Last day routine??

[kecall]

I have read so many posts this past week that my head is spinning!!!!

In a couple of posts I have read what seems to be differing descriptions of what the last day routine is like...so I'm hoping you all can clarify things for me.

I have read that you have to be out of your room by 6:30 a.m. (or something unbelievable crazy like that!!) But, at another post, I remember reading that the family would take their breakfast back to their room and enjoy it on the verandah. It sounded to me like they stay there even after the ship was docked and people were leaving....

Soooo, what is the routine on the last day???? Is it a "quick-get-you-off-the-ship" routine? or....is there some "leisure" left to the last day???

Thanks!

karen

 

[drizzt117]

I have read so many posts this past week that my head is spinning!!!!

In a couple of posts I have read what seems to be differing descriptions of what the last day routine is like...so I'm hoping you all can clarify things for me.

I have read that you have to be out of your room by 6:30 a.m. (or something unbelievable crazy like that!!) But, at another post, I remember reading that the family would take their breakfast back to their room and enjoy it on the verandah. It sounded to me like they stay there even after the ship was docked and people were leaving....

Soooo, what is the routine on the last day???? Is it a "quick-get-you-off-the-ship" routine? or....is there some "leisure" left to the last day???

Thanks!

karen

Breakfast in the morning is based upon your dining time for the cruise, whether 1st seating or 2nd. 1st seating eats breakfast at 6:45am and 2nd seating at 8:00am. You go to the restaurant you ate at the night before (except Palo). You must be out of your stateroom by 8:00am and off the ship by 8:45am so the crew can prepare for the next round of guests. You have the option of going to Beach Blanket/Topsiders to get a continental breakfast and bring it back to your room, but you must still be out of your stateroom by 8:00am.

Thomas

 

[tvguy]

Breakfast in the morning is based upon your dining time for the cruise, whether 1st seating or 2nd. 1st seating eats breakfast at 6:45am and 2nd seating at 8:00am. You go to the restaurant you ate at the night before (except Palo). You must be out of your stateroom by 8:00am and off the ship by 8:45am so the crew can prepare for the next round of guests. You have the option of going to Beach Blanket/Topsiders to get a continental breakfast and bring it back to your room, but you must still be out of your stateroom by 8:00am.

Thomas

Everything above is correct except that they WANT you off the ship by 9 am. I say want because even IF they start disembarkation as scheduled at 8 am, and there are no delays, it takes until at least 10 am for the last folks in line to get off the ship. Getting 2700 people off a ship, getting them to claim their luggage, clear customs and immigration, get on a bus, town car or rental car takes some time.
Since Disney lets people exit the ship whenever they want (make that, they let them line up to get off the ship when ever they want), there is a huge line. It's chaos. Other lines have you tell them when you board what time your transportation leaves, and you exit in groups based on that. So folks with a noon flight, get off before someone with a 3 pm flight. No lines with that system, you wait in your assigned public room until it's is your groups turn to exit.,

 

[kcashner]

I've sailed on the Magic 12 times, and only experienced the chaos described above once. In fairness, I request late seating so that normally the big doors have been open for awhile and the lines are very thinned out.

Since we have late seating, we go to breakfast at 8. The dining rooms are crowded because everyone has their carry ons with them...and some people decided to keep (and bring to breakfast) all their luggage. Normally, we eat breakfast and walk right off the ship. There is usually little or no line. Of course, we aren't one of the unfortuante families trying to stop at guest services or whatever.

In the luggage area, bags are arranged in order by stateroom. It takes just a few minutes to claim your bags and go thru customs. There is usually a very short, quick moving line at customs.

The only time I saw chaos at disembarkation was when Customs did not clear the ship in a timely fashion. THe big doors did not open until after 9:30, and all passengers were lined up. DCL did bring out the children's and entertainment staff to keep us occupied, but it was a real pain.

If you have early breakfast, you might have a short wait from the time you finish breakfast till the doors open, and you might have a line to exit.

I've cruised on other lines, and I like DCL's system much better than waiting in a public room with a bunch of unhappy people till they tell us to line us and wait some more.

DCL and the terminal authority WANT to open the port to incoming traffic at 10 and open the terminal at 10:30. THey can't do that till the previous guests are all gone. It normally opens on time or a little early.

 

[Dreamer04]

Here is what I prefer to do. Sleep in a bit. Get up and dressed at 7:30 am. Say goodbye to our cabin and head to Topsiders. Enjoy a leisurely breakfast. I mean really take our time. Chat about our week, discuss what we'd do differently, etc.

Then we say so long to the ship. Whisper a prayer for the next passengers' safety. Then off we go!

