Getaway Transatlantic, Most Mishandled Cruise Ever

[hawkeyetlse]

The French - hey - why did they allow +3000 NON EU citizens to enter Europe with no immigration control - that's what gets me - I am with you - close the Borders! Doesn't give us much confidence does it..

No face-to-face entry interview does not equate to "no immigration control". Each country inspects the passenger manifest and decides what kinds of entry procedures to put in place. If there are undesirable people on board, they have options (tell the ship not to let them off, board the ship to arrest them, refuse entry to the whole ship). If the ship is deemed low-risk, the procedures can be relaxed (but still in accordance with EU/Schengen requirements).

 

In this particular case, the ship would have been particularly low-risk given that UK border authorities were supposed to have processed all of the passengers face-to-face on board (and shared any relevant information with France before the ship landed in Brest). As we know, this didn't happen, but someone wanting to sneak into Europe would not have booked this cruise counting on the fact that UK officials would not be able to board.

 

If your position is that the same, full-strength entry protocols should be applied to all arriving travelers, regardless of the circumstances, that is a legitimate opinion. Close the borders, why not. But it is not compatible with the current style of cruising (with one day port stops in a different country every day).

 

I'm sure NCL could have done some things better on this sailing, but the delays in Southampton were due to UK immigration. They know that they cannot process 4000 passengers in a reasonable amount of time upon arrival; that's why immigration officials are embarked ahead of time to process passengers on board. It takes all day (for a medium-sized ship, maybe more for the Breakaway, obviously depending on how many officials there are). If for some reason they don't manage to do it on board, as in this case, you can 100% expect long delays when the ship reaches the UK, no matter how many of the ship's officers are on board managing the lines.

[Bra_BE2014]

That gangway in Brest - my God - how no one was seriously injured beats me - It must have outlawed every health and safety aspect there is! I was petrified going up a "MAX 20 person" gangway which was soaking wet -bouncing like crazy with at least 50 people on it (trying to go up and down at the same time) and again, NOT ONE OFFICER present to control the situation! It was awful just awful!

 

 

How scary [emoji33]

 

 

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[Blondie008]

No face-to-face entry interview does not equate to "no immigration control". Each country inspects the passenger manifest and decides what kinds of entry procedures to put in place. If there are undesirable people on board, they have options (tell the ship not to let them off, board the ship to arrest them, refuse entry to the whole ship). If the ship is deemed low-risk, the procedures can be relaxed (but still in accordance with EU/Schengen requirements).

 

In this particular case, the ship would have been particularly low-risk given that UK border authorities were supposed to have processed all of the passengers face-to-face on board (and shared any relevant information with France before the ship landed in Brest). As we know, this didn't happen, but someone wanting to sneak into Europe would not have booked this cruise counting on the fact that UK officials would not be able to board.

 

If your position is that the same, full-strength entry protocols should be applied to all arriving travelers, regardless of the circumstances, that is a legitimate opinion. Close the borders, why not. But it is not compatible with the current style of cruising (with one day port stops in a different country every day).

 

I'm sure NCL could have done some things better on this sailing, but the delays in Southampton were due to UK immigration. They know that they cannot process 4000 passengers in a reasonable amount of time upon arrival; that's why immigration officials are embarked ahead of time to process passengers on board. It takes all day (for a medium-sized ship, maybe more for the Breakaway, obviously depending on how many officials there are). If for some reason they don't manage to do it on board, as in this case, you can 100% expect long delays when the ship reaches the UK, no matter how many of the ship's officers are on board managing the lines.

 

 

Sorry - but unless you were physically there - please don't even attempt to defend NCL on this one - they were bang bang bang our of order on this cruise - and that immigration process was mishandled beyond levels of acceptance on ALL counts!

[nlstigger]

I was on the Star and they pulled the concierge (Hanno) from the Star mid cruise because of the issues on the Getaway and I believe he transferred to the Getaway on Saturday the 13th.

He told us some of the issues that Getaway was having due to weather and missed (messed up) ports.

 

We had a new concierge for disembarkation (Karen).

[karoo]

I am also on the TA.

 

True, things could be more optimal but none of the mishap were NCL daily fault.

 

The Azores were cancelled due to weather. Brest isn't equipped to handle cruise ship that's why everything you so long. But even with that I stilld managed to be out after about40 minutes and in after an hour.

