Didn't have to pack the night before disembarcation!

[lansingisland]

Just off the Diamond Princess and I was thrilled that you were not required to put your suitcases out in the hall the night before you departed the ship. If you were willing and able to handle your own bags you could keep them and wheel them off yourself as you left the ship. This took a ton of pressure off, and kept the second to the last cruise day from being ruined. We had plenty of time in the am to pack.

[Toto2Kansas]

That does make it nice, but somehow I just can't picture several hundred passengers trying to get all of their luggage down to the exit to disembark. That would be a nitemare as the public areas are crowded enough now with just people and carry ons. :confused:

[seattlekckckc]

Something to keep in mind regarding your (OP) last statement. If you choose express disembarkation, you MUST be able to offload on your own, with no porter assistance. You also must be in the very first group called for Express, ONLY! Your "plenty of time" would not be my "plenty if time!" Thats for sure! You cant take your time packing and then go to the gangway whenever you are ready. They will not let you off until your color is called if you miss that first shot. And hauling all of your stuff through the long customs line at that point would be a disaster. So just to let people know, if they call the express group at 7.30 or 8am, you had better be ready to go then, not later. I have a friend who works at the pier, and a couple thought they could handle the luggage by themselves, and ended up not being able to make the trek by themselves, and it ended up delayed disembarkation for everyone, the entire ship, waiting for porter assistance to unblock the luggage fisaco they had going on the gangway.

 

For the OP, I am very glad it worked for you, but it is not for everyone, thats for sure!

 

Unless I have an early flight, which I never would have booked anyway, I dont think I would ever use this. Too much pressure and rushing for me to get out of the ship so early. Why would I want to hassle with my heavy bags?? I would rather pack the night before, taking a large carry on or shopping bag for jammies and swimsuits, ect, and then enjoy a leiserly breakfast in the dining room waiting for my color. Once you are in the terminal with your bags, stash that extra carry on in the side pocket.

 

jmo, Casey

[kryos]

That does make it nice, but somehow I just can't picture several hundred passengers trying to get all of their luggage down to the exit to disembark. That would be a nitemare as the public areas are crowded enough now with just people and carry ons. :confused:

LOL ... no way do I want to wrestle my luggage off the ship on disembarkation day. I'd rather pack it up the night before and let the ship's personnel deal with it.

 

The only thing I don't understand, though, is why Princess requires the luggage out so darned early! We had to have it out by 8:00 p.m. on my Island cruise in April. HAL asks you to have it out by midnight ... a far more reasonable time. At least a midnight cut-off allows you to enjoy your dinner, even if you have late seating, and then go back to the cabin to pack. With the 8:00 p.m. deadline, you have no choice but to pack everything up before dinner ... cutting into part of that last day.

 

Princess claims the reason for the 8:00 p.m. cutoff is so that they are not disturbing sleeping passengers by moving luggage around in the hallway late at night, but I don't buy it. Most of those "sleeping passengers" would be busily packing up their suitcases anyway, so they wouldn't be disturbed by the luggage operations in the hall.

 

Maybe Princess can re-evaluate this policy ... and make the disembarkation process at least a bit more pleasant for their passengers.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Toto2Kansas]

Well, I have to admit that is one rule we usually break. We were on a cruise many years ago and somehow I ended up on the wrong deck the last evening, it was the deck with the luggage. I saw how they stacked it and there is no way I wanted ours at the bottom of the pile. Now I watch and listen, and have found that they do remove luggage well into the wee hours of the night. So, no matter what time the 'suggest', I never have DH put ours out until the very last minute before we go to bed. I know, rules are rules, but I just don't want a totally squished suitcase. :o

[negc]

RCI offers this same option now but unless you only have a carryon apiece, I can't imagine schlepping all our bags off the ship by ourselves. I still wonder if the drug sniffing dogs etc. won't give you special attention if you bypass the usual luggage handling procedures. At least RCI asks that you have your luggage outside your stateroom by midnight and I know from experience that they are collecting the luggage well beyond that deadline.:)

Since most of what we are packing to come home is dirty clothes, it doesn't take up much time to throw it in our bags. Don't have to worry about wrinkles or creases. :D

[jeniferlyn]

We always put our bags out at the last minute. The crew was taking bags out of our hallway at 3:00 a.m. The noise was so loud it woke me up and I looked out of the peep-hole and saw them carrying the bags. We never rush to put the bags out by the door.

