self assisted disemarkation

[muffin]

I read somewhere about being able to keep your bags with you, and being allowed to laeve quickly off the ship, before all the colour coded travellers leave. Does anyone know anything about this? Weare a little tight betweeen arrival and flight, and need to ensure we are on the first transfer to the airport.. travelling on Elation Jan 11- 18. Thanks for any info.

 

[Cruisin Gal]

I have found that there are a few things that hold up disembarkation. One of them is that NO ONE can get off until the ship is cleared by customs. It won't get cleared if people who aren't citizens don't go to customs or if you have something to declare and you don't show up at customs.

Another reason is there will always be some idiot who won't go down to the pursor's when they're supposed to to settle their shipboard accounts. NO ONE can leave if SOMEONE doesn't pay up.

Then we always have the gonzos who think they'll get off the ship first and clog up the stairwells and won't let people through whose color has been called.

Once all these things are taken care of EVERYONE can be off the ship and on their way home before 9am.

I've found that people tend to overpack for a short cruise of a week and they end up buying so much stuff that they walk around like pack mules on the morning of arrival instead of either shipping their goodiess from the islands or packing them and putting the stuff in suitcases the night before arrival.

Having yourself all loaded down waiting to get off the ship is really uncomfortable for everyone in your family. If you have kids, it's even worse...if you're sunburnt and hung over...you'll REALLY be miserable. LOL

 

[frito]

CruzinGal is so correct in her post about some people holding up the process of getting off the ship. If everyone would take the time to listen to the instructions and heed the info. given, things would go so much smoother. As an example--- I was just on the Glory 3 weeks ago. On the last morning they paged the same people over and over and over to report to immigration, pursers desk, etc.Finally, after they called a Mr. XX Alvarez from cabin # 14xx about 50 times, I picked up the phone and dialed his cabin and guess what---after 5 rings this sleepy voice answered. I advised they had been paging him to go to immigration for 45 minutes and to go now. I never heard him paged again so apparently it worked. I don't understand why the pursers desk didn't call his cabin rather than spend all that time and energy paging him to no avail.

RE/ the " self assist " with the luggage. The day prior they explained the process. That was that if you could carry ALL your luggage off the ship and wanted to do so, you could.
They made it crystal clear that this meant ALL your luggage--not part of it .
They also made it clear that the luggage colors would be called twice--the first for "self assist " folks and then when that was done, they would start again on the colors for those who were getting off in the usual way. This was explained again in an insert in the Capers,on t.v and the last morning was explained again and again over the P.A.
Do you think some folks didn't get it?? Right you are. Every time they called a self assist color they would state that this is for self assist only but there were always those who would head down, rolling their carry-ons and toting their shopping bags.
Result--- jam up at the luggage carousel. By trying to beat the system and going when they called the self assist colors, they found there was no luggage coming around yet and had to wait, causing a traffic jam for everyone and not getting off any sooner.

Carnival's trying to do a good thing with the self assist luggage system but they have
got to make sure that when they call self assist they mean just that.
Bottom line--if folks would do what they are supposed to do it would work well. Sadly, there are always those folks who have the attitude " me first-- to hell with everyone else".

 

[muffin]

Thanks for the info...... i think we will definitely use it...properly!!! We have learned to pack very lightly for cruises, and each ever only have one small-midsized rolling suitcase. If it doesn't fit in there, it doesn't come!!! We are beyond wanting any significant souvenirs, so apart from one small carry on with important papers, and
books for the flight home, we are pretty footloose. It may not get us to the airport on an earlier bus, but at least we will have done what we can to get out of there as quickly as possible. thanks again

 

[DMB3941]

I sailed on the Triumph on 10/11/03-10/18/03 and did the self disembarkation. it was the smoothest process i've ever had. we didnt even have to wait for our deck to be called (they call decks to keep it organized i guess). it took 5 minutes once we went down to the lobby to get off. extremely smooth!

 

[Cactuscruise]

Just returned from the Glory 10/18 Eastern Carribean sailing and I must say that this debarkation was the quickest and simplest of my four Carnival cruises. You can carry off your own luggage. Those who did were called after the group with early flights. We didn't, too lazy. We were on vacation after all. The ship docked around 6:00am, we had breakfast in the dining room and were off the ship by 8:30am. Totally painless, you only had to report to customs if you were over your allowance. Otherwise you simply handed in your customs form as you left the terminal.

 

[Nanni-B.]

So does one have let the purses desk know the night before or is there a special form for self assisted debarkation? Special luggage tags? I really would like to do this as we carry all our own luggage with ease, and when we leave we start a 25 hour long drive home

 

[wannabecruisin]

Just got back from Carnival Ecstasy tonight, have that post cruise-wheres-my-mint-on-my-pillow-and-my-midnight-pizza-and-ice cream blues BIG TIME!
The self debarkation process was a BREEEEEEEEEEZE. You dont have to let them know anything as to your intentions to carry out luggage or not. We got up, packed, ate breakfast, went back to room to get luggage and off we went. Waited in clogged hallways for 5 minutes "exuse, pardon, exuse" and we were out by 9am. As far as an early flight they did mention the "early flight escort off the ship" for peeps with luggage and early flights. But we have done both and the "self" way was MUCH better. Have your customs forms filled out, your ID's ready and you could go from the Empress deck, thru customs and outta there in 30 minutes or less!
Have a Bahama Mama for me will ya?!
aloha,
T

 

[Nanni-B.]

Best cure for that post cruise blues is to book another, ASAP!

Do all Carnival ships offer this feature now..... or in other words...The Conquest???? I wil really, really like this feature if that is the case!

 

[msburrill]

If you are using the sailaway program (purchasing your flights with your cruise package), Carnival knows you are on a flight before 1pm and will send your a letter and special colored tags to get you off the ship first thing. If you self assist, you will not have to wait for your luggage in the baggage claim area and can go straight out. It's not a long process, just a long slow moving line but it does move. You should be off by 9am if all goes well.