Dawn - Quick review......and what the heck happened this morning?

[Laszlo]

Sitting at the airport to headed back home. This will be short review, Tampa, Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel. Arrived in Tampa Saturday 16th and stayed at the Marriott, nice hotel, good price. Spent a few hours at the Tampa Aquarium which was also very nice.

Checkin and boarding were easy last Sunday we were group one and boarded around 11:30am, the cruise terminal could you a PA system. The people working there had to shout out the boarding groups. Cabin 11158 was ready by 1pm. The ship is nice however its pretty well worn, at least in our mini suite it was. Chris our room steward was great. We really lucked out on the weather, sunny and hot almost every day. The ports and tours were good, I'll go into more detail in a day or two. Food and shows were very good, service in general was very good. Our room steward told us they were a few dozen people short because of the storm. We had a lot more "older" people on this cruise than we had on our three others. My wife and I are both 50th, fit and active. I guess something happens to you when you get in your 60's and 70's because their were lots of miserable old people around LOL. I think some people just loose all common sense and maybe their minds once they get on a ship. Please remember when taking an elevator the people ON the elevator need to get our PRIOR to you getting on. I saw this time and time again......drove me nuts.

 

In Cozumel they had divers working on the ship, also saw a dive team in Tampa with two divers in the water as we walked off. Couldn't tell what was going on

Anyway overall the cruise was very nice.......

 

Now the bad part....

 

Somewhere along the line our "Closed Loop" cruise turned into and Open cruise. We did not get all the details but we picked up 70 passengers in Mexico. We did "Easy WalkOff" 2 Hours and 10 minutes from getting in line to getting off and to the curb. The people working at the port seemed to be really pissed off that NCL "Sprung this on them. The had 3 agents to handle all the passengers. Not sure what happened.........

Edited November 24, 2013 by Laszlo

[HS_Travel]

We were also disembarking from the Dawn this morning. How does a closed loop vs an open loop cruise change the requirements for immigration/customs? Wouldn't there still be roughly the same amount of passengers disembarking in Tamps? The 3 agents would still have been too few for the regular amount of passengers...

[Laszlo]

I really don't know

What I do know is the three times we came into NYC they must have had a dozen agents checking

 

If Tampa is always like this we are never going back :eek:

[lasefton]

Sitting at the airport to headed back home. This will be short review, Tampa, Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya and Cozumel. Arrived in Tampa Saturday 16th and stayed at the Marriott, nice hotel, good price. Spent a few hours at the Tampa Aquarium which was also very nice.

Checkin and boarding were easy last Sunday we were group one and boarded around 11:30am, the cruise terminal could you a PA system. The people working there had to shout out the boarding groups. Cabin 11158 was ready by 1pm. The ship is nice however its pretty well worn, at least in our mini suite it was. Chris our room steward was great. We really lucked out on the weather, sunny and hot almost every day. The ports and tours were good, I'll go into more detail in a day or two. Food and shows were very good, service in general was very good. Our room steward told us they were a few dozen people short because of the storm. We had a lot more "older" people on this cruise than we had on our three others. My wife and I are both 50th, fit and active. I guess something happens to you when you get in your 60's and 70's because their were lots of miserable old people around LOL. I think some people just loose all common sense and maybe their minds once they get on a ship. Please remember when taking an elevator the people ON the elevator need to get our PRIOR to you getting on. I saw this time and time again......drove me nuts.

 

In Cozumel they had divers working on the ship, also saw a dive team in Tampa with two divers in the water as we walked off. Couldn't tell what was going on

Anyway overall the cruise was very nice.......

 

Now the bad part....

 

Somewhere along the line our "Closed Loop" cruise turned into and Open cruise. We did not get all the details but we picked up 70 passengers in Mexico. We did "Easy WalkOff" 2 Hours and 10 minutes from getting in line to getting off and to the curb. The people working at the port seemed to be really pissed off that NCL "Sprung this on them. The had 3 agents to handle all the passengers. Not sure what happened.........

 

 

We will be on the Dawn in Jan. Would love to hear more about your cruise :D

[dolita22]

My parents were on that cruise and I believe are still in line waiting for their luggage and to get through customs. Ay yi yi. They are going to miss their flight this afternoon, but should hopefully make one tonight.

