Let's track the EB PC cruise here

[calmom]

Sister made it and had a great time! Lisa

 

[Michelle2]

Castaway Cay was a beautiful day! There was some rain and clouds come in that made us worried, but they passed by very quickly and the rest of the day was beautiful and sunny. It was nice since we arrived earlier than usual.

The debarkation was held up, and I am thinking that people with earlier flights were let off first. While we were waiting, we heard a DCL person say that there were 2700 on the ship getting off at almost the same time because of the delayed time, and only 6 officials for the customs.
They actually even had the DCL busses act as the shuttles to the rental car agencies...never had that happen before. They said it was because so many were coming off at once and heading all different locations.
I hope the 5 dayers are having a great time! We almost went through all the ice cream.

 

[inkkognito]

That disembarkation was truly the worst I've ever been through on DCL in 63 cruises, including right after 9/11. The line quite literally ran from the atrium all the way down past Lumiere's and Promenade Lounge and into Parrot Cay, where it wrapped around the interior of the restaurant!! Took us two hours from the time we got in line at 7:30 till we finally got out at almost 9:30. Unreal! I wonder what the reason was for the Customs delay...I've never seen the ship cleared so late before. It was around 8:30, when it's usually more like 7.

 

[lotsofboys]

That disembarkation was truly the worst I've ever been through on DCL in 63 cruises, including right after 9/11. The line quite literally ran from the atrium all the way down past Lumiere's and Promenade Lounge and into Parrot Cay, where it wrapped around the interior of the restaurant!! Took us two hours from the time we got in line at 7:30 till we finally got out at almost 9:30. Unreal! I wonder what the reason was for the Customs delay...I've never seen the ship cleared so late before. It was around 8:30, when it's usually more like 7.

We were there as well this morning but fortunatley in line around 7:10 because we had an 11:00 flight. We got off the ship around 8:20 and were in the shuttle van by 8:40.

Overheard someone say a porter told them Disney did not have all of the luggage out and ready to go on time this morning.

We had the same frustrating delay on the 2005 EB repo where the doors did not open until after 8:00am, heard that time it was crew members not clearing customs but never did get that rumor verified.

 

[scottishwee35]

Castaway Cay was a beautiful day! There was some rain and clouds come in that made us worried, but they passed by very quickly and the rest of the day was beautiful and sunny. It was nice since we arrived earlier than usual.

The debarkation was held up, and I am thinking that people with earlier flights were let off first. While we were waiting, we heard a DCL person say that there were 2700 on the ship getting off at almost the same time because of the delayed time, and only 6 officials for the customs.
They actually even had the DCL busses act as the shuttles to the rental car agencies...never had that happen before. They said it was because so many were coming off at once and heading all different locations.
I hope the 5 dayers are having a great time! We almost went through all the ice cream.

Hi Michelle

I wonder if any interpreter on the Cruise?

Scottishwee35

 

[Im_A_Princess]

That disembarkation was truly the worst I've ever been through on DCL in 63 cruises, including right after 9/11. The line quite literally ran from the atrium all the way down past Lumiere's and Promenade Lounge and into Parrot Cay, where it wrapped around the interior of the restaurant!! Took us two hours from the time we got in line at 7:30 till we finally got out at almost 9:30. Unreal! I wonder what the reason was for the Customs delay...I've never seen the ship cleared so late before. It was around 8:30, when it's usually more like 7.

Ditto! I can only inagine how bad it would if it had not been DCL!

Our Porter said it is the most luggage he has ever seen on a DCL cruise. One reason for the delay...luggage amount and clearing customs he said.

When we sailed we were late sailing because an officer friend of ours said there was so much luggage to get on the ship. He said he and other officers were helping get all the luggage on board. Anyone who could help was helping. What goes on must go off.

The galleys were also going through their 6 month inspections. A really BIG deal they said because if they do not pass...they do not sail.
The kitchens were slow getting breakfast because they had to wotk around all the inspectors and such. What a mess!

But I would do it again if I could be back on the ship-LOL

Love DCL but good to be back home.

 

[lauritagoddess]

We were there as well this morning but fortunatley in line around 7:10 because we had an 11:00 flight. We got off the ship around 8:20 and were in the shuttle van by 8:40.