 

It's not NCL fault that the UK required personal immigration passport checks and what should have been made during 2 full days was crammed into 4 hours. Still, every tour got out and everyone saw what they wanted including a nice day light sailing To Southampton. The delays was due to electric problems and not because we hit anything!!! And it was fixed at Southampton and we were back to full speed after that

 

Because of the delays and screw ups we got 100$ Inc per person (200$ max)! And they managed to have us overnight in Rotterdam with free movement from/to the ship during the night which we used to stroll the city at night. Very nice day light sailing also to the port if Rotterdam.

 

Could things been better, maybe, they can always be, but I still have an awesome cruise and will be sad to debark on Tuesday.

 

 

Not all NCL tours managed to go ahead. The passengers who booked Bath finally got to the buses to be told it was too late and their tour was cancelled. Other passengers were annoyed as their London tour spent a maximum of 30-45 minutes in London. I was on this cruise and there were many disgruntled passengers who felt overall the cruise was disorganized in many ways.

 

 

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[karoo]

I have just arrived home from this cruise and I will agree with the OP - NCL really mishandled every single mishap on this cruise. The lack of officer presence, the appalling lack of safety in Brest, the endless shambolic organisation of getting people through immigration in UK - not an officer in sight and the calls for queuing by deck were ignored - quite frankly it was an appalling example of so called management.

I LOVED the Getaway - the ship - the staff - the bartenders, housekeeping, waiters, food = ten out of ten. The officers - wow - who else saw them on that final day - we really began to think they were just images on the NCL TV channel.. ...

This needs expanding on - but for sure there are thousands of people who will be putting in official complaints about the management of this cruise.

That gangway in Brest - my God - how no one was seriously injured beats me - It must have outlawed every health and safety aspect there is! I was petrified going up a "MAX 20 person" gangway which was soaking wet -bouncing like crazy with at least 50 people on it (trying to go up and down at the same time) and again, NOT ONE OFFICER present to control the situation! It was awful just awful!

Yes, we have done many TAs - more than most - and we expect port drops - it happens.

Its HOW it was handled that was the issue.

The football hooliganism in Rotterdam didn't come close to the riots on the lines on deck 7 - and NOT ONE OFFICER was present - they ALL HID!

And why on earth did France allow non EU citizens to come into the EU ??? That one beats me? I am actually going to raise this subject with our local MSP as to why France allows non EU citizens to come freely into Europe.. Immigration should have been done at the first port of entry into Europe - which was FRANCE!

Guest services actually told me that the UK is no longer a part of the EU - I died laughing...seriously??????????

 

Complaints were ignored - no follow ups by guest services. Hey - not even a plate of strawberries...

No phone call - no response - nada!

Unless you were there - you will never know how badly the events of this cruise were managed.

Fantastic food, ship and crew - The Captain and his sidekicks including guest services, staff captain and hotel director! - nil point!

Cruise director(s) Silas and Tahani = ten out of ten! Good job mateys - the ONLY ones who tried hard to hold it together!

I have never in our history of cruising seen so many people treated so appallingly, and that includes being on a broken down Costa ship -

More to follow on this one - I have no doubt!

NCL must be preparing themselves for the 3800 complaints they are about to receive! I have never heard so many people express such disgust at the same time - one after the other after the other....

If we didn't laugh we would have cried..

Fab ship - fab food - amongst the best in fact..

Officers - shame on you - how funny we all finally got to see some of you as we left the ship

Hey - best debarkation ever!!!! 45 minutes early mind you - but super organised for those with airport transfers - awesome job!

$100 pp does not compensate for the losses and sheer stress and anguish caused.

Lousy job Captain and the beards in Miami calling the shots!

Outcome will go on I am sure,.....

 

 

I was on this cruise and the OP and this poster are spot on. I have done 35 cruises before including 4 recently on the Star with the propulsion problems. Although I still had a great time because the ship itself was fun. I have loved them all, but this cruise is the only one I have ever been glad to debark from- couldn't wait to get off. Each day I would wake and try to be positive, but I've never had to try so hard before. Mismanagement and disorganization across so many areas.

