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Ovation disembarkation

JohnGc

By JohnGc,
in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, willsaway said:

Thank you for those comments, we can indeed do self walk off as we are only taking medium bags so no problem, and unfortunately its Qantas.  But your post is very reassuring, appreciate it.

You should have no issues, at least you have a much better chance of getting to the domestic airport for your flight by 10 am. For international they would need 8am.

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Fredette

Fredette

Posted
Posted
On 10/26/2019 at 10:36 AM, mr walker said:

 

This does not happen every cruise or every ship. Our return to Sydney in Feb this year from AKL on Radiance, there was no pre-clearance & each & every passenger had to present to the official in the terminal. There were long delays & many missed their transport. Our shuttle was booked for 9:30 (we are not rush of the ship people & had an 8:50 timeslot) & they waited until 10am & then left when we had not emerged. Good news was that they came back for us, and we were only going to our home in Sydney.

I know, I've never experienced it before either, but it was great.  It made the part of the process once you were off the ship go smoothly and quickly.  I hope they roll this out more frequently.

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Fredette

Fredette

Posted
Posted
On 10/28/2019 at 6:12 PM, MicCanberra said:

You should have no issues, at least you have a much better chance of getting to the domestic airport for your flight by 10 am. For international they would need 8am.

Sorry to be a downer, but a 10am flight is pretty risky for the Ovation, we knew people that missed 10.30 and later.  The walk off process is a shambles, that's where our problem was.

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MicCanberra

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Fredette said:

Sorry to be a downer, but a 10am flight is pretty risky for the Ovation, we knew people that missed 10.30 and later.  The walk off process is a shambles, that's where our problem was.

I said they would need to be at the airport by 10 am for the 11 am flight, and everything had to go right. Personally I wouldn't book a morning flight at all.

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gbenjo

gbenjo

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 10/26/2019 at 10:36 AM, mr walker said:

 

This does not happen every cruise or every ship. Our return to Sydney in Feb this year from AKL on Radiance, there was no pre-clearance & each & every passenger had to present to the official in the terminal. There were long delays & many missed their transport. Our shuttle was booked for 9:30 (we are not rush of the ship people & had an 8:50 timeslot) & they waited until 10am & then left when we had not emerged. Good news was that they came back for us, and we were only going to our home in Sydney.

Whether ABF do face to face onboard or in the terminal is determined by the size ( number of passengers) of the ship and is a cost thing for them. Not sure  of the exact number of pax needed to do onboard but it is around , but higher than, the Radiance size ship. Even though it takes longer to clear Customs, it tends to control the flow of paxs collecting luggage, thus reducing the long lines at dept of Ag. and collecting of the arrival cards. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Remember this process is only for cruises originating from overseas ports ..not cruises originating from Australia ie Sydney ..Sydney

Edited by gbenjo
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mr walker Holiday Sharing Rare

mr walker

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, gbenjo said:

Even though it takes longer to clear Customs, it tends to control the flow of paxs collecting luggage, thus reducing the long lines at dept of Ag. and collecting of the arrival cards. Every cloud has a silver lining.

 

Yes nothing is ever all bad 🙂 After passport control all went very quickly, so that was a plus.

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mr walker Holiday Sharing Rare

mr walker

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, Fredette said:

 The walk off process is a shambles, that's where our problem was.

 

I guess the self disembarkation has become a victim of it's popularity. And also some that want to go when they are ready, even when their slot has not been called.

The only time we have had trouble was with the Radiance in Sydney ex-Auckland, when the line was back onto the ship, & they were delaying the disembarking to try and prevent the queuing, but not with much success. We weren't in a hurry, but did have a shuttle booked for 9:30 with an 8:50 slot. We didn't make it 🙂  

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Chiliburn

Chiliburn

Posted
Posted (edited)

Do they have the baggage valet here ?

 I was reading about Seattle has a free valet service provided by the port.

You have to apply for it 3 days before disembark and your flight has to be after 12:00.

And you don’t see your bags from your cabin until you’re home airport.

How good is that for free,cheap at twice the price.

Edited by Chiliburn
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gbenjo

gbenjo

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Do they have the baggage valet here ?

 I was reading about Seattle has a free valet service provided by the port.

You have to apply for it 3 days before disembark and your flight has to be after 12:00.

And you don’t see your bags from your cabin until you’re home airport.

How good is that for free,cheap at twice the price.

NO..... NO .....and. ..NO 😱😱😱

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

Posted
Posted

I think if you just left your bags in the baggage hall at the OPT after debark, the same may happen. You are likely to not see your bags again and it would be free.

Virgin offer  a bag drop service for their customers, which is similar but it is after debark.

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gbenjo

gbenjo

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I think if you just left your bags in the baggage hall at the OPT after debark, the same may happen. You are likely to not see your bags again and it would be free.

Virgin offer  a bag drop service for their customers, which is similar but it is after debark.

You could try that but it would not be free. Once it was established that someone was " stupid" enough ( and that would not be hard) to leave their bags in the terminal and the luggage searched by ABF, the guest would be asked to come back and collect them or pay the freight to have them returned.

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Chiliburn

Chiliburn

Posted
Posted
32 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

You could try that but it would not be free. Once it was established that someone was " stupid" enough ( and that would not be hard) to leave their bags in the terminal and the luggage searched by ABF, the guest would be asked to come back and collect them or pay the freight to have them returned.

Doesn’t ABF  stand for Australian Baggage vatet For free

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, gbenjo said:

You could try that but it would not be free. Once it was established that someone was " stupid" enough ( and that would not be hard) to leave their bags in the terminal and the luggage searched by ABF, the guest would be asked to come back and collect them or pay the freight to have them returned.

Well if you wanted them back it would cost, but free if you just rode them off.

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