Horrible Horizon Debarcation

[Bribrittmom]

Just off the Horizon this morning. Longest debarcation ever. We are platinum so we could have had priority debarcation. We originally had luggage tag 3 but in our past cruises that was usually around 7:30–8:00 and we didn’t need to be off that early. Yesterday we told guest services that we wanted off around 8:30 so they said we should take number 6. Well, this morning number six wasn’t called until 9:45😬. No explanation except too many people going to deck three before being called. There should be a system where passengers have to show their zone number before getting in line to debark. We got in line when numbers 6-10 were called. When we got in the terminal we saw people gathering luggage with zone 20 on their suitcases. Messed up.

[jimbo5544]

3 minutes ago, Bribrittmom said:

Just off the Horizon this morning. Longest debarcation ever. We are platinum so we could have had priority debarcation. We originally had luggage tag 3 but in our past cruises that was usually around 7:30–8:00 and we didn’t need to be off that early. Yesterday we told guest services that we wanted off around 8:30 so they said we should take number 6. Well, this morning number six wasn’t called until 9:45😬. No explanation except too many people going to deck three before being called. There should be a system where passengers have to show their zone number before getting in line to debark. We got in line when numbers 6-10 were called. When we got in the terminal we saw people gathering luggage with zone 20 on their suitcases. Messed up.

Not sure if the system is broken or just the cruisers on the ship doing what they want. It was their vacation after all. 

[PhillyFan33579]

The problem, which I have seen many times, is people don’t follow Carnival’s process for debarkation. Like the OP mentioned, someone in Zone 20 left the ship way before they were called. When lots of people do the same thing, it leads to a mess. 

 

The OP also should not have changed a Zone 3 tag for a Zone 6 tag.  The OP mentioned debarkation times on previous cruises, but those times only matter if they were on Horizon.  Comparing debarkation times between different ship classes is like comparing apples to oranges. 

[Organized Chaos]

22 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The problem, which I have seen many times, is people don’t follow Carnival’s process for debarkation. Like the OP mentioned, someone in Zone 20 left the ship way before they were called. When lots of people do the same thing, it leads to a mess. 

 

The OP also should not have changed a Zone 3 tag for a Zone 6 tag.  The OP mentioned debarkation times on previous cruises, but those times only matter if they were on Horizon.  Comparing debarkation times between different ship classes is like comparing apples to oranges. 

 

In the OP's defense, GS told them they should take zone 6. OP trusted them to know what they were talking about.

 

With that said, I agree with you about passengers not following procedure. Combine that with crew who are in charge of debarkation refusing to follow their own procedures or enforcing them. I think it was you who I was talking about this in another thread. About our terrible debarkation aboard Conquest a few years ago. Crew members not stopping masses of people cutting in line, admitting that they had lost control. Last year we were assigned to the forward MDR to wait for FTTF to be called to debark. We went down to the lobby and they had it roped off in such a way that we couldn't walk straight to the MDR. As we were making our way there, one of the crew told us to get in the line to leave the ship. I explained that it wasn't our turn yet and we were going to our assigned area. She said not to worry about it, just go ahead and get in the debark line. We tried to follow the rules, but they insisted, so we got in line. We were ready to go anyway. My point being, she cut us in front of people who were supposed to be in that line. If they won't follow their own procedures and/or enforce them against people cutting in line, then it's doomed to be a mess. Regardless of the ship.

[Bribrittmom]

49 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

The problem, which I have seen many times, is people don’t follow Carnival’s process for debarkation. Like the OP mentioned, someone in Zone 20 left the ship way before they were called. When lots of people do the same thing, it leads to a mess. 

 

The OP also should not have changed a Zone 3 tag for a Zone 6 tag.  The OP mentioned debarkation times on previous cruises, but those times only matter if they were on Horizon.  Comparing debarkation times between different ship classes is like comparing apples to oranges. 

 

[Bribrittmom]

We asked guest services and told them we wanted to be off at 8:30. They assured us that zone six should be off by 8:15. We have cruised over 40 times including very large Oasis class ships on Royal Caribbean. 18 times on Carnival. Never has zone six been this late except one time when there was a pier issue. We love the fun and food on Carnival but Royal Caaribbean handles debarcation much smoother.

[aggieamy55]

We just got off the Horizon this morning and were Zone 3. We were off about 8:15 and everything went super smoothly. It’s too bad they told you to change to Zone 6. That stinks. 

