Huge Problems / possible Epic issue at Cruise port in SanJuan??

[dporter]

We will be on the Epic in February, I hope that by then they have worked out some of these logistics. It's always a challenge when ships reposition even if they have been in those ports the year before.

 

Either way we will have a fantastic time because let's face it we will be on vacation which is better than being at work any day.

[dexddd]

I was wondering how this was going to work.  We sailed gem out of Pan Am pier and it was a mess.  There were two ships there and the area was not designed for that much traffic.  Getting in took long time.  Then waited just at end of the covered area shown previously.  That took about 45 minutes to get through set of doors then through four?? scanners then into very crowded waiting area and that was 10 in the a.m.  Luggage taken just as you go through doors so you have to carry luggage whole way.

 

With ship size of Epic this will be a repeat story each week unless they move to OSJ docks.

[Crusin GTR]

10 minutes ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

Epic is not the only NCL ship I have been on nor is NCL the only line I have sailed with.  I still have yet to see an issue posted in the thread that is an issue that only the Epic has experienced. 

Seems like criticism of the Epic is personal.  Hope it wasn't designed by a relative.  You want ship issues? Fair enough, here are just a few 1) Lacks indoor public sail-away/viewing lounges. (like Spinnaker on Jade, Observatory Lounge on Spirit, and like MOST cruise lines have). The Garden Cafe is located where this would make sense  2) Lobby bar used as sooo many venues other than a lounge, including overly loud movies, trivia, etc, with precious little music or ability to sit and chat.  This is a space I usually love 3) O'Sheehan's separated port and starboard by food vs drink. Food only on starboard, drink on port. Want a burger and a beer at bar? Not on Epic, yes on other ships.  3) Open casino makes for spoke smell when eating in open area of Taste and throughout exposed areas 4) Limited bars/lounges for 4500 passengers 5) Drink service cuts off in Headliners during comedy and music performances because bar built too close to stage and disrupts performers.  Those a re just a few unique challenges onboard Epic.  But it's your good money to spend on the Epic, so enjoy her and don't take it personally.  

[leaveitallbehind]

19 minutes ago, Trimone said:

The shore staff at San Juan are not the brightest, we flew in to Miami then on to SJ. However the girl at checking insisted on seeing our ESTA documents, they don’t exist. Fortunately I had photoshopped the applications.

 

While this may be entirely correct, these are not cruise line employees, but privately contracted staff.  Just want to be sure that this is understood and is not seen as the direct fault of NCL. 

[RedwingHockeyFan]

8 minutes ago, Crusin GTR said:

Seems like criticism of the Epic is personal.  Hope it wasn't designed by a relative.  You want ship issues? Fair enough, here are just a few 1) Lacks indoor public sail-away/viewing lounges. (like Spinnaker on Jade, Observatory Lounge on Spirit, and like MOST cruise lines have). The Garden Cafe is located where this would make sense  2) Lobby bar used as sooo many venues other than a lounge, including overly loud movies, trivia, etc, with precious little music or ability to sit and chat.  This is a space I usually love 3) O'Sheehan's separated port and starboard by food vs drink. Food only on starboard, drink on port. Want a burger and a beer at bar? Not on Epic, yes on other ships.  3) Open casino makes for spoke smell when eating in open area of Taste and throughout exposed areas 4) Limited bars/lounges for 4500 passengers 5) Drink service cuts off in Headliners during comedy and music performances because bar built too close to stage and disrupts performers.  Those a re just a few unique challenges onboard Epic.  But it's your good money to spend on the Epic, so enjoy her and don't take it personally.  

 

It's not personal, some people don't like it and I get that.  This thread was started for a completely different purpose but turned into an Epic bashing thread.  The issues that you listed are noted, still had no bearing on the "Huge problems" at the San Juan cruise port.

[Crusin GTR]

2 minutes ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

 

It's not personal, some people don't like it and I get that.  This thread was started for a completely different purpose but turned into an Epic bashing thread.  The issues that you listed are noted, still had no bearing on the "Huge problems" at the San Juan cruise port.

