Valor Boarding Delayed

[iloverags2]

What is FTTF?

 

Faster to the Fun. One person in the stateroom pays $49.95 (I believe it is), and then everyone in the stateroom has access to it as soon as they board. I believe it also includes priority boarding, express luggage delivery, priority tender services (where applicable) and express debarkation.

[trueblue91652747]

Any idea what time Valor will actually leave port?

[firefly333]

Five ... five ... five dollar foot long ...

 

Now go away!

 

My Nov conquest cruise goes to belize and honduras.. I hope this isnt all the time.

[Scott34787]

My Nov conquest cruise goes to belize and honduras.. I hope this isnt all the time.

 

Well there's a couple of issues with Belize so

there's always a chance of extra "scrutiny". :mad:

[trueblue91652747]

I see its moving out now.

[joydisney]

The Valor is finally moving.

[Bobby_Mac]

On the POM cam, it shows it leaving.

[DebJ14]

Everytime a ship visits Roatan or Belize the passengers have to undergo a full immigration and customs screening. Instead of just looking at the documents they have to scan all the passports and manually enter all the BC and DL info. Carnival has been notifying passengers due to embark about the delays. We arrived in Galveston for our cruise a few weeks ago at 1pm and passengers were still being processed through immigration. It was a real mess with all the people trying to get dropped off with their luggage and all the people trying to get picked up.

[Scott34787]

We are on the Glory Western in November - fortunately

the previous cruise is an Eastern so hopefully we

won't have any delays getting on.

 

Feel bad for the next group, though.

[cruiser fanatic]

We went to Belize and were able to get off the Liberty and get through customs by 8:30.

 

We got a letter on our Magic cruise coming back 8/26 saying that we would go through extra screening because we visited Belize but never saw that happen.

[momof3cruisers]

We are on the Glory Western in November - fortunately

the previous cruise is an Eastern so hopefully we

won't have any delays getting on.

 

Feel bad for the next group, though.

 

Now that's an interesting thing I never considered....where does the cruise before yours go? I feel bad for people needing to get off the ship and catch a flight.

[soccersharon]

Everytime a ship visits Roatan or Belize the passengers have to undergo a full immigration and customs screening. Instead of just looking at the documents they have to scan all the passports and manually enter all the BC and DL info. Carnival has been notifying passengers due to embark about the delays. We arrived in Galveston for our cruise a few weeks ago at 1pm and passengers were still being processed through immigration. It was a real mess with all the people trying to get dropped off with their luggage and all the people trying to get picked up.

 

 

Ughhhh....our next trip, we visit Belize and Roatan. Not that I don't believe you, but have not read this up until now. I'm bummed :(

[Scott34787]

Now that's an interesting thing I never considered....where does the cruise before yours go? I feel bad for people needing to get off the ship and catch a flight.

 

The Glory Nov. 18 7-day Eastern goes to:

Nassau, the Bahamas

St. Thomas, USVI

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Grand Turk

 

We are lucky as we drive to Miami from Orlando so no

flight worries.

[ewb302]

Something was going on with Customs, I got off the Valor this morning. It took two hours for me to get off once I was in line on deck 5. People were packed shoulder to shoulder in between the elevators and the line did not move. Once we were off, we went through Customs within 15-20 minutes. But they were escorting a couple away in front of us for a more thorough check.

 

I watched on the port webcam and the ship did not leave the dock until 6pm, two hours later than scheduled. The delay started first thing this morning, whatever it was.

[bbohbbneedacruise]

We are on the Glory Western in November - fortunately

the previous cruise is an Eastern so hopefully we

won't have any delays getting on.

 

Feel bad for the next group, though.

 

Last Sept when we returned on Valor. We were waiting for the elevator in the terminal. The port guard asked where we just returned from. I told her eastern.

She goes ... OH that's why debark is going so fast. She then added that when ships come back from western CBP are more vigilant and debark takes much longer.

 

So just how fast did it take us. We were zone 8. We were off the ship by 8:15 on a shuttle .. without it being full .. pulled out of POM at 8:30am was at FLL by 9am... people watched and was glad we did not have an early flight due to egads of passengers from Everglades.

Sat there thinking Man I could have booked that 11am flight instead of the 1:50p flight, LOL

[cruzn buckeye]

We went to Belize and were able to get off the Liberty and get through customs by 8:30.

We also got off the ship today... left the ship at about 9:30... was in customs line for about an hour and a half! Line was not moving...hardly ... at all...