[jimbo5544]

I have no idea other than implementing a new system, how Carnival could enforce people getting up and walking off when they want, either self debark or regular.

[dbrucern]

You think this was bad, we recently exited the ship in Charleston only to be told we had to get back on the ship when we got to the terminal. We had number 1 had been told we could exit

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

I have no idea other than implementing a new system, how Carnival could enforce people getting up and walking off when they want, either self debark or regular.

19 minutes ago, dbrucern said:

 

 

I would think they could add something to their computer system. For starters, they can identify everyone who has some kind of priority. When luggage is left out at night, they could scan the zone number into their system. I am not a coder, but I have been a program manger for software programs in the past, so I know doing something like this would not be difficult technology wise. If you implement this, the people scanning your card to get off would be notified you aren’t eligible to debark yet, and would tell passengers they can’t leave yet. There would be growing pains with this, but word would get around pretty fast that you can longer debark prior to your assigned time or before your luggage zone is called. 

Edited April 14, 2019 by PhillyFan33579

[jimbo5544]

They scan everybody's card now as the leave, turning people around would certainly be a worse nightmare.  A fairly large percentage are new cruisers so no learning curve there.  People have issues and need ti debark early.  It does not happen a lot (problems). The number of regular debarks change greatly week to week vs self debark.  Priority people some want early some want late. Groups of people with different zones need to travel together, you used to be able to get the same zones but much harder to do now.   (The technology part is always the easy part, the human part, not so much). I can go on....   Trust me, they want it to be as smooth as possible, if you really think you have an improvement send it to them.    

[Elaine5715]

When CD Schwartz was on the Horizon in March, it was the single best debark I haven ever seen.  He was in complete control on the order even in the Priority waiting area.  He was physically present, called Diamonds out of their area first, Plats had #1 and #2s and he called by number.  Walked right out, other guests were held, no having to cut into line  and right off the ship.  Grabbed luggage off carousel and right up to Customs. 

He had announced a "secret" meeting place for non priority guests who were hauling all their stuff off.  Crew led that bunch thru the priority waiting area and off the ship.  I was not pleased to see that at all since I figured with that crowd, Customs would be backed right up completely eliminating the  priority debark perk.  To my pleasant surprise, that group cleared Customs before my group arrived.  

[Nic6318]

Hi

 

As a platinum cruiser, as far as I have experienced, you didn't have to wait. You would be allowed to debark as soon they started allowing people off the ship. 

 

You should have received a zone # 1. It is unfortunate that you actually changed your zone 3 tags for a zone 6, but none of this has anything to do with the fact that you could have left the ship any time you wished... that is what they mean by priority debarkation. The only issue could have been that perhaps the zone 6 luggage wouldn't have been set up yet, but even that would have been unlikely. The delays are more often caused by the people that should be but aren't waiting, not likely a luggage issue.

[dbrucern]

37 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I would think they could add something to their computer system. For starters, they can identify everyone who has some kind of priority. When luggage is left out at night, they could scan the zone number into their system. I am not a coder, but I have been a program manger for software programs in the past, so I know doing something like this would not be difficult technology wise. If you implement this, the people scanning your card to get off would be notified you aren’t eligible to debark yet, and would tell passengers they can’t leave yet. There would be growing pains with this, but word would get around pretty fast that you can longer debark prior to your assigned time or before your luggage zone is called. 

I think this is a great idea

[Hotdog 52]

Carnival has not had a problem implementing new embarkation systems.  Maybe a good time to look at debarkation.  Maybe just a little tweeking.  Our best debarkation was returning to New Orleans a day late.  Carnival debarked the passengers on Sunday night at 9pm that needed to leave.  We left Monday morning.  There was no one in the lobby or the gangway to the luggage area.  Really weird.  Walked right through.

[samiam0403]

1 hour ago, Nic6318 said:

Hi

 

As a platinum cruiser, as far as I have experienced, you didn't have to wait. You would be allowed to debark as soon they started allowing people off the ship. 

 

You should have received a zone # 1. It is unfortunate that you actually changed your zone 3 tags for a zone 6, but none of this has anything to do with the fact that you could have left the ship any time you wished... that is what they mean by priority debarkation. The only issue could have been that perhaps the zone 6 luggage wouldn't have been set up yet, but even that would have been unlikely. The delays are more often caused by the people that should be but aren't waiting, not likely a luggage issue.