 

 

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Edited May 17, 2017 by karoo

[hamrag]

NCL cannot control Border Control. I am certain the vast majority on board would have been non-EU citizens, and processing them is what takes an inordinate amount of time. How do I know this....we were on the Jade Transatlantic, and Border Control boarded in Ponta Delgada and conducted the processing the following 2 sea days before the port of Cobh. Non-EU citizens made up 90% of passengers and were processed on the 1st sea day and EU citizens the following day. The queues (lines!) were extremely lengthy for Non-EU and it took all day, we heard the frequent announcements on the tannoy system. For EU the whole process was completed within an hour, ours took all of 15 seconds!

 

So, it seems to me that process was outwith NCL control. The USA has an equally stringent process for non USA citizens entering their borders, so this is no different.

 

With regard to mis-management of the various issues with weather etc. that is another story and I absolutely believe that to have been the case. Why do I know....we were on the October 9th Breakaway cruise scheduled for Bermuda which was affected by Hurricane Matthew. We ended up in NYC overnight, and were taken to beautiful (not) Port Canaveral and Nassau (yuk) instead. Mutiny almost broke out, and management of the situation was shambolic and the officers were in hiding also, similar to what seems to have been the case here!

 

I sympathise with the OP, having experienced similar pain but NCL have no say on how Border Control does their job.

[hawkeyetlse]

Sorry - but unless you were physically there - please don't even attempt to defend NCL on this one - they were bang bang bang our of order on this cruise - and that immigration process was mishandled beyond levels of acceptance on ALL counts!

Could you suggest concretely what could have been done on board to make the immigration process go more smoothly in Southampton?

 

First of all, you mentioned that people were called off the ship deck by deck, but everyone just tried to go at the same time. I'm sure that's what happened — I've witnessed this sort of thing myself, many times — but what would you suggest the ship's staff and officers do about it, concretely?

 

Second, you wondered why NCL didn't arrange a separate line for UK passport holders. That's not necessarily a bad idea, and it could be implemented in a number of ways. What would be the best way to do it, in your opinion?

[Dukemstr]

I have just arrived home from this cruise and I will agree with the OP - NCL really mishandled every single mishap on this cruise. The lack of officer presence, the appalling lack of safety in Brest, the endless shambolic organisation of getting people through immigration in UK - not an officer in sight and the calls for queuing by deck were ignored - quite frankly it was an appalling example of so called management.

I LOVED the Getaway - the ship - the staff - the bartenders, housekeeping, waiters, food = ten out of ten. The officers - wow - who else saw them on that final day - we really began to think they were just images on the NCL TV channel.. ...

This needs expanding on - but for sure there are thousands of people who will be putting in official complaints about the management of this cruise.

That gangway in Brest - my God - how no one was seriously injured beats me - It must have outlawed every health and safety aspect there is! I was petrified going up a "MAX 20 person" gangway which was soaking wet -bouncing like crazy with at least 50 people on it (trying to go up and down at the same time) and again, NOT ONE OFFICER present to control the situation! It was awful just awful!

Yes, we have done many TAs - more than most - and we expect port drops - it happens.

Its HOW it was handled that was the issue.

The football hooliganism in Rotterdam didn't come close to the riots on the lines on deck 7 - and NOT ONE OFFICER was present - they ALL HID!

And why on earth did France allow non EU citizens to come into the EU ??? That one beats me? I am actually going to raise this subject with our local MSP as to why France allows non EU citizens to come freely into Europe.. Immigration should have been done at the first port of entry into Europe - which was FRANCE!

Guest services actually told me that the UK is no longer a part of the EU - I died laughing...seriously??????????

 

Complaints were ignored - no follow ups by guest services. Hey - not even a plate of strawberries...

No phone call - no response - nada!

Unless you were there - you will never know how badly the events of this cruise were managed.

Fantastic food, ship and crew - The Captain and his sidekicks including guest services, staff captain and hotel director! - nil point!

Cruise director(s) Silas and Tahani = ten out of ten! Good job mateys - the ONLY ones who tried hard to hold it together!

I have never in our history of cruising seen so many people treated so appallingly, and that includes being on a broken down Costa ship -

More to follow on this one - I have no doubt!

NCL must be preparing themselves for the 3800 complaints they are about to receive! I have never heard so many people express such disgust at the same time - one after the other after the other....

