Sitting at Port Everglades port. Playing the waiting game

[cruzncouple]

I have been on numerous cruises, sailed out of several different ports. Never have I been so disappointed as I am right this minute with Royal Caribbean. Thousands of us waiting to board at 12:30 pm. No announcements, no apologies. Nothing! Not impressed with the service here at All! People are getting restless, and irritated, thousands of people standing outside waiting to get in.

[LHT28]

A good reason NOT to go to the port early ;)

[runner15km]

My yard is full of snow and the temp is 25f. :eek: I would trade places with you and deal with your pending delay any day.:D

Edited January 30, 2016 by runner15km

[Kamloops50]

My yard is full of snow and the temp is 25f. :eek: I would trade places with you and deal with your pending delay any day.:D

 

Same here.

[Kathie13]

Have you boarded yet?

[boobuds]

Hey guys, I actually work at Park 'N Go so I don't post on here but I thought Royal deserved a little back up on this. The rumor is that customs had a discrepancy with all the ships today. We don't know all the details but it was bad. It really delayed people coming off the ships. We are usually done with pick ups around 11:00. We were still picking people off the ships today around 2:00!! That has only happened once or twice and I have been here a long time.

 

The port was so backed up it took our shuttles almost 1 hr to drop customers off. The ships were doing their best to deal with what was happening. Anyways, when you travel on a busy weekend expect delays (not usually this bad) but remember you are going on a cruise! No need to rush, you're on vacation! Royal has a great reputation and I bet this guy will be treated like a king on board.

 

PS: Thanks to all the people who have talked about us on here and spreading the word, we here about it at work. Have a great and happy year of cruising <3 :)

[DanJ]

I disembarked the Oasis this morning and when we left at 815, I looked at the security screen as we were scanned off, and the ship was almost half off by then. And we were a touch delayed getting back because of our medical detour to Nassau Friday night. Can't say our ship was slow based on any outside factors, but of course that doesn't mean another ship didn't have some delay for whatever reason. I believe I counted 6 ships there Saturday morning as well.

[Keith1010]

Yes, this sometimes happens with customs as various USA Ports.

 

It's not fun if you are waiting to board but as they say part of the cruising experience.

 

Keith

[BlueHerons]

I disembarked the Oasis this morning and when we left at 815, I looked at the security screen as we were scanned off, and the ship was almost half off by then. And we were a touch delayed getting back because of our medical detour to Nassau Friday night. Can't say our ship was slow based on any outside factors, but of course that doesn't mean another ship didn't have some delay for whatever reason. I believe I counted 6 ships there Saturday morning as well.

 

I wonder if many people missed their flights?

 

My office is on Las Olas and I worked late last night with clients and we couldn't believe the amount of people out and about on the street. A Saturday night in season is going to be busy but Las Olas last night was almost impassible by car and on foot.

 

It was nuts.

[DanJ]

I wonder if many people missed their flights?

 

 

In our case, there shouldn't have been any missed flights if people paid attention to what was going on. For example, our flight was at 1140 from FLL. The luggage tags we were given had a departure time of 945. I knew that was a problem so I went down and was given #3 tags, with an 815 departure. I could have done the self assist, but also didn't want to have to leave between 630 and 8 (I didn't even get up until 7) because Southwest doesn't let you check in until you are within 3 hours. If others just took the tags they were given and had flights before 1 in the afternoon, they might have had issues.

 

Our first time dealing with Oasis, so I'm not sure if Saturday was a normal scene or not. There were certainly a lot of immigration booths closed, but not sure how many they staff on a given day anyway, or was immigration stretched thin because of the number of ships? The ship that had the issues was the Independence, and I think a large part of that was the fact it was a charter and it went to Jamaica. The Zumba Cruise would attract a younger clientele than a typical cruise would, and with Jamaica being a port, that might have perked up the interest of customs, who may have paid a little more attention to that ship. But there was also a large group off that ship that were on our flight at 1140 as well.

Edited January 31, 2016 by DanJ

[royalcruz]

Things happen. I've cruised about 40 times out of Port Everglades and just 3 times there have been problems that delayed boarding until mid to late afternoon (RC and Celebrity): norovirus deep cleans, passengers from the previous cruise were missing, and intensive customs inspections after transatlantic disembarkation. They let as many people inside as they can and the rest end up upside. If the delay continues into the afternoon, they usually offer free bottled water and snacks. There are some things the cruiselines cannot control.

[foflocruiser]

Hey guys, I actually work at Park 'N Go so I don't post on here but I thought Royal deserved a little back up on this. The rumor is that customs had a discrepancy with all the ships today. We don't know all the details but it was bad. It really delayed people coming off the ships. We are usually done with pick ups around 11:00. We were still picking people off the ships today around 2:00!! That has only happened once or twice and I have been here a long time.

 

The port was so backed up it took our shuttles almost 1 hr to drop customers off. The ships were doing their best to deal with what was happening. Anyways, when you travel on a busy weekend expect delays (not usually this bad) but remember you are going on a cruise! No need to rush, you're on vacation! Royal has a great reputation and I bet this guy will be treated like a king on board.

 

PS: Thanks to all the people who have talked about us on here and spreading the word, we here about it at work. Have a great and happy year of cruising <3 :)

 

 

 

The ship was 45 minutes late tying up, can't always blame on Customs

[boobuds]

The delays were at every ship. Not sure what you mean by "can't always blame customs". That is what we were being told by people working in the port. There were 5 ships on Saturday and the line to get into mid-port was backed up past the security gate on state road 84. We had over 22 shuttles running and they were stuck in line for over an hr. That is not because a ship got in late. Ships arrive late quite often.

[foflocruiser]

The delays were at every ship. Not sure what you mean by "can't always blame customs". That is what we were being told by people working in the port. There were 5 ships on Saturday and the line to get into mid-port was backed up past the security gate on state road 84. We had over 22 shuttles running and they were stuck in line for over an hr. That is not because a ship got in late. Ships arrive late quite often.

 

 

believe me on this one...the other 3 ships that ran late...had nothing to do with customs.

Edited February 2, 2016 by foflocruiser

[boobuds]

A lot of people said they waited in line for customs for over 3 hours. It happened Sunday also, just not as bad. Anyways, the point is to chill out and have fun on your cruise.