Has anyone experienced new departure procedure - "As You Depart"?

[oshkosh1]

Has anyone experienced the new departure procedure announced in January? (See Below) If so, how did it go? Comments please!

 

Cruise News

Home > Cruise News Archive > Royal Caribbean Eases Up On Debark Process Date Archived: January 1, 2009 Royal Caribbean Eases Up On Debark ProcessRoyal Caribbean has become the latest cruise line to replace its traditional debarkation policy with a freer, more relaxed version.

 

The new effort aims to eliminate the old process, which involved the customary and absurdly early wake-up call, requirements to abandon cabins at the crack of dawn, and wasted time spent loafing in public lounges waiting for a color-coded tag to be called amid incessant loud speaker announcements. RCI's new effort aims to create a send-off that's more efficient and requires fewer shipwide announcements.

 

The new "As You Depart" policy is now available on all ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet. The departure day procedure involves the following:

 

An "As You Depart" flier, provided to all passengers on the final night of the cruise, will outline the departure day agenda, including key details of what you need to do that evening (put out your luggage if you want porterage), as well as info on location of waiting areas and debarkation times for designated luggage tag colors.

 

Passengers are now able to stay in cabins longer than usual -- right up until the time they're supposed to be at their designated area -- and in-cabin entertainment will also be extended.

 

Instead of shipwide announcements, most announcements will be made only through in-cabin TV's and in actual departure lounges.

 

Departure lounges will offer refreshments and "light" entertainment (violin quartet, guitar player). There will also be a dedicated Family Zone departure area, which will include refreshments, toys and games. A Royal Caribbean staff member will escort folks to the gangway when it's time.

 

Suite passengers will have a designated area (Concierge Lounge on Freedom-class ships, for instance) where they can enjoy a Continental breakfast.

 

And of course, if you're able and willing to carry off your own luggage, the self-disembarkation process is always available. Cruisers who choose to do so get first crack at getting off the ship.

 

Royal Caribbean is one of the last big-ship cruise lines to abandon the old tradition that requires passengers to vacate cabins early and wait in lounges. Already, Norwegian Cruise Line (which pioneered this more relaxed debarkation style), Holland America, Princess and Celebrity have moved to a more flexible departure day schedule.

 

--by Dan Askin, Assistant Editor

[seasearider]

Yes, we did it on the Independence, Navigator and Majesty. Our experience has been a mixed bag from horrible to great.

[geegee1]

Yes, we did it on the Independence, Navigator and Majesty. Our experience has been a mixed bag from horrible to great.

 

what was horrible about it? i know on NCL we really enjoyed it

[Atomica]

We had it on the Grandeur. It was a good experience overall, and similar to disembarkation on Princess & HAL.

 

There was some confusion about how long we could stay in our cabins, as that wasn't outlined in the information flyer. Another surprise was the announcement made at 9:15 asking all remaining passengers to leave the ship immediately - my tag wasn't due to be called until 10:45am! I guess everyone had early flights...?

 

Overall, a good disembark. Now if only they could do something about that horrible 6am wake-up call that we Non-US citizens have to do in order to go through Customs & Immigration at 6:30am!

[wolfcathorse]

I've had it on Monarch and Navigator. It made for a more relaxing departure, had time to go back after breakfast and brush our teeth, and close up the carry-on. It seems they're able to get people off faster as shown by final call being made before the outlined departure call. They want everyone off by 9:30 (if they're cleared by Customs on time). I like it and as time goes on, it will get better for the crews implementing this and for ports experiencing this. Remember, what happens on land in the port is out of RCI's hands.

[cruisesR4me]

Does anyone know what is the latest time that you can vacate your cabin with this new system?

[CruiseLover15]

Does anyone know what is the latest time that you can vacate your cabin with this new system?

 

 

I am also interested in knowing this.

[MrZoey]

We had it on IOS at Christmas. It seemed a lot less stressful. Once we got off the ship, that was a whole other story :rolleyes:, no fault of RCCL!

[Aubiecruiser]

I am also interested in knowing this.

 

Don't know about the "new" system, but in October we had to be out by 8:00 a.m.

