Liberty Debarkation was the nightmare I had read about

[Pushka]

What I was talking about (in regards to being ridiculous) was the instructions to proceed with their luggage to a particular location only to have them haul it down 3 flights of stairs. .

 

But that is irrelevant if you are able to manage your own luggage. There are a few things I would have done differently, and I am hardly an experienced cruiser, but maybe just common sense.

 

I would never cause myself stress by booking a flight until the afternoon - who needs last day angst to spoil a vacation. I would get all the help I could with luggage with three kids, expecially young kids. So that rules out getting all those bags myself. That was always going to end in tears. And honestly, with three kids in tow and all that lugagge, it wouldnt surprise me if a thread appeared on this forum complaining about people trying to self-disembark who simply should not have attempted this and made it difficult for everyone else.

 

It just seems like common sense to me?:confused:

[jletsgo]

I would think that self assist would work better for passengers who have a very small amount of luggage....not for a family of four with lots of baggage.....

[cwnhokie]

I understand that you need to be able to handle your own luggage, I also understand that customs may cause a delay which is not the cruise lines fault. I get it. What I was talking about (in regards to being ridiculous) was the instructions to proceed with their luggage to a particular location only to have them haul it down 3 flights of stairs. It's not like they don't know which deck you'll be exiting the ship from, right? Why not just direct them to that deck in the first place so they could have at least used elevators to get there? And what good was it if they wound up finding themselves with others who disembarked the standard way? (Maybe that was only the case because of whatever delay occurred, I don't know).

 

The original post was valuable to me as I've considered this option every time I cruise (to avoid "losing" a bag), but haven't tried it yet. Wouldn't work for us, we have some in our group with minor mobility issues. Good to know.

 

Thank you for understanding what I was trying to say. I said that it was partly our fault. It in no way ruined our cruise ( and I hope we didn't ruin anyone else's by being in the way) my husband had a very positive attitude about catching the plane so at least we never had that stress. We must have missed whatever warnings they gave, if there were any, about having to manage our luggage down all those stairs. Not to start a comparison of cruise lines, but just to shed light on what we were thinking and out past experience. We have only sailed with Carnival and always done self assist (with lots of luggage, but no kids) and they have always had us gather on the deck that we would be leaving from, which isn't always 1. We had a plan for managing the luggage, just never imagined it would involve stairs or that everyone would be getting off at the same time. I'm glad my in laws decided against it, even with little or no luggage, they wouldn't have been able to manage the stairs and the elevators were packed. Like I said, lesson learned.

[cwnhokie]

We were on the Liberty on the 2/18 and 2/27 sailings and on both we self disembarked. Between dealing with people who walked off then tried to claim luggage ( causing disruptions) and short staffing at Customs/Immigration, the lines out were indeed long and rather slow moving. We recently have had similar problem almost every time we took a short ( less than 7 days) cruise on almost every ship.By the way, Customs claims budget cuts forced them to reduce staffing.

 

There were several people that appeared to be waiting on Deck 1 and joined the line and then had to claim luggage.

 

Luggage was an issue this entire trip. I forgot we had to get our luggage from Deck 1 at the beginning of the trip. I checked a small cooler with some apple juice for my little guy and they held all of our bags at security. When we went to pick it up they security guys were surprised that it had been held, but we all assumed it was from the apple juice. No one was sure why they held all of them though. And they were especially surprised to find that the older boys backpacks, did in fact contain school books.

[Esmerelda]

YES, the Liberty debarkation December 2011 was the worst we've ever experienced. We had signed up for the "Valet" program where our luggage leaves and goes onto the airport without us. NOT.... The process was supposed to be that everyone signed up for this program was to be in a certain dining room by 8:30AM. It clearly stated that there were no exceptions, if you weren't there, you were bumped from the program. About 60 people showed up on time. We waited and waited, finally around 9:15am or so, my husband walks to guest services to ask why we weren't allowed to disembark and why we were all still sitting? He was told, everyone was disembarking already and that there were no problems with the ship and customs and that we should all go! We were the last 100 in line to disembark from the ship...we finally were in a cab to the airport at around 10:20AM for a flight out of FLL at 11:30. Talk about cutting it close! The most sad part of the entire story is our original tag to exit the ship (before we became interested in the Valet program) was 8:00am. We would have been way better on time instead of the mess we got ourselves in. Several of the peeps on the "Valet Program" that were sitting with us missed their flights. :( What a mess that whole thing was. (as well, our luggage never even made it to our flight but that's another whole thread that I won't go into again) We learned some very valuable lessons that trip. :)

[Aquahound]

What I was talking about (in regards to being ridiculous) was the instructions to proceed with their luggage to a particular location only to have them haul it down 3 flights of stairs.

