Walk off with Luggage

[deecruzer]

Hi,

 

I haven't sailed NCL for a while but was wondering if they allow you to walk off early with your luggage. I am looking at a cruise ending in San Juan and trying to figure out if we can make an 11:30 flight home.

[Laszlo]

Its easy, just get in line with your stuff and walk off. Don't leave it out in the hall the night before:D

[drb247]

They do.

 

I do it every time and it usually works a treat.

 

Getting an escalator at peak times on disembarkation day can sometimes be difficult.

[luckyinpa]

Its easy, just get in line with your stuff and walk off. Don't leave it out in the hall the night before:D

 

easy? :) well thats a relative statement. the line is insane on the BA, going through the casino and to the back of the ship. get there 6 am for the best place in line

[Laszlo]

easy? :) well thats a relative statement. the line is insane on the BA, going through the casino and to the back of the ship. get there 6 am for the best place in line

 

Wife and I have walked off every cruise except our last. Longest we stood in line was 30 minutes.

[deecruzer]

thanks for the info

[punkincc]

Hi,

 

I haven't sailed NCL for a while but was wondering if they allow you to walk off early with your luggage. I am looking at a cruise ending in San Juan and trying to figure out if we can make an 11:30 flight home.

 

You won't need to pick up colored luggage tags in the atrium. Just keep your luggage in your room overningt and wait for the "Easy Walk Off" call over the intercom. It should be more or less first call after you hear the "Ship is Cleared" announcement. You must be able to handle your own luggage unassisted. As previously suggested, there will probably be a line up before the call. Don't get stuck waiting for an elevator. Take the stairs. If you are a few minutes late, you'll end up in line behind those with 8:00 and even later calls, as even they will start lining up early. Get a porter in the luggage area whether you need one or not. They will bypass the line for you and take you straight to customs desk.

Edited January 18, 2017 by punkincc

[dexddd]

Barring anything odd happening, that should be a doable flight. We always walk off with luggage. The only place you run into problems can be going up or down in the terminal as there aren't usually a ton of elevators so you have to wait for one or do the trick down the escalator ride.

[BostonGal35]

we always walk off. usually off very quickly, but we are up early and ready to go before the make the announcement. 1130 is cutting it close on your flight tho. but you will probably be ok as long as the ship pulls in early/on time and there isnt a death on board or anything.

[deecruzer]

We have walked off on other cruise lines- only had one long wait. It is doable as long as the ship clears customs on time- that is my big fear.

[luckyinpa]

You won't need to pick up colored luggage tags in the atrium. Just keep your luggage in your room overningt and wait for the "Easy Walk Off" call over the intercom. It should be more or less first call after you hear the "Ship is Cleared" announcement. You must be able to handle your own luggage unassisted. As previously suggested, there will probably be a line up before the call. Don't get stuck waiting for an elevator. Take the stairs. If you are a few minutes late, you'll end up in line behind those with 8:00 and even later calls, as even they will start lining up early. Get a porter in the luggage area whether you need one or not. They will bypass the line for you and take you straight to customs desk.

 

i dont know if this would be a BA specific question, but say you did a 915 normal disembark. i'm assuming you are behind the same looong line as the people that lined up at 6 am to self assist

 

is this correct?

 

also how strict are they with tags. if you have a 10:00 one and are in line and somehow get there at 915, will they not let you leave?

[Ku4anci]

We walked off on the Escape and had a TA flight at 12:30. It took us 1 hour to get off the damn ship as stewards wouldn't let us go because supposedly, there were people at the customs. Having left our room at 08:45, we were at the Miami airport at 10:15.

[punkincc]

i dont know if this would be a BA specific question, but say you did a 915 normal disembark. i'm assuming you are behind the same looong line as the people that lined up at 6 am to self assist

 

is this correct?

 

also how strict are they with tags. if you have a 10:00 one and are in line and somehow get there at 915, will they not let you leave?

 

I don't recall how the tag colors are staggered, probably every 30 minutes beginning at 7:30, so I don't know if there would even be a 9:15, but in general, no one should be in line until there "color" has been called. If whoever is in charge is paying attention to the line, they won't call the next color if there is a backup for some reason. If you have a 9:15, the times ahead of you should be long gone.

