We just did the cruise out of cape liberty and it only took 30min or so from Uber drop off, luggage check in, boarding,, and to windjammer restaurant for lunch. Great experience
@@TheMusterDrill I have a few questions (this is my first cruise and I’ve heard nothing but awful things and this port) Is online check in helpful? Were there separate lines for people who have this completed upon arrival vs those who do not??? Also, what time did you actually get on the ship… we picked the latest time to board and it seems like now I’ll be regretting it.
Regardless of how you check-in everyone stands in line. An early time can sometimes go quicker, but that can be delayed by those getting off from previous sailing.
@@TheMusterDrill I panic at the thought of a crowd of people so I am PRAYING for myself! Lol thank you for the heads up…. I’m really trying to prepare myself
I love the Magic, it's a wonderful ship. Spent 15 days on her in December. She's wasted on a small port like Norfolk.... and it seems like the size of the ship is causing headaches at the port too.
Royal Caribbean harmony(May 2022)of the sea was beyond smooth and one of the fastest I ever been through. That one of the 3-4 biggest ships in the world. RC won me over forever with that experience.
My family were on thr Magic out of Norfolk on May 30 and we were on in less than an hour, most of our wait was 20 mins for our 4 yr old rapid covid test and sitting on the bus waiting to get off
Wow...6 hrs is not acceptable for any ship boarding, I will never sail from Norfolk. When we sailed on the Magic it was from Port Canaveral and it took us less than 30 minutes because it's all based on scheduled boarding times.
LOL. you are not the first vlogger I've heard say this about the Norfolk port. But you are the first one to give diagrams and actual footage of WHY. This is unfortunate because it is the port closest to us. We are going to Baltimore end of June. Just one question from me. Did the suite guests have a separate line?
Hi Mandy, there was only one line, nothing separate, no arrival time sections, just one long slow line. Enjoy your cruise from Baltimore and thanks for watching.
Just sailed out of Los Angeles on NOTS on Monday and it was beyond smooth . Literally 15 mins from when I entered the parking lot to when I entered the ship.
I am so glad you included the videos! This is unbelievable without seeing it!! People, it truly is THAT bad at Norfolk. That ship is too large for that small port. It barely was adequate for the Sunshine when it was ported there for a few years..I believe the Sunshine capacity is 3600....Magic has an even higher capacity and its sailing full on every sailing according to Carnival.
Not that i would sail from norfolk and never on carnival but if you are booked on a cruise out of there id cancel now that is insanity it took me 20 minutes to board an oasis class ship out of port Everglades and less out of port of ny
Sailed on the Breeze out of Galveston this past December and from the time we dropped off our bags and onto the ship was 40 minutes. Parking was easy, check in literally took 5 minutes downstairs and then another 5 minutes once upstairs. Probably the easiest check-in we've had.
Since we live in Houston we sail out of Galveston. Our Carnival (Terminal 1) pre-COVID check-ins were always short. An hour at most. Can't say the same for RC's check-in post-COVID. Over three hours. Terrible.
In May I cruised out of Long Beach on Panorama. I thought our 2 hour and 15 minute boarding was bad. From parking ticket dispensers running out of tickets, ($187 for 7 days) to Carnival scraping the assigned check in time slots ,(they didn't enforce no early check in before your assigned time slot) it was a nightmare. One person collapsed and taken away in an ambulance. I thought the new assigned boarding due to covid was making things better. But when u don't follow your procedures it's a mess.
Hi Tom, until this sailing the longest embarkation I had experienced was Mardi Gras in April which was delayed by an hour or so due to a delay in returning from the previously sailing. Thanks for watching
We sailed out of Norfolk, for the 2nd time ever, last month on Magic; we were on the inaugural sailing. We are locals, so I was hoping that it was just a restart issue because our embarkation/debarkation was utterly ridiculous…and I’m normally a positive person when it comes to these things! 😬 We sail on Magic again in October and I’m deciding to “hope for the best/expect the worst.” Hey, as long as I get on the ship eventually, I guess I’ll be good, eh? 🤪 Thanks for the review!
We was on that same cruise . I’m from the area . It’s new to the city . They have a lot of kinks to iron out parking is a major one glad I got dropped off
That's why we don't try to be the 1st one's to get on the cruise. When we sailed out of Long Beach in February we had a 1pm boarding time. We waited until the lines got smaller around 2:30ish, then we got in line and the line moved smoother because mostly everyone was on board already. You have to pack your patience when cruising 🛳.
Hi Margaret. I agree you do need patience when cruising. I had a 12:30 -1:00 arrival, but Carnival wasn't honoring those anyway. I also didn't arrive until 3:45 because it took hours to get parked. Traditional wisdom/logic doesn't apply to Norfolk. Thanks for watching.
Baltimore on Royal Caribbean takes me 15 minutes from parking to bag drop off to security to get on the ship. I'm guessing Carnival in Baltimore is the same.
Yes. It was one of the easiest ports I’ve ever been to. We got to the port at 12:00. Parked by 12:15. On the ship by 12:45. This was on Carnival Legend last June.
Well played with the title. It scared me the shit out of me. I'm planning on going on the Magic in January out of Miami (it'll be my fourth cruise, and second on the Magic). So reading this gave me second thoughts 💀
My family had a similar horrible embarkation onto the Norwegian Joy last November, it was only 5 hours, my mother is 87 and on oxygen. It took so long that her 5 hour battery died! Totally unacceptable. Since cruise lines need to do this weekly, you’ll think they would know how to do it by now! Btw, cruising on the Oasis on the 10th, looking forward to see Nassau again.
