Infinify-Goodbyes the 2nd to last day

[Kschn3671]

Hi. I am leaving on the Infinity in 3 Days. I saw somebody put a message which I cant find right now,

that the ships pretends that the 2nd to last night (Wed-Day At Sea) is the last day. I believe they have the Disembarkment Presentation this day, goodbyes to crew, etc. Thursday is a port day (Victoria). Since everybody is going to be at the port (From 2 pm to 10 pm) the last day, I believe they do alot of "goodbye" events the day before.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

Thanks

[Ma Bell]

Yes, that's true.

[jakzak]

I was just looking at the dalies that Harryfat poste4d. On the 2nd day they start asking passengers thier intentions for self disembarkation back in Seattle. I really do understand the many logestic problems the cruise lines have, but please let me enjoy a few days of my vacation before you start talking about getting me off the ship.

[Karynanne]

I was just looking at the dalies that Harryfat poste4d. On the 2nd day they start asking passengers thier intentions for self disembarkation back in Seattle. I really do understand the many logestic problems the cruise lines have, but please let me enjoy a few days of my vacation before you start talking about getting me off the ship.

 

It's pretty stand procedure. They have to coodinate disembarkation for approx. 2000 passengers, and it's takes a few days to do the paperwork. Just fill out the info and continue to enjoy your cruise.

[DCWolf]

You are correct. We just returned from our first cruise, the Aug. 21st Infinity sailing. On Wednesday, the last full day at sea, they did the Disembarkation presentation. They did it in a "game show" format that made it fun. Then, at the end, they had a large number of the staff representing all levels of staff from maintenance to housekeeping, bartenders to waiters, childcare staff to spa staff, and on and on parade in to the theater to the "We Are Family" song. Everyone was dancing and cheering. I thought it was a fantastic gesture by the company and a great opportunity for all the guests to thank the wonderful staff for a great trip.

 

That evening we had our second formal night. Dinner was extra special that evening and was followed by a special show in the theater.

 

Thursday, the ship was docked in Victoria BC until 10 PM, so many people ate dinner in the city rather than returning to the ship. so, it made complete sense for the crew to do the "farewell" events on Wednesday. But, honestly, it didn't in any way ruin the last day of the cruise or make you feel rushed. In fact, for me, it was a bittersweet reminder to enjoy my final day on the ship before it all came to an end.

 

I cannot wait to cruise again!

[harryfat1]

Hi. I am leaving on the Infinity in 3 Days. I saw somebody put a message which I cant find right now,

that the ships pretends that the 2nd to last night (Wed-Day At Sea) is the last day. I believe they have the Disembarkment Presentation this day, goodbyes to crew, etc. Thursday is a port day (Victoria). Since everybody is going to be at the port (From 2 pm to 10 pm) the last day, I believe they do alot of "goodbye" events the day before.

Can anybody shed any light on this?

Thanks

 

Hi,

 

Like others have already answered, they have the "official" goodbye on the second to last full day due to logistics reasons. No big deal either way as you will enjoy the cruise regardless of when the farewell event is.

 

Cruise is one of those odd events where the captain's welcome toast is not on the first night (but on second night) and the captain's farewell is on the second to last night - the other formal night. They do that mainly for packing reasons as people won't have enough time to unpack their luggage and be dressed to the max for the formal event on day 1. The farewell dinner is held at day 6 so that people can pack away their good clothes by day 7 since you need to have your luggage outside the hallway by 10 PM the night of day 7.

 

Be sure to bring your camera/camcorder to MDR that night since they have the baked Alaska parade. Some of the jaded veteran cruisers don't think much of it, but I always liked that event. Especially if it's your first time on a cruise, it's a nice picture moment of the waiter holding baked alaska with your smiling face next it. Makes good pics for people at home. You should have already seen my picture of the baked alaska in my food online photo album link.

 

Just think of them giving you an "extra day" on the cruise on day 7 after they said goodbye to you on day 6.

 

So you all packed for your cruise? The last day before leaving home is always most hectic in trying to do everything last minute.

 

Anyway, have a great cruise if we don't chat again before you leave.

[cruisingram1]

I also wanted to interject that our disembark from the Infinity was BY FAR, the quickest and most organized of my five cruises. I don't know if it's that Celebrity really has it organized or that Seattle is just a particularly easy port, but we were off the ship, bags in hand, in record time. From the minute our group was called, ten minutes early, we did not stop once until we got to our bags. And even then, gathering 6 pieces of luggage took but a few minutes. There was a porter handy and we were out the door in less than 15 minutes from the time we started out from the lounge where we waited.

 

And a big High Five to the people of Seattle who are so gracious to visitors. The fellow directing traffic made room for our van to drop off luggage and even had a smile on his face! The rental car driver was so pleasant.. never felt hurried as we sorted out luggage etc. upon our return. What a great city to visit. Wish we had planned one more day in town before having to leave.

[DCWolf]

Thought about this a little more, and actually, the disembarkation session (game show thingy) and staff thank you was on Thursday morning before we sailed in to Victoria, so actually the morning before we docked in Seattle.

 

And, I agree completely about the embarkation and disembarkation process - both were so fast and simple. Made cruising a breeze!

[harryfat1]

I totally agree with your assessment of Seattle. We were there for one day pre cruise and few hours post cruise and we had a lot of fun during our visit.

 

As for disembarkation, since we had a late flight, we were at the last station at 9:30 and by 9 AM, they were making the announcement that “All guests please leave the ship NOW”. So we were somewhat rushed off at the end as they kept repeating that over the PA as we were in line with hundred so late stragglers off the ship.

 

My guess on quick easy disembarkation may be due to 1) Ship coming back in early (6 AM) since it’s a short trip from Victoria the night before 2) There’s very little for anyone to declare anything on the Customs declaration. The only foreign port we visited was Victoria in just few hours, how much can you buy that makes you over the limit? Not like St. Thomas in the Caribbean’s.

 

Speaking of which, back in December 2007, we stayed in Ft. Lauderdale for one night pre cruise and next day the hotel had 2 free shuttles to take the guests to the pier every 30 minutes. But by mid morning, they started to run late as the all traffic into/out of the port and the radio report back from the shuttle driver was that the port authority closed down the port since they found loads of illegal drugs from some passengers that came back from their Caribbean cruise. So they had fire/police and various vehicles around the area and blocked off the area for over 60 minutes as they tried to sort everything out.

 

There must have been at least 6 to 8 ships in port that day, so I can imagine the various people that have a tight outbound flight schedule would have been sweating it out with the port gates being blocked off and clock ticking on their outbound flight.

 

Odds of this scenario happening with the ship from Victoria are much lower than the Caribbean visit.

[cruisingram1]

Fat Harry... I think your reasoning is probably correct in terms of Victoria being the only foreign port and thus there was not much to do. I suspect, too, there were not too many non US citizens to process. All we did was show our passports and out the door we went. This was MUCH different from our last cruise.

 

We were on the Voyager this Easter and disembark was a FIASCO! There were a large number of Mexican citizens and their processing took more time and my understanding is that the last passengers were finally cleared around 3 pm!

 

We were certainly thrilled that this disembark went more smoothly.