Our Vancouver debarkation fiasco yesterday

[DAllenTCY]

KAKcruiser....they told me that my color would the first independent debark. By the time they started calling all the other colors it was too late...my bags were tagged the night before and offloaded. As I said the CD kept repeating that you could not go to the gangway until your color was called. If there is a next time I'll lie about my flight. It seems that honesty does not pay. I immagine that all 1400 of us will be in line at the first sign of debark no matter what our travel arrangements. Won't it be fun!

David

[griswalds]

OK, let me get this straight. 99% of passengers are held hostage for a few people who do not follow immigration or pay their bill. We have been held back for this reason and it sucks.

 

Why don't they let all the reliable people off and wait for the under-performers to show up. You can't get off the ship without your card being scanned so what is the big deal. We like sheep just play along and wine. It could prove quite entertaining to watch certain people try to sneak by the scanners. What happens to someone who can't pay their bill regardless? Do they have to sign an IOU or wash dishes for the next cruise?

 

HAL was being complained about because they gave the poster the wrong information and they can't seem to clear a ship in a reasonable period of time. It is probably the number one complaint from most cruisers. Could you imagine if a restaurant or a bar announced that no one could leave until everyone's bill is paid? That is why you give them a credit card or deposit up front.

 

Griswalds

 

 

 

Most of the delays are caused by those people who have not settled their bill or who have not reported to immagration as they were requested to do.

 

Please do not blame HAL for the inconsideration of a few people on the ship..

 

In San Diego the whole ship was held up for 45 minutes because of one person. The went to his room and he was not there. The came on overhead and asked everyone to ask the person next to them if they were the person that they were looking for. The ship cannot do much more than that....

 

Ruth & Jim

[Boytjie]

KAKcruiser....they told me that my color would the first independent debark.

 

I have not heard this term used before: "independent" debark. What is meant by that? I thought the option was either express/self disembarkation or disembarking by color & number (with an estimated time slot).

 

On disembarkation day on our last cruise things must have been moving fast since we were called earlier than the indicated time.

 

By the time they started calling all the other colors it was too late...my bags were tagged the night before and offloaded. As I said the CD kept repeating that you could not go to the gangway until your color was called. If there is a next time I'll lie about my flight. It seems that honesty does not pay. I immagine that all 1400 of us will be in line at the first sign of debark no matter what our travel arrangements. Won't it be fun!

David

 

If I was going to miss a flight I would have said something/done something! You had travel documents indicating you had to get off, I don't think anyone would have dismissed that and sent you back.

[sail7seas]

OK, let me get this straight. 99% of passengers are held hostage for a few people who do not follow immigration or pay their bill. We have been held back for this reason and it sucks.

 

Why don't they let all the reliable people off and wait for the under-performers to show up. You can't get off the ship without your card being scanned so what is the big deal. We like sheep just play along and wine. It could prove quite entertaining to watch certain people try to sneak by the scanners. What happens to someone who can't pay their bill regardless? Do they have to sign an IOU or wash dishes for the next cruise?

 

HAL was being complained about because they gave the poster the wrong information and they can't seem to clear a ship in a reasonable period of time. It is probably the number one complaint from most cruisers. Could you imagine if a restaurant or a bar announced that no one could leave until everyone's bill is paid? That is why you give them a credit card or deposit up front.

 

Griswalds

 

 

Much having to do with disembarkation is not controlled by HAL (or any other cruise line) at U.S. ports. The Customs and Border Control/Immigration Officials are in charge and the cruise lines do as they are told. If they say no one leaves the ship until all have cleared Immigration, no one leaves. In FLL, thankfully we don't have to wait for Immigration aboard the ship now. It is (usually) done in the terminal now.

 

But it is the U.S. Officials who clear the ship and give the okay for guests to start disembarking.

[cccole]

I may have totally misunderstood the original post but I was under the impression that everyone was told that even if they did leave the ship before their color was called that their luggage would not be available to them. It really doesn't do a lot of good to be first in line if your luggage is not there.

 

As it turned out all luggage was available and they could have left early, but they did not know that. Luckily there are lessons learned from most posts!!

 

Cherie

[karenem]

David, I'm sorry this happened to you! It almost happened to me, but my tag was pink (2:30-ish debark time) so I went to the front desk and begged for an express tag, since I was planning on carrying my own (very minimal) luggage anyway (I'm new at this--didn't realize you needed colors etc. if you had no tagged luggage). If I'd been assigned an earlier time, I might well have done just what you did.

