New cruiser with deembkation question

[ajlsjl]

Hi all! I'll be on my first cruise next summer, yay! Anyhow, I've been spending a lot of time reading the DIS in preparation for the cruise, and I am completely confused by the deembarkation process. Can somebody please explain this process to me? What do I do with my luggage? How early can I get off the ship? I'm in a concerge room on the Dream, if that helps, and I also have roundtrip DCL transfers to/from the airport. Also, will be flying Southwest if that makes a difference.

 

[MagicMe]

You have two options really:

1) you put your luggage outside your cabin the last night of the cruise (between 8:30-10:30) with the new character coded luggage tag attached. The next morning you go to breakfast at your assigned spot (last breakfast is always in the same restaurant as your last evening of your cruise at either 6:15AM for early seating or 8:00AM for late seating) or grab breakfast in Cabanas. When you are done and if the ship has been cleared, you can leave the ship and make your way to the luggage area where everything is sorted by your color coded character and for the most part in room number order. Very organized. You can have a porter help with the luggage or you can drag them yourself through the custom line and out to the DCL bus area.

2) you have the option of keeping your luggage and carting it all off yourself but keep in mind that you will need to take this with you to breakfast (they ask that you vacate your cabin by 8AM) and then through the process of getting to the customs area. Most people who do this are people who want to get off the ship as soon as it clears and have a car parked at the port. They are looking to get an early start home or possibly to WDW.

 

[brianvdb]

- You'll get a notice that explains everything on the last afternoon/evening of the cruise. Along with the notice will be a set of luggage tags to affix to your checked luggage. The luggage tags will have a Disney character on them (I believe concierge is Chip and Dale). Also with the notice will be a customs declaration form and a cruise survey.
- Any luggage that you want checked (i.e. ship's personnel to take it off for you) needs to have a luggage tag attached and needs to be placed in the hallway by 10pm the night before debarkation.
- You keep any luggage that you want to carry off with you.

- You will be assigned a debarkation breakfast time and location based on your dining rotation, which will be listed in the notice.
- You'll need to be out of your stateroom by 8am on debarkation morning. Drop off your cruise survey in one of the many boxes throughout the ship.
- Go to breakfast at your assigned time with your carry-ons in tow.
- After breakfast, wait in one of the lounges for your luggage tag character to be called. Like I said, concierge is Chip&Dale, I believe... and is one of the first characters called.

- Once your character is called, you'll disembark and go to the luggage hall.
- In the luggage hall, there are large signs that correspond to the different character luggage tags. Go to the appropriate area and pick up your checked luggage (or have a porter help you).
- You, your family, and your luggage will wait in line for customs/immigration where you'll hand over your customs declaration and show your passport or BC's.
- After that, you're done... and you catch your bus/taxi/shuttle to wherever you are going next.

Express walk-off is also an option, if you want to carry-off ALL of your luggage. Express walk-off is called before all of the character luggage tags.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

For goodness sakes, remember to leave some clothes for getting dressed into in the morning (ie don't pack them all and put them in the hallway).

 

[MagicMe]

-
- After breakfast, wait in one of the lounges for your luggage tag character to be called. Like I said, concierge is Chip&Dale, I believe... and is one of the first characters called.

- Once your character is called, you'll disembark and go to the luggage hall.

The only time I've had to wait for a "luggage call" was on the Alaskan cruise where they have limited space for luggage retrieval. It is possible you may have to wait at ports in Europe also. However, all my other cruises have been on ships disembarking at Port Canaveral. If you disembark at Port Canaveral they will just make a general announcement that the ship has cleared customs and you are free to leave whenever you want. There is plenty of room at the Port Canaveral terminal for them to unload all the luggage at once so you just go to the Luggage area and look for your color coded character and find your luggage. Then join the customs line.

 

[MagicMe]

For goodness sakes, remember to leave some clothes for getting dressed into in the morning (ie don't pack them all and put them in the hallway).

Yes there have been sightings of people walking off in their PJ's or slippers or no shoes at all.

 

[Sir William]

Yes there have been sightings of people walking off in their PJ's or slippers or no shoes at all.

Likewise in swimsuits and occasionally with a newly purchased ship's bathrobe.

When I pack the day before, I empty out all the drawers and closets, then put back anything that I need for that night or the next morning, to include clothing, shoes, toiletries, etc. What is left gets packed and put outside the door for pickup when we go to dinner.

 

[ajlsjl]

Thanks, everyone! Seems pretty seamless. Leave it to DCL to make it so easy.

The next question, and I realize it's a silly one, is: if I leave my luggage out the night before (which sounds like it would be the best option for my family), what do I do with the dirty laundry that I'm wearing on the last day of the cruise? I'd hate to stuff it in my carryon. What does everyone else do?

Thanks!

 

[over50visits]

Thanks, everyone! Seems pretty seamless. Leave it to DCL to make it so easy.

The next question, and I realize it's a silly one, is: if I leave my luggage out the night before (which sounds like it would be the best option for my family), what do I do with the dirty laundry that I'm wearing on the last day of the cruise? I'd hate to stuff it in my carryon. What does everyone else do?

Thanks!

