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Forced to get off in Miami


Al Miller

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@nferr, Anthem can be wonderful! Even this debacle would be nonexistent if you leave early, go into Miami and stay out until mid afternoon. People went to Miami for a while, came back and waiting for hours to get in, so you need to stay out for hours in Miami. I do not appreciate that, so will not book again. Pretty sure we originally were doing Miami first but itinerary changed and became last port. 

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11 minutes ago, Adriana said:

@nferr, Anthem can be wonderful! Even this debacle would be nonexistent if you leave early, go into Miami and stay out until mid afternoon. People went to Miami for a while, came back and waiting for hours to get in, so you need to stay out for hours in Miami. I do not appreciate that, so will not book again. Pretty sure we originally were doing Miami first but itinerary changed and became last port. 

I'm on the same cruise in April and we currently have PC, Miami, Coco Cay and Nassau in that order. I think the February 4th sailing is the same, except with Nassau and Coco Cay the other way round, so perhaps yours was originally meant to do that too.

 

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13 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

I'm on the same cruise in April and we currently have PC, Miami, Coco Cay and Nassau in that order. I think the February 4th sailing is the same, except with Nassau and Coco Cay the other way round, so perhaps yours was originally meant to do that too.

 

Actually, no... 

For some reason current cruise Oct 29, always had this order... 

Bahamas, then Miami, then NJ 

I've checked. 

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And back on board at 2pm... What a disaster. In the written instructions and the video Mario the CD made they hammered home over and over "If you are not going into Miami, do not come down until 10am. Otherwise you will have to wait for up to 2 hours in the terminal.(we should have been so lucky) So me and about 3000 others did as we were told and got in line at 10am. And waited for an hour on the ship. Shocking that after 3 straight port days most folks just wanted to relax on the ship. No one saw that coming... But we did get off the ship eventually. And then the terminal seemed shocked that 4500 people needed to disembark, the majority of which need to have somewhere to wait. So they pulled out a couple thousand folding chairs and we sat for 90 minutes in the lower terminal. At least it was air conditioned and there were restrooms close. This is the best we would have it for the rest of the afternoon. Because then we moved to the actual line from hell, on the sidewalk in front of the terminal. Hot, humid, no place to sit. 90 minutes spent here as well. And by this point people who disembarked early were returning from excursions and were getting in line too. Whoever said that I "should not let this ruin my cruise" is right. And I've had a great time. But this pushes pretty darn close.

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15 minutes ago, Vlad said:

Actually, no... 

For some reason current cruise Oct 29, always had this order... 

Bahamas, then Miami, then NJ 

I've checked. 

Just had a look farther ahead and there are two more dates, in February 2024, that also have Miami as the last stop. 😬

I guess it's maybe something to do with availability of berths or some other logistics issue. Perhaps because it's a rather unusual itinerary.

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15 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Just had a look farther ahead and there are two more dates, in February 2024, that also have Miami as the last stop. 😬

I guess it's maybe something to do with availability of berths or some other logistics issue. Perhaps because it's a rather unusual itinerary.

What are you talking about? What 2 more dates in February? 

Sorry, wrong year 😂

2024,yes, same issue... 

Unfortunately it looks like going to be same problem... Ship must be empty for customs... 

Hopefully, Royal Caribbean can switch or change something to fix whatever problems they have on this sailing. 

Edited by Vlad
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16 minutes ago, Al Miller said:

And back on board at 2pm... What a disaster. In the written instructions and the video Mario the CD made they hammered home over and over "If you are not going into Miami, do not come down until 10am. Otherwise you will have to wait for up to 2 hours in the terminal.(we should have been so lucky) So me and about 3000 others did as we were told and got in line at 10am. And waited for a hour on the ship. Shocking that after 3 straight port days most folks just wanted to relax on the ship. No one saw that coming... But we did get off the ship eventually. And then the terminal seemed shocked that 4500 people needed to disembark, the majority of which need to have somewhere to wait. So they pulled out a couple thousand folding chairs and we sat for 90 minutes in the terminal. At least it was air conditioned and there were restrooms close. This is the best we would have it for the rest of the afternoon. Because then we moved to the actual line from hell, on the sidewalk in front of the terminal. Hot, humid, no place to sit. 90 minutes spent here as well. And by this point people who disembarked early were returning from excursions and were getting in line too. Whoever said that I "should not let this ruin my cruise" is right. And I've had a great time. But this pushes pretty darn close.

No doubt this crap is indefensible. Not having access to my DBP for all that time would have me livid.😀 This thread has been quite informative about what to look for on these itineraries. Thanks

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BTW, according to a terminal manager, the main hold up once we got in the terminal was they had 5 passengers unaccounted for and they had to shakedown the entire ship to find them. He was a good dude but they were totally unprepared for a ship the size of Anthem to do a quick turnaround disembark\re-embark.

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The Captain just came on and apologized for the delays. They are still trying to board everyone…it is 3pm. He said they will put letters in our staterooms telling us how they plan on making this up to everyone. That would be great, I did not expect anything. While I appreciate it, I would rather have them figure out a better way to handle this for those cruising in the future.  Like @Al Millersaid, will not ruin cruise, but ruined the day until about now and took away my plans. Worse things in the world for sure, but def needs better planning and info given to guests. I am grateful to be back. I am sooo  grateful I was always inside, I could not imagine being stuck outside for all of those hours. 

