disembarking

[goingtocruise]

How is this handled with NCL? Do we get colored tags, or just walk off when we want to?

[endymion6942]

Yes to both questions.

You will have the option to disembark with you carrying your own bags.

The other standard way is putting colored nametags on you luggage and place the luggage outside your cabin the night before disembarking.

[Susie51]

If possible we like later times, because it isn't as crowded at the gangway and most of the luggage has already been picked up.

[goingtocruise]

darn...I read ons NCL site about disembarking being freestyle and not complicated. Thought maybe it was walk off when you want like Disney. Oh well, I'm used to the tags with RCCL. Was hoping it was different.

[sparks1093]

darn...I read ons NCL site about disembarking being freestyle and not complicated. Thought maybe it was walk off when you want like Disney. Oh well, I'm used to the tags with RCCL. Was hoping it was different.

 

Um, but you can walk off when you want as the first reply said.

[2Cruise4Ever]

Even if you don't do self-disembarkation and use the tags. You can still walk off when you want to. The main reason for the color tags is so you can find your luggage easier. We always wait around and leave later to avoid the crowds.

[goingtocruise]

so we don't have to wait for our color to be called if we use the tags?

 

Probably will just take our own luggage. Always anxious to get off the ship and on our way. Nothing to do on the ship in the morning and need to get to airport to drop a person off and rent a car to get to Disney.

[dfwguy62]

The color tags ARE associated with a time slot. Red for 8:00am, for example. That will be the time they estimate your bags will be available for you to pick up in baggage claim. They will be announcing those time slots in the morning as being ready for disembarkment and they are usually on time or a little early. If you sent your bags out for a 9am slot and then later decide to get off the ship at 7:00am, there is not a guarantee your bags will be available to you until 9am, but they may very well be. It depends on a lot of things. They MAY ask you when you try to leave the ship what time slot you were in. If you truly want off the ship tell them whatever slot has most recently been called. Otherwise, they may ask you to wait inside until your baggage time slot has been called. BUT, for maximum flexibility, just carry your own bags off at any time.

[goingtocruise]

thank you. we will carry our own off. We will travel lite since there aren't formal nights and probably won't purchase much since we have already been to these ports.

[erichepler]

I disembarked today from the Jewel in NYC and walk-off disembark was scheduled for 9am, 1 hour after scheduled arrival time in NYC. We ate breakfast, got in line at 830 which wrapped alll the way around deck 7 almost a second lap... but at 855, the gates opened early to disembark for walk-offs and within 30 minutes we were through customs, had the car packed, and on our way back to Pennsylvania. The line was long, but was on time and speedy. Definately some people who abused their "wheelchair" priveleges which seems unfair to say to them since they have a wheelchair for some reason, but I saw 2 couples with wheelchairs using their wheelchairs for baggage and just blowing by all the people in line.. hmmm and the babies in strollers. I'm not sure how they are different than luggage really, the child is in the stroller, why do they get to zip by everyone, especially when they are holding the child and pushing an empty stroller full of what... mom's shoes! Oh well, like I said, off in 30 minutes and on the road!

[Mura]

I have somewhat of a negative comment!

 

We were on the T/A on GEM leaving NYC on 4/10 and arriving in Venice on 4/24.

 

Leaving the ship at any time was a disaster but it was far worse when we were leaving the ship on the last morning.

 

We happened to be in the first group (as far as tags were concerned) to leave but you could not even approach the exit. There were people wanting to get off just to see Venice and there were people needing to get off to get the bus to the airport. (We were in the latter category.) A woman in back of me was so desperate to get to the head of the line (she was also going for the airport) that she nearly knocked me to the floor. Yes, she was bigger than I am (which is saying a lot) but she did NOT get ahead of me!

 

The NCL crew was besides themselves in trying to figure out how to get people off the ship in an orderly fashion.

 

It did NOT help that they were having a problem with the gangway itself.

 

When there was an announcement on the loudspeaker calling the next group to the gangway we all just laughed ...

 

So I think these things may depend upon the cruise. Normally we are the last people to get off because we are staying on in the port ... in this case, we were turning around to go home.

 

It CAN be difficult!

 

I should add that at every port (and being a T/A we didn't have many) it was a misery to leave the ship. I found it interesting that we had one gangway to exit the ship but there were TWO when we came home. Why not have two to begin with?

 

Friends on our cruise mentioned that they were on a ship's tour, walking through a lower deck to get to the exit, and they were about to pass out from the heat and lack of air. If there were one exit for independent people and another for tours, I should think that would solve the problem.

 

I know the ship has lots of problems in getting lots of people off the ship at the same time (we usually cruise a line that has much smaller ships) ... but if we had these problems on GEM, I really hate to think of what might happen on EPIC.

 

Just a few thoughts ...