We've talked about cruise embarkation day for when you first get on the ship for your cruise, so now it's only fair to discuss cruise disembarkation day for when you get off the ship at the end of your cruise. Cruises normally get back to their home port, go through some customs clearing, and then will start letting you off the ship around 8 am.
On the last night of your cruise, your stateroom attendant will leave disembarkation luggage tags in your room. If you didn't receive any, you can go to guest services and ask for some. They're usually numbered (but this can vary by cruise line), and the number will signify your disembarkation group and luggage pickup location. Usually they go in numerical order, so the lower the number the earlier you'll be called to get off the ship. In general, people with the first flights out, suite cabins, and top-tier loyalty status get to go fist, and then they work their through everyone else. If you get a high number and want to get off the ship sooner, you can go down to guest services and see if there's any other numbers still available. If you have a flight to catch soon after the ship disembarks, you'll want to bring this up to guest services. Whatever number you get, make sure you take a picture of the luggage tags so that there's no guessing the next morning of which luggage pickup location you need to go to.
Really cruise disembarkation day begins the evening before for most people. When you get off the ship, you have 2 options of what to do with your luggage. You can carry your suitcases through the ship and take them off with you, or you can have the cruise crew drop you luggage off. Either way you get off the ship, you'll need your passport available to get off. I suggest you just wear a crossbody bag with your phone and ID's to make it really easy and fast to find what you need to de-board. Unlike a hotel where you can just leave your room key behind or throw it away, you'll likely need to scan your cruise room key one last time so they can mark that you got off the ship, so keep this on you as you disembark. Don't forget to keep a few $1 in your wallet so you can tip a porter to help you get all your bags out of the cruise terminal and loaded into your car.
Carry-Off Disembarkation
Having the crew take your bags off the ship for you will save you the hassle of trying to carry a suitcase around when thousands of people are all trying to get off the ship at the same time and the elevators are too full to use. But, it will cost you in time because when you get off the ship you'll have to go down to baggage claim and find your bag similar to when you fly. This is an extra stop on the way out of the terminal, and depending on how many other suitcases look like yours, it could take you a minute to find your bag. The self-assist method means that once you're off the ship and through customs, you can go straight out of the terminal and leave.
The are only 3 scenarios when I recommend the do-it-yourself method. First, is if you have an early flight out the day your ship gets back and you really need to get off the ship ASAP. Second, is if you packed lightly and you only have 1 small bag to carry, so it's worth your time to just keep your one and only carry-on bag with you. Third, is if you have a baby or toddler and for the sake of their schedule, you need to make getting of the ship take as little as possible.
For any other scenario, I think that it's worth the wait to just have someone else take your bags for you so all you have to worry about is getting yourself off the ship. Assume that the elevators will not be an option on your disembarkation day, so keep that in mind when determining whether to check or carry your bags off the ship.
Checked Luggage Disembarkation
The first time you cruise, it's a weird process to have the crew take your bags. Unlike embarkation where you showed up and dropped off your luggage, on disembarkation you actually pack up everything the night before and leave your suitcase outside of your room. As long as you bag is outside by the cut-off time (usually around midnight, but they'll let you know several times what the cut-off time is), then the staff will come around at night and take your suitcases away, tooth fairy style.
The problem that catches a lot of first-time cruisers (and even experienced cruisers who aren't thinking about it), is that once your bag is taken at midnight, you don't see it again until after you get off the ship. So, you have to remember to not pack any toiletries or medication you might need in the morning, and you have to make sure you don't accidentally forget to leave out an outfit to wear as you get off the ship as well as your passports.
How I've solved that problem is that when I'm packing for my cruise, I'll use a
packing cube that is a different color from our normal packing cubes (I do a color per person and then my disembarkation cube is white) so that it stands out, and pack everyone's outfits for the last day. All I have to remember is to leave out 1 pair of shoes per person. This makes it so easy! We don't have to remember to grab a pair of shorts from the dirty clothes pile or forget to leave out a shirt for the last day. It's just all together and ready to go for that last day. Then, we use the packing cube to pack up our dirty pj's so we don't have loose clothing just thrown into a bag.