[DanJ]

Is it specific ports they offer the carry it off yourself plan? Do they allow this in LA for the Mexican Riviera cruises? They usually have us up so early for immigration that morning that I would have no problem being called off at 730 or so. Would allow us to catch a 3 hour earlier flight too LOL.

[seattlekckckc]

Dan - I think it depaends on customs at the particular part, and it does change. My friend that works at the peier was surprised when Seattle changed this year, I dont think they offered it last year (or maybe not all of the time).

 

We NEVER have our bags out by 8pm. I have seen it differently on different Princess ships also. Once it said to put one bag out before dinner, and the rest before you retire. Another Patter will say out by 10PM. Who knows what dictates the choice of this time.

 

Once we put our bags out at 2am, and had a bit of a scare when I woke up at 6AM for a swim and they were still in the hall, but then when we got back they were gone. I am betting that at no time would the crew ever say "Too bad, your bags will have to stay here!" It might make it more difficult for the staff to keep checking the halls, that is the part I feel bad about. But hey, I am not going to ruin the last night of my vaca by stressing about that. I figure that the luggage guys are pretty much employed by hauling luggage all night, so me putting it out at 8pm vs. midnight isnt going to make that much difference to them. How many people have rushed to get their bags out by that cutoff time, and then returned at 11PM to see their stuff still sitting in the hallway? I dont like my belongings just sitting out there anyway.

 

Casey

[Host Caroline]

We were on same cruise as first poster and also take our luggage off.. but I have 2 mediums and a carry on and we had an early flight. We were thru customs and in a cab by 8:15 .. it was wonderful! And yes, they offer it in several disembark ports but not sure about LA since I've never done that itinerary. When we drive we also take our luggage off ourselves and get on the road at least 2 hours sooner.. which just works for us although not for everyone..

And if you have express disembark they do let you off anytime.. the downside is if you don't have yourself ready early you do have the hassle of standing in longer lines..

[Cruise Junky]

They offer it in Vancouver. Wish we'd known when we did the Island Princess. We could have been home hours before we were.

[Murphey]

I'm with the above posters. My last night on board, I am still cruising. Which means, we still dress for dinner, go out, see a show...whatever.....I don't put our bags (at least one last bag) until we go to bed. Never had a problem. The point being...I am still on vacation until I go to bed that evening!

[Baxter]

We carried our own luggage off the Sun in May and those doing "express" disembarkation were told they could leave at any time. Each time a new colour was called, they repeated that those carrying their own luggage could disembark. Was very handy.

[Cruise Junky]

I agree, when we departed in Vancouver, they were constantly repeating the message about leaving anytime if you had your luggage.

[seattlekckckc]

Thats good, maybe they loosened up the process. When we were on the Diamond in October (I think that was the one) it was highlighted in BOLD on the disembarkation Patter that you had to be off in the first group for Express, or wait for your color. We saw them turning people back to the ship at the security check at the gangway exit from the ship. It seemed kind off silly to me, especially since there are times when there is no one getting off, just waiting for the long lines at customs to go down. Still, for anyone who has never cruised, those can be some long lines and slow moving. Take the line at the airport waiting to check in and add in alot more walking/pushing of bags along. I always hate that part!!!

 

Casey

[SharB]

I just wanted to add our experience along with previous posters. We were on the Diamond over New Year's and found that it was acceptable to put our bags out as late as 11pm. I'm sure it could have been done later, because they didn't start collecting our bags until around 2am. Another nice thing was that we didn't need to leave our room until around 9am. We got up in time to watch the ship pull into port, showered, etc. and went down for breakfast in the dining room. Had a leisurely breakfast and returned to our room for some last minute photos and to retrieve our carry-ons. By this time, the bed had been stripped and made up for the next occupant, so we were extra careful to keep things neat. We drive home from Los Angeles, and so we wanted to be part of the later groups to get off the ship. Unfortunately, there were people who hadn't settled their on-board account and customs didn't let the first group off until around 8:30. We got off the ship around 10:30 and stood in line for customs until 12 (I'm sure glad we weren't hauling our luggage). And we had our passports!