Aubie

[amri638]

Hello fellow cc member,

I have been trying for days to find out about departing the ship on our final day until I stumble onto this thread. You see, I am going transatlantic on RCCL Jewel of the Sea 5-4-09. I wanted to take the ferry to Holland after the cruise to see Keukenhof Garden. The only 2 crossing are 9am & 11:45pm (which leaves me nothing to do for a whole day in Harwich with luggage). So you see, I would very much like to get off the ship as early as possible to catch the 9am ferry. The ship is supposed to arrive at 4:30am. Is there anyone out there who might know how soon we can get off the ship so I can book for the ferry. I don't mind carrying all my own luggage. The pier for the ferry is right next to the cruise port. Is custom really at 6:30am? That will work very well for me.

Thanks

[Emi's Mom]

We had the pleasure of experiencing "As You Depart" on the Navigator in January. I must say that it was one of the smoothest debarkations that I have experienced. I hope they keep it this way and forget about cramping everyone together and calling out colors.

[wolfcathorse]

Does anyone know what is the latest time that you can vacate your cabin with this new system?

 

the deal is you can wait in your cabin until your color tag is called but THEY WILL NOT MAKE THAT ANNOUNCEMENT OVER THE SHIP PA. So say you have green and they're estimating you'll be called off at 9:00 am. You can wait in your room and leave at 9 am...but you may find they're behind and your color hasn't been called yet, or you may find that it was called at 8:45. In all cases they like to have the ship cleared by 9:30-10 am cuz Customs has to declare it cleared so they can start the boarding process. On Navigator last month around 9 am they started announcing that everyone was invited to leave the ship, all colors called. Then they announced it again at 9:30 and 10:00. We were consecutive cruisers so at 10 we left the ship to ding out the old SeaPass card and supposedly go through Customs. But nobody in Customs wanted our declaration cards (over 50 people) but we had to stand in the terminal for about 10 min cuz pax still hadn't exited the ship (thanks, Barb, my knee was sore from Quest the night before and standing on cement didn't help while waiting for you to try and be the last off the ship, which you finally did at 10:35).

[SouthernSparkler]

Hello fellow cc member,

I have been trying for days to find out about departing the ship on our final day until I stumble onto this thread. You see, I am going transatlantic on RCCL Jewel of the Sea 5-4-09. I wanted to take the ferry to Holland after the cruise to see Keukenhof Garden. The only 2 crossing are 9am & 11:45pm (which leaves me nothing to do for a whole day in Harwich with luggage). So you see, I would very much like to get off the ship as early as possible to catch the 9am ferry. The ship is supposed to arrive at 4:30am. Is there anyone out there who might know how soon we can get off the ship so I can book for the ferry. I don't mind carrying all my own luggage. The pier for the ferry is right next to the cruise port. Is custom really at 6:30am? That will work very well for me.

Thanks

 

I have heard that departing the Jewel in Harwich starts early (7:30 am) and is quick. I would think that if you did express departure that you would be off with plenty of time to catch the ferry (if it is right near the pier). but hopefully someone who has recently travelled on her will be able to confirm that. I will be on the JW this summer too & would like to know how fast the departure process is on the other side of the pond.

[seasearider]

what was horrible about it? i know on NCL we really enjoyed it

 

It was on the Navigator and the Independence that it wasn't wonderful. Part of the problem is Port Everglades and another part was that so many people did walk off/express on both ships that it overburdened everything from ship personnel to customs thereby backing up everyone else getting off. Also, on the IOS the cruise was an eight day and there were people bring huge suitcases off on express. Elevators were off limits. In Miami, however, the whole process worked like clockwork.

[cruisin from florida]

We didn't like it. We prefer to find a comfy spot and relax after breakfast until all the lines have cleared and then stroll off the ship. It wasn't clear that they would only call colors in "your" departure lounge, so if you wait somewhere else, you don't have any idea what's going on.

 

My guess is that it's better than sitting with your luggage on the stairs until your color is called, but if you have figured out a better way to deal with departure (and we had) you won't like this as well.

 

We'll deal with whatever, but I am usually in no hurry (we drive to the ship) and prefer a nice breakfast in the dining room, and to leave near the end.

 

Another thing - we had tipped the porter pretty well on embarkation, and he tagged all our luggage for us and told us to look for him at the end. Sure enough, there he was, with all our luggage already on a cart ready to go. It was pretty nice, and if we had gotten off as our luggage was going around the carousel for the first time, we would have been waiting there, instead of the schooner bar.

 

Schooner Bar is comfier.

[danaps]

I have to agree it was great. We were on the Jewel in November and the process was very smooth. Actually we did not realize they had called us and lounged in our room until almost 10:00.