 

[kecall]

Thanks for clarifying this for me!!! We have requested "late" dining, so that means I might be able to get a few extra winks in the morning!!!

karen

 

[tvguy]

I've cruised on other lines, and I like DCL's system much better than waiting in a public room with a bunch of unhappy people till they tell us to line us and wait some more..

This was my 7th cruise and first time to deal with the Disney system on board for exiting. On other lines we waited in a public room sipping coffee and juice and eating pastries, and walked right off when our group was called. No unhappy people. On Disney, we waited in line for 45 minutes (line stretched back and looped around inside Parrot Cay) with LOTS of unhappy people.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

Weird question:

what would happen if you overslept? Let's say it was 9:30 and someone's alarm never went off. Would they come to your room to get you out? Just curious.

 

[Clemcat]

We had 2nd seating for dinner so we had to be in the restuarant where you had dinner the previous night at 8:30 am for breakfast. I noticed that the early seating was called by restuarant to leave the ship. The announcement that came over for us was that anyone finished with breakfast could leave the ship. It was 9:30am when they made that announcement. We have passports and that line took about 10-15 minutes to get through, we grabbed a porter then we gathered our luggage, my husband went to get the car and we were on the road at 10:12am. Very easy and quick. The bulk of the wait was waiting for my husband to walk out to the the parking lot and get the car! The birth certificate line was a bit longer and I don't know how fast that moved. We were on the 7 day cruise from California. I think the morning routine is a bit different than in Florida.

 

[aunt2brant]

Disembarkment was easy and painless for us. A big difference could have been that we drove down and were headed to WDW after we got off the ship and were not in a hurry. We had late seating so we got up and casually got our thinga together and went to breakfast...we then went back up to our room and got our luggage and headed for the exit. There was no one else there waiting to get off.....we even took a picture with the captain that my uncle had befriended while on board. There was not a of people going through customs either. We were on our way in a resaonsble amount of time. We were in no big hurry, we were moping around not wanting to get off.

 

[tvguy]

Weird question:

what would happen if you overslept? Let's say it was 9:30 and someone's alarm never went off. Would they come to your room to get you out? Just curious.

Not likely. We had late seating (8 am) breakfast the last day, so we were still in our cabin, and the cabin stewards were going up and down the hall knocking on every door "reminding" folks they had to be out of their cabins by 8.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

We have Disney transportation from the port to the Orlando airport, and a relatively early flight (11:56). On other cruises this guaranteed us an early exit, I was always at the airport and waiting for 3+ hours to take off. Other posters have said they made it no problem, but the explanation of debarkation is making me nervous. I had assumed we would have eaten, gone through customs, and been on our way around 8 a.m. Is there any way to ensure we get on the first bus that leaves for the airport?

 

[TheWog]

We have Disney transportation from the port to the Orlando airport, and a relatively early flight (11:56). On other cruises this guaranteed us an early exit, I was always at the airport and waiting for 3+ hours to take off. Other posters have said they made it no problem, but the explanation of debarkation is making me nervous. I had assumed we would have eaten, gone through customs, and been on our way around 8 a.m. Is there any way to ensure we get on the first bus that leaves for the airport?

I woke, went up to get breakfast, brought it back to our room and had it on the verandah and got ready for our last day. Got the family up, showered, fed and dressed and were off the ship and getting our bags shortly after 8:00 a.m. and waiting for our ride. One thing I found is that if you had a porter they took you in the short line and got you out of the terminal quickly. We were also there when the airlines checked your bags and gave you boarding passes without needing DCL transfers so that made our day great too. You should have no problem being up and out by 8:00 a.m., unless customs holds up the process for some reason.

 

[UGAFan0829]

We've only cruised once so far, so I can't really say that it's a routine, but here's what we did...Got up at about 6 and got ready. Got all of the things that were left packed up (shower stuff, pj's, etc.) and headed to breakfast. We were a little early (time to eat was 8), and they wouldn't let any of us in before then. The dining room was very uncrowded. It seemed like hardly no one at breakfast that morning. The line getting off the ship was pretty easy. The hardest part was finding our luggage. Even though they said that they were seperated according to stateroom, ours was all out of order. Of course, by the time we got there to pick ours up, someone else may have moved it around trying to find theirs! After that, we were out of there and on our way back to reality!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Then we say so long to the ship. Whisper a prayer for the next passengers' safety. Then off we go!

Can I just say how wonderful this is?! I got all teary-eyed thinking about saying goodbye to the ship, but then how thoughtful and wonderful that you're thinking about the next passengers!

Question - if you have main dining but don't get to last day breakfast on time, will they let you in for late seating? Or do you have to go to the buffet?

Thanks,