Refresh My Memory: NCL's Debarkation Order Please

[AuntieBarb]

We will be cruising in the near future with friends who never have before. Trying to coordinate debarkation, so we can share a shuttle to the airport.

 

We are Platinum with Priority Debarkation. Who do they announce after VIP's? And then?

[Tuxman22]

Just off the GEM so very fresh in my mind

You can walk off anytime with your luggage or you can go down by the Shore Excursion desk and pick out your color luggage tags closest to the time that you wish to depart if you dont wish to carry it off.

 

On the GEM this past Monday -- Guests who wish to walk off with their luggage were cleared about 8AM, others with luggage tags colors started approx 9Am

[rvsullivan]

We will be cruising in the near future with friends who never have before. Trying to coordinate debarkation, so we can share a shuttle to the airport.

 

We are Platinum with Priority Debarkation. Who do they announce after VIP's? And then?

 

After VIP's they announce early walk offs. Then they start with the colors. If your friends want to carry their luggage off, you can all pretty much get off at the same time. The concierge will probably not let them go with the VIP's due to the number of folks he/she has to escort off.

[AuntieBarb]

Thanks for the replies. Walk-off would do the trick, but I'm not so sure how easily that will go. I am familiar with being escorted off the ship with the VIPs, but we aren't in a suite this time either. So where does Priority Debarkation fall into the order of announcements? Do we actually get any priority over anyone?

[Demonyte]

After VIP's they announce early walk offs. Then they start with the colors.

 

 

VIP bags have a color too and they also need to be sorted in terminal before people can come to collect them. They can not let VIPs out before their luggage is sorted first, and I have never seen VIPs that have checked their luggage getting out before Easy Walk-Off has started. People without checked luggage are always first to exit.

 

To OP, people with Latitudes priority tags can in my experience exit as soon as calling the colors are started (you can check this from the schedule they have printed on the last page of "you'll be going soon" pamflet that will be delivered (usually within Freestyle Daily) to your cabin around second to last day or so.

 

You can also go to Guest Services during the last few days to request some extra tags (again, in my experience the Latitudes tags have been yellow) without any reason (just say that you need couple more) and give those to your friends so that you all can exit the same time.

 

Since there is no escort involved and different people have different amount of bags anyways, there is no harm done by adding few extra bags with Latitudes colored tags - one can always get extra tags for specific color if they run out from the shelves so the amount of tags handed out is not written in stone, just a measurement to try and distribute the amount of pax in each group more evenly.

[rvsullivan]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, sometimes I type faster than I think!! When we do VIP's with the concierge, he/she always specifies that we carry off our own bags. If you are checking your bags the night before, you go with the color groups. And yes, you get a different color for suites, but it makes little difference if you are waiting to be called to get off. The "real" advantage comes from walking off with the Concierge before all others. After that, it is a scramble and the lines get large.

[Demonyte]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, sometimes I type faster than I think!! When we do VIP's with the concierge, he/she always specifies that we carry off our own bags. If you are checking your bags the night before, you go with the color groups. And yes, you get a different color for suites, but it makes little difference if you are waiting to be called to get off. The "real" advantage comes from walking off with the Concierge before all others. After that, it is a scramble and the lines get large.

 

Yep, that didn't come up in your original post. With this addition what you wrote is completely true.

[njhorseman]

Maybe I didn't make myself clear, sometimes I type faster than I think!! When we do VIP's with the concierge, he/she always specifies that we carry off our own bags. If you are checking your bags the night before, you go with the color groups. And yes, you get a different color for suites, but it makes little difference if you are waiting to be called to get off. The "real" advantage comes from walking off with the Concierge before all others. After that, it is a scramble and the lines get large.

 

We've always been offered two VIP disembarkation options:

 

(1) Walk off with our own bags...this will be the first group off the ship.

 

(2) Escorted off a bit later by concierge, having put our bags outside our cabin using whatever color tags are being used for suites. This has always been done when the self walk off cattle drive was slowing down, and before any colors have been publicly announced.

[AuntieBarb]

We've always been offered two VIP disembarkation options:

 

(2) Escorted off a bit later by concierge, having put our bags outside our cabin using whatever color tags are being used for suites. This has always been done when the self walk off cattle drive was slowing down, and before any colors have been publicly announced.

 

That was our experience as well. We only had our "carry-on" in tow.

 

I will reflect on one such debarkation though, which didn't go very smoothly. Despite being VIPs, navigating to our meeting place was greatly obstructed on the elevators and walking areas, because color coded passengers were already waiting in the atrium (and on their way) rather than waiting in their staterooms. What a madhouse that was!

 

Okay, so I gather from everyone's feedback that Priority Debarkation is the first color-coded group to be called and that I might possibly acquire additional tags to share with our travel companions (if the general consensus is NOT to carry off our own luggage).

 

Thanks everyone!

