Platinum question, debarkation?

[cpshaye]

We will be platinum 2 cruises from now. I understand that when you set your luggage out you're the first to get off the ship for the group of people who put their luggage out. What about self assist? If you're carrying off all of your luggage do you get a get off first? The website is pretty vague and just says priority debarkation. But everytime I hear the announcements they start on a certain floor for self assist not for priority.

[livingthedream1]

5 hours ago, cpshaye said:

We will be platinum 2 cruises from now. I understand that when you set your luggage out you're the first to get off the ship for the group of people who put their luggage out. What about self assist? If you're carrying off all of your luggage do you get a get off first? The website is pretty vague and just says priority debarkation. But everytime I hear the announcements they start on a certain floor for self assist not for priority.

On the Liberty in April we were the first to be able to get off it was like 7am we chose to wait. On the Victory we had a special area to go to to get off and we were one of the first off the ship.

[RWolver672]

From our experiences, we have been given a letter the night before telling us where and what time to meet the following morning.  They call self assist first.  Then they will come in to the room where we meet and escort us off.

 

Oddly enough, on our last cruise on the Horizon, we were headed to the dining room where we were suppose to meet about fifteen minutes before we were suppose to be there.  One of the workers told us to just follow the crowd and get off of the ship.

[nycruise3]

For self assist, you will get a letter the night before in your room telling you where to meet. On the Horizon, we met in one of the dining rooms and were among the first ones off the ship, even before the rest of the self assist people.

[CruiseHealing]

This is a very nice perk!  You will typically wait in a dining room with P &Ds. When the ships clear you will be the first group called.  Here is best thing about the benefit, customs will not be crowded!  You will pretty much have little to no wait. So, from the time you get off the ship you will walking through the parking garage in 15 minutes.  

[PhillyFan33579]

For the OP,  you won’t always be in the first group that departs the ship. We have been Platinum for awhile now and while we usually get zone 1 luggage tags, we have gotten zone 2 and once zone 3 luggage tags due to the number of Diamonds on the ship. So while you will still get off the ship early, you might not always be in the first group to debark. 

[TNcruising02]

When I cruised on the Vista, we had an early flight so we waiting in the same dining room as the FTTF, Diamond, and Platinum passengers who wanted to exit with their luggage.  Matt (the CD) had everything very organized.  As people walked in, they set their luggage in a line.  The FTTF and early flight passengers had a separate line.  Matt said that it is so the first people to arrive will be the first ones off of the ship.  This enabled people to sit and wait without their luggage.

Anyway, the Diamond and Platinum people were able to exit the ship first.  It was the most organized way to do it that I have ever seen.

[mredandchis]

We are platinum and always do self assist.  You can go down to a room to wait and that works fine or you can just wait for the announcement.  They try to control it the best they can but sometimes the crowd will just slide into the area and block things up a bit.  My next cruise is a journey cruise and we were already notified that there is a huge number of DandP on board so the lines are inevitable.

[dmdiver]

Our letter last week said we had to be down there no later than 7:45am or forfeit the early debarkation.  Since the other 7 in our group are not platinum, we opted to sit out on Lido & play Five Crowns after breakfast.  We still figured we would be off the ship by 8:30 or 9.  This was the longest debarkation I have ever experienced.  Apparently, customs or some other authority kept stopping the line, which meant they weren't even calling decks.  They did keep announcing not to come down yet due to the delays.  It was still a bit crowded in the elevator lobby and stairwell, but once we hit the main lobby area, the line moved at a decent pace.  Lots of people in line to go through customs, but at least they had plenty of agents.  I was a bit aggravated when we got to those lines & they decided to close 2 of them.  We went to lunch straight from the ship at 12:45.  I don't know what time all the new people got on board for the next cruise.  

[JaniceB]

I just got off the Horizon on Saturday and I am platinum.  We met in the dining room at 6:30 and we lined up our luggage and the diamonds were the first to exit and so on.  They also had to different lines when leaving the dining room, one for people with passports, one for people with an orange sticker (don't know what that was since I couldn't get our TV to work to hear the debarkation talk) and a line for people with birth certificates.  We also experienced a new customs experience. They did it before the normal customs area by facial recognition.  Mine worked, my friends did not so she had to get in another line and show her passport. Hopefully someone will know what the orange sticker meant.

[k.davis817]

18 hours ago, cpshaye said:

We will be platinum 2 cruises from now. I understand that when you set your luggage out you're the first to get off the ship for the group of people who put their luggage out. What about self assist? If you're carrying off all of your luggage do you get a get off first? The website is pretty vague and just says priority debarkation. But everytime I hear the announcements they start on a certain floor for self assist not for priority.

I'm platinum and generally take advantage of priority debarkation and self assist (usually have a fairly early flight to catch).  I've not ever heard an actual announcement for the priority.  Like others have said, you'll get an instruction sheet in your cabin on the last day, telling you where and what time to meet if you want to do self assist.  They don't announce it through the PA system--not that I've heard anyway--but will announce it in the P&D waiting area.  Enjoy!!

[evandbob]

I'm glad the self assist debarkation for Diamonds and Platinums is NOT announced on the PA.  Handling it discretely is way better.  You meet at an assigned time and place per the letter you find in your cabin and the CD or staff escorts you off.

 

Imagine how many other loyalty level pax there would be trying to get into the line if an announcement was made?  As it is, there's usually a few platinums trying to sneak off with us Diamonds.  Horrors!!!🤩

[nybumpkin]

We're Platinum, and the last two cruises we've done self-assist. We had the letter telling us to meet in a dining room at a specified time (I think it was 6:30 in NYC). A staff member came to the dining room to guide us to disembark - it was not announced on the PA system. I'm not sure that we'll go back to checked bags. Next cruise is a 4-day on Sunrise disembarking in NYC on a Monday morning - I think that one will be self-assist.