Overheard someone say a porter told them Disney did not have all of the luggage out and ready to go on time this morning.

We had the same frustrating delay on the 2005 EB repo where the doors did not open until after 8:00am, heard that time it was crew members not clearing customs but never did get that rumor verified.

We were also on line the same time as you and got through customs by about 8:30. We didn't have to pick up luggage because we did the onboard airline check-in, but on the way through to the customs line I did hear one of the porters say that they had almost 3 times as much luggage to put out on this trip as they normally have. He said they'd been working for 3 hours putting out the luggage.

I just wish they'd made some announcements and let us know what was going on while we were waiting on that line. Also they had the back up of people waiting to get into breakfast at Lumieres jamming with the line of people waiting to debark. I don't think they opened for the 8:00am breakfast until about 8:10 and supposedly the line for breakfast went up two flights of stairs to deck 5. But I still wish on was the ship, it was so hard coming back to work this morning. Sigh....

 

[inkkognito]

When we sailed we were late sailing because an officer friend of ours said there was so much luggage to get on the ship. He said he and other officers were helping get all the luggage on board. Anyone who could help was helping. What goes on must go off.

The galleys were also going through their 6 month inspections. A really BIG deal they said because if they do not pass...they do not sail.
The kitchens were slow getting breakfast because they had to wotk around all the inspectors and such. What a mess!

We heard that about the luggage loading too. Every warm body was recruited to pitch in! Same thing happened at Lumiere's for lunch on the port day where everyone came back at the same time because the ship left so early (I'm doing a mind blank on which one). Everyone decided to have lunch there all at once, so they were pullinf servers from wherever they could. They really did a great job handling the influx.

For that last breakfast, I really felt sorry for the Parrot Cay servers because they had to play "dodge the line," since the disembark line literally wrapped around the room, That was truly a sight to behold!

 

[NancyIL]

Ditto! I can only inagine how bad it would if it had not been DCL!

On other cruise lines, people don't stand in line for 2 hours to get off the ship. They are given a time to disembark, and they wait somewhere until their group is called. It's not as efficient as DCL's usual pattern, but it works better than what it sounds like you went through yesterday.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We were held as well, no one got off until 8.15am, Christian was next to get and getting a lot of complaints from people, why no announcement and why we couldn't get off, he said he didn't make any announcements as each time he said he was going to make one they said we will be cleared to go in a minute or two.

When he did finally make an announcement, he said it would be 10 minutes and the doors opened as he was making that PA.

In 2005 the E/bound repo had issues in getting off the ship, luggage was blamed then, So I booked my car for 8.15am even though I was on main dinner / early breakfast. Even then we were late to the 'car' meeting point, but our driver was 'held' in the car park and every driver wanted to exit at that point.

Christan said to everyone around us, he didn't know the reason and was just informed again and again ,it would be a couple more mins, though one unconfirmed report was there was an issue with one persons paperwork, and they were escorted off the ship. A cruiser said this, but not sure how or why they knew that and no one else did.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Sorry about that issue. I remember the EB2005, too. But honestly, I didn't let it get to me. Stuff happens and I had just had a terrific vacation!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Sorry about that issue. I remember the EB2005, too. But honestly, I didn't let it get to me. Stuff happens and I had just had a terrific vacation!

Oh agree, I expected it to be honest, on 7 night cruises I book a car for 7.45am not 8.15am as this time.

Oveall the queue and customer management on this cruise was 2nd to none, this was a 'blip' where communication fell apart, but as my trip report shows, where there were issues such as Aly and AJ or Don Ducky Willams, it was often well thought out in advance.

A reflection, Tendering at Cabo was well organised imho, hands on from Christian downwards they took a clsoe interest, in the Med, this issue at two ports was lacking, even though they were aware of it.

It takes a good CD to be hands on and in there all the time Christian does that, whereever there is an issue, hes there with the cruisers orgainsing and also being firm. Good on him.

I have found other CD's less visable,

 

[inkkognito]

...one unconfirmed report was there was an issue with one persons paperwork, and they were escorted off the ship. A cruiser said this, but not sure how or why they knew that and no one else did.