 

Easy Walk Offs are the only ones with no tags as they walk off with their bags. Those with colored tags, put them on their luggage the night before, and it's in the terminal waiting, so NCL really has no idea what color you chose when you scan your card the final time. The honor system says you should not line up before your "time"'is called, but you need to be very near by. But yeah, if the line is short and moving fast, you could jump in line sooner and no one would know. There might be some small risk that your luggage has not been brought down from the ship yet if you are early, but I've never seen anyone comment that had happened.

[hawkeyetlse]

also how strict are they with tags. if you have a 10:00 one and are in line and somehow get there at 915, will they not let you leave?

The tags are for your suitcases that you leave out the night before. By the next morning, you shouldn't have any tags on you, and no one but you knows what color tags you had. They won't stop you from leaving early.

 

So disembarkation times are just like check-in times on embarkation day: no matter what instructions you receive, no matter what you yourself agreed to do, it's Freestyle and you should do whatever you want when the time comes. You might get through faster, or you might end up causing delays for yourself (and other guests). The important thing is that nobody gets to tell you what to do on NCL.

[BirdTravels]

Carrying your own luggage off the ship is easy. But you have to remember that about half the people on the ship have the same ideas you. If you really have an early flight, you need to be willing to get in line early, very early, very very early, to make sure that you get off the ship early. There are those who will show up at 8:00 and assume they can walk right ship and on to the street. Not. Then they log on to CC and complain about long lines and long waits. These are the same people with their arms full of luggage screaming at the elevator because they're all full of 8:00.

[riclop]

Hi,

 

I haven't sailed NCL for a while but was wondering if they allow you to walk off early with your luggage. I am looking at a cruise ending in San Juan and trying to figure out if we can make an 11:30 flight home.

 

Yes you can.

[NancyW12]

The flip side of that then, is if I have walk off luggage and a 4pm flight, I should get another cup of coffee and stay out of the way and be the last one off?

[hawkeyetlse]

The flip side of that then, is if I have walk off luggage and a 4pm flight, I should get another cup of coffee and stay out of the way and be the last one off?

Yes, no problem, as long as you vacate your room by whatever time they say (usually around 8am) you can hang out in public areas until the bitter end (I don't know exactly what time that is).

 

If you're not in any rush, you may as well let them take care of your luggage for you instead of keeping it with you all morning and rolling it off yourself. But if you prefer to do it that way, you can do easy walk-off aka self-assist disembarkation at any time during the disembarkation process, you don't have to get off early.

[luckyinpa]

The tags are for your suitcases that you leave out the night before. By the next morning, you shouldn't have any tags on you, and no one but you knows what color tags you had. They won't stop you from leaving early.

 

So disembarkation times are just like check-in times on embarkation day: no matter what instructions you receive, no matter what you yourself agreed to do, it's Freestyle and you should do whatever you want when the time comes. You might get through faster, or you might end up causing delays for yourself (and other guests). The important thing is that nobody gets to tell you what to do on NCL.

 

this is the procedure for tender at GSC so i should have assumed disembark too. freestyle is great indeed!

[Buford T Justiice]

Another point: If you tag you luggage and have have it taken the night before and the next morning try to do "walk-off" they will definitely send you back on the ship.

[Peachypooh]

Not sure about how far the airport is from the cruise terminal in San Juan but I am sure that you can find that info (sorry if it has been answered in this thread I did not have time to read everything).

Anyway for recent cruises we have always done walk off, hailed a taxi and then gotten to the airport with time to spare. Seattle we got to the airport at 9:45! Miami was the only exception. The wait to get off the Peal with all those doing self walk off was easily over 100 people in line. That is the only time I saw that. You do need to get in line early though.

[deecruzer]

All good advice/info Thanks again

[Cruising...our happy place]

This was a great idea by NCL to do the walk off. We have always made our late morning flights. We live in Virginia but some of our NY and NJ friends are home within an hour of disembarking! Nice to have the option... If we have a flight noon or later, we put our luggage out the night before....

 

 

 

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[BLACKBURNROVERS]

Certain ports (e.g. Venice) do not allow a walk off with your own luggage.

[Frogdogpal]

May be slightly off topic. What is the amount the porter should be tipped for a large and small suitcase.