Have you done "Walk Off" disembarkation?

[junglejane]

I've tried searching for threads discussing "walk off" disembarkation but I can't seem to get the search function to work. I keep getting "database error" messages. So please forgive me if I'm asking for information covered elsewhere.

 

Our family is booked on the 3/24 Mexican Riviera sailing on the Diamond Princess. We live in Phoenix, AZ and will be driving to and from San Pedro and parking at the cruise terminal. We have read about the existence of the "walk off" disembarkation option and it sounds like a good plan for us. We'll be anxious to hit the road on Saturday morning for the long drive back to Phoenix.

 

I'd love to hear from any of you who have tried this and have any feedback, positive or negative, or any tips. Thanks very much.

 

--Junglejane

[bjkTX]

We've done it on our last two cruises. You have to be able to take care of all your baggage on your own and get it off the ship. You'll get tags that will be the first to be called once they start letting people off the ship. Be careful and be ready early - we were told the first call would be at 8:30. We were called, through customs and in our car by 8:30 :-) We had actually gone to the buffet for breakfast waiting for our color/number to be called and we never heard it - I finally called the Purser's office and found we had been called 30 minutes prior.

[paul929207]

If your bags are to much to carry, you can request and early time and pick your bags up in the terminal.

 

Paul

[shepp]

Chose the self-help disembarkation last week off the DP last week...worked like a charm, sort of. The customs lines were long and the lounges crowded, and so schlepping around a large roller duffel was just a little tricky. But, yes, as soon as disembarkation started, we were down the gangway and off the ship. They did have numbered groups for self-help, too, so if you want to do it, I'd suggest going to the purser early in the cruise and getting in the first group.

 

Oh, and another plus is that you get to keep all your luggage with you till the last moment.

 

I'd definitely do it again.

[Swigs]

Can you disembark later if you like? We'd like to carry our own luggage off, but aren't in a particular hurry to get off the ship. How late can you stay on if you're self-disembarking?

[lindyg]

We did this for the first time in November when we came back into Galveston from a Mediterranean transatlantic cruise on the Grand. As in the other replies, you should be able to transport your luggage off the ship. We were some of the first off and had no problems waiting to go through immigration. We were on our way with a rent a car to Houston to fly home before many ever got off the ship. We also heard from friends, that disembarkation bogged down at the immigration check in, and there were long delays in getting off the ship later that morning. (Mainly from people trying to bring off sandwiches,cookies, fruits etc which you are told NOT to bring off with you)

One of the best features of this, is you do get to keep your luggage in your room overnight. We would always take advantage of this again.

[Corner Exit]

We are planning on doing the self-disembarktation at Seattle.

 

Do they open and search bags prior to letting you go? Just wondering what kind of gymnastics are needed to juggle two pieces of luggage per person + one garment bag through the process would be?

 

If we want the least amount of crowding, would it be best for us to go to the pursers desk shortly after boarding and request to be in the first self-help group?

 

Thanks

[TM]

WE have done this twice, both times on the Dawn Princess. We had done the SF to Mexico round trip cruise and live in the east bay. It was great, we were off the ship and home before noon. In both cases we were off the ship before nine. As stated you must be able to get your luggage off on your own. We typically have a large piece as well as a garment bag and small roll on as well as a tote bag. It can be somewhat difficult getting around all the people camped out in the stairwells as well as the lobbies. We plan on doing it again in September when we disembark the Corral Princess after our Panama Canal cruise.

[Colo Cruiser]

Did it on the Sapphire Princes Mex Riv last March and it worked great, we were off and in a taxi by 8:15. :)

[andrea63]

We did the walk off on the Diamond a month ago. We turned in our slip for walk off the day we got it and were assigned walk off group B. Walk off had at least three different groups. They were to start at 7:30 and finish at 8:30 according to the schedule sheet. Walk off started at about 7:45 for group A so we went to the 7th floor waiting area and waited, and waited , and waited. At 8:30 they called another group but this time it was a group for early flight departures. People were livid because they only called one walk off group. There were couple more to go. When I asked at the departure area I was told that Customs is in charge of calling whatever group they wanted to. People were furious because this is why they chose walk off in the first place. They called walk off group B a bit after 9:00 A.M. That is when we left. Everything always depends on customs bottom line. It appears they RULE, not Princess.

