Seattle Debarkation - wonderful experience!

[Diver2014]

We disembarked the Oosterdam yesterday in Seattle and wow, easiest disembarkation ever!  We signed up for the Port Authority debarkation plan and were duly impressed.

We received a packet the night before with our luggage tags, boarding passes for all flights, and simple to follow instructions.  We put our luggage out before midnight

and never saw them again until we arrived at our final destination (after several flights).  We were able to disembark a half hour earlier than our scheduled

time, dozens of port personnel available to show the way to our bus and off we went to the airport.  From the time we left the ship at 7:30am to arriving at our gate at

the airport was about an hour.  We had prepurchased HAL transfers.  Our baggage fees were charged to our ship board account.  When we arrived at the airport, we

went directly thru TSA and on to our gate.  We had an early flight but had time to grab a bite to eat with such an easy transfer from ship to airport.  If only every port

would offer such a convenient plan!

[freestyling]

Great to hear. Hope you had a great cruise as well

[Diver2014]

The cruise was as to be expected this time of year.....wet and cold.  Except for a glorious day in Juneau - the sky was blue and the sunshine was very welcome!  We've previously sailed on HAL to Alaska so this was a last minute thing since we were going to be in Seattle anyway.  While I loved the disembarkation process, our flights to Seattle (booked thru HAL) were an experience I'd like to forget (though no fault of HAL).  We had Delta flying to Seattle and American coming back.  Remind me to decline any future flights booked on Delta!  We were notified by Delta 2 hours before our flight that it had been delayed and we could make the earlier flight if we got to the airport within the hour.  Okay, since we're only 1.5 miles from the airport, we got there an hour earlier than planned.  There were no Delta personnel on duty at the airport while at least 20 passengers who also received notification milled about wondering what was going on.  Finally, the gate/ramp agent appeared and said there was a communication malfunction on our original flight (ie the plane's intercom did not work) so they requested a mechanic come from Savannah to fix it.  After 3 hours and 3 more delays, we were told another plane would be sent to get us.  Never happened.

We finally boarded the regularly scheduled 3:30pm flight to Atlanta, which meant we missed our connection from Atlanta to Seattle.  We were put on a later flight and finally arrived in Seattle at 10pm (we were supposed to be there at 4:30pm originally).

Okay, we were finally in Seattle but then we were missing a suitcase.  We went to the Delta lost luggage office and filed the proper paperwork.  They didn't know where the suitcase was in their extensive computer system.  So DH had no change of clothes, toothbrush and anything else for that matter for 24 hours.  Finally, at 9pm the next night, the suitcase was delivered.  It had been sent to Kansas City by the ramp/gate agent for our original flight.  Good thing they found it and had it delivered because our ship left the next day and would be at sea for 1.5 days until we arrived in Juneau.  So, we are not happy with Delta.

Yes, equipment failures happen but to keep delaying flights 3 times then saying sorry, no plane, wait 6 hours for the next flight and then lose our luggage?  No way will we fly on Delta again.  Fortunately, we were on American on our way home and everything went very smoothly, even if we did get home after midnight.  HAL has no control over the airlines but I'll book flights on my own if they ever put us on another Delta flight.

[freestyling]

Wow. Nothing worse than flight/ luggage disruptions. Another great example of why you should always get to your departure city at least one day before cruise. 

[sevenseasnomad]

Possible flight delays, for whatever reason, are why we fly a day or two prior to embarkation.  Thanks goodness you had time to spare rather than arriving in Seattle to discover the ship had sailed without you.  That actually happened to some of the people on our flight to FLL one year. 

 

Our flight was delayed out of BWI because of severe thunder storms in southern FL., which knocked out radar for hours.  By the time we boarded our flight, which should have departed Baltimore at 9:30 a.m., it was 3:00 p.m.!  Dozens of people were trying to make arrangements to meet their ships the next day in the first Caribbean ports; however, one gentleman was on a transatlantic.  We saw him in the baggage claim area, and he told us he was turning around and going back home.  Not much he could do because as we were flying over Port Everglades we could see the ships departing.   While I sympathized with everyone, they were all experienced cruisers (according to all of them) who should have known better.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Glad you had a great disembarkation in Seattle.

 

Sorry about the Delta flights.

 

We always take 4 suitcases -- split all clothes between all 4 suitcases.  Thus if one suitcase goes missing, we will still have clothes.