We sailed on the first sailing outta Norfolk on May 15 and our experience was even worst than yours. Even though we live close in Richmond VA we will never sail outta Norfolk again! I'd rather drive to Baltimore or fly to Florida
Thanks for this video. I was considered Norfolk, since Ive already done Baltimore. I wanted somewhere close for my family who haven't cruised before. This completely changed my mind.
@@lalat9437 That's true. Looking at some of the comments under the post, where people have had the same experience, Im not sure I want to take the chance.
@@msanderson469 no I understand your decision, I just see so many people complain about the smallest things, in this case the hours long wait wasn’t acceptable, but maybe it was an isolated incident
Hi Sarah. Yes, there are few additional parking options near the terminal. Dominion tower is one I heard about. However the terminal process was the second half of the nightmare. Enjoy your cruise and thanks for watching.
When Norfolk first had cruise ships sailing from here they contracted out the embarkation process to local travel agents. If that’s still true it might explain the slow process. I sail on in October and hopefully they iron out the problems.
Hi Jeremy. My experience was apparently not unique as others have mentioned it's been this way on previous sailings. I hope your enjoying your cruise. Thanks for watching.
Hi Stormtrooper. I will have a wrap up video coming, but it won't chronicle the cruise. There were also some events that would have made doing so impossible. Thanks for watching.
Hands down the worse experience I've ever had and debarkation was almost as bad and thankfully my car wasn't one that was broken into or totaled when the security guard crashed into a line of cars in the lot. It was great meeting you and thanks for watching!
This will be my second time leaving from Norfolk, being a residence here yes I agree I will not park my car at their locations site. I agree the wait is excessive but not 5-6 hours. I’m hoping because things are restarting it will pick back up. Other suggested areas to park are Sheraton hotel garage parking waterside, residence inn parking garage Portsmouth va catch ferry across, MacArthur Mall parking garage, waterside parking garage, all within walking,train,shuttle, ferry, Uber, Lyft away.
Embarkation out of Miami and ft Lauderdale and even cape Canaveral…the longest it took was 20 minutes . Parking in Miami and cape Canaveral is a simple parking garage and ft Lauderdale is shuttle bus but convenient! I always get an early on board to avoid lines
Hi Shelly, I agree boarding in those ports is a breeze. Boarding times in Norfolk were meaningless because they didn't have time slot lines, just one long general boarding line for everyone and there are not words to describe how slow it moved. Thanks for watching
oh my goodness, it sounds like the logistics folks really need to do a 'trial run' and make them stand in that line on boarding day to get a taste. sometimes the planning folks are just so out of touch. I'd mention it in the post-cruise survey and maybe they can address it.
So I see this video is from 11 months ago. I sailed Magic out of Norfolk 12 months ago and getting on and off was horrid . They were not trained nor prepared. I just got off the sailing that the young man went overboard on and getting on and off were 100% better . I love the Dream class ships . Once they redo the port and come back in 2025 I’m sure I will be on a ship again out of Norfolk. I actually live closer to Baltimore port but the ships are always too old . I got off the ship on Tuesday and to my car at cedar grove in 35 minutes .
Scott, I am on the same ship leaving tomorrow. Let me know if you got any compensation for complaining or if they promised that next time would be better? My whole group is a little bit nervous about what we saw here. We’re just hoping it’s better this week than it was last
Hi Marc. I did not receive any compensation, Carnival has been dismissive of the situation. My advise to everyone is to pack a whole lot of patience and if conditions are better, then count your blessings and either way, enjoy your cruise once onboard. Thanks for watching.
wow, thanks for letting us know about Norfolk VA, Virginia port, standing in the heat all day, crazy, hopefully at your next post you can post /show the port getting off and on and the area
I was on the May 30 sailing. I lucked out boarding. Got the the parking lot at 11am on-board eating lunch by 1230. Not bad. Now debarkation was a nightmare. I did self assist out of my cabin at 745am, didn't get off until 11am and to my car at 1145!!....pure crazyness.
I Walt, I sailed from Chrleston on Carnival Sunshine March 1st and that process was so smooth and efficient. Have a great cruise and thanks for watching
@@TheMusterDrill Thanks for letting me know that information. I would've been very upset if I was caught in a situation like you with embarking. That's ridiculous and unacceptable. Thanks again bud!
I’m boarding my 32&33 carnival sailing next month on a b2b. I’ve never waited more than an hour, even back before they had all of todays advances. I just can’t get over your SIX hour embarkation process and not even a plausible reason of any sort given by CCL. Ludicrous! I was considering sailing out of Norfolk because it’s closer to me than a lot of the other ports and I was willing to try something new, Thats definitely not going to happen.
Hi Lana. My experience embarking has always been pretty quick, so the Norfolk situation was difficult, to say the least. I also had a similar experience getting on the Magic again a few months later when she moved to NYC. Then, with so many having their cars broken into with the city & carnival denying responsibility, leaving passengers on the hook for the bill. There really aren't words. Thanks for watching
We were on the 6/4 AND the 6/10 sailings out of Norfolk, and decided at the last minute NOT to park in the City “secure” parking. Very fortunate, as the folks discovered after the first part that a “Security guard” had crashed into several of their cars, AND even more of them were vandalized. The city AND the security company are all claiming non-responsibility [they have “not responsible for damage” on the receipts/tickets!] and are referring the victims to their own insurance company. Even if I did decide to sail from Norfolk again, I would NOT use the city parking … all scam and crooks! 🤬🤬🤬
You are not the first person that complained about Norfolk port. I have seen plenty of videos that have said bad things about this port. I will try not to sail from this port if I can
6 hours !!!!! excessive!!!!! sorry you had to go through that!! at least now you know NORFOLK is not accepting cruises anymore!!!! NO ONE will have to experience that again!!