[AuntieBarb]

Just stopping by to provide feedback from our Tampa debarkation experience:

 

First off, debarkation was probably unusual, in that Tampa Bay was closed due to fog and didn't reopen until 6AM the morning we were headed back from our cruise. Subsequently, we arrived 1-1/2 hours later than expected.

 

Naturally that rolled downhill as far as travel arrangements for many passengers; not just NCL but other cruise lines as well. Albeit due to late arrival or the debarkation of choice in general, it appeared as if a very large percentage of passengers chose to walk-off with their luggage.

 

Unfortunately we were affected too, because our flight was scheduled to depart at 11:25AM. Since Priority Debarkation didn't commence until 10:30AM and TSA requires luggage to be checked no later than 45 minutes before departure, we knew right off the bat we would have to alter our air travel. However such had to be deferred until 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. By the time all was said and done, we ended up with a direct flight at 6:09PM. Made for a long day at the airport!

 

That said, we were the first passengers to debark with yellow tags. Despite following a vast amount of passengers, our debarkation went very smoothly, especially with a porter in tow for all 4 in our party. We located our luggage quickly. The porter line through customs was short. Then once we reached the taxi queue line, there were only 3 groups ahead of us and we were on our way to the airport by 10:45AM. So in summary, Tampa debarkation did indeed appear to be well organized.

 

The key information I want to leave you with regards the taxi rate. Yes, the sign at the taxi queue line clearly stated $25 flat rate to the airport. However, once inside the taxi, we advised the driver we wanted to go to the US Airways terminal and the United Airlines terminal. He immediately said, "Then the fee is $10 per person". We shook our heads in dismay, but weren't about to jump out and seek alternate transportation. Then even though both airlines were side by side at the SAME TERMINAL, the driver still insisted upon $10 per person. RIPOFF! So since we usually tip the driver as well, we simply gave him $40 WITHOUT a tip.

Edited December 8, 2014 by AuntieBarb

[Love my butler]

Just stopping by to provide feedback from our Tampa debarkation experience:

 

First off, debarkation was probably unusual, in that Tampa Bay was closed due to fog and didn't reopen until 6AM the morning we were headed back from our cruise. Subsequently, we arrived 1-1/2 hours later than expected.

 

Naturally that rolled downhill as far as travel arrangements for many passengers; not just NCL but other cruise lines as well. Albeit due to late arrival or the debarkation of choice in general, it appeared as if a very large percentage of passengers chose to walk-off with their luggage.

 

Unfortunately we were affected too, because our flight was scheduled to depart at 11:25AM. Since Priority Debarkation didn't commence until 10:30AM and TSA requires luggage to be checked no later than 45 minutes before departure, we knew right off the bat we would have to alter our air travel. However such had to be deferred until 30 minutes prior to our scheduled departure. By the time all was said and done, we ended up with a direct flight at 6:09PM. Made for a long day at the airport!

 

That said, we were the first passengers to debark with yellow tags. Despite following a vast amount of passengers, our debarkation went very smoothly, especially with a porter in tow for all 4 in our party. We located our luggage quickly. The porter line through customs was short. Then once we reached the taxi queue line, there were only 3 groups ahead of us and we were on our way to the airport by 10:45AM. So in summary, Tampa debarkation did indeed appear to be well organized.

 

The key information I want to leave you with regards the taxi rate. Yes, the sign at the taxi queue line clearly stated $25 flat rate to the airport. However, once inside the taxi, we advised the driver we wanted to go to the US Airways terminal and the United Airlines terminal. He immediately said, "Then the fee is $10 per person". We shook our heads in dismay, but weren't about to jump out and seek alternate transportation. Then even though both airlines were side by side at the SAME TERMINAL, the driver still insisted upon $10 per person. RIPOFF! So since we usually tip the driver as well, we simply gave him $40 WITHOUT a tip.

 

Since they were both in the same terminal, side by side, just have the taxi drop you off at one then walk over to the other, since it was so close. No need to reward a greedy taxi driver.

[AuntieBarb]

Since they were both in the same terminal, side by side, just have the taxi drop you off at one then walk over to the other, since it was so close. No need to reward a greedy taxi driver.

 

That's exactly what we did. All 4 of us got out of the taxi together. He still insisted on $40. :rolleyes:

[Love my butler]

That's exactly what we did. All 4 of us got out of the taxi together. He still insisted on $40. :rolleyes:

 

If he insisted on $100 would you have given him that much? I would have handed him $25 and walked away. Firm but fair goes a long way in this dog eat dog world.

[AuntieBarb]

If he insisted on $100 would you have given him that much? I would have handed him $25 and walked away. Firm but fair goes a long way in this dog eat dog world.

 

OMG. Seriously? NO. We would have gotten out of the van before he even left the port! :rolleyes: But we did throw up our hands on the matter, simply because members of our party were on the verge of missing their flight as it was. Next time (if there is a next time) we'll know better and be less victim to aggravating circumstance.