Can you carry off your OWN luggage on NCL?

[Four4us]

We cruised with Princess last year and they allowed us to carry off our own luggage from the ship. We did not have to put it out the night before. We are on the NCL Dawn March 08. We called NCL and she said we would have to wait and ask when we get on the ship.

Can anyone tell me if we will be able to carry it off or will they require us to leave it out the night before?

[wxtrix]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=641889&highlight=disembarkation

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=634216&highlight=disembarkation

[browniegirl]

Hi, when we were on the Jewel last January, people did an "express" luggage thing and were able to keep their luggage until the next morning and carry it off themselves, I believe they had to be off the ship first.......correct me if I'm wrong experts, but we plan on doing just that next time in January as we have a 10:30am flight out of Miami that morning and would need to be there by around 9:30am, so we'll need to be off the ship by 8:30 or so. I actually saw quite a few people taking their own luggage off.

 

Browniegirl

[Zeno]

In a word - Yes. We have never done the express disembarkation but on two of our three NCL cruises we simply carried off our own luggage when our colour was called. No one objected.

 

Common sense should be used though - we have smallish suitcases and small back packs that are easy for us to manouvre off. If you have very large suitcases or many items, you will make it difficult for yourselves and for everyone else if you try to carry it off.

[Four4us]

Im only double checking cuz our flight is at 12:50 p.m. When we checked with our TA he said the cruise line would not guarantee us getting to MIA on time using NCL for transfers because our flight needed to be 6 hours later. Our NCL book says the Dawn gets in MIA at 6:00 a.m so our flight is almost 7 hours after that.

 

So IF we book the transfers with NCL from FLL airport to port of MIA and then return to FLL airport AND carry off our own luggage... I assume we should be ok.

 

We will just need to decide if we should get the early off when its first announced. This worked very well for us on the Princess.

 

But I do like the idea of waiting in our room for awhile.

 

If we do wait in the room do they then disembark by when your flight time is?

[MrLee]

Can you carry off your OWN luggage on NCL?

 

If you're carrying off luggage, it had better be your own! ;)

 

Seriously, every cruise I've been on (and there aren't that many) has allowed you to carry off your own. Colors, in general, have been called based on flight times.

[nets33]

we plan on doing just that next time in January as we have a 10:30am flight out of Miami that morning and would need to be there by around 9:30am, so we'll need to be off the ship by 8:30 or so. I actually saw quite a few people taking their own luggage off.

 

Browniegirl

Ouch.... that is cutting it a bit tight. If the ship runs into any problems in getting back to port on time or there are any problems with customs clearing you could miss that flight! Good luck.

[Calicouple]

Hi, when we were on the Jewel last January, people did an "express" luggage thing and were able to keep their luggage until the next morning and carry it off themselves, I believe they had to be off the ship first.......correct me if I'm wrong experts, but we plan on doing just that next time in January as we have a 10:30am flight out of Miami that morning and would need to be there by around 9:30am, so we'll need to be off the ship by 8:30 or so. I actually saw quite a few people taking their own luggage off.

 

Browniegirl

 

We carried off our luugage on one of our cruises, but we were not able to clear customs, and had a looong wait, needless to say we missed our flight...:eek: this cruise coming up, we did not book a morning flight. We also do not arrive the same day we sail out, as we almost missed getting on the ship once.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you

[DAGVBSB]

Hi, when we were on the Jewel last January, people did an "express" luggage thing and were able to keep their luggage until the next morning and carry it off themselves, I believe they had to be off the ship first.......correct me if I'm wrong experts, but we plan on doing just that next time in January as we have a 10:30am flight out of Miami that morning and would need to be there by around 9:30am, so we'll need to be off the ship by 8:30 or so. I actually saw quite a few people taking their own luggage off.

 

Browniegirl

 

I hate to tell you this, but there is no way that you are going to make that flight!

 

The Sun docks at Miami at 8:00 a.m.

It takes 60-90 minutes for Customs to clear the ship before anyone can disembark.

Express Disembarkation has become a free for all and so many people are taking advantage of it, that the whole process is slowed down.

At least 20 minutes minimum to get off the ship and get to the curb.

20 minutes minimum from curb to airport.

 

That puts you at the airport at 9:40 a.m. AT THE EARLIEST if everything goes ok.

That leaves you 50 minutes to check your luggage, get through security and get to your gate on a morning when they are VERY busy. I don't see it happening.

