Quickest Way to Debark Horizon

[cortryan]

We are taking the 8 day Southern Caribbean on the Horizon  leaving March 7th! Unfortunately on the way back we have to drive back straight through to Illinois from Miami due to work/school issues.  I know probably not our smartest move but I could resist this cruise! We haven’t been able to get FTTF so I was hoping for tips on fastest debarkation. We are so excited to be in the Havana area this cruise and can’t wait! Thanks for any tips you can provide! 

[lindsay0526]

I would say your quickest option is opt to self-carry your bags off when you disembark. You will be able to leave the ship earlier than if they called your numbers. It typically starts pretty early, like 7:30-ish, but it should get you on the road faster. 

[cortryan]

31 minutes ago, lindsay0526 said:

I would say your quickest option is opt to self-carry your bags off when you disembark. You will be able to leave the ship earlier than if they called your numbers. It typically starts pretty early, like 7:30-ish, but it should get you on the road faster. 

 
Thanks! So with if you self-carry do you wait in your room that debark morning or are you supposed to go to a certain place normally? 

[lindsay0526]

From my understanding, they make an announcement when the ship is cleared for all of the self-carry people to disembark. Then they start calling the numbers.

[nik23]

We just disembarked yesterday, it is a very quick process.  The most efficient so far.   Alarm set for 6:30Am, had a quick breakfast, and headed back to our cabin for one last walk through.  We headed to the elevators with all our bags ( self assist ) around 7:30 AM.  We did not wait until they started calling decks.  There was about a 5 minute wait for an elevator on deck 11.  Once on elevator, it went non stop to deck 3.  Very stream lined process with employees directing you through cattle chutes  off the ship and through the cruise terminal.  There is no need for passport or customs form, there is face recognition scanners in the port instead. This made things go very smoothly.  We were off the ship and curbside by 8:15.  In a taxi and on our way to Miami airport.  Quick TSA security at airport too, no lines at all.  Sitting down with coffee by 9:00 am.  We had a 12:02 flight and we had plenty of time.  We actually tried to change our flight to the 10:20 while waiting. (no luck though)

[cortryan]

16 hours ago, nik23 said:

We just disembarked yesterday, it is a very quick process.  The most efficient so far.   Alarm set for 6:30Am, had a quick breakfast, and headed back to our cabin for one last walk through.  We headed to the elevators with all our bags ( self assist ) around 7:30 AM.  We did not wait until they started calling decks.  There was about a 5 minute wait for an elevator on deck 11.  Once on elevator, it went non stop to deck 3.  Very stream lined process with employees directing you through cattle chutes  off the ship and through the cruise terminal.  There is no need for passport or customs form, there is face recognition scanners in the port instead. This made things go very smoothly.  We were off the ship and curbside by 8:15.  In a taxi and on our way to Miami airport.  Quick TSA security at airport too, no lines at all.  Sitting down with coffee by 9:00 am.  We had a 12:02 flight and we had plenty of time.  We actually tried to change our flight to the 10:20 while waiting. (no luck though)

Thanks! I didn’t know if you were self-carry if they still called you by deck

or not. Hoping to debark as quickly as you guys!! Were you guys on the Horizon? 

[nik23]

54 minutes ago, cortryan said:

Thanks! I didn’t know if you were self-carry if they still called you by deck

or not. Hoping to debark as quickly as you guys!! Were you guys on the Horizon? 

 

Yes we did self carry and yes we were on Horizon. 

They did say they were going to call by deck and that started right when we entered lobby. It sounded like they started with deck 1.  I think that was around 7:40 am.  We did not wait for the announcement,  and just headed down.  We were definitely not the only ones that disregarded the deck announcements.  

[Organized Chaos]

On 2/9/2020 at 3:36 PM, cortryan said:

We are taking the 8 day Southern Caribbean on the Horizon  leaving March 7th! Unfortunately on the way back we have to drive back straight through to Illinois from Miami due to work/school issues.  I know probably not our smartest move but I could resist this cruise! We haven’t been able to get FTTF so I was hoping for tips on fastest debarkation. We are so excited to be in the Havana area this cruise and can’t wait! Thanks for any tips you can provide! 

 

We'll be on the March 7th cruise too. 🙂 And we always drive to our cruises so I do like to debark as soon as we can just to get on the road. We did Express Debark (self-assist) aboard the Valor a couple of months ago and it didn't go so smoothly. They called us by decks, starting with deck 1, then 2. Then he went from the top down, doing two decks at a time. We were on deck 8. When 8 & 9 got called, our elevator bay was jam packed and people were cutting in front of everyone, pushing their way through instead of just letting the line move normally. The crew member that was helping guide deck 9 passengers never came down to our deck when they were done up there, so it was a free-for-all with no supervision. I ended up getting separated from my family because three people, who had just gotten to the elevators, pushed their way in front of me.

 

We'll do self-assist on the Horizon, but we'll do things differently. We'll probably do as nik23 did and go down to the Lobby before they start calling the decks and wait somewhere so we don't have to go through that mess again. I'm the type of person who likes to follow the procedures given to us, but if Carnival isn't going to take measures to control the situation, like make sure there are crew members keeping things running smoothy and fairly, then we'll have to find a way to avoid the chaos.

[cortryan]

2 hours ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

We'll be on the March 7th cruise too. 🙂 And we always drive to our cruises so I do like to debark as soon as we can just to get on the road. We did Express Debark (self-assist) aboard the Valor a couple of months ago and it didn't go so smoothly. They called us by decks, starting with deck 1, then 2. Then he went from the top down, doing two decks at a time. We were on deck 8. When 8 & 9 got called, our elevator bay was jam packed and people were cutting in front of everyone, pushing their way through instead of just letting the line move normally. The crew member that was helping guide deck 9 passengers never came down to our deck when they were done up there, so it was a free-for-all with no supervision. I ended up getting separated from my family because three people, who had just gotten to the elevators, pushed their way in front of me.

 

We'll do self-assist on the Horizon, but we'll do things differently. We'll probably do as nik23 did and go down to the Lobby before they start calling the decks and wait somewhere so we don't have to go through that mess again. I'm the type of person who likes to follow the procedures given to us, but if Carnival isn't going to take measures to control the situation, like make sure there are crew members keeping things running smoothy and fairly, then we'll have to find a way to avoid the chaos.

Yeah originally we were booked on Deck 2 so that wouldn’t be so bad but we upgraded a while back to a Havana Cabin so would definitely take longer to get our deck called! Glad to see there are still people out there like me who lean toward following the rules but in this situation I completely agree that we’ll have to find the best way to avoid the chaos too!  Thanks for sharing!!!  25 days to go!!