Private Departure Lounge?

[Cruisegirl6]

Hello,

 

We been Elite for awhile now and I just read for elite status there is a private departure lounge.  I been cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale and never been told or any mention of the private lounge.  Do they have one in Ft. Lauderdale and is it worth going to?  Odd how nobody mentioned it to us, wonder where it is? 

[CHEZMARYLOU]

It is on the ship when you are disembarking, there will be information in your cabin from the Captain's club with the time and place. On S class ships it is usually in Tuscan. 

[Cruisegirl6]

19 minutes ago, CHEZMARYLOU said:

It is on the ship when you are disembarking, there will be information in your cabin from the Captain's club with the time and place. On S class ships it is usually in Tuscan. 

It is only for disembarkation?  Not for embarkation?  Thank you.

[jelayne]

Only disembarkation.

 

[Ferry_Watcher]

As a check-in agent I once had a passenger (pre pandemic) give me grief about where the special departure lounge was, along with the continental breakfast.  I tried to explain to him that amenity was on the morning they were departing the ship (disembarkation day), and not arrival day (embarkation).  He didn't really seem like he accepted my answer, but walked away chalking it up to 'another lie from the cruise line'. He certainly wasn't going to even entertain the possibility that he had been mistaken.

 

And honestly, when you think about it, any area actually set aside for special pre boarding seating or light refreshments is really only in use before the ship is open for boarding.  It may benefit upper suite level passengers from check-in at 10 am until 11:15 when they can board.  Once the ship is opened for boarding, all passengers want to do is get on to the ship.  Not even suite passengers want to stop by a dedicated lounge area for light refreshments rather than getting on the ship immediately.

[hcat]

 

  For  Elite Disembark we  sometimes  go to the Elite meeting point. 

 

Other times there are better places to wait..we prefer same deck as the exit so we can  just wheel our carry ons off!

[hrhdhd]

4 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

It is only for disembarkation?  Not for embarkation?  Thank you.

You have to be out of your cabin by 8 am on debarkation morning. The Elite lounge will give you a place to sit after that if you have a later luggage tag number.

[NutsAboutGolf]

It's also to board tenders

[cruisestitch]

4 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Hello,

 

We been Elite for awhile now and I just read for elite status there is a private departure lounge.  I been cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale and never been told or any mention of the private lounge.  Do they have one in Ft. Lauderdale and is it worth going to?  Odd how nobody mentioned it to us, wonder where it is? 

It isn’t in Fort Lauderdale— it’s on the ship!

[Cruisegirl6]

2 hours ago, hrhdhd said:

You have to be out of your cabin by 8 am on debarkation morning. The Elite lounge will give you a place to sit after that if you have a later luggage tag number.

Hello, we never get up early am and out early.  We never had any problems staying in our cabins, maybe because we tip extra well????  We always leave our cabin between 9:30-10am and walk off our luggage with no crowd issues to be honest. 

[jelayne]

Interesting, all but 1 of our cruises since the restart the  debarking passengers have been off by 9:15 and B2B passengers in process of exiting. Ship zeroed out by 9:30.  
The 1 exception was there 2 passengers who did not exited by 9 when everyone else was off except B2Bs who were lined up waiting for these last 2 to appear.  Multiple announcements, staff checking public areas.  It was 10:30 when, after we had stood in line for over a hour, these 2 jerks appeared escorted by security.  They thought it was cute and were quite proud of the fact that they evaded the crew looking for them for 90 minute.  

[keesar]

Some cruisers just don't show consideration to the hard working employees who have to get rooms ready for the next cruise.

[Cruisegirl6]

1 hour ago, keesar said:

Some cruisers just don't show consideration to the hard working employees who have to get rooms ready for the next cruise.

So, they make up my room last.  I am not going to stand on a two hour line like a herd of cattle to get off, sorry that isn't going to happen.  Not one cruise did we have any problems, in fact, we found many others were getting off the same time, we had lines but moving very well.  I live in Florida, so there is no rush to get to the airport or get to my car to have a long ride home.  We never had any issue, if our cabin steward asked us to leave we would.  

[Cruisegirl6]

1 hour ago, jelayne said:

Interesting, all but 1 of our cruises since the restart the  debarking passengers have been off by 9:15 and B2B passengers in process of exiting. Ship zeroed out by 9:30.  
The 1 exception was there 2 passengers who did not exited by 9 when everyone else was off except B2Bs who were lined up waiting for these last 2 to appear.  Multiple announcements, staff checking public areas.  It was 10:30 when, after we had stood in line for over a hour, these 2 jerks appeared escorted by security.  They thought it was cute and were quite proud of the fact that they evaded the crew looking for them for 90 minute.  

Honestly I don't see it a problem getting off the ship at 9:30pm, its not that we were the only ones, we always have many people in front and behind us getting off at this time but the line moved nicely.  I don't go with the herds of cattle spending two plus hours getting off the ship and I certainly don't wake up early in the morning for a chair at the pool, that is insane, worrying for a chair and getting off the ship fast on your vacation, that is plain stress.  Ridiculous.  Live life as much stress free as possible, it do you good.

