Princess Rolls out new disembarking process

[DanJ]

I don't see the point of hanging out in ones cabin anyway. The process starts and finishes so quickly that you wouldn't really have much time to go back to your cabin and hang out. By the time you go have breakfast, go back and get your stuff and head to the designated lounge, it's time to go. Besides, if you hang out in your cabin until called, you'll just be adding to the clutter in the hallways trying to get from there to the gangway. If everyone gathers like they are supposed to, those people will get off quickly and be out of the way, making the whole process smoother.

 

We did the walk-off from the CB on Sunday. Other than 2 of the mid-ship elevators being de-activated, I thought it moved along well. We left the cabin at 705 for the scheduled 715 meet in the deck 5 dining room. I managed to get my wife and luggage into an elevator while I ran down the stairs, and we just joined the end of the line already disembarking. We were in a cab by 730. Had I been thinking a little clearer, we would have taken the aft elevators near our cabin down to deck 7 and walked to mid-ships from there but hauling the luggage down 2 flights of stairs might still have been a chore. The only issue in the line-up leaving was Jayson, the Club Fusion DJ, kept telling us in the dining room to have a seat so other people could fit in. I said back to him "why would be sit down, this line is moving and we are leaving the ship now". He turned around and said to somebody in his New York accent "Well, you just can't tell people things", which I found ironic LOL.

[janetz]

I read in Cruise News Daily (http://www.cruisenewsdaily.com/) tonight that Princess is also going to start allowing passengers to board as soon as the ship is cleared. Your cabin may not be ready but you could always drop off your carry-on and go explore the ship. They are also going to offer "restaurant" lunch in addition to going to the buffet.

 

It would be fabulous if this were offered on our Sapphire cruise. Can't wait to get onboard the ship and get going!

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This is awesome. We love to get onboard and start exploring early. :D

[NeurosurgeryNP]

We just of off the CB 1/20/2008. We disembarked this way. It was seamless and flawless and very quick.

[clojacks]

We return from a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the Coral on April 15th and have until 5:30 that evening to catch our flight home. We are considering renting a car and driving down to Miami to "hang out" for a few hours. What time could I reasonably expect to be disembarked under the new disembarkation procedures. Seeing how as we aren't rushed, we really have no need to speed through any process.

[StLouisCruisers]

They were using this system on the Diamond (Los Angeles) on Dec. 18 when we disembarked our Hawaii cruise. If you aren't a walk off, they go by those with Princess transfers and then the flight times. If you don't have a Princess transfer and have your own arrangements to get to airports, they go by deck. There are about 3 dozen tag color/number combinations.

 

We used the platinum lounge instead of the dining room assigned to the Caribe deck passengers. There they used a walkie talkie to tell our "Host" what color/number was being let off. Unfortunately, something had happened to delay departures, and as the morning went on it got later and later. We were supposed to leave about 9:10 but actually didn't leave until around 10:30. Lines through customs delayed us even longer. Got to our shuttle around 11:00.

 

When we left our cabin around 7-7:15 am to go eat breakfast, our cabin steward asked to get into our cabin to make up the bed. We had our carry-on luggage laid out there with items laying around to put in there after breakfast. We found it a little annoying to have to go back in, put everything in the suitcase, remove it to the closet area, and let him in to do the bed BEFORE breakfast. Wouldn't 8 am have been early enough? Because the stewards push you out so early, you can have a long wait in your assigned disembarkation area, believe me!:rolleyes:

[cruisemom42]

Often, I'm not in a rush to leave the ship. What happens if you don't wish to leave the ship yet when your "time" is called? Can you continue to hang out and enjoy the buffet and/or lounge and walk off with a later group?

[cruzegirl]

Not only that but you're free to walk off the ship once it's cleared. I do enjoy being able to walk off whenever I feel like it.

 

I'm with you........I don't want to be escorted off at any specific time. I like to sleep in and then leave when everyone else has gone. On our cruise in April, we were the last call. No rush, our luggage was right there... It was great. We always get midday flights for this reason.

[BJS]

Actually, with the new process, there's no tripping over any passengers unless something unusual has happened and there are delays. When we disembarked, we just walked from the lounge off the ship. No going through crowds, no tripping over people. It couldnt' have been easier or more efficient. Even on HAL, I found people wandering around and congregating around the departure area.