 

What so many people fail to realize is that "docking" time and "disembarkation" time are two different things and you should look at disembarkation time as 90 minutes after docking time to be safe.

[browniegirl]

I hate to tell you this, but there is no way that you are going to make that flight!

 

The Sun docks at Miami at 8:00 a.m.

It takes 60-90 minutes for Customs to clear the ship before anyone can disembark.

Express Disembarkation has become a free for all and so many people are taking advantage of it, that the whole process is slowed down.

At least 20 minutes minimum to get off the ship and get to the curb.

20 minutes minimum from curb to airport.

 

That puts you at the airport at 9:40 a.m. AT THE EARLIEST if everything goes ok.

That leaves you 50 minutes to check your luggage, get through security and get to your gate on a morning when they are VERY busy. I don't see it happening.

 

What so many people fail to realize is that "docking" time and "disembarkation" time are two different things and you should look at disembarkation time as 90 minutes after docking time to be safe.

 

OH MY GAWD.......I THINK YOU ARE RIGHT!!!!!!!!! Yikes, with our flights booked it may be back to the drawing board........ We have to fly back to the west coast and then again to Vancouver Island, so it's a darn long day and we were hoping to relieve a very tired (by then) Grandma!!!!

 

Oh well, we'll see what we can do! I think it's about $40 each to change flights on Air Canada.....Yikes, WHAT WAS I THINKING!

 

When we got off the Jewel earlier this year, we were off the ship by 9 am and then waited in the NCL shuttle bus for over an hour waiting for more people.....what a pain that was.......and then we just made our flight out of fort lauderdale (1pm) because the shuttle was so late and the airport was a nightmare.....can you say SSSSSSLLLLLLLOOOOOOWWWWWWW.....

 

Anyhow, thanks everyone, I will definitely re-consider our return flight.

 

Browniegirl

[Cosmopolitan]

I hate to tell you this, but there is no way that you are going to make that flight!

 

The Sun docks at Miami at 8:00 a.m.

It takes 60-90 minutes for Customs to clear the ship before anyone can disembark.

Express Disembarkation has become a free for all and so many people are taking advantage of it, that the whole process is slowed down.

At least 20 minutes minimum to get off the ship and get to the curb.

20 minutes minimum from curb to airport.

 

That puts you at the airport at 9:40 a.m. AT THE EARLIEST if everything goes ok.

That leaves you 50 minutes to check your luggage, get through security and get to your gate on a morning when they are VERY busy. I don't see it happening.

 

What so many people fail to realize is that "docking" time and "disembarkation" time are two different things and you should look at disembarkation time as 90 minutes after docking time to be safe.

 

I agree.. express disembarkation has created "havoc". At the stairways and elevators. Passengers yelling and screaming at each other. Tripping/climbing over the luggage and fighting for the elevators.

The system is NOT working.

 

And then you have the passengers who did not settle their bill the evening before. Even for $3.00 (our last cruise)...long delay and they then had to go back to the atrium as they were a cash account:eek:

Another family had a $20 credit...held up the whole line as they would not leave without their $20 :eek:

 

Be prepared for anything...book later flights!

[Holg]

We did express debarkation on the Wind in Hawaii in April and it was great.

 

We must've been in like the first fifty people off. We then caught the first Hertz shuttle, checked in with them, and were driving off to the North Shore of Oahu in a convertable mustang while most people were searching for their bags on the pier.

 

On thing: the require ment was that you had to be able to carry off all your stuff in ONE trip.

 

Too many bad experiences with regular debarkation:

 

Like the time I put out my bag out in the hall on the Majesty long before the deadline (like 1am) but after they had gone through my hallway. So the baggage handlers decided to punish me by 'losing' my bag in with a bunch of other colored tags.

 

Or the time I was on RCCL in Vancouver and I arrived at the airport four hours before my bags did. I could've gotten on standby for an earlier flight and gotten home hours and hours earlier, but NOOOOO RCCL took their sweet time hauling the bags to the airport.... never again.

 

 

I love express debarkation and will do it every time.

[heydallas]

Thanks, all - this is a very informative thread. I am on the NCL transatlantic in December and booked my own flights. I read somewhere that the return flight should be at least six hours from the docking time, and fortunately I followed that advice - but have been wondering why it takes so long and if I would be spending half the day sitting around the airport. Now I get it! Thanks again.