Express walk off

[KKHagwood]

I'm assuming that one can not hang out in the terminal or anywhere after disembarking? DH has medical issues that make doing anything early early difficult. Add to that an 11 hour dive home (if we do it all in one day) and he'll be miserable. An extra hour or so would make a huge difference. Is there a mall or anything near by where DS6 and I can hang out while DH lets his body adjust and do its thing?

 

[livie1205]

We live in Florida and we only have about a 6 hr drive but I can't do a 6 hr drive fresh off a cruise so we stay at WDW the night before and the night we get off. It's only about 30-45 min from the port and you can enjoy downtown Disney or a resort that night then get a fresh start the next day.
This has really worked for us and where we are driving from we have to go through Orlando to get to the port anyway. Even if you only get a value resort you can make the most of it and extend the Disney Magic

 

[MPS516]

We were on the Wonder in February and after coming back from Wavebands about 10:30, our stateroom hostess was knocking on the door of the next stateroom, she asked them if they had luggage to set out, yes they did. She had seen them packed up with debarkation tags and thought to be sure they did not get missed. Really nice gesture, I am sure she could have just left them but she went the extra mile.

 

[Becky925]

We've always carried off our own bags. We're WDW people after a cruise and want to hit up the parks early to get a full day. I've always called room service the night before(I think they stop serving it somewhere between midnight and 1:30 am the last night, not quite sure) and gotten some fruit and coffee. The coffee stays warm in the pot and I throw the fruit bowl in the fridge. No need to head up to breakfast, then we just head off the ship.

 

[tinkerone]

and i'm the one who simply can not understand why anyone would bother to keep their luggage. its not like its a rats nest in the terminal. its never taken more than a few minutes at most to find our luggage. to me it saves a lot of grief and pain. I know i'm going to hear the story about how luggage was misplaced or having to get a 9a.m. flight but I just don't understand it.
to each their own.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

and i'm the one who simply can not understand why anyone would bother to keep their luggage. its not like its a rats nest in the terminal. its never taken more than a few minutes at most to find our luggage. to me it saves a lot of grief and pain. I know i'm going to hear the story about how luggage was misplaced or having to get a 9a.m. flight but I just don't understand it.
to each their own.

Normally week them take it off and as you say it's easy. However in Vancouver on the Wonder express disembarkation is best due to the limited space in the cruise terminal. If you let them do it you will be called out deck by deck and that can take a long time. We were off in five minutes no issues at all.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I'm assuming that one can not hang out in the terminal or anywhere after disembarking? DH has medical issues that make doing anything early early difficult. Add to that an 11 hour dive home (if we do it all in one day) and he'll be miserable. An extra hour or so would make a huge difference. Is there a mall or anything near by where DS6 and I can hang out while DH lets his body adjust and do its thing?

It's not a place you would want to hang out in.

 

[tinkerone]

Normally week them take it off and as you say it's easy. However in Vancouver on the Wonder express disembarkation is best due to the limited space in the cruise terminal. If you let them do it you will be called out deck by deck and that can take a long time. We were off in five minutes no issues at all.

thats something i did not know and a reason i myself might have considered it. i can only speak from experience at pc and since its so easy there i could not understand.
thanks for the explanation.

 

[MaleficentRN]

and i'm the one who simply can not understand why anyone would bother to keep their luggage. its not like its a rats nest in the terminal. its never taken more than a few minutes at most to find our luggage. to me it saves a lot of grief and pain. I know i'm going to hear the story about how luggage was misplaced or having to get a 9a.m. flight but I just don't understand it.
to each their own.

I keep my luggage with me. My family each has their own rolling, carry on suitcase and carries it off. Never caused us anything close to "grief and pain" To the contrary, it's more relaxing to me not to have to worry about packing up my bag and having it in a hall way at 10pm.

 

[lizzyb]

I keep my luggage with me. My family each has their own rolling, carry on suitcase and carries it off. Never caused us anything close to "grief and pain" To the contrary, it's more relaxing to me not to have to worry about packing up my bag and having it in a hall way at 10pm.

I agree. Walking off with it was quite simple. Will do it again.

 

[ludari]

For my past five cruises I have only traveled with a carry-on bag so it's is fairly easy for me to disembark with my own suitcase. I should also mention that I am never in a rush to leave the ship and typically wait until the bulk of the crowds are off until I make my way off.

 

[McGeez]

Just returned from a repositioning on Disney Wonder that ended in Vancouver. Express Walk-off was a breeze! There was already a line when we made it to the lobby (about 7:30). They started letting folks off about 7:50. By 8:05 we were checked in to our hotel (so we disembarked, cleared customs and walked to our hotel - all that with a 4-yr old who didn't want to carry his luggage). I was amazed. We only did it because we wanted to catch a tour by 8:45 and we were praying it would work. Don't know if all ports are that easy, but based on this experience I'd give it a try in a heartbeat.

 

[houseofduck]

I keep my luggage with me. My family each has their own rolling, carry on suitcase and carries it off. Never caused us anything close to "grief and pain" To the contrary, it's more relaxing to me not to have to worry about packing up my bag and having it in a hall way at 10pm.

This is me too. It is more stressful for me to get things out in the hall by 10pm. Separating the evening and morning items from the rest of the luggage is more difficult for me than keeping them where they "belong" in the luggage!