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11 minutes ago, Adriana said:

The Captain just came on and apologized for the delays. They are still trying to board everyone…it is 3pm. He said they will put letters in our staterooms telling us how they plan on making this up to everyone. That would be great, I did not expect anything. While I appreciate it, I would rather have them figure out a better way to handle this for those cruising in the future.  Like @Al Millersaid, will not ruin cruise, but ruined the day until about now and took away my plans. Worse things in the world for sure, but def needs better planning and info given to guests. I am grateful to be back. I am sooo  grateful I was always inside, I could not imagine being stuck outside for all of those hours. 

Actually they stole a whole day of cruise from you guys, plus repeated the worst nightmare scenario of bad boarding process. 

They must give credit back for Miami stop, plus additional compensation in terms of onboard credit. 

Let us know how it ends. 

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Yes, I second @teddy and @Vlad every post I read had my blood boiling for you! I am amazed at your grace @Adriana @Al Millerand am so sorry this happened to you. Thank you so much for educating us though, just in case. Never in my wildest dreams would I think of something like this occurring. 

I still think Royal could have handled differently, especially for her Loyal passengers participating in the Royal Come Back! Just comes across as super ugly. Lacking of customer care. OBC or refund for all those hours is minimally in order for this cluster in my humble opinion.

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@Vlad, I can’t argue that this really stinks. I am trying to stay positive and I know it is not the direct fault of the staff. Still is disappointing. I think they learned this would not work, so God willing, future cruisers will not have to go through this. It always happens that people do not get off or go to muster when they are supposed to, so of course this was going to happen. There were over 600 people still on board well after last call and took about two more hours after that to find the final half dozen or so. Then, to go through the re embarkation process of thousands waiting. Only a few staff directing, I did feel for them. 

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15 minutes ago, Adriana said:

@Vlad, I can’t argue that this really stinks. I am trying to stay positive and I know it is not the direct fault of the staff. Still is disappointing. I think they learned this would not work, so God willing, future cruisers will not have to go through this. It always happens that people do not get off or go to muster when they are supposed to, so of course this was going to happen. There were over 600 people still on board well after last call and took about two more hours after that to find the final half dozen or so. Then, to go through the re embarkation process of thousands waiting. Only a few staff directing, I did feel for them. 

Yes, sounds like they weren't prepared for this at all... I personally never heard this before, I mean to have a ship travel internationally, then back to US before continuing to final destination. 

If course logically you had to disembark, but completely not the way it happened. 

I've never been to back to back cruises myself. But I know those people do not spend time, or more like half of day in the terminal. They have special process, and those passengers are back on board really fast!

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We were talking while waiting. Its like having a bad embarkation and bad debarkation Jammed into one day in the middle of your cruise. Royal just shouldn't do the itineraries this way. Is there some rule that they have can only have a certain number of sea days? Or do they have some quota with the ports that they need to fulfill for better rates? So they just tack on an ill-advised port stops like this for no real reason?

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12 minutes ago, Al Miller said:

We were talking while waiting. Its like having a bad embarkation and bad debarkation Jammed into one day in the middle of your cruise. Royal just shouldn't do the itineraries this way. Is there some rule that they have can only have a certain number of sea days? Or do they have some quota with the ports that they need to fulfill for better rates? So they just tack on an ill-advised port stops like this for no real reason?

8 days cruises are added to change the schedule when 7 day cruises start. And people love them, it's usually good deal. Longer vacation, for same money. 

No limits on sea days, or anything... 

I'm not really sure what to do in Miami for a day, as a cruise stop. Guessing that's why most didn't go to Excursion or anywhere and just wanted to spend time on the ship. Plenty of stuff to do on Anthem. It's really nice ship and huge. Sailed on it I believe like 5 yrs ago. And will again next year. 

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13 minutes ago, Vlad said:

If course logically you had to disembark, but completely not the way it happened. 

No, they didn't *have* to have everyone disembark.  This has been handled in other ways in the past (e.g. do it onboard, as they have done in Bar Harbor)

Seems like someone in CBP in Miami decided that this was the way to handle it in this particular case.

 

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I wonder what the atmosphere is going to be like later. I came to the thermal suite to decompress…lady next to me is snoring up w storm! Right after getting back on, I went to the Windjammer. It was mobbed (and I was among the first getting back, like among the first hour). They made an announcement for people to vacate their table as soon as possible. I fully get it; so many coming in needing to sit, get it. Buuut, all I could think of was that all these folks have been waiting for up to five hours, we finally get to sit down and have something to drink and bite to eat and you say to hurry up and get out. The air in the room was not pleasant. Again, I get it, but could have been said nicer, even an added “please help make room for others.” People are not amused, I bet there will be plenty of drinks sold tonight! This will be an interesting evening. 

