Independece Debarkation Debacle today

[Motorman23]

Mike....with all due respect and not meaning this in any negative way towards you.....I am sure they are getting right on whats not going to happen for another 11 months:rolleyes:

 

LOL, you may be right but.....

 

It is a new year,

Perhaps 11 months of screaming has reached some ears,

change is always slow... sadly.

 

My glass is half full for now.

 

Have a happy and healthy new year.

 

BTW, I took no offense to your response, thats what cruise critic is all about.

 

Mike

[james j feller]

bs0755, Use curb side check in for your flight, might cost a little more but no lines.

 

You will be off the ship way before 11 am so no need to worry.

 

JIM

[cruisinalong001]

My daughter made it to the airport for an 11:50 flight easily after finally getting off the Navigator at 11 (Left our departure lounge when our color was called at 9:40-that should tell you something :mad: (and we have no mobility impairments) Lots of cabs available. Luckily she had printed out her boarding pass the night before.

 

I see most of the problem as clearly Royal Caribbean's. First, in their haste to get the ship ready for the next cruise, they do not separate departure times enough nor, in my opinion, do they really care what the passengers have to go through. Just bring on the next $$$$. They just let everyone go at the same time if they are pressed for time. They also give passengers incorrect directions as to where they can get off forcing them to traverse the ship in herds.This is compounded by those who use express departure with way more than carry on luggage and those who have mobility issues or stollers have no clear procedures on where they should go or how! Maybe they should have a separate staging areas for those who need to use elevators where they can later be assisted by RCL personnel. Also, many people just head for the exits as soon as they hear the first departure called because they are (a) rude and inconsiderate or (b) they are so fed up with the procedure they just want off ASAP or © have too early a flight. However, if the ship is scheduled to dock at 7, you should be off by 9-10 and have plenty of time to catch a noon flight since the airport is so close.

 

RCL better get its act together on this because it matters to passengers more than they think. Our last evening on board the Navigator was turned from stress free to stressed because we did not find out until 11 PM that we would be delayed getting into port (they surely had time to calculate this earlier in the day and notify us earlier as we had a slight course change due to a medical evacuation early in the last sea day). We then had to stand in line with hordes of other passengers to get earlier departure tags, then retag our luggage at a few minutes to midnight as the Steward was coming down the hall to collect the bags. We had planned to go hear the jazz fest in the cosmopolitan club at 11. We finally went up for a few minutes, but by that time the mood had been ruined and we were just getting too tired. When you add this to the next morning's chaos......:mad::mad::mad:

 

RCL, get your act together on this disembarkation mess. Surely you can do better.

 

I do agree, however, that the traffic flow at Port Everglades is absolutely hideous, both in and out. Horrible port.

 

I will go for the late breakfast, late departure since, thank goodness, I don't have to fly from there. The only reason we went with my daughter was that she had never cruised before and was not familiar with any of the disembarkation procedures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am seriously considering this option--My only fear is the fiasco we may encounter at the Fort Lauderdale airport. I just checked my reservation, and our flight has been moved back to 1:20pm. It seems as thought under the worst case scenario, the ship would be empty be 11:00am, which would get us to the airport by 11:30am. Does anyone have an idea what the lines are like at the airport at that time?

 

Getting back to the issue at hand, it seems to me that the main causes of the problem would be people abusing the express departure option, and people being in areas they are not supposed to be--thereby blocking the way of others who follow the rules. I would do away with the express departure, and I would assign enough staff to guard the stairways, in order to keep them clear. Why couldn't they treat it like a muster drill--They do a good job of keeping the traffic flowing then. On the other hand, I would hate to see what would happen in the case of an actual emergency...

[pcur]

Everybody:

 

Most of you know from reading my signature that I've been cruising with RCCL for 35 years. They have ALWAYS done poorly in getting passengers off their ships at the end of the cruise. Some cruises are better, and being Diamond usually helps. But, it's a logistics problem, and it's almost always a hassle.

 

We don't stress it anymore. We just book a flight after 1PM, and stay somewhere comfy for the wait with a book. We don't even bother with breakfast in the 'Jammer anymore, unless we aren't going to find a decent meal on the way home somewhere.

[jillyfish]

outtoseacruise..........I appreciate your professionalism throughout this thread. Thank you for looking out for us, 'the consumer'.