? for those that have cruised other lines.

[floridaminnie]

I've heard that DCL does dembarktion the best. WHat does DCL do that the the others don't. Why is it so bad with the other cruise lines?

Thanks!

 

[hydster]

We have sailed Carnival, Norwegian and Princess and NONE of them have the great disembarkation that Disney has! I dont know why they dont but it is a ZOO at that time on other ships. On Disney it is nice to just walk off. Carnival and Norwegian assigned colors or numbers and you couldnt get off unless that color or number was called. It was awful! The Disney method of letting you get off whenever YOU wanted was much more relaxed and also worked better for some reason! It was so nice to eat a nice leisurely breakfast (on the other ships it was early and it was rushed like you cant believe) and then to just walk out when you wanted to walk out! I dont know why the other lines havent figured this out as well. On our first Norwegian cruise sailing (no kids involved in anything but Disney) but there was this family who were just bent on getting off no matter what because they wanted off...well they werent at their color or deck number and they were trying to get off and there was a HUGE line of people totalling probably at least 200 or more waiting to walk off and these people held them up, wouldnt move, threw a huge fit and delayed the rest of us getting off by at least 20 min or so. I dont understand it but that is one of the reasons we are going back to Disney in May because of that disembarkation being so easy!

I am sure this didnt help but I did have to say it was true!
Heidi

 

[rsschneck]

We have Sailed Norweign, Carnival, Celebrity and Disney.
Yes, Disney has the easiest disembarkation hands down! NCL and Carnival do the colored tags as the last poster said. Celebrity was pretty smooth we thought it was the best until we cruised with Disney.
We thought Disney's embarkation was long though. We had to wait in the terminal about 1 hour before they allowed us to board. All the other cruises we just boarded the minute we were at the ship.
All cruise lines have their good and bad points.
Some are FUN SHIPS (exhausting), some are geared to the older crowd, and Disney is geared towards US! Big and little kids!
Just keep traveling and trying ALL the cruise ships then go back to the ones you like. In my experience you get what you pay for.

 

[sjm]

Disney has the best disembarkation of any cruise line we have been on. The Disney Magic, 1/25/03, was our 11th cruise. We have cruised Princess, RCCL, Carnival and now Disney.

The main reason, IMO, that disembarkation is so easy, is that they have you mark your luggage tags, 1 of 3, 2 of 3, 3 of 3. When you get down to the baggage area, all of your bags are together. At the end of our cruise we had breakfast in the dining room and them walked off the ship. At the bottom of the escalator, there was a line of portors. Our porter took our luggage tabs, took us to our luggage and put it on his cart and took us to our airline check in point.

On other cruise lines you are given luggage tags and you are called to disembark by the color of your tags. While you are waiting to disembark, you have to sit in a lounge. When your color is called and you go to the luggage area, you have to search for your luggage. It is rare that any of it is together. Once you have colllected your luggage, you then have to find a porter. Also a Disney porter takes one person/family, other cruise line porters take more then one, until their cart is filled.

The other cruise lines should take lesson from Disney, as far as disembarkation goes.

sue

 

[kajohn]

I have sailed RCCL and DCL, and although I am a huge fan of RCCL, their debarkation is similar to the other lines, wait for your color to be called etc.


At the port for the Voyager class ships in Miami they had several conveyor belts like the airport luggage area, and a different color would be on each of these conveyors, and you pulled your luggage off when you saw it. Since these ships are so big, and have more passengers, I doubt they could have everyone's luggage off at the same time on these conveyors, so they have to do it by color.

A word of warning for anyone trying a new cruise line for the first time in Alaska:

The cruise lines do not own the cruise terminals like they do in Miami and Port Canaveral etc. There are two cruise terminals in Vancouver that all the ships use, Canada Place (which I hear is pretty nice) and Ballentyne (a huge commercerial warehouse basically). The embarkation and debarkation is a pain in the neck, but it really isn't the cruise lines faults, since they have to use someone else's facilities. So for those who are trying a new line for the first time, don't knock the cruise line just for debarkation or embarkation, judge it on the cruise itself and not embarkation and debarkation.

 

[Jeanny]

Roxann mentioned other lines you embark right after you check in...well, maybe DCL shouldn't open the terminal at 10:30 a.m., maybe they should open a little bit later... however, as I've never been on a cruise and haven't been through the process at all, so I'm not an expert... but there will ALWAYS be people who are not prepared for check in and will slow everyone else up any way. Maybe that's why they open at 10:30 a.m. and you have a few hours to check out the terminal and relax.

The Magic and Wonder get back into PC at what~ around 6AM? and you leisurely disembark by what~ around 8-9AM.

That only gives DCL about 3-4 hours to "turn the ship around" for 12:30ish boarding.. by "turn the ship around", I mean, get ALL the staterooms ready for the next cruisers, get ALL the common areas ready for the next cruisers, load the ship for the next cruisers, etc. That's an amazing feat to accomplish!!

Just my two cents.
Jeanny

 

[kajohn]

I do think that the embarkation for RCCL is better than DCL. They let you complete all the embarkation forms online ahead of time, and all you have to do is show your ID and they issued your cards, it was very very fast at the terminal to check in.

 

[PiperG]

Originally posted by kajohn
I do think that the embarkation for RCCL is better than DCL. They let you complete all the embarkation forms online ahead of time, and all you have to do is show your ID and they issued your cards, it was very very fast at the terminal to check in.

What ship were you on? We are planning an Alaskan cruise next year on the Radiance of the Seas.

 

[minnie56]

But have on RCCL....

Disembarkation was according to tag colour...as mentioned above. But it didn't really bother us...we just ate breakfast and went to our designated waiting area to 'wait'. After an hour or so we were called and faced no crowds entering the baggage area.

The Embarkation was a breeze....forms all filled out online so check-in was about a 10 minute process and we were eating lunch by 12:00 onboard.Our cabins were ready (bags not there yet) so we checked them out and looked around.

 

[kajohn]

Originally posted by PiperG
What ship were you on? We are planning an Alaskan cruise next year on the Radiance of the Seas.

We sailed last summer on the Radiance in Alaska and had booked the overnight package through RCCL with transfers and all, so we completed all our checkin at the hotel before heading to the terminal. They had computers set up online linked to the RCCL computer network, so it went very fast. That being said, as long as you had your forms filled out online ahead of time, that part went fast at the terminal as well.

That was the good news in regards to Alaska, actually boarding the ship took a long time for some reason. I think it had to do with customs. You had to go through US customs before boarding the ship, and that seemed to hold a lot of people up. When we sailed there were people waiting all over the so called "terminal" (actually big ugly warehouse!). They kept saying they were waiting for customs officials to arrive before they could begin boarding. Once they started though, we got through fairly quickly and then it was a wonderful, wonderful time!

 

[PiperG]

Thanks for the prompt reply. It sounds like it was a great trip after boarding.

Did you travel with children? If so, what did you think of the kids programming? What about kids meals, were there good choices???

Thanks so much for your feedback.

 

[PiperG]

kajohn,

Ignore my previous question! I just looked at my PM box and found a detailed message from you on the RCCL Alaskan cruise you sent not to long ago. Thanks again!