[FredS]

When we did it we were off the ship and at the Avis office in Long Beach before the Avis office opened at 8AM. Had to wait about 5-10 min. for them to open up. Were on our way home by 8:20AM in the rental car.

Princess crew will not help with luggage at all if you do self-disembarkation. We did not have anyone go through our luggage. I think customs only goes through luggage on a random basis.

[bjkTX]

Based on the info you provide they will determine what priority group you get - unless you request to walk off yourself. There are no walk-off categories that let you just pick your bags up in the terminal. What he is saying is rather than doing the walk off try and get them to put you in one of the first regular groups - normally reserved for people with the closest connection times. If you tell them you are just in a hurry to get to your car - they may or may not give you one of the early groups. If you can't manage your luggage on your own, that may be worth a try. Of course I have never seen anyone policing who got off when either.....

[taxatty]

We've done this twice--very easy if you don't have a ton of luggage, and it can save you over an hour. It helps to have a rolling bag with a duffle that fits over the extended larger bag's handle.

Les

[GoodAsGold]

I did it on my last Carnival cruise out of Long Beach. We just stayed in our cabin until they called us to get off. We chose to wait and not leave with the real early group. It was nice hanging out in our cabin while we waited. Is this the way it's done on Princess? I admit, since ours will be a 10 day cruise compared to our last 4 day sailing, we'll have more stuff to lug around. And we don't need to fly or anything. I just wish we could stay in our cabin instead of standing in a long line or hanging out all around the public areas. Another nice disemarkation was when our group was assigned to the main show lounge. The comedian came in and literally put a show on for us. Heck, I didn't even want to get off when they called our colors! This was also on Carnival. We lucked out that time!

 

I've tried searching for threads discussing "walk off" disembarkation but I can't seem to get the search function to work. I keep getting "database error" messages. So please forgive me if I'm asking for information covered elsewhere.

 

Our family is booked on the 3/24 Mexican Riviera sailing on the Diamond Princess. We live in Phoenix, AZ and will be driving to and from San Pedro and parking at the cruise terminal. We have read about the existence of the "walk off" disembarkation option and it sounds like a good plan for us. We'll be anxious to hit the road on Saturday morning for the long drive back to Phoenix.

 

I'd love to hear from any of you who have tried this and have any feedback, positive or negative, or any tips. Thanks very much.

 

--Junglejane

[GoodAsGold]

I would like the answer to this question, as well. Thanks for asking it! :)

 

 

Can you disembark later if you like? We'd like to carry our own luggage off, but aren't in a particular hurry to get off the ship. How late can you stay on if you're self-disembarking?

[junglejane]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far. I'd love to hear more experiences, too. Since we are driving home, we assume that if we do regular disembarkation, we will be a very low priority since we don't have any connection to make. That's why we want to try the "walk off." It will require me to be more disciplined than I usually am in packing, LOL. We'll have our two kids with us, ages 6 and 10. I'm hoping the 10 year old can handle a small wheeled bag while DH and I each handle a larger wheeled suitcase. It sounds like we should definitely give it a try!

--Junglejane

[On the beach]

We just completed our first Princess cruise on the Grand this February. We haven't been offered the "Walk Off" disembarkation untill now and wondered how it worked. We recieved a number of 645. They started calling numbers in groups of 100 at 7AM. Our group 600-699 was called about 8:15 AM. This gave us ample time to have breakfast in the dining room and return to our stateroom to retrieve our luggage. If your number is called and you are not quite ready, just go with the group that is disembarking at the time you are ready.. You have to be able to handle your own luggage, therefore we both only have one large roller bag and a carryon. We just loved not having to put our bags out the night before and would definitely do this anytime it was offered.

