Digital Debarkation- have you experienced it yet? Details, please

[Elsa Maki]

1 minute ago, crusin okie said:

When we received our transportation "tickets" while on the cruise, there was a time indicated.  It was the same time we chose when we made the reservations.  We used that time to pick our debarkation time.  It all worked itself out nicely - even with the debacle we encountered in the terminal at Galveston.   

Thank you 🙂

[FredZiffle]

23 hours ago, Drazil65 said:

If you use express do you still pick a time slot and just don’t check your luggage for debark? Or is it a leave when you want type thing for express?

 

We choose the option on the hub when it popped up and the instructions gave us the time to be at the meeting venue.  I believe it was 7:00 am but we were there by 6:45 and the grp left the venue right after we arrived.  We were loading the car in the parking garage at 7:00 and on road heading to I-95 north by 7:10.  

But, what if you simply want to carry off your own luggage and are not necessarily interested in getting off early?  Do you now have to get off at the earliest point, or can you just walk off when you want to?

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, FredZiffle said:

But, what if you simply want to carry off your own luggage and are not necessarily interested in getting off early?  Do you now have to get off at the earliest point, or can you just walk off when you want to?

 

If you know you're getting off late, pick a late group. You can then stay onboard until "last call"

 

You can pick any group you want and actually don't even need to pick a group since you're carrying your own luggage. But if you're going to pick a group, pick a late one so folks who want to get off earlier can grab the early groups.

Edited April 3 by mz-s

[FredZiffle]

29 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

If you know you're getting off late, pick a late group. You can then stay onboard until "last call"

 

You can pick any group you want and actually don't even need to pick a group since you're carrying your own luggage. But if you're going to pick a group, pick a late one so folks who want to get off earlier can grab the early groups.

That's my point.  We've always been able to walk off when we were ready and not be tied to a set time slot.  It might be 8:00; it might be 8:30.  Can we still do this under the new system?

[mz-s]

2 minutes ago, FredZiffle said:

That's my point.  We've always been able to walk off when we were ready and not be tied to a set time slot.  It might be 8:00; it might be 8:30.  Can we still do this under the new system?

 

Yes that won't change. If the system is forcing you to pick a time, just pick the latest time you can. You can stay on until last and final call if you want.

 

Obviously you must be out of your stateroom by 8:30.

[LHARTWICK]

On 3/29/2024 at 11:57 AM, mz-s said:

 

Some Fun Squads do a better job than others of herding the cats. I will say that generally, in Charleston they were very good at this because of the silent debarkation.

Spot on, mz-s!!!  We've found that it really varies from ship to ship.  We are Platinum and always use the self-assist option.  Depending on the ship, it's either a super smooth debark or a holy mess when they just say "okay, everyone can leave now" in the Platinum/Diamond waiting area.  Then it's a cluster - have seen several fights break out.  We were on the receiving end of one a couple of years ago on the Vista when all we were doing was trying to follow what a crew member told us to do.  Then Karen started yelling at us.  Thanks to all who have posted on this thread - very helpful!

[csm5986142]

We had digital debarkation on Jubilee back in January and it was kind of disaster.  To be fair, that was a sold out New Years Eve cruise (and only the second sailing of Jubilee) about 50% of the passengers had "priority" status, and it was a new process, new crew, etc.  So considering all that, not too bad.

We had no notice at all that they had switched to this process and we didn't get any notifications in the app, so we were late selecting our debarkation time.  We are Diamond so it usually doesn't matter, we just go to the gathering location for Diamond debarkation and it's really easy.  From what I understand they combined Platinum and Diamond and then split us into different group locations.  It was absolutely packed.  I overheard lots of complaints and heard the crew telling people that the same thing had happened the prior week (inaugural sailing and Christmas).  I think the issue was that when everybody has priority, nobody has priority.  I think they did pretty well with it considering.

I'm sure things have settled down now and the crew is more familiar with the process. 

[jsglow]

3 hours ago, FredZiffle said:

But, what if you simply want to carry off your own luggage and are not necessarily interested in getting off early?  Do you now have to get off at the earliest point, or can you just walk off when you want to?

We're carrying off in a couple days and picked a 10-10:20a slot on the App an hour ago. It's totally analogous to how one picks your arrival slot. Our flight isn't until late afternoon so we have time to kill. All good.

[Sabalon]

We just did this on the Magic yesterday.  Since you have to be out of your room by 8:30, we chose 8:40-9:00 (the times are in 20 minute windows).  We got up, had breakfast, came back and grabbed our stuff and at about 8:20 headed down one deck to Deck 5 to wait.  We were carrying our luggage instead of picking it up.  We found a seat near the coffee bar and sat around catching up on the real world.  At about 8:50 the Carnival Hub app told us it was our time to make our way off.  

