Free-style disembarking???

[Nieuwcruiser]

What exactly is free-style disembarking? All I can find about it is that you can order room service that morning. How is it different from vacating your cabin at a certain time and waiting your turn to leave the ship?

[immargaret]

With Freestyle you can stay in your cabin right up until your color is called to exit the ship. Other ships have you and your carry on bags out of the cabin and waiting in public rooms to be called.

[johnql]

The main difference is that you are allowed to wait in your own cabin, unlike other cruise lines where you are required to vacate your cabin and wait in a public space.

[FIRELT5]

What exactly is free-style disembarking? All I can find about it is that you can order room service that morning. How is it different from vacating your cabin at a certain time and waiting your turn to leave the ship?

 

Just returned home From the Dawn and this is early disembarkation which means that you are first off the ship if you can carry all of your lugage unassisted. Once you leave the ship, you can not return. With NCL, you can stay in your room until Self assisted Disembarkation is called or your lugage color tag is called for assisted disembarkation

[johnql]

FIRELT5, what you're describing is the Express Disembarkation, whereby you can be the first to disembark if you're willing and able to carry all your bags off the ship yourself. It's available only to American citizens.

[FIRELT5]

FIRELT5, what you're describing is the Express Disembarkation, whereby you can be the first to disembark if you're willing and able to carry all your bags off the ship yourself. It's available only to American citizens.

 

The green sheet we received along with our colored tags was labeled Freestyle disembarkation. The green sheet was for express Disembarkation

with Remitance questions & instructions. We just returned from the Dawn 3-16- 3-26 voyage. If you look at the NCL site it does state that you could stay in your room as part of Freestyle Disembarkation. Probaly combining both programs ???

[newmexicoNita]

As well as staying in your cabin I love knowing I can leave my carry on luggage in my cabin when I go to breakfast in either the dining room or the buffet. NMNIta

[Zeno]

FIRELT5, what you're describing is the Express Disembarkation, whereby you can be the first to disembark if you're willing and able to carry all your bags off the ship yourself. It's available only to American citizens.

 

The green sheet we received along with our colored tags was labeled Freestyle disembarkation. The green sheet was for express Disembarkation

with Remitance questions & instructions. We just returned from the Dawn 3-16- 3-26 voyage. If you look at the NCL site it does state that you could stay in your room as part of Freestyle Disembarkation. Probaly combining both programs ???

Express Disembarkation can ONLY be used by U.S. citizens who can carry off their own luggage. Everyone (including those using Express Disembarkation) can stay in their cabins until it is time to leave (either Express Disembarkation or when your colour is called).

[jaxon41]

This will be new for me -- I think I will really like it.

[jerhardt]

Express Disembarkation can ONLY be used by U.S. citizens who can carry off their own luggage. Everyone (including those using Express Disembarkation) can stay in their cabins until it is time to leave (either Express Disembarkation or when your colour is called).

 

I'm a Canadian and used the Express Disembarkation off the Star on March 9, 2006.

[Captkf]

I like the idea of staying in your room waiting for you color to be called. That is definitely better than jamming into the in the lounges and waiting. Very depressing seeing all the long faces and knowing your vacation is almost over.

[Brad1185]

On my 2 NCL cruises, we tried to stay in our room and the room steward insisted we get out at 8am, he said he had to get the room ready for the next cruise. I went up to the pursers desk with a brochure stating you can stay in your room until your color is called. The pursers desk said they never heard of freestyle disembarkation, I saw the cruise director walking by and asked him about freestyle disembarkation, and stated the room steward is insisting we leave the room. He said he was not sure what freestyle disembarkation really meant, and they did have to clean the rooms.

 

We went back to the room and refused to leave. The room steward had made up the room. We got back in bed and watched tv until time to get off the ship.

[Zeno]

 

I'm a Canadian and used the Express Disembarkation off the Star on March 9, 2006.

Wow - I am amazed you could do this - I am a Canadian too and we were specifically told that we could NOT use express disembarkation. Didn't you have to go through the Customs Agents?

It just occured to me - are we talking about the same thing? We were certainly able to wheel off our own luggage but we could not leave the ship until it cleared customs and they started calling the colours.

[jerhardt]

Still had to go through Customs at the Port of LA, but we managed to wheel all our luggage off before they started calling colours. I asked the same thing at the reception on the ship because it was a little confusing, but they let us do it.

[Zeno]

Still had to go through Customs at the Port of LA, but we managed to wheel all our luggage off before they started calling colours. I asked the same thing at the reception on the ship because it was a little confusing, but they let us do it.

 

I will remember to try that in case I have to get off early next time. Thx!