 

This absolutely did cause part of the problem. You embark LOS on deck 4 by way of a nice covered gangway, and in most ports, you disembark the same way you embarked. I think most people were anticipating this. However, at that berth, you have to disembark on deck 1 directly out on to the pier, then walk all the way down to the end and clear Customs in an entirely different building than you embarked through.

[Starry Eyes]

This absolutely did cause part of the problem. You embark LOS on deck 4 by way of a nice covered gangway, and in most ports, you disembark the same way you embarked. I think most people were anticipating this. However, at that berth, you have to disembark on deck 1 directly out on to the pier, then walk all the way down to the end and clear Customs in an entirely different building than you embarked through.

 

I agree...the problem is largely disembarking on deck 1... It is not a public deck, and there is no space on deck 1 for passengers to gather while awaiting ship clearance. After the TA last fall, they did not assign a departure waiting area at all for self disembarkation, so we were near our cabin on deck 10. We tried to get an elevator for 30 minutes, but they were all full, both up and down....maybe the same people were riding up and down since they could not get off on deck 1. Since we did not have too much luggage or small children, we were in better shape than the OP, but we had to carry our luggage down 9 flights...two or three flights would have been catwalk by comparison. I am glad they now gather the self disembarkation folks on a lower deck to await clearance. I think they should warn potential selfdiembarkation folks they will probably have to negotiate stairs with their luggage...it might help people make better decisions.

[cwnhokie]

I can definitely say that had we known we going to have to go down stairs with our luggage we would have put it out and taken our chances getting off at our assigned time. Which in hindsight would have actually gotten us off earlier like my in-laws.

[Desert Cruizers]

We experienced a horrible disembarkation in FT Lauderdale after our TA last Oct. Many missed Post cruise tours ourselves included, flights. Fortunately we had a 3:30 flight so were alright. After we were finally called, some 2 hrs late ( Tour was 8:30) and proceeding down the stairs from Deck 3, one lady went face down the flight of stairs unto the landing on Deck 2. Everyone came to an abrupt halt to check on her, and thankfully she was alright. People had jammed the hallways making it impossible for those getting off elevators or others to get off when called.

[Cruzaholic41]

For Liberty's cruises that start and end on any day other than Saturday or Sunday, they should be using terminal 18 (Oasis terminal). Liberty is too big a ship for so many people self-disembarking, especially involving the issues with the elevators and the fact you unload from deck 1.

 

It is circumstances like this I wich RCI would follow NCL's example of issuing surveys by e-mail after the cruise. You can't mention this on the comment card because by the time you turn it in, this problem hasn't occurred yet.

[midwife1021]

Sounds like a huge mess. We plan on disembarking with luggage in tow. At least I know we CAN handle our luggage and hauling it up and down narrow staircases and I pack pretty efficiently. The kids even managed their bags up and down narrow staircases in London, so I know they can handle the ship. They did fine on Majesty but we just queued up on the deck that we left out of.

[Desert Cruizers]

We didn't have as much of a problem coming from Deck 8 to 4, where we met in the Schooner Bar, but still ended up taking our carryons down the stairs, the elevators were useles. There we sat from 8 until almost 10:30 and missed our tour but were reimbursed for it after we got home and a phone call into RCL.

[molly361]

I wonder why that is (sorry if I missed it here) that we cannot disembark from the same deck that you embark on (deck 4)???

[Cruising89143]

I think that RCI needs to limit the amount and size luggage that a person can carry off the ship. I have seen too many people trying to haul luggage off and they simply cannot handle it all.

[Big_G]

I think self debarkation is a roll of the dice sometimes. We did it once in Boston and it was a nightmare. Not a lot of luggage, no kids, and we were lined up on the gangway deck...for over an hour. Once the process began, there was an inordinate amount of passengers either having card problems or getting pulled out of line when they tried to swipe their card. It was a slow hall and you know how aggravated some people get. A little pushing, tripping, and complaining about RCI. If we could have pulled out of line and stood back, we would have gladly done so. It was like an angry herd. Based on that one experience, we now book all our flights to coincide with luggage valet and always use it when available. I know what some are thinking, "It doesn't always go like that." I would say, you're right but why roll that dice and chance ending a great cruise on a bad note. We usually take one or two days ahead of the cruise to avoid rushing to the port so why rush home. Just my own personal opinion.