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17 hours ago, Adriana said:

I wonder what the atmosphere is going to be like later. I came to the thermal suite to decompress…lady next to me is snoring up w storm! Right after getting back on, I went to the Windjammer. It was mobbed (and I was among the first getting back, like among the first hour). They made an announcement for people to vacate their table as soon as possible. I fully get it; so many coming in needing to sit, get it. Buuut, all I could think of was that all these folks have been waiting for up to five hours, we finally get to sit down and have something to drink and bite to eat and you say to hurry up and get out. The air in the room was not pleasant. Again, I get it, but could have been said nicer, even an added “please help make room for others.” People are not amused, I bet there will be plenty of drinks sold tonight! This will be an interesting evening. 

They actually said vacate? 

That sounds like a bad translation from some language... 

Sounds like saying swallow the food and get out of here... 

 

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Exactly! I totally understand that so many people were pouring in and needed seating, but the way they said it was harsh. Frankly, @Vladany other time, it would have been brushed off as a funky translation, but the timing of the day is what did it. It was pretty much, “Everyone, vacate yourself table as soon as possible and do not take up seats if you are done.” Just poor timing. People needed to sit, but not what that room wanted to hear at that time. I am more on the sugar and side so would have explained that many are coming in, so when you are done if you could make room for others, please, we know it has been a long day. Something a little nicer.  It very much felt like what you said. 

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1 hour ago, Vlad said:

Yes, sounds like they weren't prepared for this at all... I personally never heard this before, I mean to have a ship travel internationally, then back to US before continuing to final destination. 

If course logically you had to disembark, but completely not the way it happened. 

I've never been to back to back cruises myself. But I know those people do not spend time, or more like half of day in the terminal. They have special process, and those passengers are back on board really fast!

Because it's only a tiny number doing a back to back versus having the entire ship empty out and go through customs and re board. 

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This deserves the level of outrage that the no Solarium post reached - holy cow what a logistical nightmare! I'm imagining my family - if we were told we could turn right back around we wouldn't have bothered bringing milk/snacks/diapers for our young kids. My wife would absolutely rage if this happened to her 💀

Props to you all for weathering it and handling it well

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Thank you! It was challenging and disappointing that I missed seeing friends, my old Church, etc but holding on to the anger will only hurt more. Don’t get me wrong, I am not amused, but do not want to take it out on others. I saw the anger that was building up. I was truly concerned as people started to press forward and yelling. Some of the instructions were vague; it said do last call if you are not going to Miami. I technically was going , just after breakfast. Crew said it was fine so I followed directions and left at my assigned 8am time, while still walking around customs, still being told I can get right back in. It was not until the moment I tried to get back on that they said, nope. Then, they waiting began. They were not excepting that large crowd. People who got off later were stuck outside. Since hundreds got off last last call and some had to be found, the ship was not cleared for hours after last call. By then, there were thousands waiting to get back on. @ZBrady, some of us were saying the same thing, let moms with the kids get back on. Them and elderly. I cannot those stuck outside. God bless them! 

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38 minutes ago, Adriana said:

I wonder what the atmosphere is going to be like later. I came to the thermal suite to decompress…lady next to me is snoring up w storm! Right after getting back on, I went to the Windjammer. It was mobbed (and I was among the first getting back, like among the first hour). They made an announcement for people to vacate their table as soon as possible. I fully get it; so many coming in needing to sit, get it. Buuut, all I could think of was that all these folks have been waiting for up to five hours, we finally get to sit down and have something to drink and bite to eat and you say to hurry up and get out. The air in the room was not pleasant. Again, I get it, but could have been said nicer, even an added “please help make room for others.” People are not amused, I bet there will be plenty of drinks sold tonight! This will be an interesting evening. 

I figured as much. I just hit up Sorrento's. They got pepperoni in stock finally! They've been out all cruise. Maybe that's why they had to stop in Miami. That's where all the pepperoni is! 😂

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Many dismissive comments in this thread from armchair adventurers, but those of us on board know that every seat in the main terminal was taken,  the folding chairs set up down below were all taken, and the rest of us waited curbside, sniffing diesel exhaust, for several hours.  Around 1pm staff began rescuing wheelchair passengers, and those who had fainted in the sun and shortly afterwards it appears they abandoned the ill conceived immigration inspection and went into crisis mode.  The line began moving and we were back onboard at 2:00 PM.
 

When I say they abandoned the effort I mean that literally.  Ultimately, THERE WAS NO CUSTOMS inspection - all efforts were focused on re-boarding passengers.  Crisis management.  They scanned our sea pass upon boarding, but that was it.  No facial Rec, nobody asked to see a passport, never took it out of my pocket, just keep moving.  
 

In fairness, there was one CBP agent leaning against a wall as we went past.  Perhaps it depends on what you mean by “immigration inspection”  - that may have been it.  
 

Standing curbside, my sun addled brain was struck by two recurring thoughts - are immigration rules enforced with the same zeal at our southern border, and was anything actually accomplished by this exercise?  Any contraband, fugitives, or immigration violators?  
 

Mention was made that this is a Federal requirement, not Royals, and I agree, however Royal did schedule this itinerary knowing this would be a requirement, but overestimating their ability to manage it - so at least partial credit for creating this superspreader event must go to Royal.

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