Self Disembarkation @ Port Of Miami

Hi All!

Doing our first Carnival cruise with our kids this February. We've cruised on Celebrity the past few years and have done self-disembarkation, which has been a very positive experience for us.

For those not familiar with this process, we keep our luggage on the last night and once in port on disembarkation day, we take our luggage ourselves, early (7am), down the elevators and off the ship. This allows us to beat the line up at customs that occurs later on in the morning and to be at the airport early.

Our kids flight departing Miami has been changed and they now need to be at the MIA by 10am (flight is 11am). Our experiences with self-disemb. has put us at the airport by 8am.

Is this an option with Carnival?

Yes but your timeline is tight. Good luck.

Yes. Get FTTF and you will be among the first off. Worth every penny.

For those not familiar with this process, we keep our luggage on the last night and once in port on disembarkation day, we take our luggage ourselves, early (7am), down the elevators and off the ship. This allows us to beat the line up at customs that occurs later on in the morning and to be at the airport early.

it was slightly different when I went. If you dont tell them you have an early flight you will go to a holding area where they will start to call floor by floor for self assist. In my situation, most self assist floors were called and zone one was called before my self assist floor was called. It might not work that way every time but did in our case. we waited 90 minutes to get off for self assist.

tell them you have an 11:00am flight and you should be one of the first ones off.

Self-assist is the fastest way off - FTTF gets off in zone 1 AFTER self-assist. Plus, it saves you from spending time hunting for your luggage.

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

it was slightly different when I went. If you dont tell them you have an early flight you will go to a holding area where they will start to call floor by floor for self assist. In my situation, most self assist floors were called and zone one was called before my self assist floor was called. It might not work that way every time but did in our case. we waited 90 minutes to get off for self assist.

 

tell them you have an 11:00am flight and you should be one of the first ones off.

It was a free for all on the Conquest in January. People were told to line up in the main theatre. It snaked all the way around out the other side. There would have been a VERY long wait if we didn't have FTTF. They gathered all the FTTF/Platinum/Diamond people and escorted us off immediately before they started letting the general population go.

I say again, with a flight that early, get FTTF. They don't care what time your flight is unless you put your luggage out the night before in which case you will get a number "2" tag for your bags. You will still have a very long wait to get off if you do it that way. They don't ask people that do self assist what time their flights are. I would imagine that suddenly the entire line's flights would all be magically leaving at 10AM in that case :rolleyes:

Self-assist is the fastest way off - FTTF gets off in zone 1 AFTER self-assist. Plus, it saves you from spending time hunting for your luggage.

 

 

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

Not if you have FTTF AND do self assist! Then you are truly the first ones off.

it was slightly different when I went. If you dont tell them you have an early flight you will go to a holding area where they will start to call floor by floor for self assist. In my situation, most self assist floors were called and zone one was called before my self assist floor was called. It might not work that way every time but did in our case. we waited 90 minutes to get off for self assist.

 

tell them you have an 11:00am flight and you should be one of the first ones off.

How is this monitored on Carnival? Our previous experiences has been that you get tags, or cards, that tell you to be at Point A at Time A, but when the time comes, nobody is monitoring what you are doing. I think they assume that all passengers will do what they are asked to do.... what would happen if you request early disembarkation and then just do your own thing? By this I mean, get up, grab your luggage, and head down to the deck you're leaving from?

How is this monitored on Carnival? Our previous experiences has been that you get tags, or cards, that tell you to be at Point A at Time A, but when the time comes, nobody is monitoring what you are doing. I think they assume that all passengers will do what they are asked to do.... what would happen if you request early disembarkation and then just do your own thing? By this I mean, get up, grab your luggage, and head down to the deck you're leaving from?

i dont think anything would have stopped us. I doubt they were checking. They didnt check anything when we actually left

Thanks everyone, for your responses! We normally do not book flights home before noon. This flight was booked for 11:50am, then got changed. The kids are flying this leg on their own (we WILL deliver them to the airport) but we prefer not to add to the stress of the day!

Sounds like we will be ok.

Your flight situation sounds similar to ours from 2 weeks ago. Flight out of MIA got bumped up to 11am. We did self assist and FTTF and were one of the first off the ship. The ship was even late getting to back to port, which lead to some anxious moments, but we still were sitting at our gate at 9:37 am.

Your flight situation sounds similar to ours from 2 weeks ago. Flight out of MIA got bumped up to 11am. We did self assist and FTTF and were one of the first off the ship. The ship was even late getting to back to port, which lead to some anxious moments, but we still were sitting at our gate at 9:37 am.

Do you think that FTTF was important?

Do you think that FTTF was important?

Yes!!!! There were HUNDREDS of people waiting to get off for self assist. I wouldn't do a flight that early without it.

We walked off the Breeze 3 weeks ago without a hitch. And we weren't following zones. It was weird, lots of people just stayed sitting around enjoying their last moments on the ship and the rest seemed aware of everyone's urgency with "get the hell off the ship".

We had a good crowd and were at the airport in 40 minutes from literally walking off the ship with the Carnival transfer.

Not if you have FTTF AND do self assist! Then you are truly the first ones off.

We had FTTF on our last cruise and chose to do self-assist - no one cared that we had FTTF in the least. We walked down the hall and had actually gone the wrong way and were turning back when a Carnival person asked if we were trying to leave. We said yes, they whisked us onto a service elevator, and we were literally off the ship minutes later.

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

I would use FTTF again if only for the embarkation process. We bypassed all the long lines when we arrived at the port and our room was ready when we walked on around 11:30. As far as debarkation you are supposed to be one of the first off, and we were, but I think there were plenty of people getting off with us that just merged into the line.

Since the airline made the changes you can call them and ask for a flight in the afternoon. AA move my flight to 10:30 am and I called them and AA rescheduled my flight to the afternoon with no change fees.

We had a nice relaxing breakfast in the MDR away from the crowds in the buffet.

In my case the airline said they would change the flight for free but my only options were the 11AM flight or a 6pm flight. I didn't want to sit in the airport all day long after a vacation.

Carnival offers some nice city or everglade tours and will drop you off at MIA around 3:00PM

It can be done! We had a flight at FLL and were at the airport by 9 am when we left Miami.

What you need to do is the night before when they start passing out luggage tags, go to the customer service desk and tell them you have an early flight and you would like to self assist. They will give you special luggage tags and tell you to not put your luggage out the night before but keep everything you want with you.

We do this every time we cruise and wouldn't do it any other way. We love it. You will be off the ship in plenty of time as long as nothing goes wrong coming into port and I don't think Miami is a port that typically has issues, but I put that in there because you never know. The only "what if" is the security line at Miami. I have never flown out of Miami and don't really know what to expect from the security lines that time of morning. Maybe someone with a little more insight on that can help you.

I have done both self-assist on Celebrity and Carnival. Carnival's is much more hectic. Get FTTF to be one of the first off the ship.

We had FTTF on our last cruise and chose to do self-assist - no one cared that we had FTTF in the least. We walked down the hall and had actually gone the wrong way and were turning back when a Carnival person asked if we were trying to leave. We said yes, they whisked us onto a service elevator, and we were literally off the ship minutes later.

 

 

Next cruise: Carnival Breeze June 2014

That's nice that you got lucky but I'm telling you they walked up and down the huge, snaking line in and out of the theater asking for FTTF, Platinum, and Diamonds and once you showed them your card, they took you right off. Everyone else had to stand there and wait.

Your experience was the exception. Mine is the norm. FTTF all the way.

Thanks everyone, for your replies. Guess we won't take any chances and FTTF it will be! The kids will be excited to get on the ship early too - this is the first cruise for all of them.