Did you hear the weird PA announcement where they asked for the whereabouts of a particular passenger or anyone who knew his whereabouts? If that rumor was true, I wonder if he was the "problem child."

 

[Iceman10]

Yea, it was a HUGE line, but I just had DW and kids hang out near Guest Services while I waited and then they joined me as we left. The Luggage consideration makes a lot of sense, plus we had just come from Mexico, Columbia, Panama, etc so they may have been a little tighter on checking things.

My problem is I can not stop singing;
"Wave your hands in the air! I say Bing! you say GO! Bing - Go Bing - Go!!"

Man I needeed that 28k to pay my bar tab! Oh well lots of overtime comming.


Almost forgot - we are Vacation Club Owners!!!!! Woooo Hoooo

 

[lbgraves]

We waited in the loungers on Deck 4 until the line cleared out and left the ship around 9:30. Unfortunantly that didn't help with the rental car because DH didn't return for 1 1/2 hours from Avis. Thankfully he took DD with him so I only had DS to deal with.

Christian seemed to be on top of things on the cruise. He was extremly upset when the second gangway wasn't set up in the afternoon in Cartegenia and was running down the dock to get it done so people wouldn't have to stand in line so long to get back on board. He also handled the kids in the line for Aly & AJ's autographs. His entire demeanor changed and he told them that he had been walking up and down watching the line and he knew who was in line before and who was not. They could choose to have a great experience meeting them from the end of the line or they could be removed from the line all together.

 

[toocherie]

a friend of mine who was also on this cruise overhead a discussion at the purser's desk where a lady was complaining and the person behind the desk was asking whether she wanted to press charges or not . . . and they needed to know "now"--because of disembarkation. They also heard the page and they thought the person who was paged might have been the person that charges were being pressed against and everyone had to wait for local authorities to show up.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Wow, I've only read the last page of this thread so far but it's interesting so I'm gonna go back and read more after posting.

we left our room later than usual (weren't out at 8am- so sorry!) DH took the kids to topsiders while I finished getting myself awake and everything ready to go and we head out of the room about 8:20am (our breakfast was supposed to be at 7:45am but we didn't go to that). I ate cereal in the room -that I'd saved from room service the day before along with milk DH brought down to the room for me. hehe Raisin bran- yum! And when the elevators opened downstairs it was literally so packed we couldn't walk out of the elevator! So we (and others in our elevator) decided to go up to deck 9 and wait a bit. which we did... it was just us and a few other families up there. Once we started seeing people getting off the ship we went down and joined in the long line which took us awhile to find the end of it. LOL
and then we walked across and stood in a "herd" (no other way to describe it) before they let us move up further. They kinda took us in groups- did they do that to everyone or did we just get 'backed up' a bit at that point?

Anyway after that it was relatively painless and quick... as usual. All we heard was the one announcement about how they would be clearing customs soon- and we assumed it just took longer to clear customs after the ship had been gone all summer?

I know we didn't add to the luggage- not more than usual anyway. We had 8 pieces (for our family of 5, 2 staterooms) they'd taken down the night before and I looked on the one bag we'd left at home -it still had the tag from the LAST cruise and it said 4 of 8 that I'd wrote on it- so we had them take down the exact same amount of luggage as we had them take down for us on our first (7 day) cruise. I guess other people took more luggage than usual? We did have more "personal items" (ie: bags like tote bag size that we took on the plane as our personal items allowance) but we carried those off the ship so that didn't add to the luggage for them to deal with.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Castaway Cay was a beautiful day! There was some rain and clouds come in that made us worried, but they passed by very quickly and the rest of the day was beautiful and sunny. It was nice since we arrived earlier than usual.

The debarkation was held up, and I am thinking that people with earlier flights were let off first. While we were waiting, we heard a DCL person say that there were 2700 on the ship getting off at almost the same time because of the delayed time, and only 6 officials for the customs.
They actually even had the DCL busses act as the shuttles to the rental car agencies...never had that happen before. They said it was because so many were coming off at once and heading all different locations.
I hope the 5 dayers are having a great time! We almost went through all the ice cream.

