Self assist luggage question

[pearose]

We have never done the self assist before. I am just not into lugging my suitcase on board with me, even with FTTF when I can immediately drop it off in my cabin. But this time out of the 6 of us going, 2 of us so far have stated they would like to do the self assist debarkation at least. One because she does not want to have to think about what she needs the next day and making sure all that is still with her when she puts her suitcase out the night before, and the other because she hates the confusion and hassle of trying to find your luggage in a sea of luggage at the terminal. It frustrates her. Sooo.....my question is, 1) if you choose not to do self assist at embarkation, can you do it at debarking. and 2) if some of you choose to do self assist at debarkation, will you be assigned to different waiting areas to debark? Will we be separated? We all have FTTF, if that makes a difference. None of us in a big hurry to be first off the ship because we are driving home to Dallas from Galveston so we have no plane to catch and we want to have a nice breakfast before debarking.

 

Also, if we did self assist, and have to be out of the cabin at a specific time, I guess we'd have to take our luggage with us to breakfast?

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited February 13, 2017 by pearose

[h_blond2]

You do not have to tell anyone if you are doing the self assist option. Just don't put your luggage in the hallway the night before. I can't help you with your second question because we always do the self assist option. We don't take our luggage to breakfast with us, we just eat early and then head back to the room to grab our stuff. We are usually out of room by by 7:30 or 7:45.

[Micahs Grandad]

They will call your group at different times to get off if some have self assist and some do not.

 

However you can wait and get off together if you choose

[stargate fan]

We have never done the self assist before. I am just not into lugging my suitcase on board with me, even with FTTF when I can immediately drop it off in my cabin. But this time out of the 6 of us going, 2 of us so far have stated they would like to do the self assist debarkation at least. One because she does not want to have to think about what she needs the next day and making sure all that is still with her when she puts her suitcase out the night before, and the other because she hates the confusion and hassle of trying to find your luggage in a sea of luggage at the terminal. It frustrates her. I totally agree with your friend.

 

Sooo.....my question is,

 

1) if you choose not to do self assist at embarkation, can you do it at debarking.

 

If you do not put your luggage out the night before debarkation, you have to carry off all your bags.

 

and 2) if some of you choose to do self assist at debarkation, will you be assigned to different waiting areas to debark? Will we be separated?

 

Hopefully someone else can help with this.

 

We all have FTTF, if that makes a difference. None of us in a big hurry to be first off the ship because we are driving home to Dallas from Galveston so we have no plane to catch and we want to have a nice breakfast before debarking.

 

Also, if we did self assist, and have to be out of the cabin at a specific time, I guess we'd have to take our luggage with us to breakfast?

 

Passengers have to vacate cabins by 8:30. We always go to breakfast around 7:00, go back to our cabins, and retrieve our luggage. We then take our luggage somewhere, preferably for the last chance of warmth and sunshine, and wait to disembark until we're good and ready. (Yes, we disregard the zone/Self-Assist announcements.)

 

Thanks for your help!

 

My husband and I always disagree. I want to use Self Assist and he wants to let Carnival handle our bags.

 

I've been burned twice recently by going my husband's way. (One time I forgot to transfer my brand new, discontinued brand of hair mousse from our carry-on to our suitcase in the port building. Hopefully the kind, understanding TSA agent with curly hair is enjoying it. The second was recently. Our suitcase left our cabin with four wheels and arrived at the port building with three wheels. Carnival did reimburse us to have it repaired, which was hard because of how few luggage repair shops are still around.)

 

Regardless of which method everyone chooses, I recommend meeting up early for breakfast, then hanging out together until you are all ready to go. If you do leave your bags for Carnival to handle, they'll be in the port building waiting for you, no matter when you leave.

[mrsfuzzmo]

I would never Self-assist while boarding. Departing, we always do because we usually have an early flight out. We just head to the lobby area/waiting area around 7 am and when the doors open, we leave. We do have to pull our luggage with us, but it's worth it to not have to wait for your deck/color/number to be called and then work your way to to the luggage carousel and search. Just as easy to take it with you, cruise through customs and out the door. I think it took us all of 6-7 minute from stepping off the ship to getting into a cab.

