Carnval disembarkation in Galveston

[caribill]

I have been reading on other threads about taking an hour or more to get through immigration/customs in Galveston at the end of a cruise.

 

Is this happening with CCL cruises that end there?

[txcruiser1234]

Not that we've experienced - Carnival in Galveston uses the facial recognition system for passport holders. Once across the gangway, we hardly have to break stride before getting back to our car. The one stop for the facial recognition is maybe 5 seconds... may be a different story for birth certificate usage?

[cynt]

We just got off the Breeze and we walked straight through thanks to the facial recognition machines. 5 minutes max to walk through zig zag lines, gangway and out of cruise terminal. 

 

Embarkation on the other hand, was terrible.  I'm going to chalk it up to a bad day at the cruise terminal. It usually isn't that bad. It took us 45 minutes to get through embarkation. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Our last CCL debarkation in Galveston was in September and we barely slowed down, walked past the facial recognition machine and kept walking. We were in our care at 7:25.

[BlerkOne]

Perhaps you were reading about Princess. Just off a b2b cruise on Regal Princess and both embarkation and debarkation were horrible. Everything in between was great, though 

[Honolulu Blue]

12 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

Perhaps you were reading about Princess. Just off a b2b cruise on Regal Princess and both embarkation and debarkation were horrible. Everything in between was great, though 

 

I was last on a Princess ship out of Galveston in April.  Embarkation was S-L-O-W entirely because I had to pick up my medallion at the terminal and just about everyone did the same.  Disembarkation was fast, despite it being the one scanner that didn't recognize my pretty face. 😃

[BlerkOne]

6 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

I was last on a Princess ship out of Galveston in April.  Embarkation was S-L-O-W entirely because I had to pick up my medallion at the terminal and just about everyone did the same.  Disembarkation was fast, despite it being the one scanner that didn't recognize my pretty face. 😃

For whatever reason, face recognition wasn't being used at the last two Princess debarkations in Galveston. Everything was just like the good old days, except perhaps worse. 😞

 

[caribill]

24 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

For whatever reason, face recognition wasn't being used at the last two Princess debarkations in Galveston. Everything was just like the good old days, except perhaps worse. 😞

 

 

Even in the past before facial recognition, immigration was not very slow. It took a little longer that using facial recognition does now, but the agent looked at the picture in the passport and visually confirmed it was "you."

 

The thread on the Princess forum says that the holdup was that every single person was being fingerprinted and there was only one line for that. The fingerprinting was done before passengers then went to one of about seven immigration agent stations for looking at the passports.

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

33 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

For whatever reason, face recognition wasn't being used at the last two Princess debarkations in Galveston. Everything was just like the good old days, except perhaps worse. 😞

 

I assume they didn't make you fill out and submit Customs declaration forms.  I remember those from the good old days, and I don't miss them a bit.  "How much is that ship on a stick worth?" indeed. 😬

[RCmommy]

We had no delay with immigration, however finding the location to grab our Uber and getting the Uber was a nightmare.  With Ubers in the area, the ride might show it is only 1/4 mile away, however, due to the traffic in the area it can take far longer than you think.  And since we were going to IAH, a couple Ubers dropped our ride.  We were told by another that some don't want the long commute from Galveston to the Houston airports.  In the end it took nearly an hour and a half to get an Uber and we had to run at the airport to get our flight.

[BlerkOne]

18 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I assume they didn't make you fill out and submit Customs declaration forms.  I remember those from the good old days, and I don't miss them a bit.  "How much is that ship on a stick worth?" indeed. 😬

When I finally made it to an agent all she did was briefly look at my passport and say have a nice day. I don't know what the initial holdup was. But no declaration form, true. I would just put a reasonable number of them and lump everything together under "souvenirs".

[caribill]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I assume they didn't make you fill out and submit Customs declaration forms.  I remember those from the good old days, and I don't miss them a bit.  "How much is that ship on a stick worth?" indeed. 😬

 

7 night cruise cost for two people $1550. Hours on board: 164.  Cost per hour: $9.45

 

Number of hours playing trivia before winning a ship on a stick: 6

 

How much is that ship on a stick worth: 6 hours  X   $9.45 = $56.70

[shortyjoesmith]

We used our birth certificates in April when debarking in Galveston. It was definitely longer than an hour. The price of a passport was added to the cost of my next sailing. 😉

I don't want to ever go through that again, it was brutal.

[VentureMan_2000]

10 hours ago, RCmommy said:

however finding the location to grab our Uber and getting the Uber was a nightmare.  With Ubers in the area, the ride might show it is only 1/4 mile away, however, due to the traffic in the area it can take far longer than you think.  And since we were going to IAH, a couple Ubers dropped our ride.  We were told by another that some don't want the long commute from Galveston to the Houston airports.  In the end it took nearly an hour and a half to get an Uber and we had to run at the airport to get our flight.

Great input.  After reading your story, I think I'll definitely stick with Carnival's shuttle to the airport... sounds easy.

[RCmommy]

18 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

Great input.  After reading your story, I think I'll definitely stick with Carnival's shuttle to the airport... sounds easy.

I will do a shuttle if we cruise from Galveston again.  
 

For the record, I know you can schedule ahead for an Uber ride which I looked at doing.  The cost quoted was over double what we actually paid to get from IAH to Galveston.  Honestly, even if we had pre booked, there is no saying our driver wouldn’t have got caught up in the traffic and been late anyway.  It’s likely not as difficult as we experienced but if you have a tight flight to catch, I would not risk it.  