 

Shar

[Pam in CA]

I always put my bag out after coming back from late traditional dining. It's been very rare that I put it out before then -- I can't even remember if I have.

 

Many times when I've disembarked, I had to go down an escalator. Those carrying bags went to an elevator in the other direction -- I remember seeing them waiting for it. I guess that's faster but it's sure not as convenient IMHO. I want to lug my bags as little as possible.

[bdjam]

The only thing I don't understand, though, is why Princess requires the luggage out so darned early! We had to have it out by 8:00 p.m. on my Island cruise in April. HAL asks you to have it out by midnight ... a far more reasonable time. At least a midnight cut-off allows you to enjoy your dinner, even if you have late seating, and then go back to the cabin to pack. With the 8:00 p.m. deadline, you have no choice but to pack everything up before dinner ... cutting into part of that last day.

We were on the same cruise – my bags went out before we went to dinner, my traveling partner’s bags went out when we got back to the room about 11:30…all of our bags were pier-side when we got off the ship.

[tennisobo]

Here's our experience:

 

We didn't ask for express disembarkation, but we did carry our own bags off with us when our color was called on our Caribbean Princess cruise this past January. No one objected or halted us. We just walked off and found our ground transportation. It was very easy and I would do it again. We are both able-bodied and don't have too much luggage. Is there a REQUIREMENT that you put your bags out the night before?? If so, I don't remember reading about it in any Princess literature.

 

Any further information would be welcome. :)

[bdjam]

Is there a REQUIREMENT that you put your bags out the night before?? If so, I don't remember reading about it in any Princess literature.

I don’t think there’s a requirement – one can certainly carry their carry-on luggage off the ship - but if you don’t put the bags out, you would be expected to carry them off yourself…as you did…

[seattlekckckc]

I think what makes the "express" different from just carrying them off yourself is the ability to be able to get off first. You dont have to request it, you just do it. I dont think all ships/ports offer that. You DO have to request (with you plane ticket) the earlier color group called, red, if you want off at the beginning with the color groups.

 

There is no requirement you put luggage out, but the result was what you experienced, you just have to carry them off yourself. Luckilly, most people who do this dont seem to have alot of luggage. That is not the case for me!

 

If you are not taking advantage of getting off first, I guess I dont see what the appeal is. It really doesnt take me very long to find my bags in the terminal, and packing the night before is a relief for me personally. I never get a good nights sleep when I know I have packing to do in the morning - I have slept in one too many times before and packed in a mad rush!!!

 

Casey

[WendyYC]

We did the express disembarkation last May on RC. We had a long

drive (8hrs) and wanted to get an early start. It was sooo easy.

Of course, it was only a 4 day so we didn't have a ton of luggage.

But we did have our 4 year old with us with all of her stuff to

tote too. It really was easy.

We were off the ship and on the freeway by 8 am.

Wendy

[atlcple2]

We took our own luggage off with us last year on the Carnival Spirit and it was great! Went right off the ship through customs and to a cab and then the airport. No having to look through hundreds of bags in the warehouse and getting a porter. I am so glad to hear that we will be able to do that on the CB on the September 9 sailing!

[atlcple2]

We took our own luggage off with us last year on the Carnival Spirit and it was great! Went right off the ship through customs and to a cab and then the airport. No having to look through hundreds of bags in the warehouse and getting a porter. I am so glad to hear that we will be able to do that on the CB on the September 9 sailing!

 

 

Ooops! 9/3 sailing!

[iancal]

We put our bags outside our room just before going to bed...could be 11PM or it could be 2AM. Never an issue. You won't catch us rushing to pack on our last evening at sea. We want the experience to last as long as possible.