 

They said they had a wonderful, wonderful cruise, aside from today's experience!

[snow bunny]

Is this the first cruise out of Tampa after the short cruise to no where? If so they might now have been prepared and as for closed versus open loop, what difference does that make? As a Canadian I find we quite often have to show up in the theatre to do a customs check and then clear customs again when getting off! I hope that they figure this out before our HYE cruise as our flight is at 11:55 am!:eek:

 

snow bunny

[NH Cruisers]

What ever difference the closed loop and open loop make I don't know. But obviously it did make some difference.

 

 

I am glad it was at cruises end. At that point I don't care about the inconvienience nearly as much.

 

Jon

[kcwingwalker]

Why were passengers picked up in Mexico?

[time2cruise1]

Why were passengers picked up in Mexico?

 

As posted on the other thread same topic

 

They actually sell 7 day Cozumel to Cozemel in some overseas makets. On the Pearl last year they had British passengers board in Jamacia for 7 days. These are group packages put together by TAs that include a pre or post land stay.

 

The also will sell get on in Tampa off in Cozumel for a week long land land vacation and then catch the ship back the next week.

Edited November 24, 2013 by time2cruise1

[legion3]

As posted on the other thread same topic

 

 

 

The also will sell get on in Tampa off in Cozumel for a week long land land vacation and then catch the ship back the next week.

 

Getting on the dawn in a week, hope this is a one time snafu and they are better prepared the next time. I doubt them getting on should be a problem next week. Wonder if mexican customs will delay us in Coz.:rolleyes: I bet they wont have an issue.

[VideoTech]

Closed Loop = Ship originates from and returns to country of origin (i.e. in this case, Tampa to Tampa) and no one permanently disembarks the ship or embarks he ship in the intermediate port stops.

 

Open Loop = Generally speaking, when a cruise ship doesn't originate from and return to the country of origin, such as on a trans-Atlantic cruise, or a cruise that might originate in Seattle and terminate in Vancouver. Or, in this case, if some of the passengers disembark for an extended stay at one of the port stops.

[vtoria98]

We disembarked this morning at 8 am. As we were in line we realized there were only 4 agents. The ladies that work for the port continued to say it was because there were 3 ships there that day. However its not like it was a surprise that there were 3 ships there.

 

This was clearly a Customs issue not an NCL issue. It took us 40 minutes to go through the line. Tampa has been this way twice now. Port Canaveral is never like this, they always have at least 10 people working the customs line.

 

What a sour way to end a good trip.

[Laszlo]

We will be on the Dawn in Jan. Would love to hear more about your cruise :D

 

Give a me day or so and I'll post a better review of the cruise and the three excursions we took. Two words of advice in Costa Maya.........Maya Chan......costamayabeachresortdotcom. It was Excellent!!!

[angel54321]

Give a me day or so and I'll post a better review of the cruise and the three excursions we took. Two words of advice in Costa Maya.........Maya Chan......costamayabeachresortdotcom. It was Excellent!!!

 

Definitely share more about Maya chan, I want to book us there in March.....

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sailing 3/23/14 on the Norwegian Dawn

[newmexicoNita]

I really don't know

What I do know is the three times we came into NYC they must have had a dozen agents checking

 

If Tampa is always like this we are never going back :eek:

 

I don't think this had anything to do with NCL or open versus closed: It sounds to me like the port authority slipped up. Both our debarkations in NOLA have been nightmares.

[newmexicoNita]

Definitely share more about Maya chan, I want to book us there in March.....

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sailing 3/23/14 on the Norwegian Dawn

 

We did Maya a few years ago and loved it. The best part, being treated like kings and queens. The water and snorkeling are not great, in fact we didn't snorkel at all, but the food, the drinks and the service were the best we have ever had, anywhere.

[Laszlo]

Definitely share more about Maya chan, I want to book us there in March.....

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sailing 3/23/14 on the Norwegian Dawn

 

I be starting a new thread and review tonight, the good the bad and the ugly of the cruise. Our friends cabin was also flooded out on day two of the cruise. More about that tonight

Edited November 25, 2013 by Laszlo

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Are you sure they were passengers and not crew? When crew boards a ship the first time they visit the US they have to go through immigration. We had this on a recent cruise and the whole staff had to clear customs. It was lengthy but they at least were prepared.