[Saint Greg]

On 11/20/2023 at 12:15 PM, BlerkOne said:

When I finally made it to an agent all she did was briefly look at my passport and say have a nice day. I don't know what the initial holdup was. But no declaration form, true. I would just put a reasonable number of them and lump everything together under "souvenirs".

 

They were fingerprinting people. I don't know  if it was non-passport people or what. But a lot of people were doing electronic fingerprinting. The thumb and then the rest of the fingers. Both hands. That is what made the line take so long.

[Miss Picante]

I think that debarkation times in Galveston can vary depending on how many people do not have passports.

 

When we disembarked from the Dream in Galveston yesterday, the process was “paused” for a while due to “congestion in the terminal”

 

When we finally disembarked, there were very long lines for people using birth certificates. We had passports and were quickly processed and moved on.

 

There was no congestion when we disembarked from a Journeys cruise In Galveston earlier this year; most people on that longer cruise seemed to have passports.

 

 

[jimbo5544]

8 hours ago, Miss Picante said:

I think that debarkation times in Galveston can vary depending on how many people do not have passports.

 

When we disembarked from the Dream in Galveston yesterday, the process was “paused” for a while due to “congestion in the terminal”

 

When we finally disembarked, there were very long lines for people using birth certificates. We had passports and were quickly processed and moved on.

 

There was no congestion when we disembarked from a Journeys cruise In Galveston earlier this year; most people on that longer cruise seemed to have passports.

 

 

Be so much easier (debark wise) if passports were mandatory in the industry

[DallasGuy75219]

On 11/27/2023 at 9:03 PM, Miss Picante said:

When we disembarked from the Dream in Galveston yesterday, the process was “paused” for a while due to “congestion in the terminal”.

That happens at debarkation on most Carnival sailings.  The congestion isn't due to people who don't have passports but rather people who can't or won't follow instructions. 

 

Too many people try to debark before their group is called and the entire debarkation process jams up and comes to a halt.  Carnival has to completely stop debarkations until the terminal begins to clear.  People who checked luggage but debark before their group is called are the worst offenders, because they're often taking up space in the teminal waiting because their checked bags haven't been unloaded yet.

 

Even when CDs warn people not to come down before their group is called, because the above will occur, they do it anyway.  I haven't seen this nearly to this degree on other cruise lines.  Carnival seems to attract more than its fair share of the "I paid my $299 for this cruise so I'll do what I want when I want" crowd vs. other lines.

[Honolulu Blue]

4 hours ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

Even when CDs warn people not to come down before their group is called, because the above will occur, they do it anyway.  I haven't seen this nearly to this degree on other cruise lines.  Carnival seems to attract more than its fair share of the "I paid my $299 for this cruise so I'll do what I want when I want" crowd vs. other lines.

 

I think there's a good side to the Carnival crowd in that they haven't picked up the bad habits of (some) veteran cruisers and they won't regale you with stories of the good-old-days that weren't always that good.  It's worth suffering through their missteps, IMHO.

 

One thing Carnival has for sure is a higher percentage of people who use self-disembark than any other cruise line I've been on.  This is despite the fact that CCL is the line I've had my longest average voyages.

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

 

I think there's a good side to the Carnival crowd in that they haven't picked up the bad habits of (some) veteran cruisers and they won't regale you with stories of the good-old-days that weren't always that good.  It's worth suffering through their missteps, IMHO.

 

One thing Carnival has for sure is a higher percentage of people who use self-disembark than any other cruise line I've been on.  This is despite the fact that CCL is the line I've had my longest average voyages.

I would be interested in the statistics on self vs regular debark.  I have some friends in Carnival mgt and will see of I can get data.   If there is a disparity balance wise, it could offer them an opportunity to adjust, fine tune the process.  We usually are the first off, so it may have been this way for a while and we did not know.  

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, jimbo5544 said:

I would be interested in the statistics on self vs regular debark.  I have some friends in Carnival mgt and will see of I can get data.   If there is a disparity balance wise, it could offer them an opportunity to adjust, fine tune the process.  We usually are the first off, so it may have been this way for a while and we did not know.  

Thanks for your interest.  If your friends can help satisfy our curiosity, that would be very helpful.  BTW, I think Carnival handles self-disembarks well (at least from what I've seen), it's just that they have quite a few more than other lines for whatever reason(s).

[jimbo5544]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thanks for your interest.  If your friends can help satisfy our curiosity, that would be very helpful.  BTW, I think Carnival handles self-disembarks well (at least from what I've seen), it's just that they have quite a few more than other lines for whatever reason(s).

There is simply no valid reason I can think of for it not working well.  That said, it may require some “tweaking” (IMHO), but you do not know if the Pasta is done until you throw it up against the wall.

[PayneAS]

I disembarked in Galveston on Oct 28th and it was a nightmare. I decided to do something different and actually checked my luggage this time. I chose the latest tags available (30) on purpose because previous experience with other ports have resulted in it being a breeze to be one of the last off the ship. In this case it took an hour to get off the ship. I had a passport but my friend had a birth certificate. He flew through the BC line while I twiddled my thumbs forever in the passport line. Still have no idea what was going on. The facial recognition didn't seem to be what was holding anyone up. Once past that point, picking my bags up and getting out of there was relatively quick and easy.

The issues I had not only disembarking but also embarking make me never want to sail out of Galveston again.