Departure from Concierge

[mdwf2000]

We are booked Concierge on the Fantasy in August 2017. Have a wedding in Philly on same day as return. I want to try to figure out if we can make it back home in time. I know it is safest to wait until after noon to fly home, but can anyone chime in on what time Concierge guests can depart the boat? I thought we could get off the boat early, but I haven't seen any threads talking about departure time for concierge, just boarding.

I'm hoping to get an earlier flight.

 

[Shanti]

We are booked Concierge on the Fantasy in August 2017. Have a wedding in Philly on same day as return. I want to try to figure out if we can make it back home in time. I know it is safest to wait until after noon to fly home, but can anyone chime in on what time Concierge guests can depart the boat? I thought we could get off the boat early, but I haven't seen any threads talking about departure time for concierge, just boarding.

I'm hoping to get an earlier flight.

I've never sailed concierge, but I personally wouldn't hesitate to book a flight that departed at 10:30am or later from the Orlando airport. The ship docks and opens up to passenger exits pretty early- they want passengers off the ship asap, so they try to make the process easy.

I'm not the nervous "what if?" type, though. Everyone has their own tolerance level for the risk of unforseen events occurring. But my guess is if you were the nervous type, you wouldn't have booked a cruise that disembarks the same day as the wedding in Philly.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The ship has to clear customs before any passengers can disembark. Customs can go very smoothly, and disembarkation can start as early as 7:30 a.m. Other cruises aren't as lucky and disembarkation will begin an hour or so later. Your odds of making an early flight will also depend on freeway traffic, and your transportation to the airport. Will you have a rental car parked at the terminal, or will you have private car service, and will they be able to locate you as soon as you're ready to leave?

 

[perditax]

In Sept of '15, I sailed concierge on the Dream. Back then concierge guests did get priority disembark. There was a list you'd fill out with the time slot you wanted. One of the concierges would escort groups of guests down the forward elevators and to the front of the customs line.

May have changed since then, but that was my experience, and we were at MCO and through security by shortly after 9.

 

[Billinaz]

You meet in the concierge lounge at 0730 and they block out an elevator to get you directly to the lobby. They than escort you past any lines directly to the door.

 

[Floridatinaherb]

In Sept of '15, I sailed concierge on the Dream. Back then concierge guests did get priority disembark. There was a list you'd fill out with the time slot you wanted. One of the concierges would escort groups of guests down the forward elevators and to the front of the customs line.

May have changed since then, but that was my experience, and we were at MCO and through security by shortly after 9.

This is how it worked last year as well...we were one of the last out since we drove ourselves (and I really didn't want to leave!) but they did have early disembarkation times.

 

[bumbershoot]

Your odds of making an early flight will also depend on freeway traffic, and your transportation to the airport.

January 2014 (superbowl day) 528 was just coated in a thick fog. Thankfully our driver (fltours.com) had left Orlando very early, so he actually got to the port a bit early despite having to drive something like 30mph the whole way. Half of the drive back was the same, when the fog/mist finally lifted and things got normal.

All sorts of things can impact when you get to the airport!

Even though I *know* that airlines will take care of us if we miss a flight, I still do NOT want ot miss a flight. I still want to be at the airport a solid 2 hours early (now I don't say "at least" because we have NEXUS and Global Entry in our family, which means we're as close to guaranteed prechek as you can get, woo! though prechek can get weird at MCO sometimes). I would rather be bored at the airport and maybe rushing to get to the wedding once home rather than racing along 528 to get to the airport or being too antsy in the security line.

 

[phinz]

You now get taken down a separate line (to the left of everybody else) to the escalators, as of this past December. You get to take the elevator from 12 (on the Dream Class at least) with a special key held by one of the hosts. They take you down to deck 3 (on the Dream Class again) and hand you off to another Concierge host, who escorts you to the checkout kiosk where they scan your KTTW.After that you're on your own. We were told by a porter who's been at the port a long time that they no longer escort you to the front of the line because a Concierge guest caused some sort of trouble with Customs, so they said everybody has to get in the same line.

 

[hanscarlet]

we fly from PHL and we usually take an 11:30am flight from MCO to PHL and never have a problem arriving on time

 

[MUN]

We are booked Concierge on the Fantasy in August 2017. Have a wedding in Philly on same day as return. I want to try to figure out if we can make it back home in time. I know it is safest to wait until after noon to fly home, but can anyone chime in on what time Concierge guests can depart the boat? I thought we could get off the boat early, but I haven't seen any threads talking about departure time for concierge, just boarding.

I'm hoping to get an earlier flight.

Are you flying commercial or private?

 

[1Winston]

They did walk us out but then you wait in customs with everyone else.

 

[Bear3412]

You now get taken down a separate line elevator from 12 (on the Dream Class at least) with a special key held by one of the hosts. They take you down to deck 3 and hand you off to another Concierge host, who escorts you to the checkout kiosk where they scan your KTTW. After that you're on your own.

We were told by a porter who's been at the port a long time that they no longer escort you to the front of the line.

(I edited the above to show only detailed facts.)

This is the normal CL debark process. (8/16)

HTH

 

[Bear3412]

They did walk us out but then you wait in customs with everyone else.

So true. We concur. CL guests must line up and wait, at CBP. CL guests do get an escort to the ship door, well sometimes to the top of the escalator. It all depends. Then they are on there own downstairs at customs.