by Hi my lovely readers!
I always dread the cruise disembarkation day. The day when the cruise is over and I have to get off the ship. That always makes me very sad, literally.
And although I hate preparing the night before disembarkation, packing and gathering all my belongings from my cabin and preparing for the next day, I know it has to be done.
Today, I thought I’ll share my experience of what I tend to do and how I like to disembark. This might be helpful for you in preparing for and making your cruise disembarkation as stress-free as possible.
Tips for a stress-free cruise disembarkation
THE NIGHT BEFORE DISEMBARKATION
Normally, every cabin gets notified the day before the cruise disembarkation of the procedures, the disembarkation time slots as disembarkation tends to be staggered and what you can expect. This is all outlined in the information leaflet so I’m not going to go into detail on this.
Just make sure to read it fully and decide how and when you need to disembark and what you’re going to do with your luggage. There’re normally two options that you can chose from.
TIMED OR SELF-DISEMBARKATION
If you opt for timed disembarkation, you let a crew member collect your luggage on the last night of your cruise and pick it up the next day from the cruise terminal, where all luggage will be stored.
This is great option as you don’t have to drag your luggage around the ship when you have to vacate your cabin early in the morning, go for some breakfast and wait for your disembarkation time slot to be announced to get off the ship.
Of course with this option you have to plan accordingly as you will have to pack your luggage and leave it outside your cabin by a certain time on the last night of your cruise. You will need to keep behind certain items and clothes for the night, dinner and perhaps a last swim in the pool and of course a change of clothes for the next day.
The other option is to opt for self-disembarkation. With this one you can keep your luggage in your cabin overnight and pack whenever you want to. However, as I already mentioned you will have to drag your luggage around the ship the next day once you have vacated your cabin as you would have deferred the luggage collection right. This is only available the night before and not the morning of disembarkation.
HOW I TEND TO DISEMBARK
I normally chose the self-disembarkation option for a simple reason – sightseeing. Plus, its more convenient for me, but the main reason is sightseeing.
You see, with self-disembarkation you tend to be among the first people who have to get of the ship, which is key when you want to cram in as much sightseeing as possible before your flight back home.
I pack the night before, but I do that whenever I feel like it. Sometimes that’s even around midnight. The next morning I wake up early and have breakfast before I have to vacate the cabin, which is usually around 8 am. I will have breakfast 7ish am, go back to my cabin to brush my teeth and gather my stuff.
Very often the ship docks around 8 am so I watch it getting into the port from the lido deck, where I have enough space to store my luggage and belongings. Once the ship is docked and cleared, it’s already time to disembark and leave the ship.
Dragging the luggage around can be a bit annoying as the elevators tend to be full, there will be queues of people wanting to use them and dragging the luggage across half the cruise terminal and off the gangways is not glamorous.
Still, by 8.30 am I can be off the ship and heading for my next adventure, which to me is more important than having a relaxed and easy going disembarkation.
Also, for people who are under time pressure eg. needing to catch an 11 am flight, this is the way to go. Make sure to get off as soon as you can and that is only possible with self-disembarkation. However, if you’re not under time or in my case sightseeing pressure, by all means chose the times disembarkation as this tends to be more relaxed and stress-free.
- 7 Tips For A Smooth Embarkation
- How To Make The Most Of Your Cruise Embarkation Day
