Self Assist Debarking

R

riverdees05

Waiter
How does Self Assit Debarking work on Carnival Ships? And do you have that option on all their ships? We are on a cruise on Carnival Legend at the end of January and looking at the option of an 11:30 am flight out of Tampa for our daughter.:thankyou:
 
Jamman

Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Self debarkers are the first off the ship after the ship clears customs. You must be able to carry ALL, I repeat ALL of your luggage off the ship by yourself. You DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT put your luggage out in the hallway the night before. You will not have access to the baggage claim area, so you can't put some luggage out, and carry off the balance. I believe this option is available on all of Carnivals ships, it has been on all the ships I've been on since they implemented this option.
 
Gayle V

Gayle V

Cruiser's Compass Editor
Hello Riverdees, We are also booked on the Legend out of Tampa. Our cruise is February 12. I certainly hope you have not purchased your tickets yet, so I can dissuade your from that early flight.

I'm assuming you saw the place on the Carnival web site that said 11:30 was the earliest recommended debarkation flight time. We saw that too. And based on that we booked a 12:05 flight.

Unfortunately, AFTER we booked it, and AFTER we put our info into the Sea Pass registration pages, we then tried to book the ship to airport transfers. Only then did the Carnival web page tell us that we cannot do that. Only then does it tell us that 12:05 is too early, and that the earliest recommended flight is 12:30.

I called Carnival and spoke to them. They said the 11:30 is ok for their other ship that sails from Tampa , but not for the Legend. They recommended we change our flight. I tried to get them to offer us early debarkation, to make up for the error, but they said they could not make that promise.

Continental charges $150 per person to change tickets. Carnival did not make us any promises up front, but suggested we make the change, and then submit our change fee receipts, with a request for compensation. To give Carnival credit, they really stepped up to the plate and responded very quickly with a cabin credit in the full amount of our ticket change fee.

We really agonized about what to do. Whether to make the change or take our chances with the 12:05 flight. Ot change and take our chances that Carnival might not reimburse us.

It seems to me that Carnival must have felt fairly strongly that our 12:05 flight was too early, if they were willing to reimburse us for the ticket change.

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R

riverdees05

Waiter
Based on the input, none in our party are going to purchase return home tickets before 12:30 pm. Thanks for all the information, it has been very helpful.
 
M

Mrs. B

Lecturer
Just got off the Dream. Self assist were first called @ 7:30. We were on the bus to Orlando airport @ 8:15. Carnival is doing a good job getting folks off the ship. They also called 2 zones at once.
 
T

takirb

Deck Crew
I just got off the Dream on Oct 1st, we opted for Self-Assist debarkation since our standard debarkation zone time wasn't scheduled till after 930am. Ship was docked at 615am, they called 3-4 zones at a time for self-assist before they started calling standard debarkation, and we were outside the port waiting on our ride at 715am. Last time we let Carnival check our bags, docked at 8am, and weren't off the boat till after 1030am. We were flying Delta then, and ended up changing our flight that morning to 1230pm for $50/person. Self-assist is definitely the way to go if you can carry your luggage yourself. We used the elevators on the ship to get to the lobby, and once in port security they forced us to use the elevators vs the escalators 'cause i didn't have a free hand (offered to carry my wife's bags too since they were heavy, go figure lol). In Port Canaveral anyways, if you can pull your luggage on wheels, you should have no problem getting off the boat and through security terminals.
 
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