Princess Rolls out new disembarking process

[Guest Spo]

We just disembarked from the Diamond yesterday. It was the PERFECT cruise in every way until disembarkation!! I can't say enough wonderful things about this cruise. However, disembarkation was an absolute NIGHTMARE! I have never seen a more disorganized mess in my life. And as wonderful as all the crew had been during the cruise, they really did not care at all when people attempted to get help yesterday. The line for immigration snaked from Club Fusion all the way through and around the atrium and actually snaked back around on itself with no crew whatsoever present to direct people. Disembarkation is the ONLY complaint we had about this cruise and it was a terrible way to end the best cruise we could have ever imagined.

[Guest Spo]

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

 

You are assigned a time to line up for immigration and then you go to your designated area to listen for your luggage tag color/number to be called.

[IKE]

Looking forward to this new disembarkation process in March on the "Caribbean Princess". Last time, We sailed Princess was Sept.2006 on the new "Crown" out of Brooklyn,NY and this was not being handled the new way.Nothing but crowds! Will make it so much easier for everyone. Thanks for the info. IKE

[NAS-KARR]

Sounds good.............can't wait to ck it out !

 

 

CIAO,

[tvaud]

anybody cruised on the CB lately with this new process? Sailing Sunday and would be great if they had it.

 

Bill

 

They do.:)

 

I am racking my brain here, but I am sure last August was the first time we have seen disembarkation done this way on the Caribbean Princess. Yes, it was the Caribbean Princess.

The two preivous times we sailed it was a zoo the final day, but last August it was so quick, and so smooth, no frustration at all that final morning. Not sure if we happened to be sailing when they were trying it out or if it has been in place ever since though. You are gonna love this......................!

 

Stop racking your brain. We were on CB in July and the new disembarkation process was in place. CB must have been one of the test ships. I remember how stunned we were that disembarkation was such a breeze. We sat in the lobby bar and had coffee after breakfast in the dining room. Our meeting place was in the dining room next door, so it was the perfect place. The ship seemed so quiet with no one hanging out in the gangways...no one to step over...and very little b*tching. As soon as we sat down in our meeting place, they had us lining up and getting off the ship. I thought it was wonderful then and wondered why the rest of the fleet didn't do it this way. I guess I am getting my wish.:)

Bravo Princess!

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We just got off the Golden a week ago - great cruise. btw! The system was in place. We followed the directions which told us to eat breakfast & then wait in the Princess Theater until we were to go to our designated lounge. We did exactly that. However, we found that we were only two of about 12 people in the whole theater! I have no idea where everyone else was at that time. No problem - I sat and read a book until we could go to our disembarkment lounge. We got there right on time (after taking off the aforementioned hour delay due to immigration delays) and were promptly escorted off the ship. We did have a 20 minute wait in line to get through immigration. We got to our car at 11:00 and were on the road. It was later than I had hoped to be going, but not as late as I was in disembarking the Explorer in 2005 when it took us until 1PM to get through immigration!

 

All in all it was pretty painless. I would have liked to get going earlier, but it could have been worse!

[newbie2468]

We are in a suite on the CB this March... typically the suite passengers waited in the Club Fusion(platinum) waiting area for priority disembarkation.. will this new method change things? Or do suite passengers still have a designated place to wait?

 

Thanks

 

Tori

[DameAtSeaII]

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:

 

TinaLee....we should be fine. In the past when we have needed to disembark with other members of our traveling party, we simply got the same color tags from our cabin steward or the purser's desk. I'm sure that will work the same with the new process.

[teachergal29]

I am still confused about where we can be before our designated time and place to meet. Can we stay in our cabin like HAL lets you do or do we have to be out of our room by 8:30 like before??

 

TIA for any info on this..

[nana nancy]

Do I still have to request an early off? We are changing our plans and doing Alaska on our own. We are taking the Whittier to Anchorage transfer with the tour in the coupon book. We have to meet the bus at 8:45 at the latest, can't keep them waiting. So do I still have to talk to someone early in the cruise?

[BJS]

Do I still have to request an early off? We are changing our plans and doing Alaska on our own. We are taking the Whittier to Anchorage transfer with the tour in the coupon book. We have to meet the bus at 8:45 at the latest, can't keep them waiting. So do I still have to talk to someone early in the cruise?

If this a Princess transfer that has been pre-booked the ship should have that information and assign you to the appropriate waiting area. When you get your tags just make sure you have the correct ones to meet the bus by 8:45 and if you do not go and have them changed.

 

 

 

.

[LakeErieLive]

In Feb 07 we sailed the Carnival Liberty and we were able to walk off the ship if we carried our own bags....we had our car parked in the garage at Fort Lauderdale...It worked great as we were on I-95 heading north at 7:45am...This year the Coral Princess had the same self walk off program..We breezed through customs, got off the ship a little after 7:00am and out of the parking garage at 8:00 (I couldn't find my car, which is hard to do if you forget the actual floor you are on)...So I really like the self walk off programs. We are dong a Costa cruise over easter and wonder if they have it too.