Liberty of the Seas Disembarkation 4/21/19

[WildWillie]

We are standing in an endless line for self disembarkation. I am a platinum cruiser who has done this many times. They are blaming it on customs but there is no reason to leave us standing here with no where to even sit down because customs has slowed down. I have back issues as well as most people in my party. And now they are calling people in front of us and leaving is standing here. We had a wonderful vacation but this isn't how I wanted to end it. Royal Caribbean hasn't even explained the issue one time over the intercom. Several employees have walked past without saying anything. I finally was able to flag one down and ask her. One employee even ignored our question.  

[c-leg5]

1 hour ago, WildWillie said:

We are standing in an endless line for self disembarkation. I am a platinum cruiser who has done this many times. They are blaming it on customs but there is no reason to leave us standing here with no where to even sit down because customs has slowed down. I have back issues as well as most people in my party. And now they are calling people in front of us and leaving is standing here. We had a wonderful vacation but this isn't how I wanted to end it. Royal Caribbean hasn't even explained the issue one time over the intercom. Several employees have walked past without saying anything. I finally was able to flag one down and ask her. One employee even ignored our question.  

 

Unfortunately delays happen all too often at Galveston although we don’t do self-disembark. It is our local port and we have been through it regularly for many years.

 

They have always allowed far too many people to self-disembark. It is a lot better since the terminal remodel regarding people who couldn't previously manage their luggage but there are still issues. In February, it took us several hours to get from the ship to immigration snaking back and forth along Disney type lines through parts of the terminal we have never been before. It was a long walk and a lot of standing for anyone with mobility problems. 

 

Even when we finally got in sight of immigration there was a big disconnect between the port helpers that were directing you into the right lane for citizens and non-citizens and we, along with several others, ended up in the wrong immigration line causing further delay.

 

Customs and immigration are often blamed for the problem and I suspect they may be short staffed today since it is Easter.

 

Contrast our February experience with our April experience where we were told customs and immigration were doing a “show and tell” system where we waved our passports at immigration and walked through an almost empty terminal in minutes. Granted the second time we were disembarking the much smaller Vision. A much more pleasant experience.   

Edited April 21, 2019 by c-leg5

[blackshirt]

We’ve sailed out of Galveston three times now. We had no issues two of those times, one being self disembarkation but we did run into a big backup one time. It even caused us to miss our scheduled shuttle. This is the first I’ve heard of getting backed up with the self disembarkers, I can’t imagine how bad it is for the rest. No one likes standing in line but not sure how an employee telling you the obvious, that the line is backed up, would make any difference. I imagine less workers due to the holiday is probably the cause.

[PelicanBill]

Had the same thing happen in New Orleans. We chose a later time. Watched as the groups backed up and stood in line for a long time - an hour I would say.  When our time came it was moving again but after we got through immigration we stood in a long hall for 2 hours waiting for a taxi because the 2-lane access road was clogged handling two large ships at once. No taxis could get in to take people away. Because it took too long to empty the ship, the arriving passengers backed up into the same hall. What a zoo.