Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 #1 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare www3traveler Posted December 30, 2018 #2 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Have you checked with the Port of Tampa? They would have the most accurate information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 Author #3 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare shof515 Posted December 30, 2018 #4 Share Posted December 30, 2018 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 Author #5 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare shof515 Posted December 30, 2018 #6 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeyk Posted December 30, 2018 #7 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 Author #8 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeyk Posted December 30, 2018 #9 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeyk Posted December 30, 2018 #10 Share Posted December 30, 2018 I just looked at the port cam, it showed 2 ships leaving. Hopefully our ship can make its way in soon 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 Author #11 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucie73821 Posted December 30, 2018 #12 Share Posted December 30, 2018 We just got a text telling us not to arrive until 9pm. ☹️ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeyk Posted December 30, 2018 #13 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Same here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare shof515 Posted December 30, 2018 #14 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullyLvr Posted December 30, 2018 #15 Share Posted December 30, 2018 Oh man that sucks. Keep thinking, vacation soon........ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 30, 2018 Author #16 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruisinMaterial Posted December 30, 2018 #17 Share Posted December 30, 2018 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairydust312 Posted December 31, 2018 Author #18 Share Posted December 31, 2018 On board. Good night, all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coaster Posted December 31, 2018 #19 Share Posted December 31, 2018 2:19 am in Tampa now and port webcam shows Pearl is on her way now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakman58 Posted January 1, 2019 #20 Share Posted January 1, 2019 I hope all those folks that were on the Pearl and missed their flights home had trip insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
resetjet Posted January 6, 2019 #21 Share Posted January 6, 2019 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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