Pride of Hawaii debarkation

I have read in the NCL brochure that getting off the ship at the end of a cruise is "very simple, sleep late, etc". What do they do to streamline this process? I have cruised on Carnival before and this is my least favorite part of the cruise. Thanks, Lydia

The american flagged "Pride of..." ships have no customs/immigration to deal with, so getting off can be pretty fast. It's just a question of how fast they can get your bags to the pier, prioritized by cabin type. If you packed light you can get off REALLY fast by walking all your own bags off, they let those people off first.

What if you are in no hurry to get off of the ship? We are going on the POH 6/12/06 sailing and our flight home doesn't leave until late afternoon, so we need to kill time...I hate waiting at airports!

So I hope we can sleep late, have breakfast and take our time getting off before heading to the airport.

I think they kick everyone off the ship at 10. Make sure to check when they stop serving breakfast, think it might be a bit early on that day. You could visit the arizona memorial before going home

Let me see if I can sum up Freestyle Debarkation:

1.) You can stay in your room until your luggage tag color is called. No need to be "herded" into public rooms waiting to leave.

2.) You can sleep in if you want. Breakfast is served until like 9:30 in both the buffet and Main Restaurant.

3.) If you want to get off quick and fast, as soon as they are ready they will call for "Express Debarkation" which means that if you want to and can carry all of your own luggage off, you can just leave and be the first off. (You have to be able to carry ALL of your own luggage off.)

4.) MikeKaye is right, I believe the final call is like 10 or 11 a.m. and at that time you have to leave the ship so that they can turn it over for the incoming passengers.

You will be given colored luggage tags based on the time that you have been assigned to get off the ship. If you are on an NCL sponsored tour or have a post cruise hotel stay arranged by NCL, you will have special tags. All others will be tagged according to what time their flight is and what deck they are on. You cannot get off before your color is called because your luggage would not be ready for pickup on the pier, but you can remain after you color is called, all the way up to last call.

Sleeping in is something I always like to do, too, but there's something to be said for being up and awake and watching the ship come into port. Coming into Honolulu was especially neat, and I kind of regret I wasn't up and dressed and paying more attention. Daylight comes early in Hawaii, and I was usually stirring and ready to watch at least some of the arrival on the 7 a.m. days. Thank goodness we had a starboard balcony (facing Waikiki and Diamond Head on Oahu); if we'd been inside, I'd have probably missed all the arrivals completely!