 

So, we express people got off @ 1:30-ish, and we were through customs and all the rest of the rigamole *very* quickly. Took an independent shuttle to the airport, which was so empty I seriously wondered if I was going the wrong way into a closed area. The attendent said the flight was full, but I had an empty seat next to me; I guess it was yours :-(

[cruiserman79]

I had a similar problem today after our Alaskan cruise. After getting ill and being quarantined, they had offered to escort us from our cabin ahead of the expedited line. They sent revised instructions to our cabin explaining exactly what was going to happen. They arrived at 6AM as agreed and missed one of our bags. We then called the front office and let them know that there was one more bag to go. We waited and waited, of course nobody ever showed up.

 

We took the suitcase and joined a massive, disorganized pile of expedited people. After battling gastrointeritis and being qurantined, we were all sweating and choking in line waiting to get off the ship. The Vancovuer port staff were obviously not informed of our special situtaiton and confusion ensued. We then had to wait until our bags were found and someone finally decided to get their act together at HAL. The ladies at the port in Vancouver were even nice enough to take our bags to the taxi, which is not their job at all. At least we experienced some good service on our cruise, and not suprisingly it wasn't from Holland America.

 

Never again HAL.

[bcd2010]

"Once you knew there was going to be a problem you should have taken the bull by the horns and kept your luggage and walked off when you were allowed to do this at the start."

 

Sometimes I feel so naive -- it never occurred to me NOT to put my luggage outside my cabin the final night. So please verify, if I keep all my luggage with me, I can leave early? Are there any extra procedures if you're exiting with your carryon AND 1-2 suitcases?

[durangoscots]

"Once you knew there was going to be a problem you should have taken the bull by the horns and kept your luggage and walked off when you were allowed to do this at the start."

 

Sometimes I feel so naive -- it never occurred to me NOT to put my luggage outside my cabin the final night. So please verify, if I keep all my luggage with me, I can leave early? Are there any extra procedures if you're exiting with your carryon AND 1-2 suitcases?

 

In normal expedited disembarkation, YOU must be able to handle all of your luggage yourself. Which is why most of us can't do it!!

[bcd2010]

Ah, but I have 2 adult sons who are usually anxious to get going and would carry my luggage (and me!) if it helped move things along.

[RevNeal]

I have not heard this term used before: "independent" debark. What is meant by that? I thought the option was either express/self disembarkation or disembarking by color & number (with an estimated time slot).

 

I have. It was used a couple of weeks ago when I was disembarking the Ryndam, then again when I was disembarking the Amsterdam. Both times my mother and I had a specific time we needed to disembark the ship, but our travel arrangements on land were NOT made by HAL ... they were "independent." Hence, we had "Orange 2, Independent" meaning that we disembarked with Orange 2 at about 8:30 am, and our travel arrangements from that point on were independent of HAL (no bus vouchers to the airport or tours or such that HAL had arranged.

[bishop84]

To Copper10-8, I listed our outbound flight number and departure time.....Alaska/Horizon flight 2033 departing at 3:10 to Seattle. Same flight as on the online check-in form.

Our request was for first independent debark.

David

 

David,

I think where you went wrong was requesting independent debark. It was explained to me on an earlier cruise that the "independent" groups are usually for those guests who have not given any details of their plans or have non-HAL transport arrangements. Consequently they do not get the earlier numbers and are spread out amongst the groups with known plans.

 

However the Front Desk should have spotted this when checking your form with its 3:10 flight details and moved you up to an earlier group. As someone said earlier maybe they were swamped with the other reported problems?

 

Have you considered emailing their offices to complain. Although they can be slow in responding they will eventually get back to you. Possibly with the other problems they may be looking into compensating guests from that cruise although I doubt you would consider a future cruise credit after that debacle!

[bishop84]

Our only bad disembarkation took place a couple of years ago when we disembarking in Tampa after a long voyage on the Veendam. First of all, as it was the first port of call into the U.S. and a large majority of the passengers were Canadian, it took hours for immigration to be finished so that the passengers could start leaving the ship.

 

Then, the CD who was calling the colours completely missed our colour which was say Purple 1. We had paid to do a tour of Tampa before going out to the airport and we were looking forward to seeing a little of this city.

 

We were like David and stood back and waited and waited. Finally, we decided to leave the ship only to find our bus had gone and the only bus left was the one that was going directly to the airport. Of course we got on board, but as our flight wasn't until the middle of the afternoon, we ended up waiting at Tampa airport from 10am until we boarded our flight around 4pm. It was a long day brought about by the CD not calling our colour and of course being so many dollars out of pocket due to missing the tour of Tampa.

 

On every other cruise, we have never had mishap whatsoever and we still blame that CD for his inefficiency.

