Disembarkation! Help!!

[Tiamet2b]

I'll be cruising on the Sensation this weekend and some of the member reviews have me a little worried about new policies. When I cruised with Carnival before I packed all my stuff into my huge rolling suitcase and took it with me on the ship and took it with me back off the ship.... never letting it out of my sight. Now people are saying that checking your bags is mandatory. Is that right? If so I might have to buy a much larger purse :(

[cathyz]

I'll be cruising on the Sensation this weekend and some of the member reviews have me a little worried about new policies. When I cruised with Carnival before I packed all my stuff into my huge rolling suitcase and took it with me on the ship and took it with me back off the ship.... never letting it out of my sight. Now people are saying that checking your bags is mandatory. Is that right? If so I might have to buy a much larger purse :(

Whatever you carry on needs to fit through the xray machine, like at an airport. The max is 24x18, so a 'huge' suitcase wouldn't work.

[CaptainEdwardJohnSmith]

Just as KathyZ said, it has to go thru that X-Ray machine! No ifs, ands or buts about it.

[LHP]

You can however take it off the ship with you no matter what size it is.

 

A rolling duffle "may" fit. Just check the measurements against the size given by an earlier poster. BTW, checking your luggage is ok. We have done it for 25 years with no problems. Never lost one piece or even had one arrive later than 6pm to the cabin.

[Tiamet2b]

Thanks everyone! You all were very helpful! I will have to check my large bag, so I'll try to get all of my really important stuff into smaller ones. I've never flown, always driven, so "too big" is all relevant, lol.

 

The thing that turns me off from checking my baggage is that on my first Carnival cruise I watched from my balcony luggage and dress bags fall off of a motor cart and get dragged and run over by its wheels during embarkation. That was at Norfolk, though, not Port Canaveral. Norfolk isn't really set up for cruising anyway, so I probably shouldn't base my opinion on that.

[AustinSooner]

They load the bags into large carriages and as such the baggage never seems to be in jeopardy.

 

Enjoy your trip.

[gigglebabe]

When I went on the Holiday back in Oct. I saw a whole family take all of their luggage on board themselves. I think perhaps they had unassigned rooms? And had no idea what cabin number to put on them perhaps? But they drug those suitcases all the way thru lines in front of us.

 

Debbie

[truecruiser]

No...to all of the above b/c i think the OP is asking about the debarkation changes Sensation crew has made to disallow self-assist. is that what you are asking? if so, i read the same things on here that you did, from a variety of posts and threads. do a search to see, and maybe a recent sensation guest will see this thread and clarify it further for you. good luck.

[Tiamet2b]

Yes, I'm mainly thinking about the self debarkation changes I've heard about. The size of my stuff will force me to check one piece of luggage for embarkation, but I would really like to keep it with me when I disembark since I'll need a significant portion of my stuff the next morning, after bags have been collected for checking. If they insist that I check it, I'll have to find some other way to carry all my morning gear with my important purse stuff. Sorry if I was confusing.... I really do appreciate the dimensions of the scanner, though :-)

[Wennfred]

I'll be cruising on the Sensation this weekend and some of the member reviews have me a little worried about new policies. When I cruised with Carnival before I packed all my stuff into my huge rolling suitcase and took it with me on the ship and took it with me back off the ship.... never letting it out of my sight. Now people are saying that checking your bags is mandatory. Is that right? If so I might have to buy a much larger purse :(

 

Nope, as long as it fits inside the xray machine you are fine.

 

Fred

[Tiamet2b]

do they x-ray it on the way out?

[truecruiser]

do they x-ray it on the way out?

 

no. he was confused, i think. and was responding the same as others (thinking you were talking about what to carry on, not off).

[cruisinbuddy]

To sum up. Big bags HAVE to be checked b/c they won't fit through xray. So take a travel size bag that will fit. Put some extra clothes in it, ie, bathing suit, change of undies etc. When leaving the ship, if it does the self assist and you want to do this, go for it. They don't xray it but there is a sniffer dog there to sniff out that orange or apple that you're smuggling off, and all the drugs you picked up on the islands too of course.:D

[ILUVCRUZEN]

It doesn't matter how many pieces of luggage you have or how big they are when you are GETTING OFF THE SHIP. They do not xray your luggage when leaving. You just have to be able to carry all of it by yourself if you are doing the self disembark. I usually carry one HUGE rolling suitcase and one smaller one that will fit through xray when GETTING ON THE SHIP. I check the HUGE one in with the porters upon arriving. When I get off the ship I roll both of my bags off with me. Now if you have a bunch of luggage then you should NOT DO the self disembark. My HUGE rolling suitcase is so big and heavy that I have to take the elevator down to the bottom floor of the terminal (customs) because I can't get on the escalator with it.

 

do they x-ray it on the way out?