If we didn't laugh we would have cried..

Fab ship - fab food - amongst the best in fact..

Officers - shame on you - how funny we all finally got to see some of you as we left the ship

Hey - best debarkation ever!!!! 45 minutes early mind you - but super organised for those with airport transfers - awesome job!

$100 pp does not compensate for the losses and sheer stress and anguish caused.

Lousy job Captain and the beards in Miami calling the shots!

Outcome will go on I am sure,.....

 

 

I honestly can't understand people. If you would have moved yourself to guest services at deck 6 when they announced the delays and cancellations you would have seen all of them!

The captain even made an impromptu q&a in the atrium and was there for almost an hour responding to passengers who were rather calm and understand that **** happens sometimes special with this kind of special itinerary were there is long distance and new one time ports of calls. As it's not its usual journey.

The proof is the debarkation was spot on as it was it's regular home port. Even better than Miami from what I heard.

I have seen the hotel director several times during the cruise with a pocket book in hand always ready to help

I personally requested some refund from guest services and was promptly dealt the next day To my satisfaction. And mind you I was in s studio not a fancysuite .

So I suggest you don't libel person for no reason.

[Blondie008]

I honestly can't understand people. If you would have moved yourself to guest services at deck 6 when they announced the delays and cancellations you would have seen all of them!

The captain even made an impromptu q&a in the atrium and was there for almost an hour responding to passengers who were rather calm and understand that **** happens sometimes special with this kind of special itinerary were there is long distance and new one time ports of calls. As it's not its usual journey.

The proof is the debarkation was spot on as it was it's regular home port. Even better than Miami from what I heard.

I have seen the hotel director several times during the cruise with a pocket book in hand always ready to help

I personally requested some refund from guest services and was promptly dealt the next day To my satisfaction. And mind you I was in s studio not a fancysuite .

So I suggest you don't libel person for no reason.

 

And why on earth would I remove myself from my place in the eternal line to go to deck 6-

I asked one crew could they please ask for an officer to go down the line, asking people to show their passport as every person's passport had a sticker with the deck number on it, and if they were not in the appropriate line, could they go to the public areas as directed and come back when their deck was called. This assistant responded to me on this very positively saying he quote "thought this was a great idea" but he would have to contact his supervisor.

No, my suggestion didn't happen - and their response was merely for the cruise director to once again ask people to wait in public areas until their deck was called.

There were NO OFFICERS in the line area - and no, no one did the suggested "show your deck number".

There were chants of FOURTEEN FOURTEEN FOURTEEN going on (ie if you were not on deck 14 you should not be there). There were three men in front of us (and another lovely party whom became close family by the end of the line haha) - who said to me "what the h&ll does that mean" I answered saying, well - there are thousands of people in this line and clearly not all are on deck 14 - He said to me "Well we are not on fourteen - what the F are YOU going to do about it!"......:mad:

It was this kind of behaviour - oh and the "I just need to go to the restrooms" which went on and on and on and on.

I asked a crew member - look - if we leave the line, just forget about getting off today - and go to the spa - what time should we come back to ensure we go through immigration,,, his answer was precisely "urm say 3 o clock (it was half past three at this point), 4 o clock, 5 o clock - eeeeeeeeeeh - just wait - you need to stay here to do your immigration"

In hindsight now we would have walked away from the line and just gone sat in a bar until it all blew over.

And yes, I was cross that as a UK citizen - I was standing in a ridiculous line to enter my own country. In the USA we are made to go through long slow non eu queues - whilst USA residents whizz by -

There were only 70 Brits on board, we did not require passport stamps - why did they not just call us and let us all go in ten minutes.

 

Deck 6 may well have had officers who knows - the chaos and where they were needed was on deck 7! We ASKED the lower crew member who was at the midship stairway could an officer come up to deck 7 - it totally needed crowd control it was beyond acceptable - and yes - something else happened to me in this queue which I am not discussing here -

 

I am not an angry person by nature. If the crew had been up front with us to start with we could have gone away to the spa for the day and just R&Rd - but he specifically told us to stay in our line as we needed to do immigration as per the instructions...

 

Perhaps you were happy with the missing of Brugges and the overnight in Rotterdam - I have zero longing to return to Amsterdam - and Rotterdam was also in riots due to the football - oh and shops closed....

