Hello, I also was part of the Harrahs group on this cruise. We cruise NCL quite a bit, and enjoyed the cruise itself - no complaints there. I heartily second the complaints about the Harrahs organizational skills (or I should say, lack thereof). Leaving AC - we were at the appointed location at Harrahs at about 7:30 AM. There was complete chaos - no one directing anything. We were told breakfast boxes were being provided and that buses were leaving promptly at 8. The breakfast box was a stale bagel, juice and an energy bar. The boxes fell apart when you tried to carry them. Around 8:45, our bus finally pulled out, went about 1/2 mile, and promptly broke down. We were transferred to another bus, and our luggage was put on an "overflow" box truck. In NY - Two buses were able to pull into port. Not ours -- our bus pulled over to curb at the corner of 12th and 54th street - the entrance to the port. Our ship was berthed at, I believe, the pier at 49th street - long cross-city blocks. Luggage for those who originally were on our bus was dumped on sidewalk. No porters or rep from harrahs on bus or anywhere to be found. Went through packet of information Harrahs provided, thinking surely we had a contact number for either a Harrahs rep or an NCL rep that could provide some assistance for those who were disabled. Nope, no contact information. One woman had a walker and was trying to pull her suitcase and manage her carry-on. My husband and I are both Seven Stars, so we had two guests: one of our guests had a portion of one lung removed and has significant respiratory issues. Just walking the few blocks to the pier wiped him out for the rest of the day. He would not have been able to do it with luggage. How hard would it have been for harrahs simply to inquire whether any of the guests were handicapped, and to place them on the buses that pulled into the port? Our Luggage -- About 20-30 of us had luggage on the overflow truck, which was no where to be found. We saw the overflow truck pull into port entrance at 54th street, but by the time we walked up to pier, he was no longer in the traffic line, and there was no sign of our luggage. The porters told us not to check in, because if our luggage was unloaded onto sidewalk with no owner present, it would not be loaded onto ship. We waited more than 2 hours - no place to sit down, or use facilities...... One gentleman and I went up to check-in area and searched in vain for a Harrahs or Caesars rep. No luck. It was only fortuitous that one of the women waiting for her luggage from the overflow truck spotted what she thought was her brightly colored suitcase on a porter's cart and chased after it, confirming it was hers. She then screamed across driveway to all of us to come check to see whether our luggage was on same cart. It was. Apparently, box-car truck could not pull into lane by piers because of security, and parked across street, and then had his company call for a porter to come across street and get luggage. Nice of someone to tell us. Harrahs Reps -- Never saw or heard from them for the duration of cruise. Never saw them in casino. Had no way to contact them. We didnt have their last names, or cell numbers, or cabin numbers. Left a message twice at guest services asking them to have the Harrahs rep call me about a minor issue or question, never heard back from them. They may have been at photo shoot, we didnt go either. On my last Harrahs cruise, there were a number of VIP Hosts on board, we had their cabin numbers so we could contact them, they had planned a number of events - just meet and greet and cocktail sorts of things which would not have cost Harrahs an additional nickel since we already had the beverage package. Here, nothing. On my prior Harrahs cruises, the Harrahs rep also called every guest by phone midway thru cruise and asked whetehr it was going OK, whether we needed anything etc. Never saw them or heard from them on this cruise. By the way, how did you know we got a bottle of water free every day. We paid for ours since we didnt know it was included. I think I spent about 60.00 for water.... Back to AC. - Told us to be in Bliss no later than 9:15. We were, and we were told to take a seat. And we cooled our heels for at least an hour. No announcements, no one telling us what was going on. How was this priority disembarkation? Finally, we disembark. Again no one directing anyone. A sign was held up pointing in a specific direction, but that was about it. I know we irritated some other guests waiting to board the bus - not intentionally, and I apologized but.... We hired a porter, as we always do because you get thru customs more quickly and they can manuever around more easily because people move for a big cart. So, we got thru customs, and got outside with the porter, and he directed us around masses of people clogging the walkway -- took us and our cart of luggage down the driveaway itself, coming around to our bus from the opposite direction. Driver took our luggage first and told us to board, and we followed that direction, but we could hear the grousing of the folks behind us who had been standing in line to board for an hour or more. And I dont blame them, I would have been annoyed too. Total lack of organization. Back at Harrahs -- buses drop us and luggage off at bus pick-up area at brigantine entrance. A number of wheelchair bound or handicapped people on buses. I call on my cell phone for porters, as a number of us were checking in. 20 minutes later, 3 porters finally show up. Go to check in - I realize it was only 1PM but Harrahs certainly knew in advance when we would be back - and big surprise, no rooms ready..... We had two suites reserved. I was able to get one about 2PM. The other wasnt ready until after 6PM. I will most definitely take NCL cruises again. I will most definitely continue to patronage Harrahs, because we like it there. But I'm not sure we will ever take another casino group cruise -- or maybbe it will turn on who is sponsoring it. Aside from the complete lack of organization by Harrahs, and the complete lack of accessibility to and availability of the Harrahs reps during the cruise, the casino was packed to overflowing every open hour and it was close to impossible to find seats at anything you wanted to play. For the record, however, I will say that I did a similar cruise last year organized by Harrah's Philadelphia, and it was absolutely flawless from beginning to end. Hosts available 24 hours a day, multiple group dinners and parties planned, bus transportation and travel to/from NY easy and on time; priority embarkation and disembarkation. Difference was night and day. Terry
