Who views 'priority disembarkation' as a perk? And why?

For me, my vacation starts when I set foot on the ship, and ends when I get off. I like my vacation to last as long as possible, so I take advantage of priority embarkation to extend my vacation.

At the other end of the cruise, I do the same. I like to have a lie-in, relax over breakfast, and enjoy the empty ship for as long as possible. I wait until the P.A. is made for 'all remaining passengers'... usually at 1030 or 1100hrs. When I disembark there are no queues, no crowds, and my luggage is usually standing there easy to find, on it's own, in the hall. The immigration officers are waiting for me, instead of the other way around. It's perfect. To me, that's a perk. (And in fact, MSC offer an extra hour or so in the cabin to cruisers at my tier).

But I understand that many cruisers are keen to do everything 'first', 'with priority'. So I'm wondering... What's the rush?

Um, not everyone has the luxury of time that you apparently do? And has nothing to do with a "need to be first".

Some people may be facing a long drive on their disembarkation day.

Some people may need to take an early flight home, out of necessity ( limited departures to their home city, or pressing commitments at home).

Some may have plans for that day in the port city.

Some people consider the trip finished and see no need to just sit around twiddling their thumbs.

Many of my departure flights home are not direct. Unless I book my first flight earlier in the day, I won't get home until late at night. That's always a bummer if I have to work the next day. So, I usually book early flights and walk off of the ship with my luggage first thing in the morning.

If I didn't have to be anywhere, then it would be nice to stay on the ship until the last minute.

It's over !

Any jump on getting going with your next mode of transportation is

a benefit to us . Flight/ Drive/ Kennel/ await .

Lingering is for those that have none of the above .

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We like the perk at certain times. When we drive to the port there is no hurry to get off the ship. We are in northern Illinois and it’s a long day of travel when we fly. So we like the perk of getting off early, and on our way home.

We like the perk at certain times.

Agree...at times it is of value, other times, not so much. There is no one situation that totally applies to the OP's question.

We also think vacation starts with the flight, as we fly First Class. But you can look all around and find many people disagree with us, due to the travails of flying. And we don't bemoan people that feel that way.

For me, my vacation starts when I set foot on the ship, and ends when I get off. I like my vacation to last as long as possible, so I take advantage of priority embarkation to extend my vacation.

 

At the other end of the cruise, I do the same. I like to have a lie-in, relax over breakfast, and enjoy the empty ship for as long as possible. I wait until the P.A. is made for 'all remaining passengers'... usually at 1030 or 1100hrs. When I disembark there are no queues, no crowds, and my luggage is usually standing there easy to find, on it's own, in the hall. The immigration officers are waiting for me, instead of the other way around. It's perfect. To me, that's a perk. (And in fact, MSC offer an extra hour or so in the cabin to cruisers at my tier).

 

But I understand that many cruisers are keen to do everything 'first', 'with priority'. So I'm wondering... What's the rush?

The cruise is over. The crew wants you off. The B2B cruisers can not start the TAD procedures until the ship is cleared of all non B2B cruisers. New passengers want to get on the ship as early as they can (like you) to start their vacation ASAP (like you) and that can't happen until all the B2B cruisers have completed the TAD process. :rolleyes:

It seems because you have so much time that you’re unable to understand how others might have other engagements to get to. Some have early flights. Some have to go to work. Some have local tours planned or have people waiting for them. There’s numerous reasons people want to debark early. It’s not about just wanting “everything first” like you said.

Because we need to catch the 8.15 train north, or the complicated timetable just won't work for us, and the latest train arrival at our rural station is 6pm... so we need to be up and ready with our luggage early, and away... so far it's worked!

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We like to get off early. Even though it was a fun week we are tired, have a long drive ahead of us and want to get to the pet boarder before noon so we don't have to pay two extra days (Saturday and Sunday) to keep boarding our fur baby. And I know that our cat wasn't to happy being there and wants to be home so she has a whole house to roam around.

Once I have to leave the cabin, sitting around just for the hell of it in public areas doesn't thrill me! I consider my cruise to be over when I go to bed the last night. Need to get on home and back to my life!

When we lived in South Florida, we used to linger as long as possible and get off the ship as late as we were allowed. However, we moved to the Atlanta area so now we either have a flight or a long drive ahead of us after we cruise.

For our last cruise we drove to Port Canaveral. Even getting off the ship fairly quick, we still didn’t make it home until the early evening which is extra exhausting when traveling with small children. So for us, it does make sense to be on the road as quickly as possible.

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Because most passengers seem to want to be off in a hurry, we are inclined to take it easy and linger over breakfast, then hang out in our cabin (if possible). We do not wait until forced off, but do prefer to take it easy. If we are flying home, we then go to a hotel for the night - possibly for a few days - if the debarkation port has any attraction.

