Delayed boarding - Allure Eastern March 17

[efinand]

Just rec'd this via e-mail:

 

"We are contacting you with important information regarding your upcoming sailing on the Allure of the Seas on March 17th. Due to recent U.S. budget sequestration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffing has been affected, creating a longer immigration processing time for departing guests, and the ship has experienced a later clearance time for arriving guests. Therefore, your check-in window is now between 12:00pm to 3:45pm, which is later than the times published in your cruise documents. Please do not arrive at the terminal prior to 12:00pm. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation, and look forward to welcoming you onboard.":eek:

[Jim PA]

I got the same message. Flight gets in at 9:45, so it looks like I'll have to find something to do! :mad:

[Dolby1000]

We are sailing on April 21, hope this gets resolved before then.

 

Not likely though.

 

OWD

[jakesmom04]

We are sailing on the 14th of April and haven't received anything at this time.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

I wonder if that Customs situation impacts every ship at Port Everglades.

[negc]

I wonder if that Customs situation impacts every ship at Port Everglades.

 

If Customs is cutting back on its staffing, I suspect that it is across the board and not limited to a particular ship or line. Similar problems are likely to occur at airports as well as TSA experiences staffing cuts (despite ALL the time they'll save not searching for small knives:rolleyes:)

[Daghis]

I wonder if that Customs situation impacts every ship at Port Everglades.

I wonder the same thing. I've not heard anything about our boarding of Independence of the Seas on Saturday.

[Trekker954]

If Customs is cutting back on its staffing, I suspect that it is across the board and not limited to a particular ship or line. Similar problems are likely to occur at airports as well as TSA experiences staffing cuts (despite ALL the time they'll save not searching for small knives:rolleyes:)

 

It is not IF, CBP overtime has been cut back big time, lengthing delays at seaports AND Airports to almost double the time it would normally be. At this time its only the overtime that is resulting in the delays. Starting April 21, the furloughs kick in where all CBP staff must take an unpaid day off each pay period. This will likely add to even more delays.

 

I cannot speak directly as to what TSA is cutting, I have heard their overtime is cut as well. I can tell you, when I flew out of Miami on Monday morning, I had never seen the line so long, well outside the ropped off area. Thankfully I have TSA precheck and luckily it was accepted (there is always a 20% chance for a compliance check resulting in getting in line with all the other mopes).

[travelplus]

Haven't got anything about the April 6th Navigator from New Orleans-Rome.

[Beeeeeford]

What was your original check-in time on your cruise documents?

[JeffT237]

We were on the March 3rd sailing on the Allure and we had an 8:15am time to disembark (we were group #32) and it was closer to 10:00 by the time we got through customs. We had a 1:30pm flight from FLL and made it in plenty of time. I did over hear some people who had an 11:00 am flight and they were pretty concerned. The staff in charge of our area said that there were only 4 customs agents due to the sequester and this was causing the long delays. By the time we got to customs it appeared to be about 8 agents, keep in mind there were over 6000 cruisers trying to disembark. Self disembarking early looked like the way to go and I imagine the passengers trying to embark probably got on later than they wanted.

[canadiancruiser13]

Hopefully things would be worked out by our October cruise. One good thing for us is that flying in the day before - we hope that there won't be delays at the airport(s).

[SF]

We also got the same email but for Oasis. Looks like we won't be boarding early:(

[cruisingbooboo]

There are other threads like this going around and the speculation is that it's a scam because of over time cuts....FYI...

[RodPat]

Just came back out of Miami on Reflection last Saturday. Did a B2B and all three Saturdays customs was a mess. On our turnaround day we had 22 people doing a back to back and we had to be escourted off and had to be last off the ship. We could not do this until 11:20. Still took us awhile to get to customs and was finally on about noon. Then they could let people onto the ship. The same was probably the same the week before as we got there about 11 and had to wait until after noon time to board. We were lucky we were staying in a suite so we had seats to sit in, others were standing in line inside the terminal. My advice is try not getting to the port until noon. I woud think that Port Everglades would have the same problems.

 

Pat

[Ocean Boy]

Just came back out of Miami on Reflection last Saturday. Did a B2B and all three Saturdays customs was a mess. On our turnaround day we had 22 people doing a back to back and we had to be escourted off and had to be last off the ship. We could not do this until 11:20. Still took us awhile to get to customs and was finally on about noon. Then they could let people onto the ship. The same was probably the same the week before as we got there about 11 and had to wait until after noon time to board. We were lucky we were staying in a suite so we had seats to sit in, others were standing in line inside the terminal. My advice is try not getting to the port until noon. I woud think that Port Everglades would have the same problems.

 

Pat

 

THen it has nothing to do with sequestration as that only became a possible issue this past Saturday.

[Ocean Boy]

Maybe they should just ground Airforce 1 for awhile and use that money to serve the needs of us tax payers.

[cwilsey]

For anyone who has already been a cruise and have experienced the delay, how bad is it? We received notification yesterday to expect delay on our cruise departing this Sunday (5/5). I have a 5 year old traveling with us so I'm trying to determine how many extra items to pack to keep her occupied if we have to wait a long time to board.

[rsharp83]

There was no delay on boarding Allure April 14. Go as planned. Ignore the email. There is a live boarding thread of that day by Familygoboston and they sailed right through.