Debarkation strategy-keep your luggage or not?

[KeithVH]

While I understand the process of leaving your luggage outside the door the night before and character/colors, is it easier to keep your luggage on the last day? We are GOES member so going through customs for us is a breeze (or should be if the port has the kiosks). We plan to be off the ship ASAP to get our rental car and trying to plan the most efficient exit off the ship.

 

[ChuckElias]

Since your strategy is get through customs as early as possible, I would suggest keeping your luggage with you. It might not save a ton of time, but you won't have to go through all the bags in the terminal to find your own stuff. You'll just walk off the ship and to the customs line.

 

[Tom]

We skip breakfast and take our own bags off early. Customs is a breeze, regardless. I just don't like NOT having my bags overnight, and prefer to have them in my possession.

 

[KeithVH]

Thanks! Like they say, you can always appreciate the intelligence of someone by how well they agree with you . . .

 

[Hakunamatata]

Speaking of debarking what time do you have to be off by?

 

[flynnibus]

While I understand the process of leaving your luggage outside the door the night before and character/colors, is it easier to keep your luggage on the last day? We are GOES member so going through customs for us is a breeze (or should be if the port has the kiosks). We plan to be off the ship ASAP to get our rental car and trying to plan the most efficient exit off the ship.

Getting your luggage is not what takes any time.. its actually getting off the boat and the customs/CBP line. Unlike most airports, its a single combined process at Disney's PC terminal. So I don't think they have any kiosks. You get your luggage, then get in the single line.. then you are free to the curb.

And no way you'd want to be hauling your luggage off the ship or dealing with them at breakfast. It's crowded enough as it is. Leave your bags out as instructed and just pick them up in the terminal.

 

[flynnibus]

Speaking of debarking what time do you have to be off by?

I think 9 is the latest? They assign you a time to try to spread people out.. but really you can go at anytime once they start letting people out. It's something like 7:30-8:30 if I recall.

 

[Tom]

Getting your luggage is not what takes any time.. its actually getting off the boat and the customs/CBP line. Unlike most airports, its a single combined process at Disney's PC terminal. So I don't think they have any kiosks. You get your luggage, then get in the single line.. then you are free to the curb.

And no way you'd want to be hauling your luggage off the ship or dealing with them at breakfast. It's crowded enough as it is. Leave your bags out as instructed and just pick them up in the terminal.

Unless you skip breakfast and just leave the ship. It was a piece of cake for us to take our luggage down the hallway, down the elevator, and out to customs. In November, we waited for perhaps 2 people and got through customs in less than a minute. We sat on the Magical Express bus, waiting for it to fill up, longer than the entire journey from our room to the bus.

 

[Tom]

I think 9 is the latest? They assign you a time to try to spread people out.. but really you can go at anytime once they start letting people out. It's something like 7:30-8:30 if I recall.

Yeah, it's pretty early. I think the first breakfast is something like 6:45am (if you have the early dinner), and before 8am for second breakfast (late dinner). Once you leave your room, you can't go back.

 

[flynnibus]

Unless you skip breakfast and just leave the ship. It was a piece of cake for us to take our luggage down the hallway, down the elevator, and out to customs. In November, we waited for perhaps 2 people and got through customs in less than a minute. We sat on the Magical Express bus, waiting for it to fill up, longer than the entire journey from our room to the bus.

I say what's the rush I don't need to get up even earlier on my last day on the boat, nor want to goto bed early because of it. We tend to goto cabanas, then head off ship when practical. I don't think we've waiting longer than 5-10mins tops in line at customs? It's not a biggie really IMO.

Even when we have a full day after getting off the boat.. it's a non issue. The time I went to universal the day we disembark.. I think we had checked into the hotel and were in the park by 10:30 or so? And that wasn't even trying to get off first, etc.

When you are traveling with 4 females who have packed for 7 days... I want nothing to do with that luggage

 

[KeithVH]

Normally I would agree with flynnibus. I mean, it's a vacation, right? However, some research indicates picking up reserved rental cars can be a crapshoot at the Cape. It may not be that bad but I've read enough bad experiences to take some risk reduction efforts and get to the agency ASAP.

What's more upsetting to me is the whole customs setup if what I'm hearing is true. Starts to make me question why we did GOES in the first place.

 

[Tom]

Normally I would agree with flynnibus. I mean, it's a vacation, right? However, some research indicates picking up reserved rental cars can be a crapshoot at the Cape. It may not be that bad but I've read enough bad experiences to take some risk reduction efforts and get to the agency ASAP.

What's more upsetting to me is the whole customs setup if what I'm hearing is true. Starts to make me question why we did GOES in the first place.

