Anthem 8 day Feb 2024 Port Miami Dropped

[WorkingForOBC]

Hi all,

 

Just wanted to post the notice I received. Original itinerary was:

Embark: NJ

At Sea

Orlando

Nassau

Coco Cay

Miami 

At Sea

At Sea

Debark NJ

 

Based on earlier reports of this same itinerary, it seems that the port day in Miami was a total mess due to customs, and pax not getting off the ship for the mandatory inspection.

Rather than try to improve the process, it seems Royal has decided to drop Miami. Now there is an extra sea day, and we are scheduled to arrive in Orlando and Nassau earlier. 

The new itinerary is:

Embark: NJ

At Sea

At Sea

Orlando

Coco Cay

Nassau

At Sea

At Sea

Debark NJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by WorkingForOBC
added information

[FionaMG]

Interesting. I think you're probably right as to the reason; makes sense.

I'm on the same itinerary in April but our sailing has Miami in between PC and Coco Cay, so in theory it shouldn't be changed, although I actually wouldn't mind skipping Miami in order to get longer at the space centre.

 

[LeeW]

Second one makes more sense - passengers have to process through immigration at the first US port after a foreign port.  Certainly partly depends on when they have space available at each port.

[cargopilot]

This itinerary of 8 days was previously used from NJ. This allows you to spend a FULL day in Orlando where there is more to do than Miami. Consider yourself lucky.

[nelblu]

17 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Interesting. I think you're probably right as to the reason; makes sense.

I'm on the same itinerary in April but our sailing has Miami in between PC and Coco Cay, so in theory it shouldn't be changed, although I actually wouldn't mind skipping Miami in order to get longer at the space centre.

 

I have the same itinerary for my February 4th sail.

[love2cruise23]

We were on the 8 day Halloween sailing that included Miami at the end. I can confirm that it was a disaster and this change is a huge improvement. There are always going to be selfish cruisers that think the rules don’t apply to them and that translated to people being stuck in the arrival hall for 4+ hours without food, water etc. Consider yourself lucky that they made this change because I know I would never intentionally book this itinerary again.

[RandomUser123]

8 minutes ago, love2cruise23 said:

We were on the 8 day Halloween sailing that included Miami at the end. I can confirm that it was a disaster and this change is a huge improvement. There are always going to be selfish cruisers that think the rules don’t apply to them and that translated to people being stuck in the arrival hall for 4+ hours without food, water etc. Consider yourself lucky that they made this change because I know I would never intentionally book this itinerary again.

I was on the same cruise too. Absolutely ridiculous what happened. There were a couple moments where I thought it was going to get to a riot stage and had the phone ready to film. 

[mac_tlc]

Having the entire day at Port Canaveral (Orlando) is a big plus. At least folks can now realistically consider a theme park visit, albeit an expensive one. Or a great Space Center day,

 

mac_tlc

[davy jones]

53 minutes ago, love2cruise23 said:

We were on the 8 day Halloween sailing that included Miami at the end. I can confirm that it was a disaster and this change is a huge improvement. There are always going to be selfish cruisers that think the rules don’t apply to them and that translated to people being stuck in the arrival hall for 4+ hours without food, water etc. Consider yourself lucky that they made this change because I know I would never intentionally book this itinerary again.

I was also on the cruise and could not agree more.  Wise move by Royal.

[Saab4444]

If they changed it because of the latest chaos in Miami why did they change the 2024 but not the upcoming 2023 sailings?

[shof515]

10 minutes ago, Saab4444 said:

If they changed it because of the latest chaos in Miami why did they change the 2024 but not the upcoming 2023 sailings?

depend on which sailing you are looking at. the website can be confusing and not the show the correct itinerary for a specific sail date. 

 

if the ship goes from Port Canaveral, Miami, Coco Cay, Nassau then there is no issues at all and that itinerary is fine

 

if the ship goes from Port Canaveral, Coco Cay, Miami, Nassau or Port Canaveral, Coco Cay, Nassau, Miami then you will get the issue like what is posted about here with clearing customs and the requirement of getting on and off the ship in miami

 

 

this problem is not unique to  Florida/Bahamas cruises. i read some complaints with the Canada New England cruises with a similar customs issues depending on the itinerary and the ship previous port 

[WorkingForOBC]

Yes. I see 2 in 2023 scheduled to makes stops #1&2 in Orlando and Miami, then go to the Bahamas, and then back to NJ. This schedule won't incur the customs inspection nightmare that previously occurred.

 

Currently, for the 2 sailings in Feb 2024 that were scheduled to go to Miami after the Bahamas, the website still shows the original itinerary, but when you click through, it shows the update.

 

Those trip reports from the Halloween cruise were quite scary (no pun intended). People's health was actually in danger due to some very selfish individuals. Sorry you were subjected to it.

[love2cruise23]

The Captain was asked lots of questions about the Miami fiasco and he told the audience that Royal has to slot the planned ports 2 years in advance. Going to Miami after hitting international ports is far from ideal and after deeming it difficult to get passengers to do what is required (get off in the first stateside port and clear customs before anyone being allowed back on), I believe RCCL will avoid this situation in the future. 
 

He even stated that he went to the gym at 11:30 to get a run in and a passenger came and got on the treadmill next to him. We were all supposed to be off the ship by 10am. He looked at the man and told him to get off of his ship, but people are just selfish and don’t always follow the rules.