Fort Lauderdale Debarkation Debacle

[POA1]

I haven't noticed any "cutbacks" in government tax and port fees that are added to our cruise fares.

 

They increased the fees in July.

[doublebzz]

They increased the fees in July.

 

That makes sense - increase fees, cutback services.

[sail7seas]

Seems travel keeps getting harder and harder.

After so many Caribbean cruises out of FLL, I know how smoothly and well it can be handled. It is only in the recent past all these delays and inconveniences have arisen. We never used to give a thought to on/off the ship. It was rare when it wasn't smooth, fast and easy. The only delays I recall were clueless fellow guests who didn't pay their bill or rarely a late arrival in port.

[doublebzz]

Seems travel keeps getting harder and harder.

 

The exception being the Port of Miami. They recently opened a tunnel to the port which makes getting to and from the terminals a breeze.

[sail7seas]

HAL never sails out of Miami.

Getting to and from the terminals in Port Everglades is not regularly a problem.

Edited October 27, 2014 by sail7seas

[POA1]

FLL is quite a bit closer to Port Everglades than MIA is to Port Miami, tunnel or not. It's 8.1. miles versus less than 3. That said, it doesn't sound like the cruise lines or the ports' locations are the cause of the delay.

[doublebzz]

Seems travel keeps getting harder and harder.

After so many Caribbean cruises out of FLL, I know how smoothly and well it can be handled. It is only in the recent past all these delays and inconveniences have arisen. We never used to give a thought to on/off the ship. It was rare when it wasn't smooth, fast and easy. The only delays I recall were clueless fellow guests who didn't pay their bill or rarely a late arrival in port.

 

HAL never sails out of Miami.

Getting to and from the terminals in Port Everglades is not regularly a problem.

 

Thanks for educating a 4 star mariner on HAL's departure port.

 

Your comments seem contradictory.

[doublebzz]

FLL is quite a bit closer to Port Everglades than MIA is to Port Miami, tunnel or not. It's 8.1. miles versus less than 3. That said, it doesn't sound like the cruise lines or the ports' locations are the cause of the delay.

 

My thread dealt more from the perspective of transporting friends/relatives to the cruise ports. Port Everglades has been a construction site forever. This, combined with the requirement to check ID's of every person entering the port caused a substantial delay last Sunday. Whether this ID check is going to deter prospective wrongdoer's is problematic. Miami has no such requirement.

[take us away]

Maybe we are just really lucky but we have not had any issues disembarking in San Diego where we routinely make our 11:15 flight, or in Port Everglades. We came off a long cruise in Port Everglades in April with many people who had an unbelievable amount of luggage and looked to be resupplying a store with the amount of their purchases, but the lines moved along quite well (think it was a week day). The people who picked up passengers seemed to have no issues; our friends did not. Did once know about extra port security but the US Navy had a new ship in the harbor as it docked in for emergency repair.

 

Granted disembarkation is slower when the mega ships are also disembarking and was slower before they finished the refurbishment of pier 26 (?).

 

Based on what I have read - hope our luck holds!

Edited October 27, 2014 by take us away

[EbayCruiser]

We just sailed right through self-debarkation on our cruise on the Allure this past September.

 

We left the ship around 6:30 a.m. and was through customs and at the airport by 7:00 a.m. We had a 9:00 a.m. flight and was a little worried but it went great. There were at least four to six customs agents. We only had a wait of 2-3 min. in customs.

 

It seems the larger ships like Oasis and Allure have a well-oiled debarkation system going on. No problems either time and we have had problems on HAL and I do love HAL (my next cruise will probably be back to HAL).

 

Just saying ....

[sail7seas]

Thanks for educating a 4 star mariner on HAL's departure port.

 

Your comments seem contradictory.

 

Loads of people read these threads. Not everyone is a Four Star Mariner. All information is for all to take from whatever they want and to leave whatever means little or nothing to them. Comments are meant to be for one person only or should be said in private.

 

Edited October 27, 2014 by sail7seas

[Typhoon1]

San Diego is terrible.

 

Miami has to be the worst.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I haven't noticed any "cutbacks" in government tax and port fees that are added to our cruise fares.

 

 

You are right.

They cut back on the number of agents but only increase the government tax and port fees.

We got notice a couple of months ago about port taxes going up -- love it when they don't say which port.

[rkacruiser]

The worst disembarkation at Port Everglades that I have experienced was in 2013, Celebrity Eclipse, at Pier 25, using Terminal 22/24 for baggage pick-up and customs clearance. Even there, there were only two Federal Agents. All of this is due to the Federal financial cutbacks to agencies that serve the American public.