Brugges - I adore - and would rather have had a late arrival in beautiful brugges, than yet another wasted port. (ie Rotterdam) - Amsterdam might appeal to you, but to many of us Brits we have been there, seen the stag and hen parties, wore the t-shirts and never will return.

I am not sure what deck you were on but clearly you were one of the FEW polite people who actually waited on their deck number being called.

 

Hundreds of people were calling for an officer to come up. There were two security officers at the mid stairways (they never budged from there just leaned elbows over railing chit chat chit chat) - and many of us approached them to ask for some control -

we were ALL ignored.

A REALLY nice Australian man - he tried - polite, courteous and in a nice manner - he too was ignored...

Women tried - we all bloomin tried.....

Say what you like but again but please hear me yet again there were NO OFFICERS IN THIS CHAOS!

deck 6 was not the deck of the mayhem......... It was I would imagine full of the nicer people who actually followed the guidelines..

It was simple - one officer - walk the line - show your passport - if you are not on the deck called, remove yourself until such time you are.,

Enough said......

[Blondie008]

Could you suggest concretely what could have been done on board to make the immigration process go more smoothly in Southampton?

 

First of all, you mentioned that people were called off the ship deck by deck, but everyone just tried to go at the same time. I'm sure that's what happened — I've witnessed this sort of thing myself, many times — but what would you suggest the ship's staff and officers do about it, concretely?

 

Second, you wondered why NCL didn't arrange a separate line for UK passport holders. That's not necessarily a bad idea, and it could be implemented in a number of ways. What would be the best way to do it, in your opinion?

 

 

Think I have answered this in another post. Many of us suggested that an officer walk the line asking people to show the front of their passports as ALL had a sticker on them which showed your deck number,

We asked that those who were clearly in line long before their deck was called, were asked to go remain in the public areas as directed.

A lower grade office said to me he thought this was a good idea but he would need permission from his supervisor - that of course was never granted,

Instead - there were thousands of irate people - and no officer presence - NOT ONCE on deck 7 did any officer walk that line!

Not one officer checked on the safety of their guests - One lady told me the battery on her husbands oxygen was running low - he hated using his oxygen but was getting anxious and required it - and she finally left the line to find an officer (presumably on deck 6) to have her and her husband pulled from the line.

I can also tell you - there were others "pulling strings" who were lead through kitchens and brought out in the Tropicana - and they were NOT ill people...... I guess it was a "who's who" situ on that one... One guy bragged about this to me later that day - hmmmm -

 

To make matters worse, we had been in the line earlier on, and left it as one crew member told us it was for shore excursions - at THAT point - there were chaps from decks 5+6 who were NOT on a shorex sat there ..... we know that for a fact....

We left for O sheehans and waited for our deck (14) to be called - which - was the CORRECT and POLITE thing to do.

The problem is when we returned more than half the ship and some had got in line ...

One crew member told me if we were deck 14 to go up to the front but that was met with abuse abuse abuse along the way - so we found a safe stop and hung fire.

We were now half the length of the ship behind where we were originally -

That wasn't the point. We smiled through it, met some lovely folks, and at least crew came with cold juices and waters for us at some point ...

I really felt sorry for the people who had booked tours and had no chance of seeing their once in a lifetime experience to London - and elderly people standing for hours and been shoved and shuffled by rude people.

Uk residents could easily have been cleared in under 15 minutes, how difficult would that have been huh? Its not rocket science. Small room - one appointed official - 15 minutes, job done.

What gets me is there was NO back up plan for the Azores not being a possibility. In over twenty years of TA cruising we have STILL never made it into the Azores - In fact, we always joke that they don't really exist they are just a dot on the globe lol

NCL must have that knowledge - there was no back up plan

Just one mishmash after another....

Edited May 18, 2017 by Blondie008

[hawkeyetlse]

Think I have answered this in another post. Many of us suggested that an officer walk the line asking people to show the front of their passports as ALL had a sticker on them which showed your deck number,

Could you say more about these stickers? How did these get on people's passports? What were they for?