[GoodAsGold]

My daughter and I will be sailing on the Golden out of SF to Mexico in April. I'm considering doing this, as well. Is it necessary that we need to get off REAL early or can we wait awhile? It seems that on our last 4 day cruise with Carnival, we didn't get off with the super-early group. We're going to have a 26", a rolling tote and a garment bag each. I've always been able to stack them on top of one another, taking advantage of the loops and what-not to secure them together. Then I gingerly roll the whole thing along hoping it doesn't tip over or that I don't bump into someone! :o But, it is do-able and worth not having to look for our luggage later. And, as mentioned, it's nice not having to put it out in the hallway the last night. I always feel like I'm forgetting something or that, worse yet, I've just sent my suitcase off into never-never land. :eek:

 

 

WE have done this twice, both times on the Dawn Princess. We had done the SF to Mexico round trip cruise and live in the east bay. It was great, we were off the ship and home before noon. In both cases we were off the ship before nine. As stated you must be able to get your luggage off on your own. We typically have a large piece as well as a garment bag and small roll on as well as a tote bag. It can be somewhat difficult getting around all the people camped out in the stairwells as well as the lobbies. We plan on doing it again in September when we disembark the Corral Princess after our Panama Canal cruise.

[shepp]

Can you disembark later if you like? We'd like to carry our own luggage off, but aren't in a particular hurry to get off the ship. How late can you stay on if you're self-disembarking?

 

Because we were considering sharing a ride with friends who had a later disembarkation ticket, I actually asked the purser that. He said that "unofficially" we could leave any time after our group was called. Of course, you're supposed to be out of your cabin by 8:30, and out of consideration to stewards and incoming pax, that seems only right. And all the lounges and stairways on the DP were so crowded that, honestly, I had no desire to stick around. I suppose I could have toted my bags up to the pool deck, though. Seems like you could wait till the absolute bitter end to disembark. What are they gonna do, force you to stay on the ship for the next cruise?

 

Hmmm...now that's a nice threat.

[kool kruiser]

We have used this option on our last two Princess cruises and it worked really well. If you want to disembark AFTER your stated time there is no problem but you shouldn't leave earlier than scheduled.

[txflyer]

Just back from Diamond 01/27. The Walk-Off sign up sheets were placed in our room early in the week. (I sort of lost track of days, if you know what I mean!) We immediately completed the forms and returned them to Guest Services. We were awarded "Group A"...Im thinking maybe they award the groups in the order they receive the forms...but I cant confirm it.

 

As instructed, we were there and ready at 730am. We decided to wait in Explorers lounge which is adjacent to the door. Alot of people ignore the instructions about blocking the walkways, rather than finding a seat, so it gets crowded. I think we only waited maybe 20 to 30 minutes or so and they called our Group A. We were the first group they announced. Prior to our group, I only saw crew getting off the ship.

 

I guess we waited in the customs line for maybe 10 minutes.... and out of the terminal by 820am or 830am.

[Crusin Texas Gal]

I've tried searching for threads discussing "walk off" disembarkation but I can't seem to get the search function to work. I keep getting "database error" messages. So please forgive me if I'm asking for information covered elsewhere.

 

Our family is booked on the 3/24 Mexican Riviera sailing on the Diamond Princess. We live in Phoenix, AZ and will be driving to and from San Pedro and parking at the cruise terminal. We have read about the existence of the "walk off" disembarkation option and it sounds like a good plan for us. We'll be anxious to hit the road on Saturday morning for the long drive back to Phoenix.

 

I'd love to hear from any of you who have tried this and have any feedback, positive or negative, or any tips. Thanks very much.

 

--Junglejane

 

 

I live in Texas and cruise out of Galveston a lot. I do walk off disembarkation on both Princess and Carnival..you have to be able to carry (roll) your own luggage off the ship and through customs...There is no problem if you have one bag and a carry on...We use pretty large suitcase and away we go...2 hours before anyone who has regular disembarkation so it's worth it when you have a long drive home.

[junglejane]

Just back from Diamond 01/27. The Walk-Off sign up sheets were placed in our room early in the week. (I sort of lost track of days, if you know what I mean!) We immediately completed the forms and returned them to Guest Services. We were awarded "Group A"...Im thinking maybe they award the groups in the order they receive the forms...but I cant confirm it.