 

On the Star in December there were still people crowding the atriuim and they just stepped into the line with those disembarking. It was just as bad, if not worse than always. No one checked colored tags but just took your cruise card when you disembarked.

 

Hopefully as more people become familiar with the new procedure there will not be the mess we had. Glad to hear it has worked for others.

 

The only time that we have been able to decide when we wanted to leave a Princess ship was after we reached Elite status and had independent arrangements. There was still at "latest departure" time.

 

 

When we left our cabin around 7-7:15 am to go eat breakfast, our cabin steward asked to get into our cabin to make up the bed. We had our carry-on luggage laid out there with items laying around to put in there after breakfast. We found it a little annoying to have to go back in, put everything in the suitcase, remove it to the closet area, and let him in to do the bed BEFORE breakfast. Wouldn't 8 am have been early enough? Because the stewards push you out so early, you can have a long wait in your assigned disembarkation area, believe me!

We just leave what we want out in the bathroom or closet and let our room steward make up the bed while we are at breakfast. We look at it from the other side - it's a trade off. Letting the room steward get started ASAP means letting those that want to embark early have their room ready for them. Other ships that are more relaxed with their disembarkation procedures frequently do not embark passengers as early and if they do the rooms are not ready.

 

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[bdjam]

Often, I'm not in a rush to leave the ship. What happens if you don't wish to leave the ship yet when your "time" is called? Can you continue to hang out and enjoy the buffet and/or lounge and walk off with a later group?

I think you can - I've done it in the past...the only issue I've found is that sometimes the staff on the pier will start trying to address the fact that there's still luggage there from a particular color call.

On Dawn Princess, we had a late flight and got mid-disembarkation luggage tags...we went to the purser's desk and easily exchanged them for the color group that was the last call.

[hb1491]

I hope that they implemented on the Coral Princess in April as getting of in San Francisco is a nightmare any time .

It was not done last October on Island Princess

[flycess]

To those of you who have done the "express walk-off" disembarkation, what time is reasonable to expect to get off the ship?

[lysolqn]

This new "innovation" in disembarkation is not quite as new or innovative as Princess would have you think. Celebrity's been doing it for years and while it's an improvement over the old method, it would work even better if passengers cooperated. There are still those, who despite requests to the contrary, camp out in public places, corridors and stairwells determined to be the first ones off.

[Huebie]

Having just gotten off the Diamond this morning, I'd say it needs a lot of fine tuning. Disembarkation was a nightmare. People showed up whenever they felt like it, and by 8:30 the line was wrapped around the deck more than two times. It was a never ending snake. Crew made no attempt to make sure that only the passengers who had been assigned that time were lining up. Finally by 9:30 one passenger said he had been told to go at any time as "the whole procedure has broken down". Yet no one from the crew was doing anything to help other than a couple of ineffective announcements. In fact while this was occurring on Deck 6th the only crew we saw seemed to be in the atrium on Deck 5 looking up--and staying away. It was a very stressful way to end a great cruise.

[RSWBADGER]

This new "innovation" in disembarkation is not quite as new or innovative as Princess would have you think. Celebrity's been doing it for years and while it's an improvement over the old method, it would work even better if passengers cooperated. There are still those, who despite requests to the contrary, camp out in public places, corridors and stairwells determined to be the first ones off.

 

A Celebrity "Cheerleader" are we? ;)

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Having just gotten off the Diamond this morning, I'd say it needs a lot of fine tuning. Disembarkation was a nightmare. People showed up whenever they felt like it, and by 8:30 the line was wrapped around the deck more than two times. It was a never ending snake. Crew made no attempt to make sure that only the passengers who had been assigned that time were lining up. Finally by 9:30 one passenger said he had been told to go at any time as "the whole procedure has broken down". Yet no one from the crew was doing anything to help other than a couple of ineffective announcements. In fact while this was occurring on Deck 6th the only crew we saw seemed to be in the atrium on Deck 5 looking up--and staying away. It was a very stressful way to end a great cruise.

 

I don't understand what people were lining up for? I thought everybody went to designated areas and then were taken by a Princess employee to the gangway?

 

Bill

[BJS]

I don't understand what people were lining up for? I thought everybody went to designated areas and then were taken by a Princess employee to the gangway?

 

Bill

 

If it was the same as we experienced on the Star in December it was because people chose to ignor the request to go to their designated areas. There is little Princess crew can do when that happens. About the only way it could be stopped was to refuse to disembark those that did not have the proper colored tag but the results would be a worse nightmare than just getting them off of the ship.