Agreed.  But illness on this TA was rampant, and that did not help. And to sell out, they ran specials 45 days out...$799 sail away balcony for 16 nights and 3rd/4th free, so we were at capacity like I have never seen, which magnified Epic's design differences.  So many got sick and NCL did announce CDC held up disembarkation in PR, which then lead to arriving passengers and departing gridlock. People coming to port got out of their taxi's and were squeezing by buses and cars to try and get to ship.  It wasn't all on PR staff, NCL staff was nowhere to be found. Cheers!

[Crusin GTR]

6 minutes ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Sorry your crossing was such a disappointment for you.

Yes, research indicated viewing areas were limited, but it is the cumulative effect of this ship and the TA-specific events that is at play here. By example, if you have 1 bad meal or bad service experience on a cruise, no problem, but when it cascades to each experience and venue, it is the totality that forges one's impressions.  This was cruise #25.  Met my wife on one 20 years ago, and first type I have ever felt I had genuine gripes. 

[Trimone]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

While this may be entirely correct, these are not cruise line employees, but privately contracted staff.  Just want to be sure that this is understood and is not seen as the direct fault of NCL. 

NCL hire the contracted staff...

[leaveitallbehind]

9 minutes ago, Trimone said:

NCL hire the contracted staff...

Actually they are hired by the Port Authority.  And documents training would come from the the Dept. of Immigration.

 

Certainly NCL (or any other cruise line) can communicate the need for better training, etc., if they are aware of the issues.  But their operation it is not their direct responsibility. Same goes for the baggage handlers, etc.

Edited December 9, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[tef43]

48 minutes ago, Trimone said:

The Port Authority hire the contracted staff...

 

Fixed that for ya.

[Crusin GTR]

1 hour ago, leaveitallbehind said:

Actually they are hired by the Port Authority.  And documents training would come from the the Dept. of Immigration.

 

Certainly NCL (or any other cruise line) can communicate the need for better training, etc., if they are aware of the issues.  But their operation it is not their direct responsibility. Same goes for the baggage handlers, etc.

The issues were not port authority. We paid NCL DIRECTLY for dock to airport xfer.  There were no NCL personnel directing off the ship, and people were getting on the buses that did not pay for xfer. No one to verify vouchers. No organized lines.  By the time they let us off...12:45pm, there were no more NCL busses left.  Finally they were able to recall another bus and get us to airport...3:30pm.  Good job flight was 6:45PM 

[Crusin GTR]

39 minutes ago, blcruising said:

Correct. And the biggest proof is that they never built a sister ship to the Epic. They were at the forefront when the ship was built but it was an Epic failure and NCL learned from this.

I fully agree!

[blueslily]

5 hours ago, RedwingHockeyFan said:

 

It's not personal, some people don't like it and I get that.  This thread was started for a completely different purpose but turned into an Epic bashing thread.  The issues that you listed are noted, still had no bearing on the "Huge problems" at the San Juan cruise port.

 

I understand what you are saying. I have enjoyed the Epic. Im sorry to hear about the unpleasant experiences that some people are reporting for this sailing. We were just on the Epic early October without any issues for a Western Med sailing out of Barcelona. Had read tons of bad reviews about Caribbean sailings. Folks shared that for some reason the Europe sailings are different than the Caribbean experiences. Either way, we had a great time and will sail on Epic again if there is an itinerary and price that we like.  We knew about all the design stuff so we were prepared. 

 

Hope folks who got the flu have a speedy recovery. I've had colds pop up during travel as well so I get it that its no fun. We travel with an OTC medicine bag just in case, but I understand that the flu is different than a cold. Man, what kind of flu medicine did the man get who said his doc visit on the cruise was Ten thousand dollars. Goodness.

 

Happy sailing to everyone. Enjoy your next cruise!  Next up for us is the Escape before they mess it up during the drydock, lol. 😆😉😲😭

 

[Dixe Lee]

7 hours ago, DakotaDisneyLover said:

I sailed the Epic on a 7 night Mediterranean this past May with my husband and son.  Absolutely no problems whatsoever.  Embarkation and disembarkation was always efficient, timely, and easy.  It was a wonderful cruise!  Food, drinks, entertainment, and service was all very good.  We had an aft verandah, and the aft elevators were less busy than the forward elevators.  We also like to take the stairs for exercise.  My only complaint was there was long black hair on the shower wall - all week - yuck,  (I left it there to see if it would get cleaned off, and nope, it didn't), and the carpet in our cabin was stained and worn.  Also sailed the Epic on a Christmas cruise a couple years ago. It seemed busier/more full, probably due to families of 3 or 4 in many of the cabins instead of 2 people.  That also was a great  cruise!  There were 13 of us in 4 cabins, and we all had a lovely time, and everyone stated afterwards they would definitely sail the Epic again.  You can't blame "the ship" for all of these problems endured on this sailing.  Many of the issues were out of the ship's control.  NCL should have communicated the issues to the passengers that were on the ship, and to the passengers waiting to board the ship-there are alot of things they could have done instead of leaving everyone in dark.