 

The problem with your idea is that once word gets around that they are checking stickers, people will just peel off the stickers. Or even if they don't, every person that you catch from the wrong deck will have a story about how they are with someone from the right deck and they absolutely have to stay together, or how they have some other special situation and so-and-so gave them permission to get in line early…

 

It does sound like the people in line were in a foul mood, but if you sent officers to start pulling people out of line, you would have a full-blown riot… That's why they don't do anything. The problem is the passengers. Not all of them, but some consistently large proportion of them.

 

Uk residents could easily have been cleared in under 15 minutes, how difficult would that have been huh? Its not rocket science. Small room - one appointed official - 15 minutes, job done.

There may be restrictions on doing this board if the ship is actually docked in the UK, but yes, they could have escorted you all off as a group at an appointed time. It's not something I would expect the ship to think of doing spontaneously (especially since they weren't planning to have to do immigration in Southampton in the first place). But in the future if UK guests find themselves in this situation, it would be something to suggest on board, before the day.

 

What gets me is there was NO back up plan for the Azores not being a possibility. In over twenty years of TA cruising we have STILL never made it into the Azores - In fact, we always joke that they don't really exist they are just a dot on the globe lol

NCL must have that knowledge - there was no back up plan

Again, what is your concrete suggestion of a back-up plan? Board the UK immigration officials in Miami? Airlift them onto the ship in the mid-Atlantic?

 

I'm afraid the back-up plan, if they are unable to do UK immigration on board, is to do it in port when the ship reaches the UK. Or in this case, I suppose they could have cancelled Southampton. Would that have been an acceptable back-up plan for you?

[TABG]

Wei just got off the Getaway and the transatlantic cruise and if it wasn't for the travel agents who simply think they know more than anyone else and want to start trouble the issues would have just died. Mother nature does not ask the captain or NCL if is alright to have weather conditions a certain way, it just happens. The gangway was not that steep (we actually waited to enter the ship that way to see for ourselves) and we simply went right up without issue and everyone else could have done the same thing if they simply walked and with crew assisting there was no problem other than people trying to make the situation worse. Yes, a problem for passengers in wheelchairs but the majority of passengers just wanted to make the situation worse. Ports of call being cancelled once again mother nature and the captain making the decision to avoid damaging the ship. Could this be where the damage to the engine took place, possibly but things break without warning all the time. The last thing a captain wants to do is cancel a port of call so this takes a lot of time and analysis to make the decision which generally involves many people not just him.

 

If the big mouth TAs on board would have kept their opinions to themselves everyone would have had a wonderful time. There lack of professionalism came through and once again gives good TAs a bad name (yes, I am a certified TA).

[Blondie008]

Could you say more about these stickers? How did these get on people's passports? What were they for?

 

The stickers were put on our passports at check in in Miami - I actually wondered whether or not that was "proper" - as I thought (could be wrong) there were rules in regards to placing stickers on passports?

I have no idea why this was done - first time ever for sure for us - there seemed to be colour codes also, and your cabin number was on the sticker.

The problem with your idea is that once word gets around that they are checking stickers, people will just peel off the stickers. Or even if they don't, every person that you catch from the wrong deck will have a story about how they are with someone from the right deck and they absolutely have to stay together, or how they have some other special situation and so-and-so gave them permission to get in line early…

 

I agree - you are probably right...

 

It does sound like the people in line were in a foul mood, but if you sent officers to start pulling people out of line, you would have a full-blown riot… That's why they don't do anything. The problem is the passengers. Not all of them, but some consistently large proportion of them.

 

It was indeed not far short of being a riot..... it was insane - just madness...

There may be restrictions on doing this board if the ship is actually docked in the UK, but yes, they could have escorted you all off as a group at an appointed time. It's not something I would expect the ship to think of doing spontaneously (especially since they weren't planning to have to do immigration in Southampton in the first place). But in the future if UK guests find themselves in this situation, it would be something to suggest on board, before the day.

 

Again, what is your concrete suggestion of a back-up plan? Board the UK immigration officials in Miami? Airlift them onto the ship in the mid-Atlantic?

 

I guess I thought immigration could have been done in France - It was the first port of entry. How do they do it in the Azores? Couldn't France have carried out the procedure - or indeed - UK customs boarded in Brest - ?? I don't know - I just know it was a mess and honesty would have been the best policy all round.

I don't understand why France can accept foreign visitors and the UK cannot ....