We saw those busses! They were dropping people off at car rental places while we were in our Avis shuttle taking us to Avis- and in fact one of the DCL busses brought some people to the same avis rental place that we went to -while we were there! I thought it was odd.. but makes sense that they'd do that to hurry and get people outta there! LOL

 

[Tink rules]

On the WB we also had a back up - we thought it was because we were in LA... and then the luggage problem WE had was alot of lost luggage from the cruise. I lost mine and it rode around on one of the charter buses until DCL got it back later and called me.

I think it was because it was a 2 week cruise and we DID have to bring more with us.

We didn't get off until almost 9:30 and that was after waiting in Lumieres and also on line that stretched all around deck 4 to shutters and back and then around a few times on the pier...

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

I know guys! Just wishful thinking! LOL! Our servers are Pairoj from Thialand and Ranzil from India. Donovan is our cabin steward. Hey, everyone waits on us hand and foot.

The kids and teens. A couple of nights ago a kid was found on top of an elevator! Yep, on top. I'm in cabin 2566 Midship right out side Ocean Quest and they hang out in the hall way. Playing games in the elevators. If there are teens in the elevator and they see adults walking to it they press the close button. I stopped some of the kids a couple of times from closing the doors on adults. Even Christiaan made an announcement Saturday about kids lottering in the stairwells and hall ways. Oh and the lifestyle portraits, the kids stand in line, take up the photographer's time with different poses so they can see them in Shutters.

Just wonder who and where the parents are?

I heard that about someone on top of the elevator too! And we spent the rest of the cruise wondering how they managed that. Ofcourse it was my ST (aka "stinky teen" as we refer to teens on our thread) that came up with the idea that they probably climbed the metal railings on the outside of the elevators, in the atrium area, and climbed thru the holes there onto the elevator? Seems possible- and leave it to my teen to figure out that would be the way the kid did it!

I know it wasn't MY kids acting like that though. We tried very hard to keep a tight rein on our kids- to the point that on the next to the last night the first time our son left Ocean Quest without paging us to ask permission- he went right back to the lab without sign out privileges (he is not quite 11 yet but they allowed him in the OQ the last week of the cruise when he expressed boredom in the lab)- boy was he upset........ AND to the point that we had to GROUND our ST (yep, we grounded her on the magic, shoulda known that was coming sooner or later LOL) on the same night that happened with our son! (grounded and missed the homecoming with the stack and everything- because she kept leaving the stack only to be "caught" somewhere around the ship with some BOY.. apparently with a little freedom she became boy crazy and latched on to (almost literally ) one specific boy... they were enamored with one another- ugh! anyway, after several warnings- she finally blew it... and we had to stand our ground on what we threatened... and back to the room she went for the rest of the night and completely missed the homecoming. We let her do the wild side (teen excursion on Castaway Cay) and go to the teen beach but she was grounded from the teen stack for the rest of the trip- except late that night some girls came to her room and begged to let her go just for awhile to be in the pictures and get their surprise farewell gift- which was rumored to be a little backpack thing that said teen stack on it but then turned out they didn't get that- something about they didn't get the shipment of them so they just gave them all the same shirts the little kids get when they do the "graduation" show. LOL Needless to say the kids were not impressed with those shirts...... (well to be fair- most of them probably already have them. I know Ruby does still have her shirt from the last cruise since she was in the lab then0 and most of the cruisers were castaway cay members so probably most of those kids already have had those shirts in the past)
But she was only allowed to go for a short time and we checked on her frequently by calling to make sure she was still in there and made her come back to the room early.
(I still can't believe we had to actualy ground our teen on the cruise. sigh....... but we weren't about to let our kids become one of the masses of kids running around like that!)

There were tons of kids in the internet cafe and promenade lounge just goofing off and being loud and climbing on tables and such at 3:15am on the last night! I know because I went down to print out our boarding passes. I was amazed- because some of those kids were about my son's age (around 10yrs old if that) -some were older... but some were so young I was shocked they were still up that late and running around the ship at that time of night! And I thought my oldest coming in when the stack closed at 2am-2:30am everynight was late enough.... geesh