We just pack it with our carryon, which now becomes our carryoff! Can't think of other options I guess if you turn in before 10:30 you could put on your PJs, pack that day's clothes in the suitcases, and before the time limit sneakily push them out the door if no one's looking! Remind each other several times to keep clothes for getting off the ship the next day

 

[Billinaz]

- You'll get a notice that explains everything on the last afternoon/evening of the cruise. Along with the notice will be a set of luggage tags to affix to your checked luggage. The luggage tags will have a Disney character on them (I believe concierge is Chip and Dale).

Its been green Tinkerbell for the last several years.

 

[kiford]

The only time I've had to wait for a "luggage call" was on the Alaskan cruise where they have limited space for luggage retrieval. It is possible you may have to wait at ports in Europe also. However, all my other cruises have been on ships disembarking at Port Canaveral.

The only time we've ever had to wait for a luggage call was in Dover, UK. We've always just walked off as soon as we finished breakfast in both Port Canaveral and Barcelona.

However, you'll get step by step instructions well before you have to put your luggage out.

 

[Sir William]

We just pack it with our carryon, which now becomes our carryoff! Can't think of other options I guess if you turn in before 10:30 you could put on your PJs, pack that day's clothes in the suitcases, and before the time limit sneakily push them out the door if no one's looking! Remind each other several times to keep clothes for getting off the ship the next day

That is pretty much the only options, unless you're one of those travellers who takes old clothes and trashes them the last day.

I use a plastic shopping bag for my dirty clothing and it just goes into my carry on bag on the last morning.

 

[TestingH2O]

Its been green Tinkerbell for the last several years.

This summer we were blue Donald on Dream. No luggage call, just get escorted off when you're ready.

 

[xlxo]

Also think about early vs late dining.... you will get assigned breakfast time slots. Love the 2nd dining that allows for a more relaxed later breakfast where you can wait in the dining room for debarkation.

 

[brianvdb]

Its been green Tinkerbell for the last several years.

OK... maybe it's not the same on every cruise/port/ship, then. Last cruise (Wonder, San Diego) it was yellow Chip/Dale... can't remember what it was the time before. The last few cruises for us (San Diego, Vancouver, Miami) they called luggage groups. Like others have said, it probably has to do with the amount of space in the port.

 

[TimeAndTide]

Just got off the Fantasy last month, also concierge. We wanted to get off the ship early since we planned to head to DW. Rather than eating in the dining room (late seating), we popped over to the concierge lounge. It was a bit crowded so we opted to grab some food/coffee and take it back to our room. Once we were ready to go we called over to the lounge and let them know. We arranged to meet a concierge staff member by the elevators with our carryons and we were escorted (with the special "no stop" elevator key - fancy! Lol.) down to the exit where someone else escorted us some more. We were met by a line of porters and one of them helped us get our numerous bags (blue Donald BTW). We waited in the line (with the porter) to go through immigration and customs. We were parked in the port parking garage and the porter took the luggage all the way to our car. Easy, peasy.

As for luggage: yes, we opted to put it out the night before. We just tossed our dirty clothes into the carry ons in plastic bags. I use a rolling carry on and a small backpack because it's easier for me.

If you are traveling concierge, just ask a host the day before what the options are. It was pretty flexible for us.

 

[clten]

Thanks, everyone! Seems pretty seamless. Leave it to DCL to make it so easy.

The next question, and I realize it's a silly one, is: if I leave my luggage out the night before (which sounds like it would be the best option for my family), what do I do with the dirty laundry that I'm wearing on the last day of the cruise? I'd hate to stuff it in my carryon. What does everyone else do?

Thanks!

Here's the trick we learned. We always have late seating dinner. We get back from dinner and change out of our dinner clothes into what we will be wearing off the ship the next morning (footwear included). We then finish packing (leaving out pj's and needed toiletries) and put luggage out into the hall. Serves two purposes. We make sure we have a full outfit to wear off the ship and we don't have a whole lot of extras to put into our carry on the next morning. We only go out for a little bit that night after our luggage has been picked up (to see the farewell show or take a walk around) so the clothes are still clean for the next day.

 

[RHSTigerMom]

Just got off the Fantasy last month, also concierge. We wanted to get off the ship early since we planned to head to DW. Rather than eating in the dining room (late seating), we popped over to the concierge lounge. It was a bit crowded so we opted to grab some food/coffee and take it back to our room. Once we were ready to go we called over to the lounge and let them know. We arranged to meet a concierge staff member by the elevators with our carryons and we were escorted (with the special "no stop" elevator key - fancy! Lol.) down to the exit where someone else escorted us some more. We were met by a line of porters and one of them helped us get our numerous bags (blue Donald BTW). We waited in the line (with the porter) to go through immigration and customs. We were parked in the port parking garage and the porter took the luggage all the way to our car. Easy, peasy.

As for luggage: yes, we opted to put it out the night before. We just tossed our dirty clothes into the carry ons in plastic bags. I use a rolling carry on and a small backpack because it's easier for me.

If you are traveling concierge, just ask a host the day before what the options are. It was pretty flexible for us.

What they said. The concierge lounge will have a light breakfast and when you're ready, they will escort you off the ship, handing you off to an officer to go "around the velvet rope" where the masses are waiting to disembark.

As for the previous day's clothes, when we were packing our bags to put out, we changed into whatever we were going to wear off the ship the next day in order to continue the evening festivities. The only thing we had to put in the carry-on was the t-shirt or whatever we slept in.