So happy to read your post! We are sailing on Epic next May through the Mediterranean. More negative reviews than positive but this will be our first NCL sailing and the itinerary is awesome, very port intensive and the price was great.  We are going to be open minded and even with the negative reviews of the ship itself we intend to have a great time. The positives hopefully will outweigh the negatives. 

[Caroldoll]

9 hours ago, Crusin GTR said:

Sounds like you were able to avoid the illness on board, but not sure how you could miss hearing the large # of very sick and coughing throughout the cruise. I traveled w/ 3 others, ALL 3 got sick.  I was the only one to avoid. When we boarded in Barcelona, the early embarkees received a notice from NCL that was mandatory under CDC rule (Center for Disease Control) and as required by law when crew illness is reported above a certain percentage.  Unfortunately, they don't have to disclose the percentage, but crew indicated over 40%.  It was not gastro, but was a nasty flu.  And yes, the CDC did hold the ship up in Barcelona and Puerto Rico.  In Barcelona, they made NCL fumigate before allowing embarkation. In PR, they took sample temperatures of first off and were there in protective suits.  As to deaths, a news reporter covering the dock fiasco indicated 5 deaths.  We watched 7 ambulances come and go.  NCL was completely dishonest about the number of sick onboard.  They even tried to claim the notice was from prior cruise until we produced our copy.  Then they claimed it was due to prior cruise illness and that there was no issue on our TA. And it appears they stopped handing it out when the ran out of copies. Only early embarkees got a copy.  Sundry shop extremely lacking for OTC meds.  Even the little NCL Spirit was better stocked. My wife was laid up for 5 days and still has serious cough.  Has Dr's appt this afternoon.  And once they did release passengers in PR and the backup started, NCL staff were no where to be found.  We paid for transfer and there were 2 local young men handling w/o a bit of help from NCL.  I'm on my 8th NCL cruise, and they almost lost me on this one (TBD).  NEVER again on the EPIC, not just because of the illness, but the ship is not built to handle 4000 plus effectively. I never thought I would see the day where I would complain about the luxury and privilege of cruising, but the above complaints are only the tip of the Epic iceberg for my family. One redeeming quality, the loung and bar staff were great, and Burn the Floor and Cirque were great shows. Howl at the Moon guys were great too.

Probably a good reason to try a smaller ship.  

[blueslily]

30 minutes ago, Dixe Lee said:

So happy to read your post! We are sailing on Epic next May through the Mediterranean. More negative reviews than positive but this will be our first NCL sailing and the itinerary is awesome, very port intensive and the price was great.  We are going to be open minded and even with the negative reviews of the ship itself we intend to have a great time. The positives hopefully will outweigh the negatives. 

 

We had a great time on the Epic in October sailing the Western Med. Yes, some of the initeraries are great in that region. Certainly stay opened minded and make it a great cruise! 

 

Plus, there is a lot of great info on CC to help you prepare and plan!

 

Enjoy!

[Dixe Lee]

4 minutes ago, blueslily said:

 

We had a great time on the Epic in October sailing the Western Med. Yes, some of the initeraries are great in that region. Certainly stay opened minded and make it a great cruise! 

 

Plus, there is a lot of great info on CC to help you prepare and plan!

 

Enjoy!

You are so right and thanks for that. Yes CC is very helpful and we researched the Epic and the itinerary before booking. Unfortunately more of the reviews of the Epic are negative than positive but we are going anyway Funny thing is that the positive reviews are super positive and that is a good thing to us. 

[blueslily]

2 minutes ago, Dixe Lee said:

You are so right and thanks for that. Yes CC is very helpful and we researched the Epic and the itinerary before booking. Unfortunately more of the reviews of the Epic are negative than positive but we are going anyway Funny thing is that the positive reviews are super positive and that is a good thing to us. 

