exit procedures

[sequoiamom]

What is the timing for exiting the ship on the last day? I was on a Carnival Cruise about 10 years ago. On the last day, they assigned us a departure time and herded us into an empty lounge for 2 hours until our time came up. It was rather quite uncomfortable. There appeared to be no regard for possible travel conflicts. How does Disney do it on the last day. We have a late morning flight out of MCO and don't want to risk missing it.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

What is the timing for exiting the ship on the last day? I was on a Carnival Cruise about 10 years ago. On the last day, they assigned us a departure time and herded us into an empty lounge for 2 hours until our time came up. It was rather quite uncomfortable. There appeared to be no regard for possible travel conflicts. How does Disney do it on the last day. We have a late morning flight out of MCO and don't want to risk missing it.

I have done that on Princess not good, currently you can get off as soon as the ship is cleared at approx 7.35am, but I know sometimes they have said get a disembarkation ticket from your breakfast servers, we were told this in Barcelona, but we were not issued one and was off at 7am there.

 

[imsetuc]

DCL exiting was extremely painless. Early dinner seating had early breakfast seating last day, and when I got out of breakfast, I walked right off ship with no wait.

I cruised Carnival the year before, and it took me 2 hours to get off the boat, with everyone packed like sardines in the lobby waiting for their letter to be called.

DCL exiting is very smooth.

 

[inkkognito]

Woke up at 7 a.m. on the Disney Wonder this morning. Ready to go by 7:30 a.m. Walked off ship at 7:35 a.m. 10 minutes to walk to terminal, get luggage with porter, and go through Customs. Car loaded and well on its way on 528 by 8 a.m.

RCCL's disembarkation procedure is a special hell (my favorite memory is over two hours stuck in a "non-smoking" lounge choking on the smoke curling around me while praying for my luggage tag color to be called). Disney's staggered breakfast times mean that people leave in dribs and drabs, and if you don't want to go that route, just walk off when you want to. We always skip breakfast because we always eat enough on a cruise to last us for the next three days.

 

[tvguy]

As they say "your mileage may vary".

I would probably feel differently if we had in fact "walked right off the ship". They started disembarkation just before 8 am on our cruise and there was a steady stream of folks from that point on. We had 8 am late seating breakfast, and lined up at 8:30. We had to stand in line for 45 minutes.
Least pleasant end of a cruise in the 8 we have been on. The lack of a disembarkation system is VERY popular with Disney cruises though. We cruised on NCL in June and they had the normal disembark by group number system, but with a twist. You waited in your CABIN after breakfast until your group was called. Or, you could skip breakfast and sleep in a bit. But they could do that because disembarkation started at 8 am, but they don't depart again until 8 pm, so they have three more hours to prep the ship for the next group of passengers than Disney does.

 

[LisaBi]

Both times I've been on DCL have been very easy. We walked of the ship when we chose (about 8:00 the first time, and closer to 9:00 the second time). We did skip our assigned (too early) breakfast and ate at Topsiders instead. No lines either time - just out the door, grab luggage, and right up to the customs agent.

I did notice this last time (yesterday!) that they didn't advertise that Topsiders was open for breakfast - but it was.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Both times I've been on DCL have been very easy. We walked of the ship when we chose (about 8:00 the first time, and closer to 9:00 the second time). We did skip our assigned (too early) breakfast and ate at Topsiders instead. No lines either time - just out the door, grab luggage, and right up to the customs agent.

I did notice this last time (yesterday!) that they didn't advertise that Topsiders was open for breakfast - but it was.

Hope you had a great trip, its not a full Breakfast as usual in topsiders on last morning is it? In the MED we were told to go to assigned seating and the servers would give us disembarkation ticketsbut they never did.

 

[LisaBi]

Hope you had a great trip, its not a full Breakfast as usual in topsiders on last morning is it? In the MED we were told to go to assigned seating and the servers would give us disembarkation ticketsbut they never did.

No - the last day breakfast at Topsiders is not a full breakfast. They said it would be a continental, but there were a few hot items (scrambled eggs, bacon, waffles that I recall). Definitely no omelet station on the last day!