Disembarkation

[Pandrop]

Hi we are first time cruisers .Can anyone tell me the procedure to leave the ship.Our flight is 5.30/17.30 from Miami Airport .We have booked ship to airport transfers. Would we be better taking a ship excursion that day ?Most of them say suitable for flights after 4 pm but I would be terrified we are not booked in for flight on time I really don't want to spend a day in the Airport .Will there be an arrangement to drop bags off Thanks if you can help

[LMCruise]

You will have PLENTY of time. Only do an excursion if you are actually interested in the excursion.

 

Guests disembark based on assigned "group." If you book a ship transfer or an excursion/transfer, you will be assigned one of the first groups. The groups after that are arranged by cabin location. On Divina last week, the last group was scheduled to disembark at 11:45 am, although I believe they were off well before that.

 

Once you are off the ship, you will collect your luggage in the terminal (provided you left it to be collected outside your cabin the night before). In Miami, you collect it on carousels similar to the airport. Then, you take your luggage and walk through customs. Outside the terminal, there will be buses waiting for the transfers/excursions and taxis to take you to the airport. The excursion buses will hold your luggage underneath until you arrive at the airport.

 

For what it's worth, here's what happened to us this past weekend. Hopefully it will show you how much time you really have.

 

Our group was scheduled to disembark at 9:15 am. They closed the gangway for a bit, so we actually didn't get off until about 9:35 am. We were through customs and standing outside looking for our rental car shuttle at 9:45 am. We didn't get a shuttle until 10:45 (don't book through Avis!). We went to Avis downtown and were told they didn't have a car for us (again, don't book through Avis!). We called an Uber and drove to the airport for a car from a different company. We had our car by noon.