 

I like it a lot!

[cekim]

i just came off my 1st cruise 2 days ago and found this very organized and stress free. everyone was well aware and told the procedure so there was nobody unaware of what was happening. you are given colour coded labels the night before . leave your luggage outside your room before 11pm and the porter takes it away. go for breakfast in the morning when they call your colour you go to the disembarkation deck.easy.they give you a time span of 15 minutes per colour and keep telling you what colours have been called in case you do not hear 1st time.

[retiredonthesea]

Glad to see RCCL doing this also. NCL has had this procedure for quite sometime and has worked really well. I'am sure it all depends on what ship and how they have it organized as to how smoothly it runs.

[Rick_F1]

We disembarked from the Liberty on 1/31/09. It was a great process and went very smoothly. First we requested late luggage tags. We normally stay up very late the last night and enjoy as much of the cruise as possible.

 

We got tags that departed between 8:30am-9:00am. We set the alarm for 8:00am and headed to the windjammer for breakfast. It was not crowded as all the masses had already come and gone. They called our color at approximately 8:50am and off we went. Straight shot with no lines and no waiting. It was the best debarkation process by far and I can't wait to do it again.

 

Ricky

[highsierracpl]

We were on Grandeur over New Years, and after docking in Tampa, listened to 2+ hours of announcements for non-US citizens. The real problem is the customs set-up in Tampa, and this cruise had a lot of non-citizens, so it was 8:45 before they could begin disembarking. Once it started, it was great.

[HRHPrinceJim]

I experienced it on the Vision in January. No complaints here!

[Rancher Dave]

It was tried however at the same time we were a few hours late back in due to Fog in Galveston...so all I can say was I want to try it again before I pass judgement on it.

[critterchick]

Hello fellow cc member,

I have been trying for days to find out about departing the ship on our final day until I stumble onto this thread. You see, I am going transatlantic on RCCL Jewel of the Sea 5-4-09. I wanted to take the ferry to Holland after the cruise to see Keukenhof Garden. The only 2 crossing are 9am & 11:45pm (which leaves me nothing to do for a whole day in Harwich with luggage). So you see, I would very much like to get off the ship as early as possible to catch the 9am ferry. The ship is supposed to arrive at 4:30am. Is there anyone out there who might know how soon we can get off the ship so I can book for the ferry. I don't mind carrying all my own luggage. The pier for the ferry is right next to the cruise port. Is custom really at 6:30am? That will work very well for me.

Thanks

 

My recollection is that, after our Baltics cruise, we were off the ship by 7:30 or 8:00 am. We cleared British immigration onboard the ship during the second to last sea day - the officials came onboard in Tallin, Estonia. So all we had to do was find our luggage and depart. Because you will be coming off the TA, if you don't have any ports where the officials can board, you may have to clear immigration prior to leaving the terminal. But I'll bet it still won't slow you down too badly. If you can handle all of your luggage, do the express departure to improve your odds.

 

Oh, and this was in 2007, so before the new departure program.

[clevercruiser]

Overall, a good disembark. Now if only they could do something about that horrible 6am wake-up call that we Non-US citizens have to do in order to go through Customs & Immigration at 6:30am!

...followed by countless announcents for Mr & Mrs xxxx

to report for Immigration as they are preventing the ship

from being cleared for debarkation... :rolleyes:

 

Been there, done that!

 

However, on our recent cruises from Port Everglades and Miami,

the Immigration process for all passengers (non US or otherwise)

has taken place in the cruise terminal, not on board the ship,

so no annoying 6am wake up call.

 

Does anyone know which US ports do this, and which ones

still use the old 'on board immigration at 6.30am' system?

 

 

MARK

[fluffych]

:confused:Just wondering what the 6am wake-up call is? We are also Canadian and want to know why they would get you up so early for immigration?:confused:

Thanks

We had it on the Grandeur. It was a good experience overall, and similar to disembarkation on Princess & HAL.

 

There was some confusion about how long we could stay in our cabins, as that wasn't outlined in the information flyer. Another surprise was the announcement made at 9:15 asking all remaining passengers to leave the ship immediately - my tag wasn't due to be called until 10:45am! I guess everyone had early flights...?

 

Overall, a good disembark. Now if only they could do something about that horrible 6am wake-up call that we Non-US citizens have to do in order to go through Customs & Immigration at 6:30am!