How long can I stay on board the last day?

[highcorral25]

I've always had flights such that I would get off the ship as soon as possible to get to the airport on time.

 

For my November cruise on the Freedom (Miami) my flight out of the Miami airport isn't until 6pm.  The ship is scheduled to begin disembarking at 8am.

 

My two questions are:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship?
2. I have the Cheers! package (RU2 promo).  I know that the drink count resets daily at 6am.  Does this mean that 6am on the day we disembark is the cutoff for the package?  

[firefly333]

For vista you had to clear the cabin by 830. Even before that the steward will be knocking and pushing for you to clear your cabin. Last off vista was between 930 and 1030, but later the week before as they were delayed a bit I heard. 

 

I didnt ask about open bars. The coffee shop opened at 6 am that last morning so you could get your coffee or energy drinks, or milkshakes.. I just wanted my coffee drink.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

This reminded me... I seem to recall some talk a few years back where (for a fee) people could stay onboard well into lunch of the next sailing. Can't recall which line floated that option - but I have not heard anything about it since them.

 

Tom

[highcorral25]

My last cruise was Feb 2020 out of Miami.  I flew home from FLL.  Here is the timeline.

 

7:45am Disembarking started (15 minutes early)

8:00am Scanned off the ship

8:07am Through Customs and on the curb

8:20am On shuttle van ($20 pp) to FLL

9:00am Arrived FLL Terminal 2 (Delta Airlines)

 

I had a 12:02 flight.  Plenty of time.

 

My November flight is at 6:05pm.  That is a lot of time to kill.

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by highcorral25

[phoneman69]

We just got off the Horizon on the 18th. As stated earlier you have to clear your cabin by 8:30am. we had originally gotten luggage tags with a 2 on them. I went to customer service and asked for tags in the last grouping (24) as we had a 2pm flight out of Miami. We had breakfast and departed the cabin at 8:15 and they called are luggage zone tags at about 9:25am. There were no Bar's open but the coffee shop was open but i don't know how you would pay as our sail and sign account was closed. Had a Great Vacation and hope your goes well

[phoneman69]

30 minutes ago, highcorral25 said:

I've always had flights such that I would get off the ship as soon as possible to get to the airport on time.

 

For my November cruise on the Freedom (Miami) my flight out of the Miami airport isn't until 6pm.  The ship is scheduled to begin disembarking at 8am.

 

My two questions are:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship?
2. I have the Cheers! package (RU2 promo).  I know that the drink count resets daily at 6am.  Does this mean that 6am on the day we disembark is the cutoff for the package?  

*** Before you check your bags *** Check with the ticket agent about standby seats earlier flight

[highcorral25]

10 minutes ago, phoneman69 said:

*** Before you check your bags *** Check with the ticket agent about standby seats earlier flight

I am on Southwest and there are earlier flights and I could change to one of those (right now).  But those flights have crappy connections and much longer total flight times.

 

So I either spend the extra hours at the airport, or I spend the extra hours on the plane.  There is a big difference between 8 hours total flight time and 11 hours total flight time.

[skrufy]

48 minutes ago, highcorral25 said:

I've always had flights such that I would get off the ship as soon as possible to get to the airport on time.

 

For my November cruise on the Freedom (Miami) my flight out of the Miami airport isn't until 6pm.  The ship is scheduled to begin disembarking at 8am.

 

My two questions are:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship?
2. I have the Cheers! package (RU2 promo).  I know that the drink count resets daily at 6am.  Does this mean that 6am on the day we disembark is the cutoff for the package?  

1. You do have to be out of your cabin by 830am. You can linger around the ship til    930am maybe 10am the latest. 
2. Can’t help with cheers, never had it. But the math says it’s cut off on the morning of debarkation. Using 7 day cruise, your cheers starts embarkation day and goes 7 days which is your day before debarkation. 
A good excursion to pass some time is an Everglades trip. You can get one that picks you up at the terminal and drops you off at the airport. Another is a tour the Miami Beach Art Deco area. Have a great cruise.

[highcorral25]

2 minutes ago, skrufy said:

1. You do have to be out of your cabin by 830am. You can linger around the ship til    930am maybe 10am the latest. 
2. Can’t help with cheers, never had it. But the math says it’s cut off on the morning of debarkation. Using 7 day cruise, your cheers starts embarkation day and goes 7 days which is your day before debarkation. 
A good excursion to pass some time is an Everglades trip. You can get one that picks you up at the terminal and drops you off at the airport. Another is a tour the Miami Beach Art Deco area. Have a great cruise.

I didn't even think about an excursion.  I'll look into an Everglades trip.  

[1025cruise]

Expect that you will be off the ship by 10:00, the latest.

[EL Pitman]

We did the Everglades trip, it was a great time killer!!  We are trying to figure how to entertain ourselves in New Orleans for our next disembarkation.  Post Cruise Excursions are a great idea!

[80sGal]

You can also get a day pass at some of the hotels which will include the pool pass for the day, if you just want to rest and relax.   Look on dayuse.com.   