 

Yes,  I saw a lot of the negative reviews as well. The three Roll Calls that we were active on during the planning process pointed out that most of the reviews were for other regions or from people who had not done their research. But, even the comments in the negative reviews helped us prepare, plan, and not make mistakes that might have negatively impacted our experience. Have fun! You're not at work, hahaha. 

 

[Dixe Lee]

👍

[leaveitallbehind]

5 hours ago, Crusin GTR said:

The issues were not port authority. We paid NCL DIRECTLY for dock to airport xfer.  There were no NCL personnel directing off the ship, and people were getting on the buses that did not pay for xfer. No one to verify vouchers. No organized lines.  By the time they let us off...12:45pm, there were no more NCL busses left.  Finally they were able to recall another bus and get us to airport...3:30pm.  Good job flight was 6:45PM 

 

OK - That may be the case and the fact that you paid NCL for the transfers is also correct - but that is all completely irrelevant to my point. You need to re-read my response.   My only point - and all that I said - is that that the check in personnel at the pier are not NCL employees, but are 3rd party employees hired by the Port Authority.  Nothing more.

Edited December 10, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[IrieBajan54]

17 hours ago, lhsail said:

The ship has it’s quirks. We’ve been on it before and were willing to deal. Most of our frustrations came from things totally within their control. The things outside of their control, I just ask they keep people informed as much as possible. I’m done. I’ll take my money elsewhere and I’m convinced NCL could care less. 

.

I've sailed it 3 times. That was far too many times. Couldn't care less if it's on sale for $299.

Edited December 10, 2019 by IrieBajan54
Correction

[Crusin GTR]

10 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

 

OK - That may be the case and the fact that you paid NCL for the transfers is also correct - but that is all completely irrelevant to my point. You need to re-read my response.   My only point - and all that I said - is that that the check in personnel at the pier are not NCL employees, but are 3rd party employees hired by the Port Authority.  Nothing more.

And I am not obligated to limit my response to your point.  That is the beauty of an open format board like this.  As to your point, the local hires were NOT the issue, NCL personnel (or lack thereof) was the issue.  It seems you did not read or comprehend my post.  You are speaking from your prior experience, not this experience. 

[leaveitallbehind]

34 minutes ago, Crusin GTR said:

And I am not obligated to limit my response to your point.  That is the beauty of an open format board like this.  As to your point, the local hires were NOT the issue, NCL personnel (or lack thereof) was the issue.  It seems you did not read or comprehend my post.  You are speaking from your prior experience, not this experience. 

 

I have no idea where you are coming from.  I was not limiting your response - only clarifying my comments as you quoted me, which was in response to another poster indicating issues with the check in staff.  You are free to comment as you wish at any time, but since you quoted me I wanted to make sure the context of my comments were correctly understood.  Again, I was only commenting on who hires the staff, as the poster I was quoting with my response suggested that they might be NCL employees.  I was not commenting on any of the issues experienced.

 

I fully comprehend what you said, so lets not get snarky. I also have no direct experience with NCL having never cruised with them - but was only commenting on the staff employed at the piers for all cruise lines.  Perhaps it's my posts you did not comprehend.

 

But be it as it may, I am sorry for all the issues that the Epic passengers suffered with this cruise.  Very frustrating.

 

Enjoy your cruising.

Edited December 10, 2019 by leaveitallbehind

[cecil89]

We have been on the epic 5 times and love it, but always out of Miami.

we are sailing on the 11 day Caribbean out of San Juan the end of January.

after reading through this thread , I’m starting to panic about our departing flight on disembarking day.   We have a 1;25 flight to ft lauderdale.    Should I look at changing this?

[TIBTEE]

31 minutes ago, cecil89 said:

We have been on the epic 5 times and love it, but always out of Miami.

we are sailing on the 11 day Caribbean out of San Juan the end of January.

after reading through this thread , I’m starting to panic about our departing flight on disembarking day.   We have a 1;25 flight to ft lauderdale.    Should I look at changing this?

 

I was on the TA that arrived Dec. 8 and my flight was 11:18 am.

I did self assist walk off and was off the ship by 7:30a.