Self Assist

[nikblondiew]

Can anyone tell me about self assist? I know you don't put your luggage out. Does anyone have any more information. Like what time this starts?

[Nitemare]

If your question is about a specific cruiseline (I've never heard this term used on Princess or Celebrity), you'll get the best answers on the board here at Cruise Critic dedicated to your line.

 

Good luck!

[LHT28]

On Princess it is "self Help" you can get tickets at information desk onboard and you are the first group to get off after ship is cleared. You have to carry your own luggage off no help provided.

[Bonnie J.]

You don't leave anyting outside your door. You carry EVERYTHING off the ship. It is usually one of the 1st groups off if not the 1st.

[MsBlue]

You'll need to go to the purser's office and get new tags for your luggage. The self-assist tags will be a different color from everyone else's. Your tag color will be called before other colors - for debarkation. There will be an announcement in the Capers (Carnival) about this process.

 

The problem is - since self-assist was started last year (Carnival), seems about half the passengers do it that way now. You do not put the luggage into the hall the last evening. They will tell you that you must be able to take ALL of your luggage off the ship yourself - there will be no assistance whatsoever.

 

Unless I had an early flight to catch, I'd never do self-assist. I've seen it turn into a zoo. I'll just sit back and have an extra cuppa coffee and wait for my color to be called. I don't like being stressed at the end of my wonderful cruise vacation.;)

[sp29488]

On our last cruise (May of this year) we didn't need to get any other tags to go on our luggage. We left at the approp. time and we were off the ship and in our car at 8:30a.m.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

On Enchantment of the Seas we had to sign up for Self Assist on the sheet where you indicate your travel plans. We were told only a limited number of passengers would be permitted to do it and further advised that no help whatsoever would be given, so not to do it if we might have difficulty.

 

I chose not to do it as I had a broken big toe, but when we waited in the lounge for our tags to be called, it seemed as if hundreds of people lined up in that same lounge for Self Assist. If there truly was a limit, I can't imagine what it was. As was said above, I think fully half the ship carried their own luggage even quite senior citizens!

 

As an aside, watching these folks taught me something interesting. It was surprising how many of them had ONLY a back pack or a small carry on bag for a five day cruise. I don't see how they put a formal outfit in that bag or really much of anything else, actually. My shoes, toiletries and medications would fill up some of the bags I saw, let alone clothing. Many folks really do travel "light."

[Host Caroline]

We've done self assist several times and it's great IMHO only .. we have a long drive home from Florida and it helps immensely as we usually are one of the last ones off otherwise.. In Seattle we had a very early flight, did self assist on Princess and were off and at the airport in 45 mins tops.. without all the later traffic etc. You do have to carry everything off with you and some cruise lines make you sign up for it and others don't so if you are interested in this (by whatever name they call it) be sure you find out exactly how it's done before the a.m. of disembarkation!!

[LHT28]

Some people just crowd the exit even if they don't have "self assist" we had to crawl over people with red, gold and assorted other coloured tags to get off when the "self assist" passengers were called.:mad:

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Some people just crowd the exit even if they don't have "self assist" we had to crawl over people with red, gold and assorted other coloured tags to get off when the "self assist" passengers were called.:mad:

 

That's what it looked like to me, too. It seemed like mass confusion at the door of the ship and I wished more crew were around to supervise the exit better. Frankly, I was glad I wasn't part of that crush of exiting passengers.