Galveston Debarkation Improvements

[Pineapple Princess]

Just off Independence yesterday.  Smoothest self assist ever.  No more gathering in public venu to wait for ship to be cleared.  Wait in stateroom until your tag number displayed on TV.  Face recognition technology in terminal is super fast.  I was pleasantly surprised by the new procedure.

[Pineapple Princess]

4 minutes ago, Heymarco said:

Thank you for sharing! Would you happen to know if they have a Global Entry lane yet at 

Didn't notice one.  

[molsonschooner]

this got you off the ship. What was it like getting out of the terminal. We have only cruised from Galveston once, back in 2014. We were in a line up for close to 2 hours before we finally made it outside.

[HicksRA]

8 minutes ago, molsonschooner said:

this got you off the ship. What was it like getting out of the terminal. We have only cruised from Galveston once, back in 2014. We were in a line up for close to 2 hours before we finally made it outside.

We were on Indy the week before. Walked off the ship into the terminal, stood in front of the face recognition camera for ten seconds and then out the door. No waiting in line anywhere. 

[AustinCruise]

IF you had a passport, they sent you through a face recognition system and you skipped the customs booths. 
 

Only stop was to pickup luggage. 
If you were traveling on a birth certificate, you had a different (longer) line and got to talk to the folks in the booth. 
 

Between leaving the stateroom and hitting the street it was about 20-30 minutes. Basically a stroll in the park. 
 

They do still have the Texas liquor and tobacco tax station. 

 

of course, 1500 vs 4600 passengers makes a huge difference!

Edited September 29, 2021 by AustinCruise

[molsonschooner]

6 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

We were on Indy the week before. Walked off the ship into the terminal, stood in front of the face recognition camera for ten seconds and then out the door. No waiting in line anywhere. 

we are scheduled to be on Liberty next August. Hopefully we have the same luck as you did.

[firefly333]

40 minutes ago, HicksRA said:

We were on Indy the week before. Walked off the ship into the terminal, stood in front of the face recognition camera for ten seconds and then out the door. No waiting in line anywhere. 

I was on a different ship but same thing. Walked right off, no customs at all.

 

We also boarded from terminal 2, rcl terminal and never had our bags scanned.

 

 

[John&LaLa]

1 hour ago, Heymarco said:

Thank you for sharing! Would you happen to know if they have a Global Entry lane yet at customs?

 

Customs was non existent in Pt Canaveral. Smile and walk out

[OSUZorba]

Hopefully it is a real improvement and not just the light passenger load on the ship.

 

I really enjoy sailing out of Galveston and love Liberty, but the debarkation has been terrible in the past. I've literally seen fights almost break out multiple times and lots of yelling/cussing. (Lots considering everyone just had a relaxing vacation)

 

I think it is because so many people drive to Galveston, so everyone wants to get off fast and get to their cars.

[John&LaLa]

6 hours ago, OSUZorba said:

Hopefully it is a real improvement and not just the light passenger load on the ship.

 

I really enjoy sailing out of Galveston and love Liberty, but the debarkation has been terrible in the past. I've literally seen fights almost break out multiple times and lots of yelling/cussing. (Lots considering everyone just had a relaxing vacation)

 

I think it is because so many people drive to Galveston, so everyone wants to get off fast and get to their cars.

 

Pt Canaveral is a major drive to port and I don't see that causing problems 

[OSUZorba]

4 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Pt Canaveral is a major drive to port and I don't see that causing problems 

I've never seen 2,000+ self carry people off a Freedom class ship in PC. Maybe it isn't the driving, but the fact the terminal was so bad. So all the experienced cruisers knew they needed to be early or they'd be in the terminal until noon.

[cruiselvr04]

Yes Galveston has been awful getting off the ship in the past.  It ended the whole trip badly.  We knew this since we were frequent through there but always dreaded it.  Long lines, people trying to jump lines.  Angry people.  Getting a porter was the way to go just to move through faster. 
 

If these reports are true this will be awesome!  We debark in November so we will see….

[OSUZorba]

I generally get to the port just before noon and every cruise I've done out of Galveston people are still coming off at that point. Any improvements are very welcome. Especially because I have a 9 hour drive after getting off.

[HicksRA]

I’m sure it will be somewhat slower when full ships are sailing, but as I said above, we carried our own luggage off and never slowed down except for the face recognition camera and out the door. 
And being a Texan, we’ve cruised out of Galveston numerous times and have felt the pain.  

Edited September 29, 2021 by HicksRA

[dlbaqua]

We had a very easy time of it getting off the Breeze a couple of weeks ago. It took no time at all and that was with my husband not having his driver's license (he left it at the Covid testing site before we left and they let him on, and off, with a picture of it on our phone). No custom's forms to fill out, no long lines. So much better than what Galveston was like in the past.

[jcc1025]

21 hours ago, Pineapple Princess said:

Just off Independence yesterday.  Smoothest self assist ever.  No more gathering in public venu to wait for ship to be cleared.  Wait in stateroom until your tag number displayed on TV.  Face recognition technology in terminal is super fast.  I was pleasantly surprised by the new procedure.

We also sailed on Independence in August and the way they handle the debarcation was great. Between the muster drill and the debarkation some good has come out of all the changes. Its hard to find someone who will not complain about anything anymore but I can't imagian anyone complaining about these changes to cruise processes. 

[jcc1025]

11 minutes ago, jcc1025 said:

We also sailed on Independence in August and the way they handle the debarcation was great. Between the muster drill and the debarkation some good has come out of all the changes. Its hard to find someone who will not complain about anything anymore but I can't imagian anyone complaining about these changes to cruise processes. 

An additiona point is that we are all sailing on half filled ships so they don't have the pressure on cabin turnover they will on full ships. All the people, like us, when coming on want to get to their cabins as soon as possible and if you keep passengers in them longer it delays the next group. We are not local so wait for transportation to Houston for flights so have not had to deal with the walk off's in the past so can't really relate to that issue. But staying in the cabin and not all the crowds outside was a very nice change.