[pearose]

Thank you all for your help! I am now leaning towards letting Carnival bring it on. I definitely don't want to carry it on, but leaning now towards self assist getting off. Sounds much quicker. And not that we're in that much of a hurry, but shortening the time getting off and going through customs sure sounds good.

[jsglow]

I would never Self-assist while boarding. Departing, we always do because we usually have an early flight out. We just head to the lobby area/waiting area around 7 am and when the doors open, we leave. We do have to pull our luggage with us, but it's worth it to not have to wait for your deck/color/number to be called and then work your way to to the luggage carousel and search. Just as easy to take it with you, cruise through customs and out the door. I think it took us all of 6-7 minute from stepping off the ship to getting into a cab.

 

That's how we handle it. Doing self assist for debarkation allows one to keep all their essential toiletries available overnight and pack them in what will be a checked bag at the airport just a couple of hours later. On our last cruise, we left our cabin around 8:15 and waited near the elevator on Deck 1 for about 15-20 minutes. Then up two floors and off the ship quickly, down the ramp and to Customs. All good. We were outdoors by around 9:30 if I remember, waiting on our shuttle. A huge key is that we didn't need to do any luggage tweaking from the moment we left our cabin. In essence, our bags were packed for the airport.

[Drazil65]

Why would you bring your own luggage on when boarding? You can let the porters bring it on like normal even if you choose self assist when you disembark. We always have FTTF and we drop off our carry on bags, go for lunch and then by time we are back our luggage is typically outside our cabin. Never been an issue for us.

 

Self assist at the end you just keep all your luggage in your cabin and carry it out yourself the morning of disembarkation. You can go to breakfast then go back to your cabin to pick up your suitcases. We are always ready to get off ship early as we usually drive to port and need to get on road as early as possible so we like the FTTF self assist being so early.

[Essiesmom]

If you want to bring it on yourself, it has to be small enough to fit through the airport size luggage scanner. One option is to pare down what you bring to only carry on luggage. WE have done that. No more checked luggage for us. EM

[JVilleGal]

If you want to bring it on yourself, it has to be small enough to fit through the airport size luggage scanner. One option is to pare down what you bring to only carry on luggage. WE have done that. No more checked luggage for us. EM

 

 

This!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Micahs Grandad]

One other thing to consider. They are very rough with luggage, ruining several new pieces in recent years.

 

As a result it give us additional reasons to do self assist and from time to time will even carry it on to avoid damage.

 

Hate to pay porters for the privilege of destroying our luggage

[crusinpsychRN]

Get a porter and you go to the shortest custom's line.

[suzycruiser2]

We always check some luggage and carry on our valuables and meds. Up until our last cruise, we always left our luggage in the hallway for Carnival to handle (other than our carry on). We did self-assist on our last cruise and we will be doing that from now on. It was so much easier and less stressful. It takes so much time to sort out your belongings and try to figure out everything you will need that night and the next morning. We were able to enjoy ourselves the last evening and wasn't worried about our luggage.

[pearose]

I always have a tote bag for things I want to carry on and don't want to check, so having that to throw in last minute items that dont make it in the luggage if we put it out the night before is handy. But like others have said, I will probably check my luggage at the terminal on embarkation and this time try self assist on disembarking. It's not that I find it stressful trying to get things organized to put the bag out, as much as I hate searching for my suitcase in the terminal when we get off. So we may try that this time. Thanks everyone!

[riclop]

We have never done the self assist before. I am just not into lugging my suitcase on board with me, even with FTTF when I can immediately drop it off in my cabin. But this time out of the 6 of us going, 2 of us so far have stated they would like to do the self assist debarkation at least. One because she does not want to have to think about what she needs the next day and making sure all that is still with her when she puts her suitcase out the night before, and the other because she hates the confusion and hassle of trying to find your luggage in a sea of luggage at the terminal. It frustrates her. Sooo.....my question is, 1) if you choose not to do self assist at embarkation, can you do it at debarking. and 2) if some of you choose to do self assist at debarkation, will you be assigned to different waiting areas to debark? Will we be separated? We all have FTTF, if that makes a difference. None of us in a big hurry to be first off the ship because we are driving home to Dallas from Galveston so we have no plane to catch and we want to have a nice breakfast before debarking.

