Early flight after cruise - Carnival Dream out of New Orleans

[WeBeCruisinMon]

Sailing on the Dream at the end of March and looking to book return airfare. The best flight available leaves MSY at 10:55am. Ship states 8am to get there. We have TSA pre-check. We will be walking off with our luggage and can wake up early and be ready to get off at 8am. 

 

Anyone with recent experience getting off the Dream and to the airport? Is this possible? 

 

Any insight from previous guests getting off the Dream or other Carnival ship in New Orleans?

Thank you!

[PlanoDebbie]

That's gonna be pretty tight.  The airport is a good 15 to 20 miles from the port.  A lot depends on how quickly the ship is cleared for disembarkation.  If you carry your own bags off, it will go quicker, but you still have to get through customs.  With the traffic at the port, it will take a minimum of 40 minutes to get to the airport.  

 

Personally, I wouldn't attempt booking a flight earlier than 12:30 to 1:00.

[yogibear]

I wouldn't book before 12 noon either. If the ship gets in late, you're screwed.

 

Karen

[Sammy Sailor]

I just disembarked from a Royal ship from New Orleans last Saturday with given a disembark time of 8:00.

It was foggy comming in but we did get in on time.   I know that port deals with fog quite a bit but saying that we were on time and they were letting passengers get off before 8:00.   We had a lot of time to kill before our flight.   Walked around the mall across the street for awhile and walked around downtown.   Took a Lyft to the airport, took 23 minutes.  I would check your date and see what activities are scheduled for that day in New Orleans, Mardi Gras for example.  Our driver did say that was it was a little slow for a Saturday.   He said there's always a lot going on in the city this time of year.  Airport too seemed pretty quiet but it was around noon when we arrived versus morning.

 

[WeBeCruisinMon]

Thanks for the replies. We plan to walk off with our luggage and just have carry ons for the plane, that should eliminate time at both getting off ship and getting checked in at airport. 

 

I know there’s always the unknown, but every time I’ve cruised (this is my 17th) we’ve gotten to the port well before the dock time. Granted, this will be my first time out of NOLA and I know things could always come up. 

[JerseyGirlJen]

I sailed in April and took a 10:55am flight.  I was off the ship and on the shuttle at 8:30, and at the airport and through security by 9:15.  Things worked fine for me but we also got in early too, I can't recall if we were due in at 8 and just got there early or if we were due in at 6 and got there on time.

[bbtbear]

Keep in mind that even with TSA precheck you can randomly be selected to go through the regular lines, too.

[WeBeCruisinMon]

18 minutes ago, JerseyGirlJen said:

I sailed in April and took a 10:55am flight.  I was off the ship and on the shuttle at 8:30, and at the airport and through security by 9:15.  Things worked fine for me but we also got in early too, I can't recall if we were due in at 8 and just got there early or if we were due in at 6 and got there on time.

Are you platinum or had Fttf? Unfortunately we don’t have either.

How early did they let you get off the ship? We plan to be packed and ready to get off before 8am, but just hoping they let us off since we aren’t platinum. 

[JerseyGirlJen]

3 hours ago, WeBeCruisinMon said:

Are you platinum or had Fttf? Unfortunately we don’t have either.

How early did they let you get off the ship? We plan to be packed and ready to get off before 8am, but just hoping they let us off since we aren’t platinum. 

 

No, I didn't have either.  I did self assist, and waited patiently😕 in the lounge for my floor to be called (I was on Deck 8), as they only dismiss certain decks at a time so it's not a cattle call. I waited, waited, waited....I purchased Carnival shuttle to the airport that was scheduled to leave at 8:45.  At 8:20 I was still upstairs in the lounge and they were not even close to calling my Deck.  They kept announcing not to come down to disembark until your Deck is called, it's extremely crowded, etc.   So, at 8:20 I just said "F it I'm going" because I didn't want to miss my ride.  I made it down by 8:45 and got on the shuttle without issue. 

 

I've only been on a few cruises, so I don't even know if I'm doing the "self assist" the right way, because I have read a ton of stories about people getting off the ship early without issue.  (Maybe they are Platinum or Diamond, or FTTF?)

[WeBeCruisinMon]

11 minutes ago, JerseyGirlJen said:

 

No, I didn't have either.  I did self assist, and waited patiently😕 in the lounge for my floor to be called (I was on Deck 8), as they only dismiss certain decks at a time so it's not a cattle call. I waited, waited, waited....I purchased Carnival shuttle to the airport that was scheduled to leave at 8:45.  At 8:20 I was still upstairs in the lounge and they were not even close to calling my Deck.  They kept announcing not to come down to disembark until your Deck is called, it's extremely crowded, etc.   So, at 8:20 I just said "F it I'm going" because I didn't want to miss my ride.  I made it down by 8:45 and got on the shuttle without issue. 

