Latest to Disembark the Star in L.A.

[mousecrazy]

The only post I can find is 3 years old and it said the latest time to disembark is 10:30am. I'm hoping a recent Star cruiser can confirm or deny? TIA.

[salty dingo]

I don't think it takes a recent cruiser - all the ships operate similarly. They are going to be boarding the next group of passengers at noon or so. Between the time the last passenger from the prior cruise leaves, and when the next guests board, they have to sweep the ship for stowaways, etc.

 

That can take some time, and I think 90 minutes is probably enough.

 

The 10:30 time is probably the latest you'd want to plan to be on the ship. Believe me, once they start debarkation, being on that ship is not a very pleasant place to be. The parking lot is nicer.

[carontori]

On our Feb cruise we were among the last group off the ship and it was between 10:30 and 11:00.

[mousecrazy]

I don't think it takes a recent cruiser - all the ships operate similarly. They are going to be boarding the next group of passengers at noon or so. Between the time the last passenger from the prior cruise leaves, and when the next guests board, they have to sweep the ship for stowaways, etc.

 

That can take some time, and I think 90 minutes is probably enough.

 

The 10:30 time is probably the latest you'd want to plan to be on the ship. Believe me, once they start debarkation, being on that ship is not a very pleasant place to be. The parking lot is nicer.

 

I don't think my question was snotty...so why was your response? I'm only attempting to plan my final day. The parking lot is nicer..weird.

 

Thank you, carontori, for being so helpful!

[tbogie]

We just got off the Star on 3/23/08. I have saved every Freestyle and thought I had the sheet with times about disembarkation. I don't. We signed up on Saturday for the Express and wanted to take our own luggage. We were given a red sticker for our cabin keys and told immigration would be in the Spinnaker Lounge beginning at 7:15 am for Express. Let me tell you when we got off the elevators on the deck 12 midship it was a mess. The line started at the Spinnaker went past the pool, through the mid ship elevator hallway, back out to the pool and they just kept winding us around. I know it was immigration that was moving slow and it wasn't NCL problem. We lined up and finely made it to immigration around 8:10 am. They were announcing that Express could now disembark the ship. We ate breakfast, went back to our cabins to collect our luggage (they specifically tell you to leave all your luggage in your cabin for Express while you go thru immigration, we watched numerous people try to lug all their luggage thru the line. They even got frustrated with us when the we couldn't move out of their way enough to get their luggage thru.) and we then made our way to Deck 6 mid to disembark. You walk thru the luggage collection area and there was not much luggage to sort thru. I think 80% of the ship choose Express. We had arranged for a shuttle service to pick us up and they were there early and we made it LAX before 10 am.

 

Back up a week-we went to check in Saturday 3/15/08 around 10:30. They let us in the building and there were chairs for us to sit on and I remember commenting that we could still see people getting off the ship and hauling their luggage down the escalator.

 

I know this is not a definite answer, but hopefully gives you some idea. I wish I had kept the sheet that had luggage tag colors and times to disembark the ship. Have a great time, we sure did.

[mousecrazy]

Thanks tbogie.

 

Yuck. That sounds horrible. I'll be with my three kids (age 1 to 10) and I can't image waiting in that mess. I'm hoping if we go later, we'll miss the majority of the crowds. I think we'll go have breakfast, then return to our cabin and wait it out there.

[ChBoxers800]

I'm hearing more and more people complaining about the express disembarkation. We didn't use it and everything went very smoothly. Just waited for our color to be called, located our luggage and a porter to carry it all, and went right out to our prearranged transportation. Couldn't have been easier. Only line's we encountered was customs which did take about 20 minutes of standing in line, but that's not NCL's fault. What the government says goes unfortunately.

 

Even with an early plane, I'd still go with regular disembarkation. Lugging all that luggage yourself must be nightmare.

[anniev3]

We also just came off the Star on March 15th.

We had a leisurely breakfast, watched the 1000s of passengers in line for customs...(no exaggeration here!) The line for Express Disembarkation (and a lot of the colours being called as well!) ran the entire length of the ship, around the pool area, down the stairs....it was chaos!!!

We went back to our cabin and collected our things to allow the cabin stewards the opportunity to prepare the cabin for the next guests....grab a nice comfy seat in the sunshine near the pool and waited for the line to ease up. We did end up waiting in the line for about 20 minutes (this was around 930 - 10am) and then made our way off the cruise ship. There had to be cruise passengers still on board up til about 11am at least as the immigration process seemed to be moving very slowly.... I agree that you should just wait it out on board (if time permits) and disembark later to avoid the crowds...especially with your children. Good luck and have fun!

[salty dingo]

The parking lot is nicer..weird.

 

That was a bit of poetic license, but my point was that the ship on embarkation morning is not a very pleasant place. All the ship's services shut down after breakfast. All the staff are focused on getting people off the ship.

 

You cannot remain in your cabin - the one place you may be able to relax. The steward wants to clean it ASAP and does not want to wait for you to leave, so they will knock frequently.

 

There are constant announcements over the loudspeaker. These are made at higher than normal volume. There are a lot of people who are no longer on vacation and no longer enjoying themselves - the journey back home has begun.

 

Sorry if I sounded negative, but that is the way it is. I think most folks would prefer to leave the ship after breakfast and make their way home, or to the airport, or wherever.

 

Even when we have a late flight, we don't linger on the ship - we rent a car and have some fun around the port city for the day.