Highly unusual incident on the Anthem of the Seas.

[AltarEgo]

A closed loop sailing from New Jersey aboard the Anthem of the Seas has disembarked all passengers in Miami for Immigration check ins. A passenger that is on board now said the reason given he was " RCL claimed it would save time when we disembark back in NJ."  So far, no official announcement or explanation has been given to the passengers by Royal Caribbean for the change in Immigration policies or procedures.

[reallyitsmema]

I don't think this qualifies as an "incident".  Isn't it pretty normal for a ship to do its immigration check at the first US port if calls on after being out of the country?

[nelblu]

9 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

I don't think this qualifies as an "incident".  Isn't it pretty normal for a ship to do its immigration check at the first US port if calls on after being out of the country?

Why?  The first port would have been Bayonne or Port Canaveral.  This must be an 8 niter if they are stopping in Miami as the first port of call in this itinerary is Port Canaveral.

 

Also, my past experience with immigrations was done on board and not disembark. unless the rules have changed.

Edited November 3, 2022 by nelblu

[cruiseboy89130]

Sounds like a totally stupid move to do this!

 

[reallyitsmema]

4 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Why?  The first port would have been Bayonne or Port Canaveral.  This must be an 8 niter if they are stopping in Miami as the first port of call in this itinerary is Port Canaveral.

 

Also, my past experience with immigrations was done on board and not disembark. unless the rules have changed.

 

This sailing left Bayonne on October 29th, I doubt this is the first port of call.  It is likely the last port of call after being in the Bahamas.  You have stopped in Miami on Anthem?  I thought this was a new stop for Anthem.

[FionaMG]

It's an 8-night cruise that previously called at Port Canaveral, then Nassau and Coco Cay, so the stop in Miami is the first US port of call after the Bahamas, hence the requirement to do immigration formalities there rather than at the end of the cruise in Bayonne.

From what I've been reading elsewhere, it's not been properly organised - whether that's Royal's fault or CBP's or a combination of both I don't know - and it's an absolute zoo.

[reallyitsmema]

1 minute ago, FionaMG said:

It's an 8-night cruise that previously called at Port Canaveral, then Nassau and Coco Cay, so the stop in Miami is the first US port of call after the Bahamas, hence the requirement to do immigration formalities there rather than at the end of the cruise in Bayonne.

From what I've been reading elsewhere, it's not been properly organised - whether that's Royal's fault or CBP's or a combination of both I don't know - and it's an absolute zoo.

 

I just saw pictures elsewhere, people don't look very happy.

[cruiseboy89130]

2 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

 

From what I've been reading elsewhere, it's not been properly organised - whether that's Royal's fault or CBP's or a combination of both I don't know - and it's an absolute zoo.

Sounds like standard procedure at Royal!

[mo&fran]

There was a past situation where there was a large cargo vessel docked at the pier next to RCI pier, and the cruise ship had to move to allow the other ship to leave, or arrive, do not remember which, in Bayonne. Maybe something to do with that.

 Wonder what they do about luggage.

 

[FionaMG]

1 minute ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

I just saw pictures elsewhere, people don't look very happy.

I haven't seen any pictures but someone posting over on Matt's blog is giving a blow-by-blow account and it sounds absolutely awful. I'm doing the same 8-nighter in April but the order of the ports is different for my dates - we will be doing PC and Miami before the Bahamas - so hopefully will not be subjected to this nightmare. 

[njkruzer]

On the TA we did immigration in Boston and for US citizens went smoothly but only half capacity and mostly non US citizens.   Agents came onboard.  Assigned a time to go to inspection.  Once you completed you could get off.  

[reallyitsmema]

5 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I haven't seen any pictures but someone posting over on Matt's blog is giving a blow-by-blow account and it sounds absolutely awful. I'm doing the same 8-nighter in April but the order of the ports is different for my dates - we will be doing PC and Miami before the Bahamas - so hopefully will not be subjected to this nightmare. 

 

One of the posts I saw said they are 4 1/2 hours into this with some outside in the heat because the terminal is full.  

[nelblu]

16 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

This sailing left Bayonne on October 29th, I doubt this is the first port of call.  It is likely the last port of call after being in the Bahamas.  You have stopped in Miami on Anthem?  I thought this was a new stop for Anthem.

It's an 8 niter and sailing on February 4, 2023.  All of my previous sails whether on Oasis or Anthem form Bayonne, the first port is Port Canaveral.  My 8 niter in February Port Canaveral is before Miami.  It makes no sense for them to go to Miami first and then north to PC.

 

My itinerary is PC, Miami, Nassau and Coco Cay.

Edited November 3, 2022 by nelblu

[reallyitsmema]

2 minutes ago, nelblu said:

It's an 8 niter and sailing on February 4, 2023.  All of my previous sails whether on Oasis or Anthem form Bayonne, the first port is Port Canaveral.  My 8 niter in February Port Canaveral is before Miami.  It makes no sense for them to go to Miami first and then north to PC.

 

They didn't do that.  Your order of ports is different than the current sailing.

[nelblu]

1 minute ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

They didn't do that.  Your order of ports is different than the current sailing.

Did Anthem go to the Bahamas first? 

[gumshoe958]

The only reason I can think of is CBP staff shortages at Bayonne. If they haven’t got enough people to staff the border at the end of the cruise, they’d have to do immigration and customs checks at Miami instead.

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by gumshoe958

[pcur]

8 minutes ago, nelblu said:

It's an 8 niter and sailing on February 4, 2023.  All of my previous sails whether on Oasis or Anthem form Bayonne, the first port is Port Canaveral.  My 8 niter in February Port Canaveral is before Miami.  It makes no sense for them to go to Miami first and then north to PC.