 

I've only been on a few cruises, so I don't even know if I'm doing the "self assist" the right way, because I have read a ton of stories about people getting off the ship early without issue.  (Maybe they are Platinum or Diamond, or FTTF?)

 

Im not sure carnivals procedures, haven’t been on since 2016. Been on NCL recently and we pretty much just got off when we were ready. 

 

Surprised carnival offered a shuttle that early and didn’t have you go to a certain room and get off early. 

 

Did they start at the highest deck and work down? Or at the lowest deck and work up? Im on deck 7. I assume they called for platinum and FTTF first before starting on the decks? We might just be ready and try to get off with everyone else trying to get off at that time..

[Ziggy7]

They call for Diamond, platinum and then FTTF first, then they call for those with self assist before they call the decks :)

[smurfm69]

 The ships routinely get back in to the port of Nola before sunrise.  You shouldn't have any trouble making your flight, especially if you're doing self assist.  Hope you enjoy your cruise.

[mexicobob]

20 hours ago, yogibear said:

I wouldn't book before 12 noon either. If the ship gets in late, you're screwed.

 

Karen

I agree.  You would be putting  too much stress on the end of your trip.  You will have no room for any problems.  The ship may arrive in port at 2 in the morning but US Customs decides when they will arrive at port and let you off.  

[JerseyGirlJen]

On ‎2‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 4:55 PM, WeBeCruisinMon said:

 

Surprised carnival offered a shuttle that early and didn’t have you go to a certain room and get off early. 

 

Did they start at the highest deck and work down?

I never got any info on meeting at a certain spot to get off early, so who knows. I'm not sure what deck they started calling first, but they called 7,8,9 together (which made no sense because those 3 floors were all room-only...so there would be a ton of people.  I got off before that though.  I'm making it a point to figure out the debarkation process for my next cruise 🙂

[2wheelin]

On 2/20/2019 at 4:52 PM, Ziggy7 said:

They call for Diamond, platinum and then FTTF first, then they call for those with self assist before they call the decks 🙂

I have been on twice when self assist were called WITH the deck they were on. Decks were also not called in numerical order. This way they had some self assist and some non at each call time.

[watermelonqueen99]

I wouldn't cut it that close. 

[bigcraig]

On 2/20/2019 at 1:04 PM, bbtbear said:

Keep in mind that even with TSA precheck you can randomly be selected to go through the regular lines, too.

That would NEVER happen.

[bbtbear]

It happened to me.

[LuckyStar]

On 2/19/2019 at 10:07 PM, WeBeCruisinMon said:

Sailing on the Dream at the end of March and looking to book return airfare. The best flight available leaves MSY at 10:55am. Ship states 8am to get there. We have TSA pre-check. We will be walking off with our luggage and can wake up early and be ready to get off at 8am. 

 

Anyone with recent experience getting off the Dream and to the airport? Is this possible? 

 

Any insight from previous guests getting off the Dream or other Carnival ship in New Orleans?

Thank you!

No experience but this is the one case where I would get FTTF so you can guarantee getting off the ship as early as possible.  Good luck!  

[Schoifmom]

On 2/20/2019 at 5:52 PM, Ziggy7 said:

They call for Diamond, platinum and then FTTF first, then they call for those with self assist before they call the decks 🙂

 

To be clear, they debark in this order:

1. D/P/FTTF from the room they were told to meet. 
2. Then they call for self-assist by deck (not necessary in numerical order). 
3. Then they call the debarkation zones (the numbered tags that you put on your luggage the night before) in numerical order.

[simplelife]

If a lot of people have chosen self-assist, it may be a very long process. This has been my experience in shorter cruises.

 

[Anyislandwilldo]

Just off the Dream 2-17.  We were docked at 6:30 and they start called self assist at 7:15.  We spent the night in New Orleans and flew out Monday morning because airfare was over $300 for a return flight.  We were shocked to see a long line to check in at Southwest when we got to the airport at 4:20 am.  They don't have the self assist kiosks at MSY for Southwest.

[jdemps]

We only went once out of NOLA week after thanksgiving returning on a Sunday.  Customs delayed debark until about 10am and there was traffic in the area from the Saints game.  I agree with the person who said check for anything happening in the qtr or that general area on the day you come back to see if it's feasible.  Have a great trip!