Unheard of embarkation delays NCL Joy 1/21/23

[NCnurse]

On 1/21/2023 at 3:42 PM, wcook said:

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 🙂

Yes, some people had seats.  Many did not.

[Raleigh Traveler]

We were on this cruise and experienced this event. Yes, there was a delay with crew disembarkation that was announced. The process, however could be greatly improved. We are Platinum but were given Group 4 tickets (we arrived around 9:30) and then later told to show our cards. The announcements were very hard to understand, even as English first speakers. Once it started, with everyone crowding the exit, it went sideways (or pear shaped for our UK friends).

It would work better with the exit door at the end of the room instead of the middle and seat people in their groups. Using a video screen with boarding order, in multiple languages would also help. 

It is like the place and process were designed with the assumption that everything will be on time and without issue. 

Our cruise out of Seattle in July was half full but embarking was still a mess. Even with Group 2 tickets, once they started, there was no possible way to get pass the crowd blocking the way. We boarded with Group 7 or 8.

Bottom line, after all that drama, we and everyone else still got on the ship. Just a shame to start an adventure with a process that could have been vastly different. 

[cruisinmeme]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:56 PM, desherry said:

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.

I was on breakaway January 8-15.we had 200 crew getting off and 200 new crew coming on.  We did not carry our luggage off but in the platinum group (8:00) and was jumping in the car before 8:30. When we heard about the big crew change was somewhat afraid it may slow things but no everything was slick. 

[clojacks]

We were on the Jan 21 sailing of Joy to LA and both the embarkation and disembarkation were the worst I’ve ever experienced in approximately 20 cruises, most on Celebrity. The embarkation was a disaster with probably 2500 or more passengers crowded into a space with 1 toilet for each gender…not 1 bathroom, 1 room with 1 toilet in it! And this was a piece of cake compared to disembarkation. That is a different kind of disaster. If you were lucky enough to pick the “right” side line in the luggage terminal, you have no idea what I am referring to. If you picked the left, I feel your pain. We had Pink1 tags, which were designed for the first transfers to LAX. We entered the terminal at a little before 9. We left it AFTER 11! People with luggage tags 5 transfer periods later than ours strolled by us in the right line. There was 1 elderly gentleman who dropped in the left line..possibly from fatigue, or exhaustion, or a medical situation, but the response inside the terminal was atrocious . We barely reached LAX in time to make our 1:30 plane after expecting to be the first non- self disembarking group out of the terminal. NCL and CPB need to cooperatively get their ***** together in there or they are going to have an incident they will greatly regret.