Debarkation fiasco on RCL Voyager

One more thing. As we sat there with our lavender color and our
friends with the yellow had been called before us, you have no way of
knowing whether you are next or not. They won't tell you the order
"for security reasons" (The numbers mean nothing)

And, yes you needed to show your color tag to get off the ship. The
purser's desk was only too happy to provide us with another color so
we could get off. They were not so quick to tell us that our bags
would not be there though.

Bob

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 06:58:40 GMT, "Skip Elliott Bowman"
wrote:

"Bob" wrote in message
.. .

snip

Although this was our 8th cruise, we learned something new. If you
have a fairly tight connection on the way out, don't rely on entering
you departure info on the in cabin TV. Go to the purser's desk in
person and make sure that everything is OK and that you are scheduled
to get off in time.

One way we've always avoided this was to add a day on each end of the cruise
and book hotels for the extra days. That way we can take our sweet time
with embarkation and debarkation. Why finish up a relaxing week of sand and
steak with a stress-filled debarkation and mad dash to the airport?

One more thing. As we sat there with our lavender color and our
friends with the yellow had been called before us, you have no way of
knowing whether you are next or not. They won't tell you the order
"for security reasons" (The numbers mean nothing)

And, yes you needed to show your color tag to get off the ship. The
purser's desk was only too happy to provide us with another color so
we could get off. They were not so quick to tell us that our bags
would not be there though.

Bob

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 06:58:40 GMT, "Skip Elliott Bowman"
wrote:

"Bob" wrote in message
.. .

snip

Although this was our 8th cruise, we learned something new. If you
have a fairly tight connection on the way out, don't rely on entering
you departure info on the in cabin TV. Go to the purser's desk in
person and make sure that everything is OK and that you are scheduled
to get off in time.

One way we've always avoided this was to add a day on each end of the cruise
and book hotels for the extra days. That way we can take our sweet time
with embarkation and debarkation. Why finish up a relaxing week of sand and
steak with a stress-filled debarkation and mad dash to the airport?

Thanks Charles,
I've never heard of picking your own color before, someone else had mentioned
it, so I hope that part works.

One questions, were you able or allowed to just take your own luggage off the
ship that morning? That would surely save some time hunting for luggage??
I've heard some CArnival ships allow this, but have never heard of it on Royal
Caribbean?

Thanks for any reply.

Donna
Tuesday Chat Host
http://www.cruisemates.com

In article , Donnassei
wrote:

One questions, were you able or allowed to just take your own luggage off the
ship that morning? That would surely save some time hunting for luggage??
I've heard some CArnival ships allow this, but have never heard of it on Royal
Caribbean?

They don't have what Carnival calls the "self assist option" on Royal
Caribbean at the moment. I did that on Carnival in October and it
worked very well but I think it worked well only because only a few
people did it.

--
Charles

In article , Donnassei
wrote:

One questions, were you able or allowed to just take your own luggage off the
ship that morning? That would surely save some time hunting for luggage??
I've heard some CArnival ships allow this, but have never heard of it on Royal
Caribbean?

They don't have what Carnival calls the "self assist option" on Royal
Caribbean at the moment. I did that on Carnival in October and it
worked very well but I think it worked well only because only a few
people did it.

--
Charles

I was on the Navigator which was docked behind the Voyager on the same
day as the OP. First of all, the night prior to debarkation, we had
delivered to our cabins all of the debarkation information which
included a sheet that told what time to expect your color tag to be
called. Ours was right on time. The started debarkation at 7:15. Also
in Miami, Homeland Security is now testing a new procedure for
immigration. The info on this can be found on the Homeland Security
website. Immigration had six desks set up. Once off of the Navigator,
we formed two lines to go through immigration. This takes time since
all non U.S citizens are now fingerprinted and photographed plus they
must show the proper ID's. Some people did not have their paperwork in
order and that also held things up. I was chatting with a person from
RCI and she stated that they have complained that they need more than
six people to clear over 3000 guests. On 12/04 the ship did not clear
until 12:30 and then we began boarding shortly after.

Once we walked off of the gangway at 8:00 on the morning of
debarkation, we waited about twenty minutes in line to clear
immigration and then on down to collect our luggage. That took about
ten minutes. We were in the car and on the road shortly after.

Since we were one of the first colors called it did not take that long
but I can see where it is taking much longer to clear the ships
especially if you have a large number of non US citizens on board. I
guess this is a thing of the future as they start implementing this at
other ports. Just bring your patience.

Gordon

I was on the Navigator which was docked behind the Voyager on the same
day as the OP. First of all, the night prior to debarkation, we had
delivered to our cabins all of the debarkation information which
included a sheet that told what time to expect your color tag to be
called. Ours was right on time. The started debarkation at 7:15. Also
in Miami, Homeland Security is now testing a new procedure for
immigration. The info on this can be found on the Homeland Security
website. Immigration had six desks set up. Once off of the Navigator,
we formed two lines to go through immigration. This takes time since
all non U.S citizens are now fingerprinted and photographed plus they
must show the proper ID's. Some people did not have their paperwork in
order and that also held things up. I was chatting with a person from
RCI and she stated that they have complained that they need more than
six people to clear over 3000 guests. On 12/04 the ship did not clear
until 12:30 and then we began boarding shortly after.

Once we walked off of the gangway at 8:00 on the morning of
debarkation, we waited about twenty minutes in line to clear
immigration and then on down to collect our luggage. That took about
ten minutes. We were in the car and on the road shortly after.

Since we were one of the first colors called it did not take that long
but I can see where it is taking much longer to clear the ships
especially if you have a large number of non US citizens on board. I
guess this is a thing of the future as they start implementing this at
other ports. Just bring your patience.

Gordon

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interap...orial_0525.xml
This is the link that has the info for the test in Miami.

I always try and schedule a late flight out, then get to airport and see if
there is room on the earlier flight, maybe it because I am not so important
to be rushing all of the time. THINK ABOUT IT ?
"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Bob
wrote:

Although this was our 8th cruise, we learned something new. If you
have a fairly tight connection on the way out, don't rely on entering
you departure info on the in cabin TV. Go to the purser's desk in
person and make sure that everything is OK and that you are scheduled
to get off in time.

I have always done that from the first cruise. You need to check if you
have flights.

--
Charles

We sailed on RCL Vision in November to the Mexican Riveria out of the Port
of Los Angeles and the Debarkation was a night mare. All of the Colors were
literally called within a 15 minute time period. Passengers were all jammed
up on Deck 4, in the stairwells and elsewhere trying to get off the ship.
We were not in hurry and even had sceduled a mid afternoon flight out of
Long Beach.

The luggage was all placed out on the floor with no color section seperating
the colors. We had 4 peices of luggage (2 small, 2 large) which we found in
3 different areas of the baggage claim area. What a mess!! Poor
Mangagement on Royal Caribbean's part. I have written them with complaints.