How early can we disembark?

[tkq]

Leaving on the Caribbean Princess next week and curious how early we can disembark? Do they still have the option to carry your own bags off? We have a noon flight out of IAH and have made arrangements to be picked up at 9 am and wonder if we will have issues being off the ship and through customs.

 

Thanks in advance for any insights.

[HJH]

You can request "Walk Off" if you can manage your luggage and have an arm free to hold on to the escalator if one exists. That doesn't guarantee the ship/immigration personnel will be on time.

[N00B]

I recently came off that ship in Houston. I think the first group to disembark met at 7:30, not sure when they actually got off, but shortly after I would think.

 

Customs in the Houston Pier was a breeze. We were a later group and the line up was super long - 2 or 3 winds around the cattle gates - but I don't think we waited more than 10-15 minutes to get through it all, get through the customs officers, and get outside. They were definitley ready for us.

[Times Prince]

We were on the same ship as N00B.

 

7:30 was, I think, the earliest group. We were on a Princess transfer and our Red 3 disembark was scheduled at 9:05 but actually happened at 9:40 - they take luggage out in groups, and ours was the 2nd group, causing a minor delay.

 

If you are self-disembark carrying your own luggage it shouldn't be an issue.

[Tarpeian Rock]

I'm not sure self-debarkation is always available. On our October cruise on the Grand out of/into San Francisco, we tried for self-debarkation and were told it wouldn't be allowed because of the need to give priority to people with tight connections. We ended up on the ship until after 10:00.

[Times Prince]

I'm not sure self-debarkation is always available. On our October cruise on the Grand out of/into San Francisco, we tried for self-debarkation and were told it wouldn't be allowed because of the need to give priority to people with tight connections. We ended up on the ship until after 10:00.

It was available in Houston Bayview terminal last Saturday.

[DrivesLikeMario]

A noon flight? :eek: Is no one else seeing that and freaking out a bit? :confused: Wishing the OP good luck getting to the check in 90 mins. prior to the flight. It's do-able I guess, but whew, that's tight.

[tkq]

Thanks for the info. We were originally booked on a flight at 2 pm and the airline adjusted their schedule and moved us to noon. Other option is hanging out until 6 pm so we are going to the walk off. We have a town car scheduled to pick us up at 9 am and to the airport by 10 am.

[cubfan63]

It was available in Houston Bayview terminal last Saturday.

 

Do you mean last Tuesday?

 

Today is the first Saturday that Princess has sailed from Houston Bayport (rather than Bayview) terminal.

[riclop]

Leaving on the Caribbean Princess next week and curious how early we can disembark? Do they still have the option to carry your own bags off? We have a noon flight out of IAH and have made arrangements to be picked up at 9 am and wonder if we will have issues being off the ship and through customs.

 

Thanks in advance for any insights.

You should not.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Just one more thing to consider - check out the weather forecast. For our cruise last January, the ship coming INTO the port was delayed by about 10 hrs. due to heavy fog. We didn't even start boarding until the evening. I suppose everyone coming off the ship that had flights before 5pm that day missed them.

 

What I'm trying to say is it sounds like you've got a good Plan A. You might want to have a Plan B just in case everything doesn't go perfectly which is the way you need it to go for Plan A to work. Good luck and hopefully, all will go very smoothly for you. :)