disembark as early as possible with an early flight?. We left at 7 and were through customs and getting into the shuttle for the airport around 7:30 - 7-35.

[markeb]

I guess that definitely makes Global Entry worthwhile, at least once you get in the building!

 

Silly question that I honestly don't know the answer to: Is CBP at the port a "fee-based" service? Do the carriers pay the salaries of the officers? That may sound silly, but it's not uncommon. For instance, meat processing plants actually pay the government a fee that covers the salaries of inspectors in the plant. They're still federal employees, actually have badges and enforcement (but not LE) authority, etc., but their presence is part of the cost of doing business of the producer. Which also makes their presence directly proportional to workload. I don't think CBP works that way, but I don't know.

[MadManOfBethesda]

Easter Weekend regardless of whether it is in 2015 or 2016 or in years to come, probably has less port workers including customs agents working. Simple as that, is what I would think. Workers have to be able to use their vacation and personal time and you cannot insist upon a worker working on their religious holiday. There may not be enough workers that do NOT celebrate the holiday to add more people to the staffing those days.

 

You most certainly can. The law for federal employees, which is codified at 5 CFR 550.1002(b), explicitly gives agencies the right to deny requests for leave on a religious holiday if it will interfere with the efficient accomplishment of an agency's mission.

 

In practice, most such requests are granted, but it is not an absolute right of the employee to unilaterally decide not to work on any particular day.

[Cruzin-K]

Easter Weekend regardless of whether it is in 2015 or 2016 or in years to come, probably has less port workers including customs agents working. Simple as that, is what I would think. Workers have to be able to use their vacation and personal time and you cannot insist upon a worker working on their religious holiday. There may not be enough workers that do NOT celebrate the holiday to add more people to the staffing those days.

 

Actually, yes they pretty much can make people work on a religious holiday. I think most agencies would rotate this so the same people don't have to work every holiday, but somebody has to be there. If the entire Port Everglades CBP contingent are all devout Christians, would they just shut the port down that day? Nope. Somebody has to work. It's no different than first responders, hospital staff, the hospitality industry (hotels, air travel, etc.)

 

I think the problem is a Port Everglades issue, and general understaffing, and it doesn't matter what day of the week, or holiday it may be. I had a terrible time disembarking the Allure a couple years ago and that was February. Oh yeah, it was Super Bowl Sunday so I'm sure a lot of the CBP agents took that day off :rolleyes:

 

edit: I see MadManofBethesda beat me to it, and thanks for posting the CFR regulation. :)

Edited March 28, 2016 by Cruzin-K

[The Grumpus]

I think Indy has had the problem since it switched to 4/5 day cruises and used terminal 25.

 

We cruised on Indy late August for a 7 night cruise and we had no problems. I think we had terminal 18. Allure was still in Europe.

 

The end of November we went on a 5 night cruise on Indy and it was the worst process getting off the ship that we have ever experienced. Agree with the comment regarding shortage of custom agents. However, the process seemed very disorganized to just get off the ship. I have never seen anything like it - there were no crew members providing any type of guidance. It was as if they were all somewhere getting ready for the next set of cruisers.

I agree, if it's 25 they are returning to, I've never had a good experience disembarking at that terminal. After the last time, I decided I would never cruise on another ship returning to that terminal. An nobody ever gives a crap about it and RCCL blames customs and customs blames RCCL. It's a joke there.

[Expat Cruise]

I never allow Royal to control my leaving the ships. All my bags are roller bags and I always self check out. It gives you all the control. Self Check out is always given the first choice to leave the ship. If I want to wait I just stay in the cabin until the time I want to leave.

 

Yes Royal says "self check out" is at a set time but they cannot enforce that. If you want to be treated like cattle the cruise lines will be happy to provide that service. I make the choice not to be in that class.

[riclop]

We got off Independence on 3/26. Initially we had an 11:20 flight scheduled. After reading about slow disembarkation, I rescheduled our flight to 2:25. Thank God I did! I took almost 3 hours from our scheduled disembarkation time of 9:15 am to get to Customs. We weren't called out of the the theater until about 10am Then, stood in the stairways and hallways for at least another hour until we were off the ship. Then, more lines outside and in customs. Oasis was in port as well as 2 other ships. Don't know if this is how bad it usually is. We have cruised >15 times and have never seen anything like it! Don't know if it is a RCCL issue or a port issue.

