Unheard of embarkation delays NCL Joy 1/21/23

[NCnurse]

This is 12:24 and no one has boarded yet! Could it be because of massive housekeeping cutbacks? The boarding area is literally SRO. 

[wolft927]

My guess it’s a full crew immigration check. That is pretty normal to delay boarding for an hour or so 

[Karaboudjan]

I don't believe there have been any 'massive housekeeping cutbacks' at this time.  Anyway, they don't hold boarding until all of the rooms are clean...

[jimsig]

Sometimes there will be Coast Guard inspections and that can delay boarding, especially if they find any issues.  A couple years back one of the NCL ships had issues with a number of PFD's begin out of date or something like that and it delayed boarding by hours until they replaced those PFD's.  

[zqvol]

46 minutes ago, NCnurse said:

This is 12:24 and no one has boarded yet! Could it be because of massive housekeeping cutbacks? The boarding area is literally SRO. 

Boarding is never delayed because of housekeeping. Cabins are never ready when boarding begins. To call changes in housekeeping massive is just being dramatic, there will be changes but they are not massive. 

[JandC_Cruising]

Wow!  A bit of an exaggeration here!

Two weeks ago on the Encore, we were delayed boarding as well. Honestly, we saw passengers disembarking as late as 10:30 or so.  So a delay wasn't really surprising.   It didn't start until 12:15 or so..  And yes, by then the terminal becomes SRO.

I woudl hardly would call this delay "UNHEARD OF"....

[mjkacmom]

I remember big delays years ago boarding and disembarking on the breakaway in NYC, the port was having issues getting enough custom agents so it took a while to clear the ship, boarding started after noon, it took us hours to get off the ship.

[wolft927]

Has boarding began yet? Is this the first Miami visit in a while for the joy

[sassycruiser]

This is how the joy was when we left NYC for Bermuda in May.  

[craig01020]

Looks like my Breakaway cruise last May. Not "unheard of".

[LloydJr]

1 hour ago, jimsig said:

Sometimes there will be Coast Guard inspections and that can delay boarding, especially if they find any issues.  A couple years back one of the NCL ships had issues with a number of PFD's begin out of date or something like that and it delayed boarding by hours until they replaced those PFD's.  

I hate it when those petty freakin' documents go out of date and delay my boarding.

[Epic_Bear]

Should have seen the 1/2/23 Dawn Cruise delay...we didn't board until 11PM and there were still 1000+ that still had to board after us.

[jimsig]

53 minutes ago, LloydJr said:

I hate it when those petty freakin' documents go out of date and delay my boarding.

Hate having to grab paper work to keep me afloat 🤪

[jimsig]

44 minutes ago, Epic_Bear said:

Should have seen the 1/2/23 Dawn Cruise delay...we didn't board until 11PM and there were still 1000+ that still had to board after us.

My parents were on that cruise.  Luckily for them they are down there for the winter so they had a place to wait.  They had pre-paid for parking and the lot operator called them and told them what was going on and said to wait to arrive as there would not be any room for them until, the ship cleared.  

[wcook]

Because people online cannot see misery without trying to top it… you call that a problem??? You are indoors. With seats! Have you seen what’s been going on with Epic boarding out of San Juan 🙂

[kitkat343]

I'm really upset at NCL (I picked my cruise because my 4 year old daughter is obsessed with monkeys, and there is a monkey with rainforest experience in the DR, and I wanted to take my kids to visit the giant toirtoises in Antigua, but they changed the time for that port which made it impossible).  However, if these changes had happened due to weather or something that wasn't NCL's fault I would have been disappointed, but not upset with the company.  It's possible your embarkment delay is caused by NCL (probably not housekeeping but possibly something else), but it's also possible this was caused by immigration or another delay out of their control.  I was on one of the first Alaskan cruises of the season, and US customs didn't send enough agents - it took people 2-3 hours to clear immigration, but once you got past that you could get through the Princess part of boarding very quickly.  So none of that was Princess' fault.  

[hallux]

I think my October 2019 cruise on the Bliss was the first cruise from LA for the late Fall season (after the ship sailed down from the Alaska cruises).  We had a long wait to board, eventually hearing through the grapevine that it was a Coast Guard inspection, often done the first time a ship does a turn-around in a home port for a new season.

[cruiseny4life]

The guy in red looks like a super fun guy! You should make friends if you're still waiting.

Despite your delayed embarkation, surely not "unheard of," I hope this is the only cluster you experience and have a super fun cruise! Don't let this slight detail get in your way.

 

Even I enjoyed my cruise in April where I had to wait for three hours to board (some had to wait eight hours with no chairs at all since they were still in line).

[Wedgie Wedgie]

I was chatting with some security guards on the Getaway who told me they had a bad delay because of an attempted stowaway effort by some dummy who fancied himself a daredevil who tried to hide and stay on board for the next cruise. They eventually found him holed up in a crew bathroom.

 

Security will not allow anyone on board until everyone is off from the previous cruise

[BirdTravels]

5 hours ago, NCnurse said:

This is 12:24 and no one has boarded yet! Could it be because of massive housekeeping cutbacks? The boarding area is literally SRO. 

Blame all of the folks from Los Angeles who took their time getting off. 

 

We we disembarked in Miami last month, CBP was doing full passport checks which backed things up. No facial recognition. 

[ChiefMateJRK]

4 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Blame all of the folks from Los Angeles who took their time getting off. 

As long as you leave when they tell you to, what's wrong with taking your time?

[CWMixer]

We’re on this cruise: it was clearly and repeatedly communicated that it was an Immigration-related delay. 
 

[cmecruise1962]

I hope you have an amazing time!

[desherry]

I disembarked the Joy on Jan 21, and they were having a mass change-out of crew. While waiting in the theater for our tour to disembark, there were about 200 crew filling out paperwork on the stage of the theater. This may have caused the delays in embarkation.

 

Also, the disembarkment and embarkation in LA on Jan 6 was delayed. We arrived at San Pedro to embark at 10 am, and didn't get onto the ship until after 1:00 pm. They hadn't cleared the ship until about 11:30 am to begin embarkation.

[NCnurse]

On 1/21/2023 at 12:32 PM, Karaboudjan said:

I don't believe there have been any 'massive housekeeping cutbacks' at this time.  Anyway, they don't hold boarding until all of the rooms are clean...

There were big housekeeping cuts. Stewards now have double the number of staterooms.