[Alakegirl]

1 hour ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Hello, we never get up early am and out early.  We never had any problems staying in our cabins, maybe because we tip extra well????  We always leave our cabin between 9:30-10am and walk off our luggage with no crowd issues to be honest. 

10 am?  You are likely to hear your names being paged by then and you’ll be leaving in the “walk of shame” parade😀

[cruisestitch]

4 minutes ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

Honestly I don't see it a problem getting off the ship at 9:30pm, its not that we were the only ones, we always have many people in front and behind us getting off at this time but the line moved nicely.  I don't go with the herds of cattle spending two plus hours getting off the ship and I certainly don't wake up early in the morning for a chair at the pool, that is insane, worrying for a chair and getting off the ship fast on your vacation, that is plain stress.  Ridiculous.  Live life as much stress free as possible, it do you good.

If you wait until 9;30 p.m. security will definitely be involved !!!!!

[Arizona Wildcat]

9 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

It is only for disembarkation?  Not for embarkation?  Thank you.

Cruise ship employees do not run the embarkation.  Locals handle most of those details.  Have never seen an embarkation lounge.  A roped off area with a few beverages and pastries- yes.  Sometimes.

[cruisestitch]

Some ports do have a separate lounge for EMBARKING passengers, specifically those booked in suites.  Most passengers will never have seen it.  But for captains Club Elite level? No.  
 

however, as has been explained there is a departure lounge for Elite and above passengers on DISEMBARKATION day.

 

the instruction sheet given out toward the end of the cruise will tell you where it is.  On S class ships, typically Tuscan Grill is used.  It’s also listed on the Captains Club paperwork you get in your stateroom 

Edited March 22 by cruisestitch

[nijh]

12 hours ago, hrhdhd said:

You have to be out of your cabin by 8 am on debarkation morning. The Elite lounge will give you a place to sit after that if you have a later luggage tag number.

On our last cruise it was 7.30!  Personally feel like this is a ‘thanks, now get off’ touch.  I remember when it used to be 8.30 and leisurely, but onboarding guests didn’t get their cabins until around 3pm.  Now  you can get them at 1.30 or before, but the debarkation morning is an early start and a miserable end to the holiday.

 

Wish they’d revert.

[Mark_K]

8 hours ago, Cruisegirl6 said:

So, they make up my room last.  I am not going to stand on a two hour line like a herd of cattle to get off, sorry that isn't going to happen.  Not one cruise did we have any problems, in fact, we found many others were getting off the same time, we had lines but moving very well.  I live in Florida, so there is no rush to get to the airport or get to my car to have a long ride home.  We never had any issue, if our cabin steward asked us to leave we would.  

A two hour line would mean that people who got in line at 7:30 would still be in line at 9:30. Barring unusual circumstances, I don’t think that’s ever happened.

[Ferry_Watcher]

Passengers who purposely wait until the very last minute to walk off a ship on disembarkation morning are being inconsiderate and selfish.  No one wants their cruise to end, but sadly it does end, and the entire crew must work together to quickly turnaround the ship for the incoming passengers.

 

Being flippant and waving off leaving the ship in a timely fashion is disrespectful of the ship's crew and of pier-side staff.  Making comments like, 'well they can make up my room last' is not only disrespectful to the room attendants, but it shows a sense of outsize entitlement.  And 'tipping extra well' doesn't entitle anyone to over stay in their stateroom.  Just because the room attendants didn't ask you to leave your stateroom, doesn't mean that they didn't want you outta' there.

 

On the pier-side, staff have to remain in their positions until the very last passengers leave.  This includes directional folks, the staff by the elevators and escalators,  luggage hall personnel, the US Custom & Border Officers, terminal security folks, Longshore, and the ground transportation folks just outside the terminal.  Many of these people take their meal break in during that 30 - 45 minutes between  disembarkation and when the terminal building reopens for embarkation.  So if they are late to start their break, that means that they are late returning to the start of embarkation, which impacts the newly arrived guests.

 

It isn't a badge of honor to be one of the last, or the very last passenger off the ship.  It should be an embarrassment to walk pass all those crew members, all the pier-side staff, and finally past all those newly arrive passengers eagerly waiting to begin their embarkation.

[bavrail18]

@Ferry_Watcher is right as usual. 

[doghog]

For us getting off the ship when scheduled to do so has absolutely nothing to do with being stressful or where we live or having to catch a flight or getting to the post cruise hotel. 

[miched]

It may claim to be private but it is very crowded.    There is a coffee pot, and some pastries set up on a table.    If you think the buffet is a Petri dish stay away from that table.  It is  unsupervised and gets very nasty looking.  
 

Sometimes it will be held in a main dining room because there are so many that have that benefit.   On one cruise there were over 1500 elite and above.    Actually I don’t remember anyone checking if I was elite or above when entering.  
 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

[Cruisegirl6]

13 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

If you wait until 9;30 p.m. security will definitely be involved !!!!!

Never was involved in fact, many people were getting off in back of us, we weren't the last ones by no means.