As I say, something I will raise with our MSP.

I'm afraid the back-up plan, if they are unable to do UK immigration on board, is to do it in port when the ship reaches the UK. Or in this case, I suppose they could have cancelled Southampton. Would that have been an acceptable back-up plan for you?

 

 

Sure, why not, for me personally - but I am not that selfish that I would wish the +3000 people who wanted to visit London denial of that opportunity - although I doubt any of them actually made their tours anyway....

 

Rotterdam had a 24 hour stop - perhaps could have organised immigration there.

Is the UK the only European country to offer customs services???

But hey - I was told the next day at guest services we are no longer in the EU

what absolute nonsense...

[zqvol]

I find a lot of what is in this thread to be nothing more than complaining for the sake of complaining and trying to find reasons to blame NCL for things that are out of their control.

 

First to suggest that the captain did not know the tide height in port is ludicrous. I can guarantee you that the captain knew the tides, and knew that the ship and passengers could easily handle them. The only complaint that I can see here is that you had to walk up a higher gangway than you are used to doing. I suggest that you sail some of the luxury lines where you have to go up a stair way to board the ship from a tender instead of up a slopped ramp.

 

Customs issues are solely within the control of the country where you are arriving. NCL has NOTHING to do with them, and really has no way to control when passengers chose to get in a line. If NCL had tried to remove people from line that did not belong there, they would have caused more problems than they solved.

 

As far as officers walking the lines, that is not their job. That is what the hotel staff is supposed to do.

 

I suspect that the complainers in these thread are the biggest part of the problem and not any part of the solution. Seems to me that they want something simply because life happens.

[Shawnino]

How would pissing off TA passengers save NCL money? I would be mad about waiting in the rain for 4 hours, but I don't get why you think it somehow saved money for the company, especially when the ship was somehow damaged in the process.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Forums mobile app

 

Keeping passengers on board jacks up revenue in casinos, spa, etc.

[zqvol]

. . .

But hey - I was told the next day at guest services we are no longer in the EU

what absolute nonsense...

 

Won't that be the case in about 6 months?

[hawkeyetlse]

The U.K. is not in Schengen, so they maintain additional entry procedures even if the ship already went through immigration in France or Portugal (which it did, even though they didn't make everyone line up and see an immigration officer face to face).

 

France cannot carry out U.K. immigration procedures. There was no point boarding U.K. agents in Brest, because there would have been no time to do immigration on board, with the stop in Southampton scheduled for the following morning. They were originally supposed to do it during the two or three sea days after the Azores (I'm guessing the stickers on your passports were somehow supposed to be useful during that process). It takes a long time to get 4000 people cleared to enter the U.K., because your borders are closed. I was under the impression that you were happy about that?

[Blondie008]

The only complaint that I can see here is that you had to walk up a higher gangway than you are used to doing. I suggest that you sail some of the luxury lines where you have to go up a stair way to board the ship from a tender instead of up a slopped ramp.

 

 

quote]

 

I have to tell you as a commercial fisherman who is used to working in 30 foot tides and wild seas - your comment is hilarious!

THAT gangway when overloaded with passengers going up and down on it at the same time in the pissin rain was treachourous!

I am fully able -

The gangway would have been fine if it was monitored correctly - but as has been said - it was a shambolic mess...

When we got off early on it was pretty fine - one way traffic - no problem to able bodied people as we are..

Getting back on - it outlawed every safety regulation there is.. I just kept head down and squeezed on by as fast as I could to make It safely to the top - squeeze being the operative word - for some coming down were as wide as the gangway itself!

It was a 20 person gangway with at LEAST 50 going up and down in wet slippy surface - bouncing in the wind - ......

What is it with CC people who feel the need to fight at every opportunity?

I LOVED the Getaway as I said - and 90% of our cruise was amazing -

It was the lack of honesty and safety that disappointed me - it was - no matter who says what - a total mess!

Give me strength!

Edited May 18, 2017 by Blondie008

[Blondie008]

The U.K. is not in Schengen, so they maintain additional entry procedures even if the ship already went through immigration in France or Portugal (which it did, even though they didn't make everyone line up and see an immigration officer face to face).