 

Write letters, send e-mails, and make phone calls to your United States Senators and member of the United States House of Representatives to lodge your opinion. That is, if you wish to change what is currently taking place at Port Everglades.

[Juanita462]

We did a cruise to Alaska in September and the embarkation took forever as they only had 2 US customs officers for processing the 3 ships going out that day. The lineups were horrendous. coming back we only had to go through the Cdn customs and it was a breeze - several officers on duty and no long line-ups - 3 or 4 minutes and on our way.

So we assumed that there were cutbacks - one of the local HAL workers said it was making a nightmare of embarkation for them.

 

Now, when we came back from our world cruise into Fort Lauderdale we were so thankfull that we had booked afternoon flights!

[swsf99a]

Must be paid by the hour!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Miami has to be the worst.

 

We haven't cruised out of Miami in years.

Hflores -- seems to have had a worst disembarkation in San Diego than what we have experienced.

[HokiePoq]

Have disembarked many times at Fort Lauderdale without problems. Certainly not the worst port in the US when compared to San Diego :eek:

 

We've never had a problem there, either, unlike a disastrous debarkation from SD which involved knee surgery afterward. Maybe it depends on whether your ship is going out the same day as those giants as someone has said.

Thanks to the OP for reporting the problem as this might impact flight times people may schedule in the future.

[ScriptOhio]

Port Everglades may improve customs processing

 

A new agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection could bring more inspectors at peak times

 

July 28, 2014|Sun Sentinel

 

Customs processing for cruise passengers and cargo shipments at Port Everglades is expected to get a boost under a new agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

 

The Fort Lauderdale seaport is one of 16 new partners in a program that allows the private sector and state and local governments to reimburse customs for expanded services to improve inspection times.

 

Port Everglades and other ports have struggled for years with issues of inadequate customs staffing as their passenger traffic grows. The new program allows for the addition of custom officers when port traffic surges, such as the arrival of a late cruise ship or when a shipment of perishable goods must be processed during off hours.

 

"We believe this new U.S. Customs & Border Protection program will be an added value to Port Everglades and our customers," said Glenn Wiltshire, deputy director.

 

The port's customers will be responsible for requesting support and reimbursing the cost of additional services, Wiltshire said. Those customers may include cruise lines, cargo terminal operators and ocean shipping lines.

 

See entire article: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-07-28/business/fl-port-everglades-customs-deal-20140728_1_port-everglades-fort-lauderdale-seaport-customs-and-security-operations

 

Apparently this was just a bunch of "hot air".

 

[Tarpeian Rock]

One of my daughters works in Washington D.C. in the headquarters of a Cabinet-level federal agency. She assures me that there are senior-level employees whose sole job is to unbend paper clips that are bent during boring meetings. And people to supervise them. Against this backdrop, it's hard to imagine how even something as dysfunctional as the Federal Gummint can justify such skeletal staffing in the face of the jumbo-mega ships now calling at FL.

[serendipity1499]

We had Expedited disembarkation so were able to leave our cabin at 0730. We made our way to deck two without difficulty and everyone was affable. We proceeded to the customs area quickly and then the whole scenario turned to crap. Although there were less than 100 folks in front of us, the line was NOT moving. There was a SINGLE federal agent on duty and he was NOT in a hurry. The grumbling was universal and audible. Soon there were several hundred folks behind us and the line snaked back and forth about six rows deep. Eventually, a second agent appeared but he was VERY slowly taking his position. At no time was there any effort on the feds to expedite the process and it was obvious that they had an attitude. The agent that checked us was somber and obviously was not having a good day.

 

We have many cruises under out belts and can never remember the indifference we encountered in FLL today.

 

To top things off, about 50 feet from being cleared by the feds, my wife stopped to put her passport in her purse and a fellow in a white shirt (?HAL agent) started hollering at her to NOT STOP but keep moving.

 

The bottom line is that I agree with the initial post that disembarkation at FLL today was a disaster. Hopefully things will improve...

 

Maybe they are waiting for HAL to pay them off...Delays like this would make me quite Angry...IMO complaints like this should be publicized in the media...

 

This might be a good time for you all to write to your Congressmen with a copy to the Sun Sentinel , Holland America & to Glenn Wiltshire asking why more Customs & Border Protection Agents has not been increased as Mr. Wiltshire stated in July.. (see his press release below) Send your Congressmen & HAL a copy of Mr. Wilshire's July announcement along with your complaint..

