Can anyone tell me about self disembarkation?

[Vicar]

Kapcruiser

 

You are welcome :)

 

Enjoy your cruise and don't worry about getting off the ship until you ABSOLUTELY have too *LOL*

 

ENJOY!

[pholter]

OK- final question... Is it OK to get off the ship anytime I please if I miss the 8am or 10am or whatever call for self disembarkation?

[Cruzon]

We did the self debarking on the Victory a few years ago. If you have a large pullman, it's not a good idea. The staff is busy making up the rooms for the oncoming cruisers, and the linen carts in the hallways are huge -- difficult to negotiate with a large suitcase. Also, if the ramp leading off the ship is steep, a heavy bag will drag or push you down the ramp at an alarming speed if you're not careful! We probably wouldn't do it again -- but that's us. A lot depends on the size of your luggage and how much of it you have. And those bungee cords do come in handy....

[kapcruiser]

I agree with you, I would rather not pack until the last day.

[glrounds]

On the GLORY last October, I'll agree that escalator can be hazardous, but I managed with a medium-sized rollon and a smaller rollon put on top of it. Others weren't so lucky ! :( I was amazed at all the people jamming the lobby bar and stairwells around it, contrary to what was "requested" in the debarkation talks. It was only my weathered and rough exterior that let me get through that conglomeration of whining and moaning sheep without a confrontation of some sort ! :mad:

Once through the "idiot" maze, it was clear sailing out to the bus lines. Only saw one immigration officer and he "asked" if I was an American and that was it. As I've stated before, I could have brought 5 or 6 boxes of Cubans ( $4000) through without a hitch. Amazing ! ! :D

On the PRIDE this May, altogether different story. Packed in the morning, rolled everything up to the Lido. Lady asked to share my table. Sure fine. She watched my luggage while I got breakfast and brought it back and I watched her luggage. Great arrangement. Took in the early Long Beach sun, took pics of the Queen Mary, saw Mark and Mona gazing at the PRIDE from the fantail of the Queen :D anticipating their cruise which was about to start. When the first few colors were called, I had no problem rolling right off the ship (9:30), at my truck in the parking garage (9:45), and home within 45 minutes. SLICK ! ! :D

 

[kapcruiser]

I thought you had to stay in your cabin until you were called to disembark. You have to go the lido deck first if you self disembark?

[glrounds]

You can wait for your time to disembark ANYWHERE, to my understanding. I got out of the cabin so my steward could go to work on it....had everything I may have needed right with me....Lido deck is outside and has LOADS of coffee available. Ideal for me.

[dickinson]

We did this on our cruise this past February on the Triumph. they told us self embarkation would be between 7:30 am -8:30 am and we had to wait for our deck (I think it was deck and not color) to be called. We waited in our cabin for a while but then decided to go over to the elevators and staircase to wait. Quite a few others were waiting there too. Elevators were in use. Because they seemed to be calling all decks but ours (and a couple of others) we walked down the one flight of stairs and waited in the atrium. They did make us stand back a bit and I bet we could have just walked off but we waited til our color was called. they told us they had no control over which decks were called in which order and that customs did this (there was no rhyme or reason for the order that the decks were called). After self embarkation they would do traditional. Sooo, if you did not do the self-emb you did have to wait and could not just get off (unless of course no one checked and you just walked on through). Seems like all ships might handle things a little differently.

[glrounds]

"Seems like all ships might handle things a little differently."

 

This must be the case, because, on the PRIDE self-disembark passengers could start disembarking anytime after the 1st color was called. It was my understanding that you could wait as long as you wanted to leave the ship. No one was checking for colors because you were "towing" your baggage right behind you.

 

On the PRIDE, if you had left your luggage outside your cabin the night before it would be FOOLISH to try to leave the ship before your color was called as your luggage would not be in the luggage pickup area. The luggage is unloaded from the ship in the same order as the deck & colors are called. (makes for a very organized pickup area). :D

[steve328is]

We did it on Inspiration. You can use the elevators, you just might have to use them one person with luggage at a time. We bypassed the mob getting their luggage out of the color-coded piles and breezed right through. Definitely the way to go if you have luggage that's relatively easy to handle.

[cantwait2cruise]

Seeing if any recent cruisers have experiences to share....

[MyImagination]

Some in my party plan to do this in December.