 

Very surprised because we usually wizz right thru.

[jaygee77]

So is there any sort of leisurely alternative? I prefer to go to the dining room for one last breakfast, and I live in Florida so I'm in no real hurry to disembark. I'm just wondering if there's any way to kill the time besides standing in line for an hour.

 

I've got a three year old that would much rather explore the ship until the line clears, and I'd rather be the last ones off as opposed to waiting in line for an hour to be off a bit sooner.

[Clarea]

So is there any sort of leisurely alternative? I prefer to go to the dining room for one last breakfast, and I live in Florida so I'm in no real hurry to disembark. I'm just wondering if there's any way to kill the time besides standing in line for an hour.

 

I've got a three year old that would much rather explore the ship until the line clears, and I'd rather be the last ones off as opposed to waiting in line for an hour to be off a bit sooner.

You could stay on the ship until last call. However, there won't be any ship venues open and getting off that late won't ensure there isn't a customs line in the terminal.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

We got off Independence on 3/26. Initially we had an 11:20 flight scheduled. After reading about slow disembarkation, I rescheduled our flight to 2:25. Thank God I did! I took almost 3 hours from our scheduled disembarkation time of 9:15 am to get to Customs. We weren't called out of the the theater until about 10am Then, stood in the stairways and hallways for at least another hour until we were off the ship. Then, more lines outside and in customs. Oasis was in port as well as 2 other ships. Don't know if this is how bad it usually is. We have cruised >15 times and have never seen anything like it! Don't know if it is a RCCL issue or a port issue.

 

We were off of Navigator on 3/27/16 (Easter). There were only 3 customs agents to check documents. We were walk off and got in line at 6:30 and were not out of there until 7:45. We had a 10:05 am flight home and made it easy but if we did not leave early I don't know how long the line would have been? Our friends stayed on board as long as possible and they did not get through customs until just after 11 am.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

Easter Weekend regardless of whether it is in 2015 or 2016 or in years to come, probably has less port workers including customs agents working. Simple as that, is what I would think. Workers have to be able to use their vacation and personal time and you cannot insist upon a worker working on their religious holiday. There may not be enough workers that do NOT celebrate the holiday to add more people to the staffing those days.

 

Power plant, water plant, police, fire, hospital all have to work religious holidays as part of their job. While customs checks for cruise passengers may seem like a low priority task, it is part of the TSA mission to protect the borders. Money and staffing I am sure are issues, but they should be planned and frankly maybe cruise passengers should write their congressmen and tell them they want better staffing at ports.

[Freehike]

You weren't scheduled to disembark until 915 and you had a 1120 flight scheduled?

 

LoL

[mupt87]

You weren't scheduled to disembark until 915 and you had a 1120 flight scheduled?

 

LoL

 

Not quite. I had rescheduled our flight a couple of weeks ago after reading about the poor disembarkation process. Tried to alleviate some stress. Glad I did.

[Snit13]

For the past few years this has been a Port Everglades...government issue. We normally sail Celebrity and have experienced the exact same issues. There are NEVER sufficient custom officers to handle the passengers. The only solution to this problem is WASHINGTON. Good Luck there.

[Beachin2]

Off the Serenade this morning - cabin to cab in 35 minutes with tag #7 at terminal 18. Global Entry card got us placed in the handicap line.

 

Dirty looks from those we bypassed in the customs line - told them they should get the card. :D

[crazycatlady82]

We had a great experience on 3/19 disembarking from the celebrity constellation. We had a 9:50 flight, and we knew from reading these boards to do self debarkation, and to get in line. We were in line at 6:30, and we were 3 &4 off the ship. Got off the ship at 7:30ish, cab to the airport, TSA precheck, and we were through security by 8:20.

 

If you have an early flight, best to do self debarkation. Some may like to spend every last minute on the ship, but we like to fly back home early, as we even have a 4 hr drive from our airport.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[thinfool]

 

This issue stems from a few years ago from the federal Sequester that hit Homeland Security and US Customs very hard.

 

Bingo....those with short memories have forgotten this vital fact.

 

Complaints of long lines began immediately upon sequestration measures.