Self disembarking

[KelseyLowder]

We are going to try this next cruise. It will help that we have learned to travel carryon only recently, so only one small bag per person.

But, for me, the main benefit will be not packing on the night before disembarking. I despise doing that! We often come back earlier than I want from Castaway Cay so that we have time to get it all done before dinner. But worse is that reminder all day that the cruise has come to an end and we must pack.

We are early risers, so I would much rather get up at 6:30 the next morning and pack everything then. Disembarking day is already sad, so adding the packing to it won't take away from it and will leave the day before to be a regular cruise day.

We have a car rental at 8 so we can get a jump on exploring other things!

 

[monkeydawn]

I self debarked on my last cruise an LOVED it! Unless Im in a situation where I need to kill time for some reason (late flight), this is what I will likely choose in the future if it's left up to me. It doesnt hurt that I tend to do carry on only and I also tend to be an early riser that doesnt mind a quick buffet breakfast on that last day.

 

[disneyholic family]

As a clarification - you will not be able to eat at any of the SIT DOWN restaurants. Cabanas will be open.

We always do this and its easy and relatively quick, even if we do stand in a little bit of a line until CBP gives the all-clear to disembark.

are you sure about this?
we ate in the sit down restaurant.
We just brought our luggage in with us.
that is, we kept our luggage (didn't put it out at night), but we only left the ship after we ate breakfast, whenever that was ....

.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

are you sure about this?
we ate in the sit down restaurant.
We just brought our luggage in with us.
that is, we kept our luggage (didn't put it out at night), but we only left the ship after we ate breakfast, whenever that was ....

.

I believe that poster meant, if you want to do the self debarkation (early) you won't be able to eat in the MDRs.

 

[lds0191]

As a clarification - you will not be able to eat at any of the SIT DOWN restaurants. Cabanas will be open.

We always do this and its easy and relatively quick, even if we do stand in a little bit of a line until CBP gives the all-clear to disembark.

We have kept our bags with us and eaten at our MDR for breakfast with no problem. There is no issue leaving your bags at the entrance to the restaurant. There is much more room to do this at the MDR's than at Cabanas.

 

[disneyholic family]

We have kept our bags with us and eaten at our MDR for breakfast with no problem. There is no issue leaving your bags at the entrance to the restaurant. There is much more room to do this at the MDR's than at Cabanas.

lots of people left their luggage at the entrance of the dining room.
We actually took ours in with us and stacked them next to our table.
The dining room was pretty empty, since most people had gone up to cabanas.
It was a lovely leisurely breakfast.

 

[2XPCV]

I should have said, 'for late seating'....early seating probably can (??), but every time we have used self-disembarkation, the time we were able to leave was before our time for breakfast in the MDR.

We have kept our bags with us and eaten at our MDR for breakfast with no problem. There is no issue leaving your bags at the entrance to the restaurant. There is much more room to do this at the MDR's than at Cabanas.

 

[pixarmom]

Does anyone have recent second seating experience with bags? We had late/second seating last year on the Magic and we brought our bags along to breakfast in AP and left them in the entry to the restaurant. The dining room was busy and everyone lined up their bags outside in an organized way. Would be interested in any updates regarding second seating, because we would love to follow the same process again this year.

 

[disneyholic family]

i'm pretty sure that when we were on the dream, we had second seating.
There was lots of luggage just outside the door to the dining room, but we took our luggage in with us (we didn't want to leave our luggage unattended right before heading to the airport - a security no no on our airline).
So we took our luggage into the dining room and stacked it all next to our table.
There was no problem with us doing this.
.

 

[Mommb]

At Port Canaveral, and at other ports where there are not specific disembarkations groups, there is no official "self debarkation." As soon as the ship is cleared, everyone is free to exit. As you exit, you bring with you any luggage that you didn't leave outside your room the previous night. This may be different in ports with less space in the terminal, at which guests are assigned debarkation groups and must wait until their group is called -- at those ports, you may need to request self debarkation, and be expected to leave the ship before the boarding groups start being called.

We always have at least one bag with the previous day's clothes that we carry off. We usually bring our remaining luggage with us into the dining room or Cabanas, but I have seen luggage piled outside the main dining rooms at both 1st and 2nd breakfast seating.

 

[2XPCV]

At Port Canaveral, and at other ports where there are not specific disembarkations groups, there is no official "self debarkation."

They don't call it 'self-debarkation', but there actually is - called "Express Walk-Off". If you are carrying all of your bags yourself, and not putting any out, you can leave the ship earlier than those who are having bags taken off for them. Multiple times on different ships in Port Canaveral we have seen Disney Cast Members stopping those from both getting in the Express Walk-Off lines that form up on the ship and from leaving the ship if they are in that line if they are found not to be carrying their own luggage off. Sometimes it's obvious, such as people with literally no bags other than small ones, and other times I've heard them asking people. As with anything, how much a specific cast member enforces this is really a your mileage may vary thing, but that's how its supposed to work.

 

[Mommb]

Thanks for clarifying. I have seen information about Express Walk-off as an option but didn’t realize that castmembers would let people disembark first only if they were clearly carrying their own luggage.

 

[geetey]

Does anyone know how this might work in Vancouver?

 

[wishuponastar1984]

Does anyone have recent second seating experience with bags? We had late/second seating last year on the Magic and we brought our bags along to breakfast in AP and left them in the entry to the restaurant. The dining room was busy and everyone lined up their bags outside in an organized way. Would be interested in any updates regarding second seating, because we would love to follow the same process again this year.

Unless you are completely paranoid about your bags being stolen there is really no reason to do express walk off and have to haul all your own bags off the ship. By the time you finish late breakfast all the bags will be off the ship anyway and waiting for you in the cruise terminal. There will be long lines of people waiting to use the elevators and it is nice to just use the stairs with a carry on tote for the items we used the last evening.

 

[BlondeAlligator]

How late is breakfast served in Cabanas? And what time is second seating breakfast in MDR?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

How late is breakfast served in Cabanas? And what time is second seating breakfast in MDR?

I believe they serve until 8:30 and second seating breakfast is usually around 8:00.