Anyone on the Pearl right now?

[Fairydust312]

I am in Tampa, scheduled to board the Pearl shortly. But the news is reporting that fog prevented ships from departing yesterday and others from arriving today. According to reports, other lines seem to be communicating with passengers about status, but we haven't received any communication from NCL. I checked the marine map, and it has the Pearl still in the gulf. Anyone on board that knows an expected arrival time? Not sure what to do or when to go to the port. Thanks!

[www3traveler]

Have you checked with the Port of Tampa?  They would have the most accurate information.

 

[Fairydust312]

I checked the news section on the Port website, but didn't see anything. I didn't think about calling but will try that. Thanks. 

[shof515]

It might be a very long time. MarineTraffic shows 2 ships (Brilliance Of The Seas and Rhapsody of the Sea) is currently docked at the Tampa cruise terminals and they are 3 other ships (Norwegian Pearl, Carnival Miracle,Rotterdam)  waiting to dock at the cruise terminal.

I read on a different site, the Brilliance Of The Seas been stuck at port since last night..so it might be a while

Edited December 30, 2018 by shof515

[Fairydust312]

2 minutes ago, shof515 said:

It might be a very long time. 

Thanks for the info. Obviously not the ideal way to start a vacation. Can I expect some sort of communication from NCL? Some recent Pearl reviews were critical of lack of communication and people waiting for hours at the Tampa port. I'm hoping to avoid that. 

[shof515]

Your not the first complaining about the lack of communication. I was just checking a few Facebook groups and people is already about the lack of info from NCL where as people on the carnival ships already received a few updates from the cruise line

[coffeyk]

Hello, I am also waiting to board the pearl. I received 2 texts and 1 phone call with updates. The latest was 30 minutes ago asking that we don't check in until after 6 PM 

[Fairydust312]

14 minutes ago, coffeyk said:

Hello, I am also waiting to board the pearl. I received 2 texts and 1 phone call with updates. The latest was 30 minutes ago asking that we don't check in until after 6 PM 

Thank you very much for that information. Very helpful. We did not receive any call, text, email or message via app or website. Our "message" folder in our reservation has no messages. Odd that NCL contacted some but not others. We are trying to call NCL to see if we can set up some sort of notification similar to what you received, but we cannot get through.  If you get any additional communication, would you mind posting here? Thank you!!!

[coffeyk]

Absolutely. Hopefully we will be enjoying ourselves on board in a few hours. I did call ncl this morning and got through. I was wondering if the itinerary would be changed. The rep told me there was no indication of that at that point. I think we will have to see when we actually leave port. 

[coffeyk]

I just looked at the port cam, it showed 2 ships leaving. Hopefully our ship can make its way in soon 

[Fairydust312]

The two RCL ships pulled out within the last 30 minutes or so (I saw them from the port area).  So that is a good sign. Then overheard a port personnel supervisor telling personnel that they have the option of sticking around the port or returning at 5:00. So hopefully the 6:00 time is on track. Can't wait to get on board!  (Also finally managed to get through to NCL after about 30 minutes on hold. Rep said my cell phone number is on file, and I should have received a text, but I didn't. She could not tell me how to fix the notification problem.)

[Lucie73821]

We just got a text telling us not to arrive until 9pm.  ☹️

[coffeyk]

Same here

[shof515]

from what i saw on the marinetraffic website, it takes about 2 hours to go from the terminal to the skywalk bridge with the RCL ships now entering the gulf

 

with the pearl being behind the other 2 ships (carnival and hal), i think the pearl will be docked at the terminal around 6pm. Disembark might be a mess and by the time they start embarkation should be around 9pm or so

 

[BullyLvr]

Oh man that sucks.  Keep thinking, vacation soon........

[Fairydust312]

To those getting notifications and posting, thank you!!! We still have nothing from NCL. Fortunately, we have you keeping us posted. We wandered around for a while and had a nice lunch, now blowing time at the aquarium with lots of people waiting for ships.

[CruisinMaterial]

NCL provided a text update to my friend telling guests to arrive no earlier than 9PM to the pier. Given she's not even close to tied up yet and it's 5PM, I'd say that's pretty accurate since they have to get the guests off first before they can load everyone else on.

[Fairydust312]

On board. Good night, all!

[coaster]

2:19 am in Tampa now and port webcam shows Pearl is on her way now.

 

[Oakman58]

I hope all those folks that were on the Pearl and missed their flights home had trip insurance.

[resetjet]

We had the same issue.  Others in our party got the texts, we did not.  So I went in to my profile and saw that we had our home phone listed.  I changed it to cell phone and then we got the next one.  But yes in this day in age, status on a website should be a no brainer.  I had to figure it out via a cruise ship tracker and marine traffic all the way until we got in line at 11:00pm.