 

France cannot carry out U.K. immigration procedures. There was no point boarding U.K. agents in Brest, because there would have been no time to do immigration on board, with the stop in Southampton scheduled for the following morning. They were originally supposed to do it during the two or three sea days after the Azores (I'm guessing the stickers on your passports were somehow supposed to be useful during that process). It takes a long time to get 4000 people cleared to enter the U.K., because your borders are closed. I was under the impression that you were happy about that?

 

 

Thank you for the explanation- rgrds.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Blondie008]

Won't that be the case in about 6 months?

 

No - going to be a good bit longer - possibly even 2-3 years - who knows

BUT - at least we know its coming :)

[FitchburgWIFamily]

I don't know if I can get behind the worst cruise ever...but I did wonder when I heard that the Getaway was doing the Baltics if European ports were really the best suited to the larger ships. Seems to me that some of the problems are because we are trying to fit a square peg (large ship, 4000 passengers) in a round hole (smaller ports not used to such large volumes). A single gangway would not be an issue on a Dawn Class ship, a lot more people could have disembarked close to on time. 2000 passengers could have been cleared by customs sooner than 4000.

 

If I am right, the good news is, ports will start to adjust (the round hole will get a little squarer) and NCL will adjust (the square peg will round off) over time, and eventually things will even out.

 

Sad for the original poster that they got the brunt end of this.

[Loonbeam]

Answered above...

 

Especially with the beverage program, the lost percentage of high margin excursion revenue in any given port except maybe 1 or 2 in the carib far exceeds any additional onboard revenue.

 

Excursion and PSG revenue in a med port, on the ship the size of the Getaway could easily be $65K (if just half the passengers take an excursion where the ship makes $25 per that's $50K - most contracts call for port shopping placement fees to be discounted or credited as well, usually about $15K per ship per port in that area - again Caribbean is less). Also, costs to obtain that revenue are almost nil (basically the costs of arranging vendor contracts which are spread over many cruises, the staff for the excursions desks and the port shopping staff).

 

 

It would take a lot of spa visits, gambling and additional drinks to make up $65k in revenue at a much higher cost. (Just to put it in perspective, ships rent their Spa space to outside companies for a fixed fee plus percentage of sales - same for shops in most cases and agree to transport and feed the staff - so those costs are fixed. The revenue share is typically 10-15 percent, which means to make up $50K in lost shore excursion revenue they need around $400,000 in spa additional sales. That's a lot of extra massages.)

 

 

 

Keeping passengers on board jacks up revenue in casinos, spa, etc.

[hamrag]

Won't that be the case in about 6 months?

 

Nope!!

[Ramzister]

I was on this cruise and for those NCL defenders that think everything was handled properly, I would like to disagree.

Since NCL was planning on 2 whole days of on-board UK passport checks with agents picked up in the Azores, couldn't they be brought on board by the pilot boat, and proceed as planned?

 

I normally don't purchase ship sponsored tours, but in this case I purchased months in advance the Buckingham Palace Tour. This afforded us the opportunity to see the Palace, changing of the Guards, and free time to shop.

Due to the Immigration snafu, I received updated tickets with an earlier meeting time in the main theater. Upon awakening early Friday morning, I noticed revised tickets again saying my tour was cancelled and if I would like to

try something else, the Tour Desk opened at 9:00.

 

I went down at 8:00 and the line had already started. When it was my turn, the only option for London was the Tower of London Tour, Crown Jewels, and free time for meal and shopping, a total of 9 hours. I said that is OK and made my purchase. Organized NCL Tours had UK Immigration preference and I was advised that everything was being taken care

of and we would get our full tour.

 

Well, there were 2 meeting places and they filled up rapidly. I was assigned to the main theater and here things got wonky. Instead of instead of sending the groups that had purchased a definite activity and purpose to proceed to Customs, they released the 6-7 busses of those purchasing the London on your Own Tour. After sitting and waiting for hours, we finally reached our bus at 3:00. Of course now, with traffic, we arrived at the London Tower after a 3.75 hour

trip to find it closed.

 

We received a quick 35 minute excursion around the outside, 20 minutes for a quick bite, and back on the bus at 8:00 for the ride back to the ship. I complained to the Hotel Director waiting at the pier and in return, I only had to pay 50%.

Big joke, as I received nothing even close to what was promised.