[Laszlo]

Are you sure they were passengers and not crew? When crew boards a ship the first time they visit the US they have to go through immigration. We had this on a recent cruise and the whole staff had to clear customs. It was lengthy but they at least were prepared.

 

No I'm not sure. I can only tell you what the TSA agent told me. 70 passengers from Mexico. They did not say what port

[Rdytogo2]

The Concierge said there was a tour group from the UK that joined the cruise in Cozumel and will disembark when the ship returns to Cozumel this week.

 

 

Now for my opinion of the slow process we had getting off the ship.

 

Remember, this is my opinion!

 

There were 3 Customs agents when we went through the customs area (before getting to the luggage area).

 

Instead of swiping our passports through a reader (which is the way they have always done it in the past), they were keying in the passport numbers and then comparing the passport info with the screen info. Next they looked at my wife to compare her photo. Then back to the screen for more checking of something. Then they finally stamped her passport. Repeated the same procedure with my passport. Next looked over the customs form I had filled out, initialed it and gave it back to me. Then a few questions, like did we purchase any liquor, etc. Finally, gave us our passports and indicated that we were OK to go.

 

So, to me, it seemed like an intentional slow down to process each passenger. Perhaps something occurred that may have upset the Customs people.

 

Whatever happened, it sure did make the Dawn late leaving the port. I noticed that the Carnival and HAL ships left on time, so apparently, they did not have the same issue.

 

I have never experienced the customs process to be that slow.

 

We are going on another cruise from Tampa in December on the Brilliance of the Seas. It will be interesting to see what happens on our return.

[Va. Plumber]

Sounds as though the Customs people screwed staffing up or were mad about something. Every time I've sailed there were always a ton of them.

 

Most of the time they merely look at your I.D., take your declaration

and wave you on. Once in a while they will flag some poor soul and proceed to put them through the wringer.

 

With regard to those boarding in Cozumel, that happened on the Star last February. A British travel group was doing a Cozumel to Cozumel loop.

[clean1owner]

Definitely share more about Maya chan, I want to book us there in March.....

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sailing 3/23/14 on the Norwegian Dawn

 

Maya Chan is paradise

They pick you up at the pier and bus you to the resort.

You are assigned a private sitting area.

Drinks are complimentary.

Lunch is made fresh and complimentary

Snorkel gear, Kayaks, and Float Tubes are complimentary

After a fabulous relaxing beach day, they drag you kicking and screaming to the bus that takes you back to the pier.

 

 

 

Looking into our hut

 

 

 

 

Looking out of our hut

 

 

 

A view of the beach

 

 

 

Another view of the beach

 

 

 

 

Drinks on the house!

 

 

[angel54321]

Maya Chan is paradise

They pick you up at the pier and bus you to the resort.

You are assigned a private sitting area.

Drinks are complimentary.

Lunch is made fresh and complimentary

Snorkel gear, Kayaks, and Float Tubes are complimentary

After a fabulous relaxing beach day, they drag you kicking and screaming to the bus that takes you back to the pier.

 

 

 

Looking into our hut

 

 

 

 

Looking out of our hut

 

 

 

A view of the beach

 

 

 

Another view of the beach

 

 

 

 

Drinks on the house!

 

 

 

Looks great! How far is it from the pier???

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Sailing 3/23/14 on the Norwegian Dawn

[Laszlo]

Maya Chan was great!!! Its about 4 miles (30minutes) from the pier. 1/3 of the road is paved the other 2/3 is dirt / sand with huge craters. I felt bad for our taxi driver. The van must have bottomed out a dozen times, it was well worth the bumpy trip

[clean1owner]

Maya Chan was great!!! Its about 4 miles (30minutes) from the pier. 1/3 of the road is paved the other 2/3 is dirt / sand with huge craters. I felt bad for our taxi driver. The van must have bottomed out a dozen times, it was well worth the bumpy trip

 

We actually had a bus pick us up, but it was the same thing. About a 1/2 hour drive, with the last part quite rough.

 

The owners of Maya Chan told us that people pretty much have to take it upon themselves to fix the road washouts after a hard rain.

 

I whole heartedly agree that it is worth the ride!