[Silver Sweethearts]

7 hours ago, highcorral25 said:

I didn't even think about an excursion.  I'll look into an Everglades trip.  

 

If your ticketing is changeable, are there any flights you may be able to use if you fly out of Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami?  At least in our experience FLL is also a much calmer airport (understatement) than MIA, and not that long a drive away.

[zzdoug]

Related question:

What's a good way to pass the time while waiting to debark? Seems like we have always had to hurry up and wait in our designated area. Can anyone suggest any hacks?

Edited September 22, 2021 by zzdoug

[ober134]

There is no alcohol service debarkation  .morning. Self serve beer stations are disabled. Out of cabin by 8:30 and they will start moving you out of lido buffet or sit down breakfast in MDR by 9-9:30. Remember they have to clear and clean for all those passengers anxiously waiting to board. We had no luck in past finding post cruise day passes in Miami. Perhaps that has changed. There used to be a luggage service at the port so you could go to lunch or shopping but I don't think that exists now. Like others said, maybe a city day tour. 

[BlerkOne]

14 minutes ago, ober134 said:

There is no alcohol service debarkation  .morning. Self serve beer stations are disabled. Out of cabin by 8:30 and they will start moving you out of lido buffet or sit down breakfast in MDR by 9-9:30. Remember they have to clear and clean for all those passengers anxiously waiting to board. We had no luck in past finding post cruise day passes in Miami. Perhaps that has changed. There used to be a luggage service at the port so you could go to lunch or shopping but I don't think that exists now. Like others said, maybe a city day tour. 

Dayuse.com and a number of other, similar websites, have hotel listings for day use rooms. Some include pool and other privileges. Some might have airport shuttles.

 

I know the same exists for Fort Lauderdale, and the hotel in the MCO airport has day use rooms.

[mexicobob]

4 hours ago, EL Pitman said:

We did the Everglades trip, it was a great time killer!!  We are trying to figure how to entertain ourselves in New Orleans for our next disembarkation.  Post Cruise Excursions are a great idea!

You will have no trouble finding entertainment in New Orleans. The port is adjacent to The French Quarter, if nothing else. Good idea would be to spend the night there after the cruise.

[mondello]

10 hours ago, zzdoug said:

Related question:

What's a good way to pass the time while waiting to debark? Seems like we have always had to hurry up and wait in our designated area. Can anyone suggest any hacks?

We always go to the Lido buffet for breakfast and stay up there until they tell us to get off the ship.

 

@highcorral25 They won't even let you check your bags at the airports more than 4 hours early.

[asalligo]

21 hours ago, highcorral25 said:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship

I did this on my last cruise in the Liberty. We decided to just relax in the morning and be the last off the ship while trying not to impede their process as I know everyone else wants to get on. The last off the ship was just before 9:45am. So that is about as long as you can wait.

  

[asalligo]

21 hours ago, highcorral25 said:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship

I did this on my last cruise in the Liberty. We decided to just relax in the morning and be the last off the ship while trying not to impede their process as I know everyone else wants to get on. The last off the ship was just before 9:45am. So that is about as long as you can wait.

  

[highcorral25]

13 hours ago, Silver Sweethearts said:

 

If your ticketing is changeable, are there any flights you may be able to use if you fly out of Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami?  At least in our experience FLL is also a much calmer airport (understatement) than MIA, and not that long a drive away.

 

I agree with FLL over MIA.  Especially since Southwest is now flying out of Concourse G in MIA.  Security is a mess... G is not connected to any other concourses post-security so you are stuck there.

 

But the Southwest flights out of FLL won't work for me so I have to stick with MIA.

[simplelife]

On 9/21/2021 at 12:58 PM, highcorral25 said:

I've always had flights such that I would get off the ship as soon as possible to get to the airport on time.

 

For my November cruise on the Freedom (Miami) my flight out of the Miami airport isn't until 6pm.  The ship is scheduled to begin disembarking at 8am.

 

My two questions are:

1. Since I am in no rush to leave, how long can I hang out on the ship?
2. I have the Cheers! package (RU2 promo).  I know that the drink count resets daily at 6am.  Does this mean that 6am on the day we disembark is the cutoff for the package?  

Yep, the bars are closed on debarkation morning. You can get tea and coffee from the dispensers on the Lido/

[jsglow]

We've killed time on Lido before.  And then spent the day at the Mall just outside the MIA cruiseport having found a place where we could ditch the luggage for a few dollars. Eventually grabbed an Uber up to FLL for an evening flight.

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, jsglow said:

We've killed time on Lido before.  And then spent the day at the Mall just outside the MIA cruiseport having found a place where we could ditch the luggage for a few dollars. Eventually grabbed an Uber up to FLL for an evening flight.

You pinpointed the main problem---what do with the luggage.

[grumpyjr88]

12 hours ago, simplelife said:

Yep, the bars are closed on debarkation morning. You can get tea and coffee from the dispensers on the Lido/

I have ordered sodas from the bar while waiting to debark. They just got added to my final bill.