How to make disembarkation day easier to deal with

[Traveler]

Post our last cruise I thought of several ideas how to make the embarkation day more bearable , please feel free to add some more of your ideas :

• Do not try to get even with the ultimate drinking package – try not to drink too much alcohol during the  last evening/night , it will make the morning easier.
• Try to go to sleep early so you will get several hours of sleep before leaving the ship.
• Avoid WJ at the disembarkation morning , try to go to another place for breakfast  , WJ is a mad house during disembarkation morning.
• The best time to fly back from the port will be 11:30 am – 1 PM (depends how far the port is from the airport) so you can leave the room around 8 am and go directly to the airport without the need to figure out what to do until your flight.
• If you have very late flight consider to take day stay in one of the hotels , nothing worse than walking  around with tired sad people around you trying to  pass time until your flight.
• Check your bill during the day before the last day so if you need to fix something with guest services you will not need to wait in long lines.
• If you have enough vacation time try to take few days to continue your ovation after the cruise , for example, you cruised from Orlando with the family ? why not to  add few days in the different parks.
• If you can , give yourself one day off at home before going back to work.
• If it is possible always try to do self disembarkation , it will allow you to control when to pack, when to go out from your room (up to 8:30 am) and you will not need to check if your numbers were called or not.
• User the Luggage Valet program if available . that way your suitcase will arrive directly to your home airport and you will not need to carry them before via custom. 
• Use the porters , some time they can save allot of time by using special queues.

·          

[FManke]

Be like Super Mario and never worry about disembarkation! 

[Fuzzywuzzy]

Also, put on a happy face. No matter how much it hurts.

[FManke]

9 minutes ago, Fuzzywuzzy said:

Also, put on a happy face. No matter how much it hurts.

Don't let the porters see you cry.

[Traveler]

11 minutes ago, FManke said:

Don't let the porters see you cry.

yes , use porters to bypass some of the ports lines.

[sk8erguy1978]

Hide in a lifeboat.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Not to hijack your thread, Traveler but I have a disembarkation tale to pass on.

As most of you may recall, it was 1 year ago that LIB in Galveston lost our luggage at the terminal.  Since that time we no longer leave our bags outside the night before disembarkation; instead, we choose to keep our bags and walk them off when we disembark. Ok.  Nothing unusual about that BUT our car wasn’t coming to pick us up until 9:00 and the last thing we wanted was to leave the ship with the early birds and then be stuck out in the hot Texas sun for an hour or more.

I asked the Suites Concierge if she could help us but her time for walking off luggage was too early and walk-off scenario for later departures included stairs which was a no-go for us with all that luggage.  So, we were left to our own devices.  We decided to leave our suite at 7:30 and wait at Boleros on deck 4 until 8:30.  It was perfect. We found chairs next to power outlets and our hour passed quickly BUT we could see the departure line getting longer and longer and longer and longer.  We were suddenly not too happy with our plan.  They had security posted strategically to keep the line jumpers away.  

If things had been left to me, we would have just made the long and sad trek to the back of the line but Dan is smarter than me.  He went up to one of the security guys, told him we were in a suite (our luggage tags confirmed that as well),  and to my utter astonishment, he took us some circuitous route through closed doors, past barriers, past long lines of people all the way through to a special exit kiosk.  Even our Concierge never took us that far !  As a matter of fact, last year when we disembarked, our “expedited disembarkation” was a ticket to the back of that very long line.  We remarked at the time, “I could have done this myself.  What did I need the Concierge for ?”  I’m sure this saved us at least 40 minutes !  So the moral of this story is....don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.  Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t. Luckily for us, this time, we did.

[ChessE4]

4 hours ago, Traveler said:

Post our last cruise I thought of several ideas how to make the embarkation day more bearable , please feel free to add some more of your ideas :

• Do not try to get even with the ultimate drinking package – try not to drink too much alcohol during the  last evening/night , it will make the morning easier.
• Try to go to sleep early so you will get several hours of sleep before leaving the ship.
• Avoid WJ at the disembarkation morning , try to go to another place for breakfast  , WJ is a mad house during disembarkation morning.
• The best time to fly back from the port will be 11:30 am – 1 PM (depends how far the port is from the airport) so you can leave the room around 8 am and go directly to the airport without the need to figure out what to do until your flight.
• If you have very late flight consider to take day stay in one of the hotels , nothing worse than walking  around with tired sad people around you trying to  pass time until your flight.
• Check your bill during the day before the last day so if you need to fix something with guest services you will not need to wait in long lines.
• If you have enough vacation time try to take few days to continue your ovation after the cruise , for example, you cruised from Orlando with the family ? why not to  add few days in the different parks.
• If you can , give yourself one day off at home before going back to work.
• If it is possible always try to do self disembarkation , it will allow you to control when to pack, when to go out from your room (up to 8:30 am) and you will not need to check if your numbers were called or not.

·          

I would add that if you are flying home, the airport luggage valet program may work for you and avoid the issues that @WAAAYTOOO pointed out.  We used it a couple of times with Southwest Airlines when we knew online check in was going to be problematic.  Thanks for your nice summary!

