Any negative to leaving ship w ur own bags

[stevensmom]

I'm almost at Port for 3 day, parking my car. We want to carry our own bags off ship. Are there any negatives vs leaving out night before?

 

[lanejudy]

Only that you have to lug them around - no luggage carts on the ship. But many people do carry their own luggage off for debarkation so you'll have company in that regard. If you go to breakfast at the MDR that morning, you'll likely have to leave them at the door as there really isn't room near the tables. Alternatively, you could do the buffet or leave them in your room and go back (before 8:00am!) for them before leaving.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We normally do carry all our luggage off with us, like when we went straight to EPCOT after debarkation. In this case on the CCL, one of the two of us would have to baby sit all the luggage while the other one went to the bathroom or through the buffet line. But it was buffet so no big deal.

But when all we had was a 14 hr drive, we weren't in the same hurry to shuffle around all our bags. So we put them out the night before. We were one of the last off the ship, so they were easy to find at the terminal. I was glad, because we decided to have one last nice, relaxed MDR breakfast as a family (we live in 3 states across the continent) and we already were seriously struggling with just our carryons with us in the MDR and trying to put it under the table etc where the waiters wouldn't trip on it. We also would NEVER leave our items unattended, so I'm honestly not sure where you would put them IF you decided to go to MDR.

I guess for us, its an either/or thing. if you take all your luggage with you, quick service buffet at the top and make sure someone is watching your bags. If you are going to do MDR, best to put it all out the night before and retrieve it at the terminal...

 

[stevensmom]

We have cruised Disney many years ago but this option wasn't available. Definitely a plus for 3 day cruise, so less luggage.
Thanks again

 

[El Cid 94]

We forgot to put our luggage out on our last cruise (due to the careless over-serving serving of alcohol by our bartender Paul in Meridian ). It was a total nightmare getting off that ship. Granted there were five of us, it was a 4 night cruise and we were over packed. That won’t happen again...

 

[love5pets]

Do you disembark according to flight time for those with earlier flights?
Does keeping your own luggage allow you off the ship earlier than those who leave luggage out the night before?

 

[lanejudy]

Do you disembark according to flight time for those with earlier flights?
Does keeping your own luggage allow you off the ship earlier than those who leave luggage out the night before?

It might depend what port you are at. At PC, those carrying their own luggage off may do so as soon as the ship is cleared by Customs to begin debarkation - usually sometime between 7/7:30am - and is highly recommended for anyone with an early departing flight. At PC debarkation is not done by flight times. I believe in some other ports, you debark based on a "character" assignment because those are smaller terminals and can't handle the crowds as well.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[love5pets]

lanejudy, I should add that we're cruising out of Miami port. The airlines changed our flight time since booking it and now leaves at 11:05am on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Hoping this will still allow plenty of time to get to airport etc. with the private shuttle I hired for 10 of us.

My concern carrying our own stuff off is there may be SO MUCH including things like car seats and strollers.

 

[mab2012]

We also would NEVER leave our items unattended, so I'm honestly not sure where you would put them IF you decided to go to MDR.

I guess for us, its an either/or thing. if you take all your luggage with you, quick service buffet at the top and make sure someone is watching your bags. If you are going to do MDR, best to put it all out the night before and retrieve it at the terminal...

Not to be argumentative, but is there a difference between leaving bags unattended in the hall outside your room all night, versus leaving them unattended outside the MDR in the morning?

It's a serious question - is there some sort of security in the stateroom hallways that wouldn't apply outside the MDR? There are probably security cameras in both areas...? I suppose the MDR area would be busier, but I'm not sure that makes it any more likely that bags would be stolen or tampered with.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

We were there when our bags were picked up outside our door. (actually our doors were open and we were packing up, and the CM would take one, and we would put the next one out, and then it would be gone.)

I'm pretty casual about all kinds of things, but leaving bags unattended in common areas is not one of them. And there is NO ROOM anywhere in the MDR. We could barely fit our carry-offs around us.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Not to be argumentative, but is there a difference between leaving bags unattended in the hall outside your room all night, versus leaving them unattended outside the MDR in the morning?

It's a serious question - is there some sort of security in the stateroom hallways that wouldn't apply outside the MDR? There are probably security cameras in both areas...? I suppose the MDR area would be busier, but I'm not sure that makes it any more likely that bags would be stolen or tampered with.

When you place your bags outside your room for pickup, they are generally picked up by the room hosts within 5 minutes (usually less). They are under the control of the CMs from that point on.

At the MDRs, the bags are just in a general area, that anyone can come and go in. AFAIK, there's no one to confirm that the bag you just picked up (or opened) is yours or not.

 

[hrhdhd]

Not to be argumentative, but is there a difference between leaving bags unattended in the hall outside your room all night, versus leaving them unattended outside the MDR in the morning?

When you set your bags out in the hallway the night before disembarkation, the room steward picks them up relatively quickly. I usually try to make sure the steward sees me put my bags out, and then he'll pick them up and take them to the luggage elevators.

By no means are the bags unattended all night in the hallway. The stewards have to collect all of them before they can go off shift.

You can lock your bags; certainly, you should keep all valuables with you and take them off in a carry-on bag.

 

[lbgraves]

Not to be argumentative, but is there a difference between leaving bags unattended in the hall outside your room all night, versus leaving them unattended outside the MDR in the morning?

It's a serious question - is there some sort of security in the stateroom hallways that wouldn't apply outside the MDR? There are probably security cameras in both areas...? I suppose the MDR area would be busier, but I'm not sure that makes it any more likely that bags would be stolen or tampered with.

