Departure Flight Question

[Gopher40]

Sailing on the Encore for our Alaskan cruise April 28 - May 5. Have scheduled air through Norwegian. Flying in 1 day early. On disembarkation day they scheduled us on flight flying out of Seattle at 10:49 AM. I know the standard rule is to not book a departure flight before noon. Since THEY booked this for us will they make an effort to get us off the ship in time to make the flight? What happens if they don't? Since they booked it, do they find us another? We did purchase the travel insurance, not sure if that applies in a case like this. Probably over worrying, but just looking for feedback.

[julig22]

It's doable, if everything goes as scheduled. No, they won't make any special effort to get you off the ship, other than to put you on the first bus IF you are using the NCL transfer. If you miss your flight, you deal with the airline.

When I had an early flight leaving from Vancouver, we had to self-carry our luggage to avoid delays with unloading/collecting luggage, so that's a possibility.

[Sailing12Away]

My only advice is to not listen to the instructions when they say which debarkation tags to use. We had an NCL booked flight home from Miami scheduled for 11:35 and they told us to take the color tags for the 9am disembarkation. Yeah..... we were in line waiting for the bus for 45 mins before we hopped off and caught our own Uber to the airport at 10:30. Made it to the gate of the plane as they were boarding already and that was only because we had TSA precheck and skipped the lines at security.

 

So whatever color tags get you off the ship the earliest, grab those tags and drop the NCL transfer. Hail your own Uber/Lyft/Taxi and do it on your own. 

[julig22]

6 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

My only advice is to not listen to the instructions when they say which debarkation tags to use. We had an NCL booked flight home from Miami scheduled for 11:35 and they told us to take the color tags for the 9am disembarkation. Yeah..... we were in line waiting for the bus for 45 mins before we hopped off and caught our own Uber to the airport at 10:30. Made it to the gate of the plane as they were boarding already and that was only because we had TSA precheck and skipped the lines at security.

 

So whatever color tags get you off the ship the earliest, grab those tags and drop the NCL transfer. Hail your own Uber/Lyft/Taxi and do it on your own. 

Just self carry if you are trying to get off early. No need for any tags. If you are taking the NCL bus, you don't choose your color, they give you the color for the bus - your tags are your ticket.

[Sailing12Away]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

Just self carry if you are trying to get off early. No need for any tags. If you are taking the NCL bus, you don't choose your color, they give you the color for the bus - your tags are your ticket.

Not quite that simple. My cruise they had two different NCL transfer tags. One for early flights (me) and one for flights departing after 2. Even with their early transfer tag they weren't prioritizing people getting into the busses. So folks who weren't flying until later in the day were going into buses first because they used a porter to get through customs faster than us waiting in line with our single case in hand.

[julig22]

2 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Not quite that simple. My cruise they had two different NCL transfer tags. One for early flights (me) and one for flights departing after 2. Even with their early transfer tag they weren't prioritizing people getting into the busses. So folks who weren't flying until later in the day were going into buses first because they used a porter to get through customs faster than us waiting in line with our single case in hand.

That's too bad. They should have been checking tags - but the people doing the transfers don't always know what's going on so yes, it can be frustrating. But my comment was more in response to your statement about choosing a color.

Last time I was in Seattle, they were checking tags. And directing you to the correct bus. But in that case, we also were delayed and they wouldn't let people get their luggage until their colors were called.

[BirdTravels]

12 minutes ago, Sailing12Away said:

Not quite that simple. My cruise they had two different NCL transfer tags. One for early flights (me) and one for flights departing after 2. Even with their early transfer tag they weren't prioritizing people getting into the busses. So folks who weren't flying until later in the day were going into buses first because they used a porter to get through customs faster than us waiting in line with our single case in hand.

Tags have nothing to do with which bus you go on. They only control what time the luggage will be displayed in the luggage hall. Many of the people taking the bus are self assist and have no tags. And many of the people the bus are Port Valet with no large luggage. The buses are first come first serve. 

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, Gopher40 said:

Sailing on the Encore for our Alaskan cruise April 28 - May 5. Have scheduled air through Norwegian. Flying in 1 day early. On disembarkation day they scheduled us on flight flying out of Seattle at 10:49 AM. I know the standard rule is to not book a departure flight before noon. Since THEY booked this for us will they make an effort to get us off the ship in time to make the flight? What happens if they don't? Since they booked it, do they find us another? We did purchase the travel insurance, not sure if that applies in a case like this. Probably over worrying, but just looking for feedback.

YOU need to get yourself off the ship in time for your flight. Transfer buses are first-come-first serve, so get off the ship early (either the first color tag or self-assist (handling all of your luggage on your own)). Since the transfer buses are the cheapest and easiest way to get to the airport, the line for the buses are often long. 

 

Here's the Encore tag schedule from last season. You can walk off on your own starting at 7:00 am. NOTE: Many of the 4500 passengers will have the same desire... get off first... so plan accordingly... the lines will be long. 

 

BTW: we always schedule flights around 11:00.

 

BTW: There is no pick-up zone at the terminal. Trying to catch an Uber is really hard unless you drag your stuff about 1/2 mile down the road. 

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

I only hope you don't have the trouble we had when we docked in Seattle.   Somebody docked the ship a... about face.   So the luggage for the first people due off was at the BACK of the unloading area.   A shambles.

[Sailing12Away]

5 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Tags have nothing to do with which bus you go on. They only control what time the luggage will be displayed in the luggage hall. Many of the people taking the bus are self assist and have no tags. And many of the people the bus are Port Valet with no large luggage. The buses are first come first serve. 

I get it, but my point was that based on that color tag there was a certain time of day we were instructed to get off the ship at. Based on your photo, we would have been purple with an estimated debark time of 8:15. In our case, that was no where close to enough time to get off the ship, go through customs, get in the long queue for the bus transfer, and make it to the airport in time.

 

Regardless, for an early morning flight - do not plan on using NCL transfer buses and your odds will greatly improve at making your flight, regardless of how you handle your luggage.