The new normal or rare occurrence?

Yep, as others said, we just walk off when they start calling. We never wait for our specific deck to be called.

This attitude can be part of the problem that the OP ran into. It is polite to follow the debarkation instructions that the cruise line has provided and selfish to ignore the request. If everyone demonstrated this attitude, you would not be able to "just walk off when they start calling" as people would be lining the halls, blocking the elevators and jamming the stairwells.

OP- I have run into one experience like this on the Legend years ago. Sometimes there are delays because non-Americans have failed to report for their required clearing as instructed; those are the names you hear called repeatedly over the loud speaker. Until those individuals comply, the ship does not get cleared. In the meantime, others began to jam the passage ways as noted above and chaos ensues.

But I have also seen it slowly getting worse and worse over the years because of those that are "me first" and "its my vacation and I will do what I want" and this special snowflake attitude without consideration for others begins to permeate society.

We did self-assist debarkation off Liberty in Dec (2017). IIRC, they called platinum/diamond/maybe gold, then self-assist for decks 1-6, then zones for tagged luggage for about three "zones", then finally (I say with a chuckle) our deck, 7, for self-assist. I chuckle because we were in no hurry to get off the ship. Next time we will leave baggage out the night before for pick-up, minimize our carry-off, and try to be in or almost in the last group off the ship - we are in no hurry, we have no flight to catch, just a 45 min drive home.

 

Which brings up my reverse question, if you will: how long can you linger on board before they want you off? I don't want to over stay my welcome, but if others are in a hurry to leave, I am only too happy to let them go ahead of me.

We have been on the ship as late as 1030, upstairs on lido. We would check bags the night before and then grab a table on 9 or 10. They usually have some lounge chairs and we have even napped while waiting. We have cell service by that time and can check emails and relax while waiting. Quite often we have been in the last group since we usually stay on deck 1 or 2. The last cruise we wanted to leave early because we had work and school but normally don’t. We are in Houston and no rush to get home, 45 min drive too.

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We got off the Liberty Thursday and debarkation was a breeze.

We went to the Platinum waiting area at 6:45AM as instructed in the debarkation information. Had some Danish and orange juice as we waited. Around 7:15, they called the Plat's to head down to the gangway. Got off the ship and through customs within minutes. We were in the car and out of the garage by 7:30 AM.

Except for the ******* that ran right past everyone in the queue because he was too good to wait in line, it was no problem. His poor wife looked so embarrassed too. She didn't make any effort to keep up with him, so he had to wait for her before going through customs. What a tool! I'll simply accept that he has a mental deficiency and can't show any respect the rules or for others.

Sorry to hear about the challenges with disembarkation.

Keith

In reference to them wanting you out of the room by 8:30, the stewards have many rooms they have to turn over for the next group of people waiting to embark. If your room happens to belong to a priority or FTTF person, there is even more pressure on the staff to get that room ready. We always just go to Lido as others have stated, have a leisurely breakfast, and wait for our # to be called. We would have priority to get off, but usually go to guest services and ask for one of the last #s called and then we just walk right off, grab our luggage, thru customs, quickly and to the car. It helps make the last day stress free!

Pat

I think people bring a lot of stress upon themselves by not planning well for disembarkation. Booking a flight too early, or feeling like the drive home must be started at a certain time so they get home by some deadline (before the kennel closes to pick up the dog, or before darkness falls, for example.)

That can all be improved with better planning. The day of disembarkation is still part of your vacation. Why turn it into a regular stress-filled day? Book a later flight or have a post-cruise hotel room and go home the next day. Or just pick up the dog the next day and/or return home a bit after dark. Meeting deadlines is for work days, not vacation days.

So, after leaving the cabin the last day, go get a nice breakfast, and head out to an empty lounge or somewhere with a table and play some cards for a while. They will eventually ask you to leave and there will be no crowds.

Relax, you are still on vacation when the ship returns to the home port!

Love and agree with your attitude salty. We always have a plane to catch and our experience is that late afternoon/evening flights are typically cheaper. So maybe my flight time will be as late as 4-7p sometimes. I've got time to kill on what amounts to a travel day. Last time in Port Canaveral we hung as long as reasonably possible as I had booked a fairly late shuttle. Liked the chill approach. Hung out up on top deck after breakfast.

What was strange on the Conquest was that while we were waiting on deck 5 for our deck to be called, a staff member came through saying that everyone could now leave. Meanwhile, Chloe was still calling by decks way after that announcement was made.

They did seem to do self-assist differently in Long Beach than I was used to as well. As a Platinum, we were told to go to the Black Pearl dining room by 7:30 or something like that. On our way there, they actually started calling self-assist by deck (starting with the top and bottom of the ship) before that time. We were told once we made it to the dining room that we could just disembark, but even though we were platinum, there were some who weren't platinum that were able to get off the ship before us.

It appears to depend on the ship and the port.

Last summer on Elation in Jacksonville we had a similarunhappy experience. Elation disembarks from deck 3 and empties from lowest tohighest deck. It seems almost everybody does “self” these days. The staff werechecking deck assignments at the elevator so you could not get off until yourdeck was called. Checked luggage passengers ended up getting off togetherbefore our deck 8 “self” passengers about 10:30.

To avoid this problem on our Fantasy Christmas cruisewe had FTTF. Fantasy disembarks in Mobile from deck 8 (our deck). FunTimes saidFTTF gathers at 7:30 and gets off after platinum/diamond at 8:00. At 7:25 all self-assistpassengers were allowed to get off.

I forget which cruise we were required to do this - possibly out of Galveston. Plats were told to come to the lower floor of the main lounge for self-assist. We had to bring our suitcases INTO the seats the seats with us, and fill every seat,with no spacing between. In other words,each seat had either a person sitting in it or a suitcase occupying the floor in the leg room.

They had pastries, water, coffee available which waslaughable because after bringing our suitcases into the seats with us, it wouldhave been necessary to stand/walk on the benches to get to the end of the aisleto even go get anything, much less go to the restroom.

We were only occupying about a quarter of the seating onthat floor. Perhaps they didn’t want tohave to clean it again, who knows.

I felt sorry for the elderly who were really strugglingtrying to maneuver wheeled suitcases sideways into the seats.

I mentioned all this on my survey.

I’m guessing this was against fire code. If asked to do this again, I intend to simplyrefuse.

To each their own but the day of disembarkation is NOT a vacation day to me! lol I'd get off the ship at 5am if I could because I wake up early ready to go. I'm ready to get on the road so I can get home to my kids, finish up any lose ends before going back to work etc. My kids had school the next day, and so did I (I'm a teacher). I wasn't mad, again it wasn't a huge deal....not like i'm going to write carnival and complain. lol I was just disappointed because on all of my 8 or 9 cruises this is the first time it happened. And I totally understand why we were kicked out of our cabins at 8:30.........though again, it was the first time I've been on a ship past 7:30am on disembarkation day so it still kind of caught me off guard. I've always done self-assist because in the past it has always meant I was able to get off the ship super early......I'll just have to change things and either check my bags and get over having to waste time before hitting the road, or start using a port closer to home so it's not such a long drive home (Charleston & Jacksonville are just very limited on cruises, maybe that will change in the future). Again, was just reaching out to see what other experiences were so I could see if this was a new trend or a fluke. Thanks again everyone :)

It seems most that linger until the end have their own vehicles in port. How long do the shuttles hang around? I always book a later flight and have no reason to hurry off (but always have previously) but worry about missing the last shuttle to the airport.

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