Leaving the Ship

[Lady of the Lakes]

About how long is the process of getting off the ship. I need a general idea as we are planning on driving to Tampa to catch a 7:30 Hockey game

[marvholly]

As a general rule of thumb debarcation will start 1-2 hours after docking snf most ships dock as bit earlier than on the official itinerary.

 

HOWEVER, this assumes all your fellow pax will do what they should; ie go to customs, clear their ship board accounts and so forth AND that customs and immigration have enough staff on hand to do your ship in a timely manner along with all other ships debarking that day and timeframe.

 

That said and done: remember most ships officially start the next embarcation between 12 N and 1:30 pm so you are almost certain to be off by then.

[Lady of the Lakes]

Thank you for the information that will help

[silentbob007]

I think debarkation is the worst part of the cruise ... it is slow and some people are in a grumpy mood because their cruise is over. If you don't have an early flight to catch, you might end up being one of the last people off of the ship (11ish? assuming everything is on schedule) unless you just push yourself into an earlier line ... ah, another debarkation tradition.

[Wine Luvuh]

I just walked off the Valor this morning and we were part of the general debarkation. We were called at 9:30am and were off the ship, luggage in hand by 10am.

 

This was my first cruise and my boyfriend's 10th. He said it was the smoothest he had ever encountered. They have a casual debarkation now instead of calling by colors.

 

The people who wanted to do self-assist (take their own luggage) could leave from 8am-8:40am. The people who had early flights and excursions were off by 9:20am and we were called at 9:30.

 

I was amazing how easy it was. They really keep the lines moving.

[MsBlue]

If you want to be one of the first ones off the ship, go see the purser the day before you return to port. He will give you special tags for early debarkation. You can also do "self-debarkation". This involves not putting your luggage out the evening before, but you must be able to take ALL your luggage off by yourself. You should be one of the very first ones off the ship after docking. But you DO need special clearance from the purser.