 

Jennie

 

Jennie,

 

To defend the CD he has no control on the disembarkation process. He just announces what he is told from the shore people. When they say call a particular group that is what he does!

 

As to you missing your tour due to your number not be announced may I ask how did all the others on the tour make it to the bus on time if it was not announced? I assume the tour did not leave empty! Could it be a case that you missed the one announcement you needed?

[Tarheel72]

Both times my mother and I had a specific time we needed to disembark the ship, but our travel arrangements on land were NOT made by HAL ... they were "independent." Hence, we had "Orange 2, Independent" meaning that we disembarked with Orange 2 at about 8:30 am, and our travel arrangements from that point on were independent of HAL (no bus vouchers to the airport or tours or such that HAL had arranged.

 

I think where you went wrong was requesting independent debark. It was explained to me on an earlier cruise that the "independent" groups are usually for those guests who have not given any details of their plans or have non-HAL transport arrangements. Consequently they do not get the earlier numbers and are spread out amongst the groups with known plans.

 

These seem to contridict each other somewhat. I get the part about "if you made your travel arrangements independent of HAL" then you fall into this group. What constitutes arrangements in advance and what details does HAL consider appropriate? Does that mean a reservation of some type? Our limo is on demand, we just call them 30 minutes before we need them. But we plan on a two hour private tour and we still have to get off soon enough to catch a flight.

 

Assuming we carry our own luggage off (that's the plan), the questions I have are 1) do you have to have a disembarkation color/number 2) if so when do you give HAL this info, is it before they issue tags or do you trade yours in after you receive them 3) what do you have to say in order to be included in the first group off the ship? Is that not possible if you do not book HAL transportation?

 

Thanks

[RuthC]

 

Assuming we carry our own luggage off (that's the plan), the questions I have are 1) do you have to have a disembarkation color/number 2) if so when do you give HAL this info, is it before they issue tags or do you trade yours in after you receive them 3) what do you have to say in order to be included in the first group off the ship? Is that not possible if you do not book HAL transportation?

If you are doing self-disembark, than that is what you note on the disembarkation request form.

You are not given tags, or a color/number, as you will be hauling your own bags. You will be the first group to leave the ship. The time will vary, based on the time of arrival and when the ship has been cleared by local authorities. You can plan to leave as early as 7:15 or so; it could be much later.

I have heard the call at 7:30 and 7:45.

[MMDown Under]

Jennie,

 

To defend the CD he has no control on the disembarkation process. He just announces what he is told from the shore people. When they say call a particular group that is what he does!

 

As to you missing your tour due to your number not be announced may I ask how did all the others on the tour make it to the bus on time if it was not announced? I assume the tour did not leave empty! Could it be a case that you missed the one announcement you needed?

 

We discovered on our last cruise that there were places on the ship where you couldn't hear the announcements.

 

After waiting in vain on deck, with lots of other people, for our ship to depart port, whilst complaining why didn't they make an announcement about the delayed time of departure, we discovered the next day that they had made an announcement, whilst we were in the (noisy) dining room.

 

Fortunately, we didn't miss a tour, like Jennie, just a departure.

 

(Hope you have visited Tampa before, Jennie, as Tampa is such a delightful town, in December, we stayed an extra night.)

[Nghthawke]

As it turned out all luggage was available and they could have left early, but they did not know that.

You can watch the luggage being offloaded from the promenade deck. The coloured tags are easy to spot as the forklifts go back and forth from the ship to the holding area.

[Aussie Gal]

We discovered on our last cruise that there were places on the ship where you couldn't hear the announcements.

 

After waiting in vain on deck, with lots of other people, for our ship to depart port, whilst complaining why didn't they make an announcement about the delayed time of departure, we discovered the next day that they had made an announcement, whilst we were in the (noisy) dining room.

 

Fortunately, we didn't miss a tour, like Jennie, just a departure.

 

(Hope you have visited Tampa before, Jennie, as Tampa is such a delightful town, in December, we stayed an extra night.)

 

Marion,

 

Unfortunately we hadn't been to that lovely city before and instead of doing a tour, we spent from 10.30-4pm at their airport instead. At least it was a comfortable airport and quite new.

 

I know there is doubt that we may have missed the announcement, but in all our cruising (and we certainly are not hard of hearing) we have never missed a disembarkation announcement before or since then. We were listening very clearly to what he was saying but I do believe instead of calling our colour and number, he may have said something like the Tampa tour can now leave and we just didn't realize it was our turn to leave as we were listening for the colour to be called.

 

Believe it or not, it was the only time we have ever booked to do a tour when leaving the ship, we normally are Independents and have always made our own arrangements after disembarkation.

 

Jennie