 

They should have received zone #1 for being platinum, but things are different on Horizon. I sailed last fall (platinum here, as well) and was surprised to receive zone #2 for disembarkation. Either there are a lot of platinums sailing and they need more zones, or Horizon just does things differently than any other Carnival ship I've been on. Maybe zone #1 for diamond, zone #2 and #3 for platinum? No idea. Disembarkation was a nightmare for me as well with Horizon, but mainly because they 'misplaced' my luggage. 😳

[jbethel11]

4 hours ago, Bribrittmom said:

We asked guest services and told them we wanted to be off at 8:30. They assured us that zone six should be off by 8:15. We have cruised over 40 times including very large Oasis class ships on Royal Caribbean. 18 times on Carnival. Never has zone six been this late except one time when there was a pier issue. We love the fun and food on Carnival but Royal Caaribbean handles debarcation much smoother.

3

I agree, on the Horizon in June in NYC, the disembarkation was horrible! We were stuck in line for over an hour just to get TO customs. After that, smooth sailing lol. On the Harmony in Port Everglades, we spent 30 minutes in line to get to our suitcases, maybe 15 minutes through customs. Not bad for our first RCI cruise. 

[jimbo5544]

12 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

I agree, on the Horizon in June in NYC, the disembarkation was horrible! We were stuck in line for over an hour just to get TO customs. After that, smooth sailing lol. On the Harmony in Port Everglades, we spent 30 minutes in line to get to our suitcases, maybe 15 minutes through customs. Not bad for our first RCI cruise. 

New York has the oldest terminal and the least amount of space any terminal we have cruised from (except Long Beach) and has the added issue of mass transit issues out front.   That said, I cannot think of why there was a wait together to customs, we have exited 3 cruises from there and had no way near anything close to that.  Do you remember what zone you were in or was it self assist?

Edited April 14, 2019 by jimbo5544

[jimbo5544]

14 minutes ago, samiam0403 said:

 

They should have received zone #1 for being platinum, but things are different on Horizon. I sailed last fall (platinum here, as well) and was surprised to receive zone #2 for disembarkation. Either there are a lot of platinums sailing and they need more zones, or Horizon just does things differently than any other Carnival ship I've been on. Maybe zone #1 for diamond, zone #2 and #3 for platinum? No idea. Disembarkation was a nightmare for me as well with Horizon, but mainly because they 'misplaced' my luggage. 😳

We usually traveling groups, and have seen some of our plats get 3 or even 4.  These were sailings that had a lot of plats and diamonds (over 500 combined).

[AdGuyMG]

5 hours ago, Bribrittmom said:

We love the fun and food on Carnival but Royal Caaribbean handles debarcation much smoother.

 

Here's some folks who might disagree with the above .....

 

 

 

 

 

[Organized Chaos]

3 hours ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I would think they could add something to their computer system. For starters, they can identify everyone who has some kind of priority. When luggage is left out at night, they could scan the zone number into their system. I am not a coder, but I have been a program manger for software programs in the past, so I know doing something like this would not be difficult technology wise. If you implement this, the people scanning your card to get off would be notified you aren’t eligible to debark yet, and would tell passengers they can’t leave yet. There would be growing pains with this, but word would get around pretty fast that you can longer debark prior to your assigned time or before your luggage zone is called. 

 

I don't think it would be hard to enforce debarkation rules at all. They need to make sure everyone is tearing off the "stub" from their debarkation tags with their zone number on it. Crew can be posted in key areas and checking those stubs to make sure anyone getting in line is supposed to be there. Catch them before the final S&S scan and send them back to their assigned waiting area. Be assertive and make people follow procedure.

[jbethel11]

2 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:

Do you remember what zone you were in or was it self assist?

I have cruised 5 times out of NYC. Not once was the line that bad. We had done Self Assist, since it was a 4 day cruise.  

[evandbob]

24 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

I don't think it would be hard to enforce debarkation rules at all. They need to make sure everyone is tearing off the "stub" from their debarkation tags with their zone number on it. Crew can be posted in key areas and checking those stubs to make sure anyone getting in line is supposed to be there. Catch them before the final S&S scan and send them back to their assigned waiting area. Be assertive and make people follow procedure.

 

Sensible, but then that would put Carnival's remediation plan for their environmental issues on the back burner.  Only one tweak at a time....LOL

[Micahs Grandad]

You can always leave later than your zone. Would never accept a later one.

[jimbo5544]

5 minutes ago, Micah's Grandad said:

You can always leave later than your zone. Would never accept a later one.

a good point, another complicating factor in deploying a different solution.  How do they do it on Princess?