 

As instructed, we were there and ready at 730am. We decided to wait in Explorers lounge which is adjacent to the door. Alot of people ignore the instructions about blocking the walkways, rather than finding a seat, so it gets crowded. I think we only waited maybe 20 to 30 minutes or so and they called our Group A. We were the first group they announced. Prior to our group, I only saw crew getting off the ship.

 

I guess we waited in the customs line for maybe 10 minutes.... and out of the terminal by 820am or 830am.

 

Thanks very much for responding. Actually, we had found your web photos from an earlier thread. It was after we looked at the Princess Patters you posted that DH decided we should do the walk off. We really enjoyed studying your great pictures of the ship and shore visits, and posting the Patters was especially helpful.

--Junglejane

[pmcrusta]

Had a friend who returned from a Alaska cruise disembarked at Vancouver. They'd planned a road trip through Canada after the cruise and then drive home to Ca. So this is a FYI. If at one point in your life you were young and did something dumb enough you got arrested for like my friends husband. You may not want to try a walk off. They were detained by Canada's immigration.

Mind you this guy's in his late 40's now. He paid his debt to society and has been a model citizen since he was 19. Owns his own business, own home...yaddad, yadda...so on and so forth and she's a bank VP. But they were finally told why they'd been detained. First red flag. The did the walk off disembarkation. Second red flag. They were not using any ship transfer's nor were they getting on a plane after leaving the ship. The third red flag. He is of one race she is another. And this was explained to them. Mind you this took 5 hours. Then they were told they had a hour to get to the US border when they were released. Now mind you these people travel all the time and have passports. But had never used the do it yourself disembarkation before. Well, needless to say they won't again...until hubby gets the infractions expunged of his record which is now in the works. So if you do your own thing

getting off in another country the process may be a different thing all together. So like I said FYI. You just never know what might happen.

[seattlekckckc]

Here is something I posted in a review about the Dawn Princess in November when we did the Self Help Disembarkation. While it was an option we needed to make our early flight, I was pretty unhappy with the whole thing and it kind of ended my cruise on a sour note.

 

"We were some of the people on in 10 minutes. Very fast embarkation. MISERABLE disembarkation! We were in the Self Help group, as we had a kind of early flight. I hated how they did the disembarkation. Having the customs in the Vista lounge was fine, very easy. But SO many people did the self help (my estimate is about 500, as they had 100+ in each group there were 4 groups called). Well, the problem is, alot of the people doing this were not even close to be able to take there bags off by themselves. The ramp was pretty steep, and I even had trouble getting my rolling bag down with out losing control of it - and I can bench press 120 pounds and leg press 455 pounds in the weight room - it was tough holding it back on the ramp, even as a pretty strong girl. And then, the bottom of the ramp was a mess with people stopping and asking for porters, who were behind a gate since they cant help this group. Then, people were swimming upstream to help out they group who were standed on the ramp - the one that sticks in my mind is a tottling little lady, probably about 90-95 years old, trying to struggle with her bag going down. She finally stopped (right in front of me), dropped her bag, and juist waiting for someone to get her. These are not to people who should be in the SELF HELP group! And then, to make it worse, princess called groups 1-2, and then 3-4 within 5 minutes of wach other. Major logjam. And THEn, not 5 minutes later, they started calling the red groups. Arrgg! We got in a argument with a lady you was mad that we were in a self help group after her, and that we were "cutting", even though our number had been called. More arrgg! PRINCESS, space the groups out more!"

 

So just be aware of the crowding at the gangplank, I ended up about 20 people in front of my DH, I would make sure your kids know to wait right outside of the gangway in case you get seperated. There was much pushing going on, and I got a little freaked out!

 

They did issue the groups in order the requests were recieved, but I personally witnessed them adding in people to the earlier groups when they had sob stories about the early flights the night before we got off!

 

Regardless of which group you are in, they later groups will be bunched up by the exit, and that will be what you have to compete with! We ended up having to take out bags down the stairs as elevators were not available by the exit we needed, and to take one further across the ship, we would not have been able to walk across the the right deck with our bags, for all of the blocking of aisles at that point!

 

Dont want to scare you, just want you to be aware of what can go wrong, to be prepared.

 

Have a great cruise!

Casey