 

Port Everglades may improve customs processing

 

A new agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection could bring more inspectors at peak times

 

July 28, 2014|Sun Sentinel

 

Customs processing for cruise passengers and cargo shipments at Port Everglades is expected to get a boost under a new agreement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

 

The Fort Lauderdale seaport is one of 16 new partners in a program that allows the private sector and state and local governments to reimburse customs for expanded services to improve inspection times.

 

Port Everglades and other ports have struggled for years with issues of inadequate customs staffing as their passenger traffic grows. The new program allows for the addition of custom officers when port traffic surges, such as the arrival of a late cruise ship or when a shipment of perishable goods must be processed during off hours.

 

"We believe this new U.S. Customs & Border Protection program will be an added value to Port Everglades and our customers," said Glenn Wiltshire, deputy director.

 

The port's customers will be responsible for requesting support and reimbursing the cost of additional services, Wiltshire said. Those customers may include cruise lines, cargo terminal operators and ocean shipping lines.

 

See entire article: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-07-28/business/fl-port-everglades-customs-deal-20140728_1_port-everglades-fort-lauderdale-seaport-customs-and-security-operations

 

Apparently this was just a bunch of "hot air".

 

 

 

I agree with you, it looks like a bunch of HOT AIR!:(

Edited November 4, 2014 by serendipity1499

[richarduk]

We disembarked Zuiderdam this winter on a Monday in FLL. It was a complete disaster waiting to go through immigration. Not sure now how long it took but it was a LONG time. Things did not get any better once outside. There were no signs and it was very busy.

 

May as well add that check in was even worse. We were in a queue outside for around an hour before we even got through the doors. It was chaos outside and people were both checking in and disembarking.

 

We decided that partly due to the issues above we would not be bothering to come from the UK to FLL again to cruise. The med seems to work much better in our experience, although we did have a really bad disembarkation in Rome this year. Embarkation say for example in Rome, Venice and Barcelona has always been very easy.

Edited November 4, 2014 by richarduk

[Hflors]

We disembarked Zuiderdam this winter on a Monday in FLL. It was a complete disaster waiting to go through immigration. Not sure now how long it took but it was a LONG time. Things did not get any better once outside. There were no signs and it was very busy.

 

I hear you. We were also on a Zuiderdam cruise this past winter, same thing, maybe same cruise.

 

Anyway something I wanted to say. Something odd happened when we were leaving the ship. After waiting about a half hour a man with a couple of kids came into the line and kept saying excuse me and going past the people in the line, then about 4 more people did the same thing, then another 4 people Then about 3 or 4 adults came by doing the same thing. We could see them all ahead of us. And where it really got interesting was where the line narrowed to allow just one person. They all had caught up together and about that time a staff member could see the commotion that was starting to occur. She went up to where the commontion was happening. The group (extended family) were all jumping the line and trying to get up to near the front of the line to the one member of their party that came down when the section was originally called and some of the people in line were blocking their way. The staff member didn't seem too happy and we could see her motion the family to go back to the back of the line which at this time was really really long.

 

Now I can see saving a place for your husband and maybe a child who had to go to the restroom or forgot something and had to go back for it, but save a place for a whole family! Come on! When we got thru Customs Grandma (the one person in line near the front) was sitting off to the side waiting for the rest of the family to catch up! (I'm sure she had a long wait) We were one of the first sections to be called and we didn't get out and on our way (by car) until about 10:30 am.

 

I wish now I had thanked that staff member for doing what I feel is the right thing!

[sapper1]

We will be disembarking on December 21st which, in addition to being a busy Sunday in Port Everglades, is a day the airport will be doubly busy due to the Christmas season.

 

We decided to just book into a hotel when we get off the ship and take an afternoon flight the next day. It will still be busy at the airport but it won't be compounded by multiple ships in port.

 

We won't be in a hurry to get off the ship and won't have the angst of wondering if we will make our flight or not. It is actually a strategy we adopted a few years ago to reduce the stress of travel days and if you have the luxury of time I highly recommend it.

[Hflors]

We will be disembarking on December 21st which, in addition to being a busy Sunday in Port Everglades, is a day the airport will be doubly busy due to the Christmas season.

 

We decided to just book into a hotel when we get off the ship and take an afternoon flight the next day. It will still be busy at the airport but it won't be compounded by multiple ships in port.

 

We won't be in a hurry to get off the ship and won't have the angst of wondering if we will make our flight or not. It is actually a strategy we adopted a few years ago to reduce the stress of travel days and if you have the luxury of time I highly recommend it.

 

Sounds to me like a very good plan! We only live 2 hours away so we were driving. Once we got in the car and got out of the area it was smooth "sailing" to our house!