We wheeled the luggage through the casino to the atrium.  You could see the line to get off the ship on deck 3.  Not sure how long it was honestly.   If we could have, we would have taken the steps down, but they were roped off.  While waiting on the glass elevators, one of the regular elevators that had an X opened up and there was a Fun Squad member.  She was doing express from deck 5 to deck 2 for disembarking.  So we got on.   They took us down to two and a short walk down the cabin hallway, lo and behold, there was another gangway there.  And no line!  One last scan of the cards and into the terminal.

This was the easiest I've ever had getting off a ship.   Luggage works the same way as before - you either tag it and put it in the hallway or carry it yourself.  Other than that it's more a chill out til we call you thing, trying to reduce mass lines.   I know the cruise director came on and said something like "don't come down until we call you.  If you try, we know when we scan your card and we will send you back until you are called."   Truth or not to that, who knows.

We didn't pick our time until I think Thursday, and it seemed that we could have chosen from a wide variety of times.  I don't recall the earliest that was available when we chose ours, but from what the CD said, it's first come first serve...so you could in theory pick your departure time as soon as you an register your folio to the Hub app.  It shows up under My Happenings I believe. 

[ineedadisplayname1Vbbjhju]

Just did it on Sunrise, it was easy you goto app and pick a time and they deliver your bag tags to your room. It was easy and really liked it online.

[x lindsay x]

Just off the Venezia last week and there were definitely some flaws with this new process.

1. Our tags weren't delivered to our room until around 8pm the night before debarkation (when we didn't have them by 6pm I called GS and they promised all tags would be delivered by 8pm). We usually like to put the bags out before dinner and a fun last night on the ship. This meant we had to run back to the room to put the tags on and get the bags out. Not the end of the world but again this didn't happen "in the old days".

2. We were group 8 and had a disembark time of 8:20-8:45, we weren't called until 9:15. And while this might be a Venezia problem, they had us walk almost the entirety of deck 3 to get off the ship, it was somewhat comical passing the atrium knowing you still had a long way to go before they would let you access it. With the not so scenic walk around deck 3 and terminal back ups it took an extra 30 minutes to get to our bags. They had two escalators, a set of stairs (that was roped off???), and an elevator or two. The line for the elevator was pure insanity. We wanted to take the stairs as my 6 year old hates down escalators but I almost got clotheslined in the midsection by a black strap closing it off. WHY??? Got into our car that was up one elevator to the parking garage around 10am. Woof. I can not imagine what those in group 26 had to deal with. 

[c85f9]

On 3/29/2024 at 1:01 AM, hurricane0226 said:

less trees to kill for tags, I guess.

The luggage Tags aren’t paper, and they still handed them out on Celebration for digital debarkation yesterday

[dlphn501]

On 3/29/2024 at 8:04 AM, Saint Greg said:

 

It’s in my Jubliee and Spirit live threads from last month but this alert started coming up on jubilee so I selected a group. The groups are by estimated debarkation time. 
 

Since I’m platinum I always get priority tags but the thing kept popping up so I did it.

 

My tags were automatically delivered to the room. Then I also go my platinum tags with a lower number. 

 

Next time on Spirit I ignored these messages and only got one set of tags. My platinum tags. So If you are platinum or diamond just ignore it. You’ll still get your priority tags. If you aren’t…just make a selection in the app and your tags will be delivered to the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am just off Horizon, and I never got this message.  In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to select my debark time.   However, we did have #2 luggage tags delivered 2 nights prior - I assumed it was because we had fttf, but maybe it was just a glitch in the app.  I did not go to guest services about it since I had received luggage tags.  We walked off with all the rest of the fttf and suite guests.

[Saint Greg]

7 minutes ago, dlphn501 said:

I am just off Horizon, and I never got this message.  In fact, I couldn't even figure out how to select my debark time.   However, we did have #2 luggage tags delivered 2 nights prior - I assumed it was because we had fttf, but maybe it was just a glitch in the app.  I did not go to guest services about it since I had received luggage tags.  We walked off with all the rest of the fttf and suite guests.

Are they doing the new debarkation process on Horizon? I didn’t think they had rolled it out to all ships yet. But if they did that’s good. That means they probably fixed the duplicate tag issue.

[tidecat]

I did it on the Elation. Other than the last several groups all being called at the same time (I chose the last possible group), it worked well. 

[LHARTWICK]

Just off of Jubilee April 13.  My HUB app alerted me on Sunday, day 2 of the cruise to choose a debark method/time.  I went ahead and selected an option, even though I had been told I would receive P/D debark information later in the week.  Other cruisers apparently didn't get the notice to choose a debark option until the last day of the cruise.  Not sure why.  Anyway, we received the P/D debark notice in our cabin on the last day, so we followed those instructions. Everything was fine until the ship was cleared and the P/D group was told we could leave.....all at one time!  No order, no instructions, just chaos.  Fortunately, everyone in the group played well with others and just did the best we could with it.  