[claimsgal]

I am planning my first cruise in June on the Dawn and have read the boards constantly about the Dawn. So much is said about the food- is it really that bad or is it just subjective? I am not picky but would like to know the quality is good. Also, did any one leave from NY? we are driving in but don't know what Pier to tell the driver to go to- any ideas? The ship sails at 4:00 , should we be there by 11:00 , earlier/later? Any help would be appreciated. Also if any one has recent dailies , I'd love to see them. Thank you

 

claimsgal

[johnql]

I am planning my first cruise in June on the Dawn and have read the boards constantly about the Dawn. So much is said about the food- is it really that bad or is it just subjective? I am not picky but would like to know the quality is good. Also, did any one leave from NY? we are driving in but don't know what Pier to tell the driver to go to- any ideas? The ship sails at 4:00 , should we be there by 11:00 , earlier/later? Any help would be appreciated. Also if any one has recent dailies , I'd love to see them. Thank you

 

claimsgal

I'm not sure what you've been reading. Sure, there have been a few comments that the food isn't as good as it used to be. And there will always be some people who don't like it and have never liked it. But, as far as I can tell, the comments are still overall positive. Besides, food preference is SO subjective that you should take all comments with a grain of salt anyway.

 

You can check out the berth assignments on the New York Passenger Ship Terminal's web site (nypst.com) to figure out which pier the Dawn will be using. It's still a little early to get that information for June but you can check back in a couple months.

 

My preference is to arrive between 11 and noon.

[gampy]

I must just be the least picky person, if I didn't have to fix it, and it's easy to get to and I can have as much as I want, food is pretty much food, and I'm happy :D

[tartanlassie]

How about green-card carrying foreign nationals? Anyone know if we will be able to go through the same lines etc. as US Citizens?

[Scotch]

On my 2 NCL cruises, we tried to stay in our room and the room steward insisted we get out at 8am, he said he had to get the room ready for the next cruise. I went up to the pursers desk with a brochure stating you can stay in your room until your color is called. The pursers desk said they never heard of freestyle disembarkation, I saw the cruise director walking by and asked him about freestyle disembarkation, and stated the room steward is insisting we leave the room. He said he was not sure what freestyle disembarkation really meant, and they did have to clean the rooms.

 

We went back to the room and refused to leave. The room steward had made up the room. We got back in bed and watched tv until time to get off the ship.

 

When did you take your cruises? Is this experience unusual or have other CC members experienced it?

[Zeno]

When did you take your cruises? Is this experience unusual or have other CC members experienced it?

On our 3 NCL cruises, we NEVER experienced any pressure to vacate our cabins before our colour was called and we were the 2nd last colour on 2 cruises. On one cruise our steward asked us if he could make up the cabin while we were at breakfast. This was OK with us. After breakfast, we returned to our cabin and relaxed until our colour was called. On our last cruise, when our steward saw us go to breakfast, he just asked us what our colour was (I would guess so that he would know when we were leaving our cabin).

[johnql]

When did you take your cruises? Is this experience unusual or have other CC members experienced it?

I've been on 6 NCL cruises (5 Freestyle) and I have never been pressured to vacate my cabin.

[Nieuwcruiser]

We're going to try to book an excursion through the ship because we have a late flight out and would like our luggage to be taken care of for the day. It sound like if you choose to carry your luggage off the ship you can keep in your cabin until you disembark. If we take an excursion will we have to have our luggage out the night before?

[Zeno]

We're going to try to book an excursion through the ship because we have a late flight out and would like our luggage to be taken care of for the day. It sound like if you choose to carry your luggage off the ship you can keep in your cabin until you disembark. If we take an excursion will we have to have our luggage out the night before?

 

You can keep your cabin until your colour is called whether or not you are carrying your own luggage off. I am not sure what happends if you are taking an excursion - hopefully someone who has done this will answer.

[johnql]

We're going to try to book an excursion through the ship because we have a late flight out and would like our luggage to be taken care of for the day. It sound like if you choose to carry your luggage off the ship you can keep in your cabin until you disembark. If we take an excursion will we have to have our luggage out the night before?

I'm looking at the Disembarkation Instructions handout that we were given the day before disembarkation on the Spirit last month. There is a table listing the approximate debark times for each color luggage tag. The last listing is Lavender Luggage Tags debarking at 10 am for "NCL Air/Sea Guests with Flights After 4:00 PM & NCL Post Cruise Package". Based on this, it appears that your luggage is handled the same way as everybody else. In other words, you use the lavender luggage tags for your bags, leave them out the night before, collect them at the pier, and go through customs. There's probably a meeting place and time scheduled for those booked on the post-cruise excursion, at which point you would turn over your tagged bags for stowaway on the excursion bus.

 

All that said, you can still carry your own bags off if you prefer. I'm not sure why you would do that, but that's up to you.

 

After re-reading what I just wrote, I'm not sure if the Post Cruise Package that is listed refers to excursions or post-cruise extensions (hotel/city bookings).