Not really. We put our bags outside the door before leaving for early dinner the last night. Last cruise our host saw me putting them out and thanked me for being ready early and she took them right away. That's the first time that has happened though. They are left outside the first day unattended also since you never know when they will be delivered.

Regarding cameras in the hallway, I think that the videos that were posted after the 2011 PC repo made it clear that there either are no cameras in the hallways, or if there are cameras no one is monitoring them. It also showed bins of luggage unattended in the elevator lobby on a guest floor.

 

[tweis]

Not to be argumentative, but is there a difference between leaving bags unattended in the hall outside your room all night, versus leaving them unattended outside the MDR in the morning?

It's a serious question - is there some sort of security in the stateroom hallways that wouldn't apply outside the MDR? There are probably security cameras in both areas...? I suppose the MDR area would be busier, but I'm not sure that makes it any more likely that bags would be stolen or tampered with.

I don't think there is much difference at all. We put our luggage out on the last night and it sat there for quite some thime before out attendant took it. We weren't overly concerned though, because any valuables were in our carry on. And as lbgraves said, your luggage is unattended on the first day sitting outside your door.

There was a mountain of luggage outside of AP at breakfast on our last morning. No one seemed concerned about leaving it there.

 

[lanejudy]

lanejudy, I should add that we're cruising out of Miami port. The airlines changed our flight time since booking it and now leaves at 11:05am on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Hoping this will still allow plenty of time to get to airport etc. with the private shuttle I hired for 10 of us.

My concern carrying our own stuff off is there may be SO MUCH including things like car seats and strollers.

I don't have experience at the Port of Miami so hopefully someone else will chime in. However, at Port Canaveral they strongly recommend for people with a flight leaving prior to 11:30 that you do "express walk-off" and carry the luggage yourself. Otherwise, in addition to just FINDING the right bags in the huge terminal space, you might have to wait for them to be brought out. I'm not sure what priority order there is for which bags are brought out first. Also not sure what the "typical" arrival time is in Miami and how quickly the ship gets processed by Customs to allow for debarkation to begin. Again, hopefully someone with specific Miami experience can answer.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[Flossbolna]

We carried our luggage off the ship in Miami. At 7:30am they announced that those people with their own luggage could get off now. A little after that they started to call groups by character. We were in no hurry to get off though.

In Miami you enter and debark the ship on deck 4 (not 3 as it seems to be the case for PC), so it is not the atrium level. You exit through one of the doors that lead out to the open deck on deck 4, and then on to a gangway and down a rather long hallway, at the end of this is an escalator down. But if you have a stroller or don't have at least one hand free, you are not allowed on the escalator. We did have to wait a bit to get on the one slow elevator they have there. The you are down in the huge luggage hall where there are belts (like at the airport) and each character is assigned one of the belts. If you don't carry your luggage off, this is where you collect it. Then there was quite a lengthy line for customs. All in all I think it did not take us more than 20 minutes to get from inside the ship to outside the terminal, however we specifically tried to get off the ship as late as possible.

The two bottlenecks were the ship elevators and the elevator in the terminal.

I am not sure how they assign characters, but if you could be assigned to one of the early ones, I am quite confident you will have no trouble to get to the airport in time for your flight. Especially since the airport really is not that far from the port at all.

 

[love5pets]

Thank you so much for the helpful advice. I called AA and at least we are allowed to stand by for the next flight, and the next etc. should worse come to worse.

I've never cruised DCL but I'm sure if I go to guest services and tell them our flight time they'll make sure we get one of the first groups off the ship. It was one of those situations where the AA adjustment in the flight time wasn't enough to warrant allowing us to switch to a different flight. We would have had to pay rebooking fee and x 10 people gets $$$.

 

[lbgraves]

Since they do call the characters, just go to GS the day before you disembark and ask them for the character tags for the first group. You may need your flight information to get them.

 

[omalley1118]

We carried our luggage off the ship in Miami. At 7:30am they announced that those people with their own luggage could get off now. A little after that they started to call groups by character. We were in no hurry to get off though.

In Miami you enter and debark the ship on deck 4 (not 3 as it seems to be the case for PC), so it is not the atrium level. You exit through one of the doors that lead out to the open deck on deck 4, and then on to a gangway and down a rather long hallway, at the end of this is an escalator down. But if you have a stroller or don't have at least one hand free, you are not allowed on the escalator. We did have to wait a bit to get on the one slow elevator they have there. The you are down in the huge luggage hall where there are belts (like at the airport) and each character is assigned one of the belts. If you don't carry your luggage off, this is where you collect it. Then there was quite a lengthy line for customs. All in all I think it did not take us more than 20 minutes to get from inside the ship to outside the terminal, however we specifically tried to get off the ship as late as possible.

The two bottlenecks were the ship elevators and the elevator in the terminal.

I am not sure how they assign characters, but if you could be assigned to one of the early ones, I am quite confident you will have no trouble to get to the airport in time for your flight. Especially since the airport really is not that far from the port at all.

Thank you for this information! We are sailing out of Miami for the first time in November, and I find this very helpful. Now, if I could just find a flight that won't break the bank...

 

[shrinkingmoody]

We carried off on our four night cruise but in the future I think we will put our bags out the night before and walk off when the ship clears customs and hope that our bags are down fairly quickly. When we carried off and for into the port there were already tons if bags and porters waiting to help and it kind if stunk trying to maneuver everything down the halls. Of course we overpacked too though. And - this was at PC.