I always thought that self-debarkation was for those folks that had either and early flight or some other type of connections. How wrong I've been. On the October Oasis sail out of Bayonne, my family had a nice leisurely breakfast in the MDR and at about 8:15 we decided to debark. Wow the line stretched from one side of the Promenade to the other and most of the passengers waiting to debark had multiple bags and including the very large ones. They struggled especially some of the older Paxs as the line very slowly snaked thru the MDR and onto the running track. At one point, the line must have stopped for about 10 minutes as there was backing up at the terminal. When getting off they also had to navigate the elevators and some took the chance of the escalators.
Our bags were waiting for us and not much of a hassle. Not to debate the issue, but why, unless there's concern of losing/misplacement of one's bags.