 

[Weedy]

I'm assuming that one can not hang out in the terminal or anywhere after disembarking? DH has medical issues that make doing anything early early difficult. Add to that an 11 hour dive home (if we do it all in one day) and he'll be miserable. An extra hour or so would make a huge difference. Is there a mall or anything near by where DS6 and I can hang out while DH lets his body adjust and do its thing?

There are a few hotels very close maybe see if any of them offer a "day room"

Also there is no room service the last morning but the night before you can order some coffee (the coffee stays hot in the carafe) and muffins. This may make breakfast a little less stressful.

I also suggest talking with Guest Services early in your cruise and let them know your situation they may have some suggestions to help your husband that last morning.

 

[tnshsms]

We have left our bags out twice and did express walk off for our most recent and 3rd cruise. I agree that its not that hard to get your luggage in port canaveral but express walk off was not that bad either. We too ordered some milk, cereal and juice around 9pm the night before from room service, put the milk in our cooling box and it was all great the next morning. No issues at all. We were off the ship, through customs and in our Happy Limo car by 8am. I agree that its less stressful to have your stuff packed by 10pm the night before but its a little more of a pain to have to get your luggage into the small elevators that the classic ships have. I can see advantanges to both so I think its just what works for your fmaily. It depends on the luggage amount, the number of people who need to get on a tiny elevator(we had 3 adults, 1 child, 2 large suitcases, 3 carry ons) and how long you are willing to wait to get your entire party into one elevator. For us it took 2 passes before an empty elevator opened up. Just depends on your family. We will be in Alaska next time so I'm glad I read the above statements about express walk off. We will do that for Alaska.

 

[bumbershoot]

It will be 2 adults, each with one piece of wheeled luggage.

That won't be hard, then. Especially if you can actually carry the bags, not just roll them, and therefore could use stairs to get from your stateroom.

We will be using the Disney transfer to the Contemporary and would like to get there as early as possible!

But....if you're just heading to a bus transfer, and you're not racing to a crazy-early plane, WHY do it?

Hosts will only check the halls not the rooms, if it's in the hall they will take it.

I think they meant "check the area outside the rooms", not go into the rooms.

I'm assuming that one can not hang out in the terminal or anywhere after disembarking? DH has medical issues that make doing anything early early difficult. Add to that an 11 hour dive home (if we do it all in one day) and he'll be miserable. An extra hour or so would make a huge difference. Is there a mall or anything near by where DS6 and I can hang out while DH lets his body adjust and do its thing?

Best way to solve this is to not do the drive all at once. Take it easy, stay at a hotel somewhere along the way. Since we don't know what way you're driving home, we don't know where to direct you.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

We have left our bags out twice and did express walk off for our most recent and 3rd cruise. I agree that its not that hard to get your luggage in port canaveral but express walk off was not that bad either. We too ordered some milk, cereal and juice around 9pm the night before from room service, put the milk in our cooling box and it was all great the next morning. No issues at all. We were off the ship, through customs and in our Happy Limo car by 8am. I agree that its less stressful to have your stuff packed by 10pm the night before but its a little more of a pain to have to get your luggage into the small elevators that the classic ships have. I can see advantanges to both so I think its just what works for your fmaily. It depends on the luggage amount, the number of people who need to get on a tiny elevator(we had 3 adults, 1 child, 2 large suitcases, 3 carry ons) and how long you are willing to wait to get your entire party into one elevator. For us it took 2 passes before an empty elevator opened up. Just depends on your family. We will be in Alaska next time so I'm glad I read the above statements about express walk off. We will do that for Alaska.

Alaska yes express walk off is very much worth it, PC it isn't worth it.

 

[Justacruiser]

They know there is express disembarkation, so they are aware of the rules, and we know the rules you have to get your luggage out by a set time say 10pm. It's made clear on the disembarkation videos on the TVs.

Hosts will only check the halls not the rooms, if it's in the hall they will take it.

As a courtesy if you wish to tell them you can but they know the rules.

We had an excellent relationship with our hosts but there was no need to inform him when we did express disembarkation.

Everyone should be informed of the time when luggage is supposed to be out, but unfortunately some of us don't get the luggage out until later. So they are required to check the halls until around midnight. It would be nice to have the luggage gathered by CM's at a reasonable hour so they can get some rest. Finding out in the morning is a little late........

 

[rhinodadz]

We've found express walk-off to be easy the times we've used it. Cabanas around 6:45am and off the ship and in the car generally by 7:30am.

Is it worth it? Depends on your circumstances. For us, when we do a 3 day weekend cruise (we live in Orlando) it allows DW and I to be in our respective offices by 9:00am. No need to burn a vacation day!

 

[jpeppers]

and i'm the one who simply can not understand why anyone would bother to keep their luggage. its not like its a rats nest in the terminal. its never taken more than a few minutes at most to find our luggage. to me it saves a lot of grief and pain. I know i'm going to hear the story about how luggage was misplaced or having to get a 9a.m. flight but I just don't understand it.
to each their own.

I keep my bags every year and have found it painless to get off the boat. The breakfast in the main dining room is nothing fancy and I would rather skip it but the other people I travel with want to eat so we go. They have plenty of places to put your bags while you eat and we walked straight off the ship a couple of weeks ago with zero line and straight onto the rental car shuttle. I see why people leave there bags out with participating airlines but I usually fly Southwest so I just find walking my bags off easier and quicker. I don't want to ever leave the ship but once they tell me I have to go I'm on my way as quickly as possible. I'm sure leaving your bags in the hall the night before works great but there are people like me that would rather go with the other option.