I'm also on the 2/4/23 cruise.  Our next stop after leaving the Bahamas is back to Cape Liberty, so I expect we will do the usual Immigration process when we debark.

[nelblu]

2 minutes ago, pcur said:

I'm also on the 2/4/23 cruise.  Our next stop after leaving the Bahamas is back to Cape Liberty, so I expect we will do the usual Immigration process when we debark.

I hope so.😄

[meadowlander]

Did Royal explain to passengers what was happening or did they lead the passengers by the nose off Anthem without stating why? Wouldn't be the first time.

[FionaMG]

10 minutes ago, meadowlander said:

Did Royal explain to passengers what was happening or did they lead the passengers by the nose off Anthem without stating why? Wouldn't be the first time.

 

According to the posts I've been reading, yes, they not only explained but they did so in advance, so it wasn't a last minute thing. It's also listed in the app under the "Today's important information" tab. So the information was out there but it doesn't seem to have translated into an organisational success story; quite the opposite. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by FionaMG

[meadowlander]

19 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

 

According to the posts I've been reading, yes, 

Nice to see Royal is learning. 

[Rogueperson]

I did this many years ago on my First Royal Caribbean cruise.  We were supposed to stop at Grand Cayman and then return to Miami.  However, we could not make Grand Cayman due to swells being too high, so instead, they threw in Key West before Miami.  We cleared customs in Key West.  It made for the easiest disembarkation in Miami because we didn't have to deal with an agent there and it was just get off and get your bags and leave.

 

In key west, we were just told to meet in the lounge at a certain time, we got in line and walked by a customs agent who checked passport and that was it.

[StarAFire]

I am on this sailing. This was a planned thing. It was in the app since day 1 when we started the cruise. We are doing immigration as we finished our Coco cay and Nassau stops the 2 days prior. So this is our first US port of call.  I think majority of folks on my sailing are in FB vs this site. But there were tickets, and even a sheet of instruction delivered at least a day or so earlier. Announcements etc.

 

Because my family choose to stay on the ship in Miami instead of going off. We were in the Last Call group at 10am. And according to the sheet they expected to complete immigration for everyone by 10:30am. But instead we were all standing out in the sun, for several hours because 33 PASSENGERS decided that this didn’t apply to them and had to be hunted down. Like literally someone posted that they saw one guy sitting on their balcony. Another girl was just at the pool!!   And so for my family at least, we didn’t get back on board until almost 2pm😞. Long lines everywhere even when trying to get back on the ship as they wouldn’t let anyone back on. At least some folks who went earlier got to be in the air conditioned terminal and sitting on chairs. We were outside in the heat. None of the Rccl employees were outside with us. They stayed in the air conditioned terminal. So no one was telling us what was happening. We only knew about the 33 folks cause others that happened to be in the terminal were overhearing from employees. Outside we knew nothing and didn’t even get water or anything. Once we got back onboard, the capt made an announcement on board to apologize and said a letter would be sent to try and make up for some of this. 
 

this is first time I got off ship for this. But last time I did this when sailing RCCL in Asia and I think immigration came onboard and they called us by floors. I am going to say that was a lot more comfortable then this round

Edited November 3, 2022 by StarAFire

[nelblu]

7 minutes ago, StarAFire said:

I am on this sailing. This was a planned thing. It was in the app since day 1 when we started the cruise. We are doing immigration as we finished our Coco cay and Nassau stops the 2 days prior. So this is our first US port of call.  I think majority of folks on my sailing are in FB vs this site. But there were tickets, and even a sheet of instruction delivered at least a day or so earlier. Announcements etc.

 

Because my family choose to stay on the ship in Miami instead of going off. We were in the Last Call group at 10am. And according to the sheet they expected to complete immigration for everyone by 10:30am. But instead we were all standing out in the sun, for several hours because 33 PASSENGERS decided that this didn’t apply to them and had to be hunted down. Like literally someone posted that they saw one guy sitting on their balcony. Another girl was just at the pool!!   And so for my family at least, we didn’t get back on board until almost 2pm😞. Long lines everywhere even when trying to get back on the ship as they wouldn’t let anyone back on. At least some folks who went earlier got to be in the air conditioned terminal and sitting on chairs. We were outside in the heat. None of the Rccl employees were outside with us. They stayed in the air conditioned terminal. So no one was telling us what was happening. We only knew about the 33 folks cause others that happened to be in the terminal were overhearing from employees. Outside we knew nothing and didn’t even get water or anything. Once we got back onboard, the capt made an announcement on board to apologize and said a letter would be sent to try and make up for some of this. 
 

this is first time I got off ship for this. But last time I did this when sailing RCCL in Asia and I think immigration came onboard and they called us by floors. I am going to say that was a lot more comfortable then this round

Couldn't they let everyone that was checked by immigration back on board and then concentrate on the non-compliant individuals.  They do with the safety drill in which they announce by name and also that Royal will not be able to depart until everyone completes the drill. 

[StarAFire]

6 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Couldn't they let everyone that was checked by immigration back on board and then concentrate on the non-compliant individuals.  They do with the safety drill in which they announce by name and also that Royal will not be able to depart until everyone completes the drill. 

They said no. There were those that wanted to stay on board ship and didn’t read their instructions and went out with their assigned ticket time instead of last call. The instructions they gave said to ignore your assigned ticket if you want to stay on board. They had to wait from like 8-9am. Literally they started making announcements several times for this and even warned others that this already happened to a few and they can’t get back on until everyone clears, even to get something. 

Edited November 3, 2022 by StarAFire