Disembarkment Questions

[Muppetfan3]

For our upcoming cruise on the Dream, was wondering if someone could give me advice with disembarking. We are doing using Happy Limo car service for our transport to MCO. My questions are:

1. Can we set our luggage out night before for the ship/porters to handle and still collect in the morning even if we are not using DCL Bus transfer? Or - do we need to carry it with us and use the "Express Walk Off"? (we are not in a hurry to leave the ship, although I know we need to be off by 9, we have a mid-afternoon flight).

2. Breakfast - we have second seating for dining - should we go to the dining room or Cabanas? what are the breakfast times?

3. What time should I request pick up from our car service driver? Is 9 or 9:30 am feasible (once we gather our luggage if we use their service - or not - plus getting through customs). I don't want to panic and rush. We will have our hands full with bags and 2 kids - one being in s stroller.

Thanks for your advice!!

 

[AndreAggie]

For our upcoming cruise on the Dream, was wondering if someone could give me advice with disembarking. We are doing using Happy Limo car service for our transport to MCO. My questions are:

1. Can we set our luggage out night before for the ship/porters to handle and still collect in the morning even if we are not using DCL Bus transfer? Or - do we need to carry it with us and use the "Express Walk Off"? (we are not in a hurry to leave the ship, although I know we need to be off by 9, we have a mid-afternoon flight).
You can set out your luggage. Just be sure and leave out clothes for the next day, toiletries to get ready the next morning. you might have to shuffle some stuff back to the checked luggage the next morning.

2. Breakfast - we have second seating for dining - should we go to the dining room or Cabanas? what are the breakfast times?
On our last cruise, breakfast was 8:15 for the second seating. You can go to the dining room, but if you're feeling limited on time, cabanas is an option too.

3. What time should I request pick up from our car service driver? Is 9 or 9:30 am feasible (once we gather our luggage if we use their service - or not - plus getting through customs). I don't want to panic and rush. We will have our hands full with bags and 2 kids - one being in s stroller.
9:00 is probably feasible if you plan on going to cabanas for breakfast. You just need to consider the time to get off the ship and collect your bags and get through customs.

Thanks for your advice!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

For our upcoming cruise on the Dream, was wondering if someone could give me advice with disembarking. We are doing using Happy Limo car service for our transport to MCO. My questions are:

1. Can we set our luggage out night before for the ship/porters to handle and still collect in the morning even if we are not using DCL Bus transfer? Or - do we need to carry it with us and use the "Express Walk Off"? (we are not in a hurry to leave the ship, although I know we need to be off by 9, we have a mid-afternoon flight).

2. Breakfast - we have second seating for dining - should we go to the dining room or Cabanas? what are the breakfast times?

3. What time should I request pick up from our car service driver? Is 9 or 9:30 am feasible (once we gather our luggage if we use their service - or not - plus getting through customs). I don't want to panic and rush. We will have our hands full with bags and 2 kids - one being in s stroller.

Thanks for your advice!!

You can absolutely put your bags out the night before; most people do. But the last two cruises for us, we've kept our bags and just taken it ourselves because I didn't want to have to finish packing quite as early plus we would still have a bag to deal with the next morning with our toiletries, overnight clothes, and such, and if we were flying, we'd have to stuff all that into our suitcases once we picked them up. Also our bags are easy to manuever, not wide, and we each can take one bag and our backpack/day bag. With small children, I'd probably put the bags out, but with tweens and teens, you could go either way. On our first cruise, we set everything out, kept out our pj's and next day clothes, and wished we'd had a spare set when one of the boys had a spill that left him pretty sticky until we could get our luggage in the terminal.

If you go to breakfast in the dining room, you have to take everything with you from your cabin, so if you haven't set your bags out, you'll be dragging them to the restaurant along with everyone else. Unless you choose to go to Cabanas. You have to be out of your room typically by 8 AM (they'll tell you for sure the night before). What we've done is plan to go to Cabanas as we each get up and just make sure we've had a chance to go eat and be back at the cabin in time to clear out by 8 AM. That's regardless of early or late seating. This lets the kids sleep just a little longer than they would if we had to be at early dining breakfast, and they've usually had a late night in the youth programs or one last movie so those extra minutes are valuable particularly on a travel day. I think early dining on our last cruise was 7 AM for breakfast and 8:15 for late but I might not have remembered that right.

If you have breakfast in Cabanas and take your own bags off, you can usually be off the ship by 8:15-8:30 because you can go off whatever time you want. Once you've had to leave your stateroom, there's really no point to just waiting in the crowds of people to get off the ship.

 

[AndreAggie]

And disembarking is the WORST! And no matter how many times you ask, they won't let you stay on the ship!!