 

Also, if we did self assist, and have to be out of the cabin at a specific time, I guess we'd have to take our luggage with us to breakfast?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

You will not be in the same lounge.

[dolphin2012]

We always do self assist with no problems. You will have to get up early to get breakfast for its too much trouble to drag the suitcases around. It is hectic around the elevators and the stairs are easier to use. It depends what floor you are on and where they tell you to wait. Last year we waited in the showroom and it was just one floor down and out the door to customs and checkout.. it didn't take 15 minutes and we were on the way home...

[Anthomaniac]

One other thing to consider. They are very rough with luggage' date=' ruining several new pieces in recent years.

 

As a result it give us additional reasons to do self assist and from time to time will even carry it on to avoid damage.

 

Hate to pay porters for the privilege of destroying our luggage[/quote']

 

yup, they broke the telescoping handle on our large rolling duffel last time. made dragging it through the airport super fun!

[PlanoDebbie]

Get a porter and you go to the shortest custom's line.

 

We're thinking of doing this on our upcoming cruise. How much did you tip the porter for standing in the customs line with you?

[easyboy]

Get a porter and you go to the shortest custom's line.

Will do the same.

[crusinpsychRN]

We're thinking of doing this on our upcoming cruise. How much did you tip the porter for standing in the customs line with you?

 

I had 2 bags, gave him $4.

 

If self debarking and you have your hands full, not one hand free to hold escalator rail, you have to use elevator. In Tampa there is 1 elevator. Ugh. Huge line.

 

Once when I let them take my luggage I searched and searched for it. I found it about 25 minutes later in zone 4. I was in zone 1. Bag tagged zone 1.

[Florings]

Somehow, we always have too much to cart around ourselves. I would like to get it down to 2 rolling cases, but I always end up with a garment bag too. It's just worth it to pay a porter to lug us into the shortest Customs line...At least until I can figure out a way to take everything I want in 2 rolling cases!

[deetrayn]

For a prior sailing, we ended up doing self embarkation by "accident". During some confusion, no one showed up when we arrived to take our luggage. By the time we realized we still had all of our luggage with us, we were already in line to check-in, and did not want to lose our place. So, we took everything with us when we boarded the ship. And our luggage did fit through the scanners. Luckily, we had FTTF, and went directly to our cabins once onboard.

 

The cruise I took after that one, I purposely did self embarkation, and will do so from now on. Since I'm able to go straight to my cabin, I like not having to go back to check on luggage arrival.

 

I bring one suitcase that I can pull, and one carried bag. Self embarkation and debarkation are convenient for me. :)

 

Dee

[Texas Moomba]

Didn't know you could do self assist on check in. We keep our backpacks and that's it. We do self assist on debarkation and love it. We've tried FTTF and feel like it's a rip off.

 

Sent from my SM-N900V using Forums mobile app

[Elaine5715]

We have never done the self assist before. I am just not into lugging my suitcase on board with me, even with FTTF when I can immediately drop it off in my cabin. But this time out of the 6 of us going, 2 of us so far have stated they would like to do the self assist debarkation at least. One because she does not want to have to think about what she needs the next day and making sure all that is still with her when she puts her suitcase out the night before, and the other because she hates the confusion and hassle of trying to find your luggage in a sea of luggage at the terminal. It frustrates her. Sooo.....my question is, 1) if you choose not to do self assist at embarkation, can you do it at debarking. and 2) if some of you choose to do self assist at debarkation, will you be assigned to different waiting areas to debark? Will we be separated? We all have FTTF, if that makes a difference. None of us in a big hurry to be first off the ship because we are driving home to Dallas from Galveston so we have no plane to catch and we want to have a nice breakfast before debarking.

 

Also, if we did self assist, and have to be out of the cabin at a specific time, I guess we'd have to take our luggage with us to breakfast?

 

Thanks for your help!

If you are going to use your FTTF option for debark, you will be in a waiting different spot then your friends.