[JLMoran]

6 hours ago, Traveler said:

If you can , give yourself one day off at home before going back to work.

+1 for this, especially if you're on a shorter cruise (<7 days) and you can afford to take the extra day or two to fill out the week off from work. I did that last October for our Bermuda sailing then, doing it again this year. Combined with the fact we're just driving home from the port, it makes for a nice relaxed disembarkation.

On these trips, we're that couple; the one who's hanging out in Two70 Lounge, enjoying the last beverage sold in the cafe and waiting until 9:30, when we hear that very final, "Please, if you're not doing a B2B then GTFO!" We've made sure to clear the room plenty early so housekeeping doesn't have turnaround impacted, but darned if we'll rush our breakfast or not enjoy the last bits of hospitality we can elsewhere.

I just read an article about how people in the US are reluctant or embarrassed to take their vacation time and it blew my mind. You've got it, for goodness sake use it!

[WAAAYTOOO]

7 hours ago, ChessE4 said:

I would add that if you are flying home, the airport luggage valet program may work for you and avoid the issues that @WAAAYTOOO pointed out.  We used it a couple of times with Southwest Airlines when we knew online check in was going to be problematic.  Thanks for your nice summary!

Agreed. We have never had ANY problems with Luggage Valet

[Traveler]

14 hours ago, ChessE4 said:

I would add that if you are flying home, the airport luggage valet program may work for you and avoid the issues that @WAAAYTOOO pointed out.  We used it a couple of times with Southwest Airlines when we knew online check in was going to be problematic.  Thanks for your nice summary!

Yes , thank you for reminded me , just added it to the list . I used it once , its working well also for international flights.

[Nikkoo]

Just a quick note / suggestion from our cruise just gone, our first ever so I’m in no way an expert, but if you have to drive after disembarking think about that the night before! In all fairness our usual Barman asked me at about 8:30pm if I was driving from Southampton or getting picked up. When I said driving he said “not too much tonight then” which I thought was a great thing. I had planned to stop at 9 anyway to give it a good 12 hours but the fact he asked was a really good and responsible thing. I had not been rolling around drunk or anything but some nights we were in there until 12 or later. I felt like he genuinely cared

[Matt]

Good advice!

[PatsFanBrian]

20 hours ago, Nikkoo said:

Just a quick note / suggestion from our cruise just gone, our first ever so I’m in no way an expert, but if you have to drive after disembarking think about that the night before! In all fairness our usual Barman asked me at about 8:30pm if I was driving from Southampton or getting picked up. When I said driving he said “not too much tonight then” which I thought was a great thing. I had planned to stop at 9 anyway to give it a good 12 hours but the fact he asked was a really good and responsible thing. I had not been rolling around drunk or anything but some nights we were in there until 12 or later. I felt like he genuinely cared

Good point.  Reminds me of a time when were at an all-inclusive south of Cancun and a couple of "gentlemen" spent all their time at the pool bar, seemed like around the clock, loud, boisterous and very drunk.  One afternoon, the older of the 2 is passed out on a lounge chair, the other sitting at the bar.  We went up to get a drink and the younger is asking the bar tender what the penalty is for DUI in Cancun.  Turns out they had to leave for the airport in an hour and had a rental car.  He was advised to take a taxi and work something out with the rental agency because the penalty was automatic jail time.  We have no idea what happened but didn't see them after that.

[VillainsGin]

On 9/1/2019 at 9:21 AM, sk8erguy1978 said:

Hide in a lifeboat.

Only thing that pique my interest on this thread.

Is it naughty I'm contemplating on doing that on my first cruise on jan, 2020? 

All I need to plan out is how to get a cabin for the free cruise when I stow away successfully on this ship?

[sk8erguy1978]

26 minutes ago, TJ! said:

Only thing that pique my interest on this thread.

Is it naughty I'm contemplating on doing that on my first cruise on jan, 2020? 

All I need to plan out is how to get a cabin for the free cruise when I stow away successfully on this ship?

Nope!

I can keep sleeping in the lifeboat or other areas around the ship ... I would be more curious how to drink without an onboard account! LOL

Don't leave your drink unattended or stowaways might steal it!

[Matt]

Four years later, I thought @Traveler's advice was great, and this week's podcast episode is all about it: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-507-how-make-disembarkation-easier

[Va4fam]

What is "luggage valet" program....and is it available at every port?

 

[AshleyDillo]

2 hours ago, Va4fam said:

What is "luggage valet" program....and is it available at every port?

It is not available at every port. Basically it allows you to pay to leave your luggage outside your cabin and Royal transports it to the airport and checks it on your behalf. You won't see the luggage again until you arrive to baggage claim after your flight home.

[CrznTxn]

Seattle has the luggage valet that is free and wonderful.

The best disembarkation update in the past several years is the facial recognition for Customs. We barely slow down and it finds our picture and clears us to go.

I do wish that Royal would put it on their ships as NCL has done. They used it in every port getting off and on and it made the process much quicker and cleaner without having to present the ship card every time and someone having to dig theirs out and slow the line.