I've never rented a car at the port, so I'm not sure what impact that has.

As for customs, I hear lots of horror stories, but we've taken 3 Disney cruises and I think the longest we waited was 10 minutes. The 2 most recent times, as I said previously, we walked from our room to the short queue in the customs "warehouse". I think there were maybe a handful of guests in front of us, but they have several lanes open.

You walk up, hand them your pre-filled-out disembarkation form and passports, and after barely looking at any of it, they tell you to have a nice day and wave you on. I don't think we even set all of our bags down the last time, it was so fast.

 

[ChuckElias]

Getting your luggage is not what takes any time.. its actually getting off the boat and the customs/CBP line.

I agree and disagree. Finding your own bags can be a bit hit-or-miss. Sometimes, the bags are right where you expect them to be. But it can also take a bit of time if your luggage looks pretty much like everybody else's. They try to put the bags in stateroom order within the different luggage tag areas, but they're never fully successful at it. We've taken as long as 15-20 minutes to find bags in the past.

But I agree that the greater delay is caused by the custom's line. This is why I initially said that carrying your own bags off the ship might not save a ton of time. But it will save you the time of finding your bags in the terminal. And if you walk off the ship early enough, there will not be much of a customs line yet.

 

[ChuckElias]

Once you leave your room, you can't go back.

I have not found this to be the case. We have gone back to the room after breakfast to brush teeth and we've never been told that we can't do that. If that has changed recently, then I can always be wrong. But I'm just telling you what we've done in the past.

 

[ChuckElias]

I say what's the rush

Maybe they have an 8:30 FastPass for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train?

 

[ChuckElias]

Normally I would agree with flynnibus. I mean, it's a vacation, right? However, some research indicates picking up reserved rental cars can be a crapshoot at the Cape

The one time that we rented a car at the Cape, it went very smoothly, fortunately. However, when we parked off-site one time, we disembarked with no problem, got on the shuttle bus with no problem, and then. . . SAT. For like 35 minutes, the shuttle bus waited at the port to fill up before taking us back to the hotel where we had parked our car.

If you're getting off the ship early, then it probably depends more on the shuttle service than the customs line, as to how long it takes you to get to the rental agency.

 

[Master Yoda]

I will be the lone maverick here...I have done it both ways and prefer to let them take my bags the night before especially if I plan on having breakfast on the ship.

The time savings I experienced by keeping my luggage was minimal and easily offset by the aggravation of having to deal with all of it in the morning. If you pack light and have only one or two bags I might be able to see it, but packing light ain't happening with a wife and daughters on a cruise.

I found it much easier to keep a single shoulder bag or rolling carry on size piece of luggage to store your toiletries and sleeping clothes from the night before and then grab a porter with a hand truck to carry your luggage when you get off the ship.

 

[ChuckElias]

I will be the lone maverick here...I have done it both ways and prefer to let them take my bags the night before especially if I plan on having breakfast on the ship.

I actually agree. We've done 10 or so DCL cruises out of Port Canaveral, and we've only kept our bags once. And the only reason we did it that time is that we were too lazy to pack before 10 pm on the last night of the cruise.

We always have breakfast in our rotational restaurant on the last morning because my family insists on seeing our serving staff one last time. So we're never the first ones off the ship, so there's no reason to keep our luggage.

 

[tk924]

Thanks for this info, everyone.

We're getting ready for our second ever cruise. On the first one, we opted out of breakfast and to get off the ship asap as we'd already been in WDW prior to that cruise and I just wanted to get home.
This time I think we're going to stay for breakfast on debarkation day but I must admit I'm a little nervous about the breakfast crowds and time spent to get off the ship. We do have a 10 hour drive home.

.

 

[Master Yoda]

Thanks for this info, everyone.

We're getting ready for our second ever cruise. On the first one, we opted out of breakfast and to get off the ship asap as we'd already been in WDW prior to that cruise and I just wanted to get home.
This time I think we're going to stay for breakfast on disembarkation day but I must admit I'm a little nervous about the breakfast crowds and time spent to get off the ship. We do have a 10 hour drive home.

.

Breakfast crowds tend to be pretty minimal. We have always been able to go directly to our table.

Getting off the ship is also pretty easy. Just walk off, grab a porter (guy with a luggage cart), go to the section with your luggage and grab your bags then just wait in the line for customs.

Customs goes pretty quick as long as you have your paperwork filled out in advance and do not have a bunch of stuff to declare.

On our last cruise I think the entire process was about 20-30 minutes from getting off the ship to loading luggage into out SUV.