[kew1031]

2 hours ago, LHARTWICK said:

Just off of Jubilee April 13.  My HUB app alerted me on Sunday, day 2 of the cruise to choose a debark method/time.  I went ahead and selected an option, even though I had been told I would receive P/D debark information later in the week.  Other cruisers apparently didn't get the notice to choose a debark option until the last day of the cruise.  Not sure why.  Anyway, we received the P/D debark notice in our cabin on the last day, so we followed those instructions. Everything was fine until the ship was cleared and the P/D group was told we could leave.....all at one time!  No order, no instructions, just chaos.  Fortunately, everyone in the group played well with others and just did the best we could with it.  

18 days till we board the Jubilee. Hope this all works out come debark day!

[TPG40]

Just got off the Paradise this morning. Extremely easy. The staff had the process down. We were off the ship before 9am.

[LHARTWICK]

36 minutes ago, TPG40 said:

Just got off the Paradise this morning. Extremely easy. The staff had the process down. We were off the ship before 9am.

It definitely varies from ship to ship with CCL.  On the Dream last September it was super organized.  It just depends on the crew I guess. We've seen many a fight break out during debark over the years.

[Redskinsfan92]

Had digital debarkation on the Legend a week ago. Got a notification on Friday to pick my schedule for Sunday morning. I chose express debarkation and snagged a Group B spot for 8:05am-8-30am. At 7:42 am they announced groups A and B could debark. It was all pretty seemless. Scanned my sail card like normal and off I went into the terminal.

 

Let me also say Norfolk is on top of their game. Embark and Debark both went smooth with no long waits.

Edited April 15 by Redskinsfan92

[dlphn501]

On 4/10/2024 at 8:08 PM, Saint Greg said:

Are they doing the new debarkation process on Horizon? I didn’t think they had rolled it out to all ships yet. But if they did that’s good. That means they probably fixed the duplicate tag issue.

They are!  I didn't see people cluttering/clogging up the hallways and elevator bays, so I guess it worked pretty well.  But we headed to our meeting point at 7:40 which is early for us because we don't usually rush off.  By the time we got to the lounge, they had started to file out, so we just waited for the last person and we got at the end of the line.  A lot of people in the facebook group said the disembarkation was less than stellar, but no one gave reasons.

[Moonarino]

On 4/1/2024 at 9:21 PM, BrentD said:

Do you 

If you use express do you still pick a time slot and just don’t check your luggage for debark? Or is it a leave when you want type thing for express?

 

I'm sure if you don't "enroll" in digital debark you'll be assumed as Express. If you select digital you'll be sent the tags and you'll have to pick a time window.

 

On 4/3/2024 at 6:15 AM, Elsa Maki said:

We are cruising September out of San Francisco and have booked Carnival transportation from the port to the airport. How do we know which time we should pick up for disembarkation please?

 

You can't do it in advance of your cruise, if that's what you're asking. I don't remember how far into the cruise before the prompt for digital debark started showing, but there was plenty of time to get it done.

 

After you click to sign up and select all in your party, you'll be offered a list of time windows. WARNING: If you wait too long, ALL the earlier slots will likely be gone.

 

Also a warning, experienced on Mardi Gras last week: They were very slow getting bags into the terminal. We got off ahead of our window (for health reasons) but still had to wait 40-45 minutes for our "Zone" of luggage to be unloaded and stacked in all those long aisles. They wouldn't let us into that area till all bags were set out. But also note, Mardi Gras holds 5200 passengers. Other ships probably won't have that problem.

 

[Moonarino]

On 4/3/2024 at 11:11 AM, FredZiffle said:

That's my point.  We've always been able to walk off when we were ready and not be tied to a set time slot.  It might be 8:00; it might be 8:30.  Can we still do this under the new system?

 

You can do it. But (see my above warning) your bags might not be in the terminal when you get there. They unload bags by zone, earliest zones (time slots) first, etc.

 

(This was on Mardi Gras just last week.)

 

 

Edited April 18 by Moonarino
added

[BrentD]

Was on Mardi Gras last week. Chose the 8-8:20 am time slot for express self-debarkation. It was group G. Had I not been near the cabin door finishing up packing the toiletries and whatnot we still needed that morning we would’ve completely missed our group because they were calling for group G before 7:30 am. When you pick your time slot for debarkation it does say estimated time, but I would expect their estimate to be a bit more realistic than calling us nearly an hour earlier than the chosen slot. It wasn’t a huge deal and we were ready, though. We all had passports, which appeared to significantly speed up the process, judging from the long line of birth certificate holders we briskly whizzed by in the terminal. Photo recognition process was quick and easy. We were off the ship and out the terminal door by 8am.  

[FredZiffle]

14 hours ago, Moonarino said:

 

You can do it. But (see my above warning) your bags might not be in the terminal when you get there. They unload bags by zone, earliest zones (time slots) first, etc.

 

(This was on Mardi Gras just last week.)

 

 

Well, they won't be unloading our bags because we carry them with us.