How long to Disembark?

Hi Everyone and Happy Holidays! We are thinking of taking our family on our first cruise in March, and I am wondering how long it takes to get off the ship at the end, in order to catch a flight home. I imagine it takes a while, Any tips? I apologize if this has been addressed previously, as I said, I am a newbie here and trying to figure this all out! Thanks for any info-

There's no real way to tell because there are so many factors into disembarkation. But the general rule is you don't book a flight home before noon. Once the ship docks, it has to be cleared by US Customs and Immigration. Any non-US citizens have to report and be cleared by Immigration. If even one person fails to show up on time, that causes delays. Then all the luggage must be off loaded and checked by Customs and their dogs. Finally, they begin disembarking passengers. Those with the earliest flights leave first and then on and on. If all things go smoothly, the last passengers are off by 10am, sometimes a little earlier.

Are you trying to figure out what time to book your flight home?

How long disembarkment takes can vary. Sometimes it's quick, sometimes it's slow. The cruiselines give general guidelines on when to book a flight home from different ports. If you are cruising RCCL you can use this calculator to find out their recommendations http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do;jsessionid=0000CnvKcBsdZANsprONky1V3cC:12hdhu87a?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&pnav=5&pnav=2&faqSubjectName=Air+Travel&faqId=2724&faqSubjectId=324&faqType=faq

For example, Port Everglades to FLL is only a 10 minute drive so you should be fine with a flight at 11am or later, but add at an hour if you want to fly home from MIA. If you are sailing out of Miami and want to fly home from MIA, a noon flight or later is best. If you want to fly home from FLL, 1pm or later.

Other ports, the airport is further away so you want to give extra time to get to the airport. Examples of this are Port Canaveral to MCO (1pm or later) or Galveston to IAH (2pm or later).

If you let us know what ports and airports you are considering, we can give better information.

Our port is Miami, so I was thinking a flight later in the afternoon would be OK. Is that enough time? What time will be get into Miami, in general? Thanks again-:)

Sailing from Miami, an afternoon return flight is fine.

Hello,

Little Rock,

While I have not sailed out of Miami, I have sailed out of Fort Lauderdale several times. Fort Lauderdale is one of the very best cruise ports because the cruise terminals and the airport are close...20 minutes or so. There are many reasonably priced hotels in Fort Lauderdale (you should plan on arriving at your departure port the day before your cruise). And there is a huge selection of cruises from and to Fort Lauderdale.

My point...while not ruling out Miami, I strongly encourage you to look at cruises from Fort Lauderdale.

And generally (to answer your question) your flight home should not be before 12:00 Noon in Fort Lauderdale.

Hope that this helps,

Fred

If your port is the Port of Miami, and you're flying out of MIA, then you could easily book something around 11am. Just make sure to tell them on the ship that you have an early flight. You will be in one of the 1st groups off the ship--and you don't have to "self-carry" your luggage to do that. You should be at the airport before 9 am.

Miami airport can be a zoo. Do yourself a favor and book nothing prior to noon. Yes, people make flights before that but why in the world would anyone want the stress of "what if we don't?" at the end of a wonderful vacation!

A flight between 1pm and 2 pm is best IMO for flying out of Miami ! :) Remember that airlines often change flight times after you have originally booked and more often than not it ends up being earlier than originally booked so while a flight anytime after noon should be fine we like to have that extra cushion which we DID need last Feb. We made it to the airport just fine but then spent a VERY long time waiting to check our luggage in and then had to get through security which fortunately was fairly short thank heavens!!

we have usually been off the ship and leaving the terminal with bags and customs cleared by 10am

Along the same line....we are disembarking at POM, but have a flight out of FLL at 1:50 pm. SAS Transportation is picking us up at the Port and taking us to FLL. Should we carry our own luggage off the boat or should we just disembark and get our luggage after we get off the ship? I'm thinking I will have plenty of time, but not sure so hopefully more experienced cruisers can inform me. Thank you.

As others have said it usually is best to book an afternoon flight.

My recommendation is to contact the cruise line directly as they normally have recommended guidelines for this.

Keith

Isn't 1:50 pm considered an afternoon flight?:confused:

Along the same line....we are disembarking at POM, but have a flight out of FLL at 1:50 pm. SAS Transportation is picking us up at the Port and taking us to FLL. Should we carry our own luggage off the boat or should we just disembark and get our luggage after we get off the ship? I'm thinking I will have plenty of time, but not sure so hopefully more experienced cruisers can inform me. Thank you.

You should be okay with a 1:50 PM flight out of FLL. Personally, I'd do the express disembarkation just to be safe. As long as things go smoothly after docking (customs & immigration!) you won't have a problem. SAS has many recommendations here.

Has anyone recently been on the Island Princess( 2013 or14) at FLL and disembarked? How long did it take? What time were the first people off the ship? Can you still carry your luggage?Are cabs easy to get? How long of a cab ride to the airport?

Has anyone recently been on the Island Princess( 2013 or14) at FLL and disembarked? How long did it take? What time were the first people off the ship? Can you still carry your luggage?Are cabs easy to get? How long of a cab ride to the airport?

A good travel agent or even Princess should be able to tell you the earliest flight out that they recommend. I certainly wouldn't go earlier than that as there are factors such as customs and immigration that can affect what time the earliest passengers are allowed off (the cruise line has no say so). Unfortunately there are many newbies who aren't aware that the time listed on the itinerary for the ship to dock on disembarkation day isn't when passengers are allowed off the ship.

Many cruise lines do have something called self-disembarkation, but there's some rules, including that you must be able to handle all of your luggage yourself, and for some ports that means you can't use the elevators (so you would need to be able to carry and wheel onto an escalator).

Personally, we would rather coordinate our transportation (trains or flights) so that we're not trying to catch our return home in the morning. In fact, we rather take more vacation time (we actually don't take vacations every year and sometimes not even every other year) and have that day pre-cruise in our embarkation city and some time post-cruise before we return home. And when we're sailing out of San Pedro (which is an hour's drive for us), we just leave at the time we're given. No rushing for us, no stress.

For us, it seems every cruise, even out of the same port, ends differently. A few cruises ago, the disembarkation process started about 45 minutes late. Not a problem for us, but would be for anyone who didn't plan their flight for this. And sometimes we've hit traffic. And it doesn't seem related to how many ships in port (even though some people on CC will claim).

You can also berth late for a variety of reasons, some I've seen reported in the last few months.

Weather

Tug Breaks down

Medical Emergency

Mechanical problem

The Pilot took ill on one cruise I was on and they had to call in another which took a couple of hours.

I'd book as late as you possibly can to get home at a comfortable time, but then I have enough stress n my working life without making more at the end of an enjoyable cruise.

This is an 6 year old thread and only a few things have changed.

First, Ft Lauderdale has cut back on the number of immigration/ customs officials that are on duty.

Don't book a flight before Noon.

Yes -- there is self disembarkation.

There will be plenty of taxi's at the pier. It is about a 10 - 15 minute ride to the airport -- depends on traffic and construction.

Please note that while there are plenty of taxis on occasion people have waited 30 minutes or more for a taxi. It happens.

Keith

I am super nervous about this. We are leaving out of IAH in Houston and our flight is at 1130!!! TA didn't give any advice in that area at the time. I'm just gonna try to not freak out too much and hope everything goes smoothly! :eek:

As many have said, there's no real way of telling. First time I was on a cruise, it took less then 10 minutes. Last time, it took nearly an hour. Much of this depends on CBP and how many officers they got working in your terminal that morning.