 

 

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[finn1913]

We recently returned from our first cruise and this was how our disembarkation worked.

 

We found it to be very simple as we just sat out on the deck at the Outrigger and relaxed while waiting to head down to the Vista lounge which was our appointed area.

 

Even though it was delayed, we heard regular messages telling us how things were going.

 

I thought it was just the way they always did it!

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our first cruise and found the Princess 'systems' to be very user friendly.

 

Cheers,

Ann

[CruiseAholic]

Disembarked the Emerald on January 15 and it worked like a champ. Surprisingly, people actually listened and showed up on time and didn't crowd the lobby area.

[TinaLee]

It does? The Platinum Embarkation lounge is still available.

 

bdjam - I guess I'm still confused. If we are a group of 8 in 4 different cabins, on 3 different decks, and we are given say 3 different "locations" and times to disembark, we can still all just meet in the Elite lounge? and we disembark when? Do they disembark the entire Elite lounge at the same time? Or will everyone who is Platinum go to one lounge automatically, because they are Platinum... and everyone who is Elite go to one lounge because they are Elite? My head is spinning!

 

If there are no announcements - how does my group with 3 different departure times know when to leave? LOL! Pick the earliest and run with it?? :confused:

[lysolqn]

A Celebrity "Cheerleader" are we? ;)

 

No...just an observation that it has been tried on other lines; and, while in theory the process works, it can only work in practice if passengers cooperate. As Huebie noted, that's not always the case.

[PescadoAmarillo]

This new "innovation" in disembarkation is not quite as new or innovative as Princess would have you think. Celebrity's been doing it for years and while it's an improvement over the old method, it would work even better if passengers cooperated.

Very right, thank you. And I understand that you are not a Celebrity cheerleader, but simply stating the facts as you know them.

 

Regardless of which cruise line uses this disembarkation procedure, it's a huge improvement over the old way of doing things.

[PescadoAmarillo]

bdjam - I guess I'm still confused. If we are a group of 8 in 4 different cabins, on 3 different decks, and we are given say 3 different "locations" and times to disembark, we can still all just meet in the Elite lounge? and we disembark when? Do they disembark the entire Elite lounge at the same time? Or will everyone who is Platinum go to one lounge automatically, because they are Platinum... and everyone who is Elite go to one lounge because they are Elite? My head is spinning!

 

If there are no announcements - how does my group with 3 different departure times know when to leave? LOL! Pick the earliest and run with it?? :confused:

The Captain's Circle hostess calls out the baggage tag colors and numbers within the lounge. I found it much less pleasant than simply heading to an outside deck high on on the ship and waiting until about 15 minutes after our color should have been called (delays were the only thing announced over the PA, and we were an hour delayed, so we waited an extra hour) and then heading off the ship. Most of the bags for our color had been picked up, ours were easy to spot and we finished the process.

[NeurosurgeryNP]

We just got off of CB 1/20. This process worked well for us. We were given a disembarking brochure will all of the instructions a few nights before the end of the cruise. We were assigned initially to a later group, but becasue we had an earlier flight, we went to the purser's desk and easily change our color of tags. We waited in a dining room at our assigned time, and we were quickly and painless off of the ship within 10 minutes of getting there. No lines, no hassel no fuss. Everyone seemed to be going with the flow of the color and times they were given.

[lysolqn]

Very right, thank you. And I understand that you are not a Celebrity cheerleader, but simply stating the facts as you know them.

 

Regardless of which cruise line uses this disembarkation procedure, it's a huge improvement over the old way of doing things.

 

Thanks...one of the few voices of reason I've heard on the Princess boards in a while (LOL)!

 

And, yes, it is a huge improvement over the old way of doing things.

[DanJ]

To those of you who have done the "express walk-off" disembarkation, what time is reasonable to expect to get off the ship?

 

We got off the CB last Sunday on the walk-off program and were off shortly after the 715am time we were told. We were in a cab by 730. The only issue is getting an elevator since the midship elevators is where you need to go down to the deck 5 dining room, and they shut off 2 of the elevators. When you haul all your luggage, it doesn't take long for an elevator to fill up, which is why I went down the 9 flights of stairs while my wife took the luggage in the elevator. We left the cabin around 705, so in actual fact, it didn't take long, but next time we will plan better, and perhaps pack less LOL.