The other thing I do is I have a
disembarkation toiletry bag. This is a very small toiletry bag that keeps just what we need for that last morning. The thing I hated before was using my toothbrush the morning we get off the ship, and then having to either save my entire toiletry bag with everything from the whole trip and keep it all on me all day, or having just a rogue toothbrush in my carry-on bag. Now, I just have a
disposable toothbrush that is already loaded with toothpaste. This lets me pack my travel toothbrush and toothpaste in my normal toiletry bag and back that away into my checked luggage. Plus, I don't have to worry about trying to dry a toothbrush so you can leave your room. I bought an extra
his and
hers travel deodorant that I keep packed in the disembarkation bag so, again, our regular travel deodorant can get packed. Plus, this was we have a backup if our deodorant runs out mid-trip. A
mini hair brush plus a
small thing of hair ties for me, and a
travel comb for Ryan. I have a very
small tube of face lotion, with SPF built in of course, and a
mini mascara to apply on the last morning. And that's it! It's everything we need in the morning, but nothing more.
This has helped make our disembarkation mornings so much faster and easier since we don't have to stress worrying over whether something we need in the morning is accidentally packed. We can throw all of this into our small
excursion backpack, be hands free getting off the ship, and get out of our room quickly since we have barely anything to pack up.
The Disembarkation Process
The morning of your disembarkation, your ship's cruise director will start making announcements to wake everyone up and remind everyone to leave their rooms ASAP. Even if your disembarkation de-boarding group is one of the last ones to get off your ship, they'll still want you out of your rooms ASAP so they can start cleaning it for the guests that will come aboard later that day for the next sailing.
Sometimes your disembarkation group will have a designated waiting area around the ship, just like how
excursions would have meet ups at certain bars or other gathering areas. This is where you'll want to head to, because sometimes they only make announcements
in that area and you don't want to miss them letting you know you can leave. Like I mentioned earlier, the elevators are jam packed, so unless you're physically reliant on the elevators, you should just prepare for today to be a stairs day.
Unlike every other morning on your ship, there is no free room service breakfast offered on the last day. The buffet and little cafes around the ship are usually open so you can eat breakfast while you wait for your de-boarding time. Just be aware that pretty much everyone else on the ship has the same idea, so finding a place to sit down will be your biggest challenge.
The good news, is that now you're back in America so you can turn on your data and use your phone normally without being dependent on the ship's wi-fi. If you haven't already, go to the deck where all of the cruise photos are and see if there's any photos you buy. On our last cruise, we weren't really looking to get any photos, but we saw that one turned out much better than we thought so we went ahead and bought it. If this isn't your first cruise, you probably have a discount for a photo through the cruise loyalty program. Just be aware that they don't save these photos, so once you get off the ship they're permanently deleted.
Eventually, your time will come and you can get off the ship. Getting off the ship itself is actually a really easy process, and it's really fast if you have a passport. If you have a passport, they would have previously taken a picture of you when you got on the ship on day one. To get off the ship, you just walk by an iPad and scan your face, and that's it! Basically just like getting off an airplane. If you have a birth certificate, it's a whole different process where you have to wait in line and have someone manually verify your birth certificate and ID. When we got off the
Carnival Vista in 2023, they only had 2 people processing the birth certificates, so the line moved very slowly.
Then, you head down to the baggage claim and it's just like baggage claim at the airport. You'll find your luggage pickup location that matches the number on your disembarkation luggage tag, and go find your suitcase. This is where having
something to identify your suitcase easily will come in handy. This is one of the reasons why I'm very happy that I have
monogrammed luggage, because I can quickly pick out my initials in a crowd of similar-looking suitcases. If you have an
AirTag in at least one of the bags, you can use the FindMy app on your iPhone to point you in the right direction for your luggage.