Someone working there made the remark to other passengers in ahead of us that she did not understand and that it was a Federal Government matter...

[CimW]

I hit one of the full pax customs checks, folks were still getting off at 1:30 pm on my roll call. Someone said they do this every 3 months, though seems like if it were true you would hear about it more.

 

I am praying nothing like this happens on conquest in a week

 

 

We were told on embarkation of our 8/19 sailing on the Conquest this is what was happening to the previous cruisers. They were checking everyone, everyone was stressed.

Our debarkation was very smooth and fast.

[MIZZ_K]

I did the 8/25 Western sailing on The Liberty and we were off the ship by 8:30.

[tobylars12]

Just heard from a friend.

 

Only those who chose to go to Bayport will get the $15 pp on board credit. They were keeping track.

 

:eek: So, for those that just stayed at the port and hung out, no $15, they didn't go anywhere and incur the cost of a meal, so no $$$. I'm sure many were disappointed when the found out they were not getting "free" money.

[thepeach]

Same thing happened to us on the 9/1 sailing. We are VIP and boarded at 2:00. We left at 5:30 instead of 4:00. We were told that customs ordered a full inspection, and that was why we were delayed. There were a lot of people who missed their planes on 9/1-we saw people still coming off the ship at noon.

[PinaCarada]

My husband and I experienced yesterday's Valor debarkation. First off, our itinerary DID NOT include Belize, so increased screenings of passengers from that port did not apply to us. Our itinerary was Key West, Grand Cayman, and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

 

We were in Debarkation Zone 10 and were "scheduled" to debark between 9-9:15 a.m., according to the Debarkation FAQs left in our room on the last night. They started with Zone 1 around 8-8:30 but met with delays before they could continue calling zones. Goose, the Cruise Director, was very apologetic with his announcements and thanked everyone for our continued patience. Zones 9 and 10 were called at about 11:15 a.m. and we exited the ship in about 10-15 minutes. Once we grabbed our bags, we jumped in the INCREDIBLY long customs line and waited. And waited. We eventually rolled through customs at around 12:30 or so.

 

As far as the reason for the delay, Goose did not give us any concrete information other than it being customs-related (which was obviously true, due to the massive line). We spoke with an entertainment staff member while waiting in the Lido buffet who told us that sometimes, debarkation could be slow due to a shortage in customs agents because of call-offs or multiple cruises arriving (the Liberty had also just arrived). This may have been the case because by the time we made it to the customs booths, they were only about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way manned. We also heard a rumor from another passenger that someone who was in an early zone got caught with an illegal substance from Jamaica, and was whisked away in handcuffs to a police car. Completely possible, but I only heard one lady saying something about it, so it was most likely just a rumor. While walking down the gangway from the ship, my husband and I walked right by a woman trying to get back on the ship because she forgot something in her room. She was pushing past guards and ended up being physically restrained and dragged away from re-boarding.

 

For whatever the reason ended up being, I thought Goose and the staff did a great job keeping us informed over the PA that the delay was on-going. It was obvious the holdup was not something Carnival could control but was customs related. I am glad Carnival offered lunch and buses to the passengers waiting to get on the ship, as there were hundreds of people (and suitcases) gathered outside the terminal in the heat and humidity while our cruise's passengers were still leaving, but I still feel for those passengers who were delayed in embarking on their cruise.

[dave_k63]

They send those out all the time now.

 

Most likely it is a full crew immigration check, which takes time and aren't pre-announced.

 

I wonder how many FTTF purchasers are screaming for the money back right about now.

They had that on our recent cruise out of NOLA - it was not a really big thing - we were still on the ship by about 11:45.

[LHP]

Someone has already posted on Carnival Face page about the "horror" they were going through waiting to board the Valor....

 

they had to wait for 2 hours...

 

:rolleyes:

[cheers]

We saw 3 men removed from the ship in handcuffs at the very beginning of disembarkation. My guess would be drug related and therefore they did a more thorough search causing the delay.

 

Like PinaCarada said, the staff was very apologetic and kept us informed.

 

I'm thankful that I had a 3:15 flight. We got off with zone 14 around 12:30.

[jkjmt]

Valor is not even scheduled for Belize from now through January 2013??? As reported by the post above.....she was on the Valor and it didn't go to Belize. So Belize was not the reason for the delay. Obviously there was a delay.....and it involved customs......but not because of Belize.