Just Back from 12/29 sailing

[saltyclaire]

hi lhugheshome, thank's your for your good review.

 

I am also Canadian, can you tell me a little more about embarkation and disembarkation process for non US ?

 

For embarkation, do we have to wait outside ?

 

Thank you very much !

 

Hi! I'm Canadian also, for the embarkation process they simply separate into two different lines: US and Non-US. I don't know how it was for the US, but it was a breeze for the Non-US. It seemed to me like taking door A instead of door B, but it was the same entrance.

 

For the disembarkation process, basically the same principle: the non-US disembarked through a different line than the US.

 

We were all sent to the theater, we were assigned a colored tag and when they called the tag color, it was your turn to leave and go through customs. The process was slow but not because of the cruise line. The waiting area in the customs office could only accomodate so many passengers at a time. It went smoothly none the less.

 

Hope it helps!

[lhugheshome]

Ro add to this.

 

We arrived very early. It was raining so a planned short trip to Rockefeller Centre to perhaps skate was cancelled. Besides we did not know what to do with the luggage. Instead we headed straight to the pier to wait...cards and other electronic assistance fully charged and ready to go.

 

The terminal is basically one huge hall divided into a couple of sections. There is luggage drop off at the very front. As we were early the porters were still working on disembarkation. We waited only a minute for someone to see us and a porter came quickly to tag and load our luggage on the carts.

 

We were directed by an NCL staffer to the next section. This was basically a large room with hunreds of chairs all lined up in rows. We were the first there. We went to the first row of chairs where another staffer explained to us that if we were U.S. we could check in now at the advance check in kiosk set up at the front of this room. As we are Canadian we had to just sit and wait until the ship was ready for boarding.

 

At about 10:45 the advance kiosks were closed down and moved forward to the next section while coffee and pastries were brought out for the waiting guests. The big waiting room was not at all full at 10:45.

 

Before 11:00 the next section was opened.

 

This section had many more stations where passengers could complete the check in process. The U.S people who completed the process early proceeed directly to the front of this room picked up key cards and boarded the ship. We went to a non-US check=in station...first in line...completed the check-in process which took less than five minutes. We then picked up our key cards and boarded the ship.

 

Before heading to our room to take a look at it we stopped at the Dining reservation desk and made reservations for dinner for New Years and our last night at sea. Because we were so early the choice of times was virtually unlimited.

 

Disembarkation was also easy. As described previously...we waited in the Stardust Theatre for the ship to be cleared and for immigration to get ready. That occurred before 9:00am. Immigration rules require that non US citizens be escorted off the ship. Norwegian controls flow by releasing passengers according to colour coded tags provided to you the last sea day. Passengers are released in this order. Special needs, Suites and then by colour tag starting from the highest deck down to the lowest. We were off the ship first. We were literally first to see immigration...no line. Then went a found our bags. Even though we were the first there the room seemed to have all the bags already in place sorted according to the colour of the tag. It took a minute or two to find all the bags as they were in the same section but not together. A porter helped lift the bags and load onto the cart. He took us straight out of the terminal building where hundreds of Taxis were waiting. He helped us find a van that could handle 4 people four bags and a wheelchair. helped the driver load the taxi and then he headed back to the terminal to assist another passenger. Great guy. We tipped generously because he was very helpful.

 

We were at the airport by 9:30.

 

I saw a few passengers at the airport and asked about their disembarkation. No real complaints from anyone. The best I could tell the ship was pretty much cleared by 10:30. One man indicated that they were pretty much last off the ship. They were not in a hurry so they went to breakfast as late as possible and then took their time and enjoyed it. By the time they left all the colour tags had been called. They were American so they could do this. I think all non-US had to be to the Theatre by 8:30.

 

Hope this helps!