Of course, we have the luxury of ample time, so catching an early flight a day or two later is ideal: no rush to the airport, possibly a fare enough lower to cover a night at the hotel, and it gets us home at a decent hour.

I'll wager that a lot of you quick-off-the-ship folks will reconsider once your time is your own.

I would book my return flight from a Florida port back to NY as early as 11AM. With platinum or diamond walkoff, I could get to either FLL or MIA by 8AM while the airport is deserted, and sometimes even switch to an earlier flight. I actually made a 8:30AM flight out of MIA one weekend morning.

I avoided congestion, crowds and higher planes fares that way. I was never in a rush, but I did liked being ahead of everyone else. It's like Priority Diamond boarding and being one of the first on the ship.

I don't judge anyone for their boarding or disembarkation preferences, and I realize we are all different in how we view situations.

We have cruised out of Jacksonville and Charleston where we drive to/from port. In those cases, we like to disembark early so we can hit the road

Most of the time, we spend a few days in town post-cruise so we will take our time, eat breakfast in the MDR and then disembark

It all depends on the situation.

It depends upon the situation for us too.

Many times we use a cruise as transportation to Europe so we are eager to explore the disembarkation town and start the next phase of the trip.

Other times we are driving home from the port so we linger.

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We just go when we are ready. Sometimes early sometimes not, it all depends on our flights home.

This next cruise we may be a bit later since our flight is at 1:30, no earlier ones. Or we may take advantage of the suite early disembarkation and have breakfast in San Juan.

OP

I certainly hope that you don't cruise on a ship we are sailing on. We like longer cruises and many times we book back-to-back cruises. We are required to go through immigration just like the others leaving the ship to go home. But we can't get back on the ship until it is down to "zero" count. Thus we sit out in the terminal -- sometimes for quite a while waiting for you slow pokes to get off.

Please be considerate of those of us who would like to get back on the ship and start our next cruise and leave the ship by 9:30. Also remember that the crew needs time to clean up the ship before new arrivals get on.

We really like priority disembarkation. The cruise is over and the staff has a busy turnaround day ahead. I am ready to get back to our house with bathrooms bigger than a refrigerator and my husband's excellent cooking.

It depends entirely on our plans for the day of disembarkation. No set practice. Typically we are continuing our travels with a land component.

We have no desire to elongate our disembarkation time just to remain on the ship a little longer. As other have said...when it's over, it's over.

We really like priority disembarkation. The cruise is over and the staff has a busy turnaround day ahead. I am ready to get back to our house with bathrooms bigger than a refrigerator and my husband's excellent cooking.

Bathroom bigger than a refrigerator! Too funny, and sad cuz it's true! 🤣

Pretty much all of the facilities are "down" disembarkation morning. There's not much to do other than sit around. Actually, we prefer the self walk-off, now. If your' able to do it, you're off and out of the terminal quickly, no hunting for luggage, no having to put your luggage out in the hall the evening prior. As we are snow birds, we drive but friends of ours who fly, last time they texted and said they were at their gate (not just at the airport) at 8:30. This was out of FLL. If you have to take an early flight, it works best.

Thanks for everyone's responses. It seems that most people who prefer to be towards the beginning of the debarkation process do so because they tend to have an early flight or maybe prefer to make a 'clean break' with the vacation rather than drag it out.

I think for those of us who choose to debark later on in the process, many of us are going to spend time waiting for a flight, either in a ship lounge or an airport lounge, so it's better to wait and let the early birds get off first.

There were a few posts (some of which have now been deleted by mods) chastising those of us who wait until our debarkation group is announced, and suggesting that the people who are called last are delaying the process somehow. I just wanted to point out to those people that the debarkation process is going to take a certain amount of time. Let's say it takes two hours to get 2,000 passengers off a ship: Some people will be at the start of that process, others will be at the end, and some will be in the middle. None of those people are 'delaying the process'.

For those on a B2B, who are concerned that they are spending more time in the terminal than they would like, I have a suggestion: Choose to disembark amongst the last few passengers, at the end of the 'two hour' disembarkation process. You'll find that you pretty much get straight back on again!

Thank you ALL for your insights and opinions... I'm finding it all very interesting.

First on, reasons are simple. A seven night cruise is only six days, so let’s get aboard and enjoy the ship.

First off. We take the priority debarkation letter and run for the exit. We cruise from Galveston often, and with my system we can stop by and get our dog, quick car wash and be home with the washer going by 10am.

Recently in Ft Lauderdale we were at the airport at 9am and made an early flight home.

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