disembark

[nickc]

what determines the color codes? do you have to request early time or late time? After reading all the horror stories about getting off the ship at Bayonne i'd rather have a nice relaxed breakfast and just lounge around until the last possible time--i am traveling with two young ones to boot

[wolfcathorse]

towards the end of your cruise they will have you fill out a form telling them your travel plans (flight time, have own car, etc). They will determine what color you get initially. They try to make sure not all disembark at once. When you get your color you can go to the Pursers Desk and ask when your color is expected to be called. Then you can ask for a later color if you wish. I don't know if the order is the same on each ship but on Sovereign the order was (from first to last) Beige 1 & 2, self-assist, grey 1 & 2, Lavender 1 & 2, red 1 & 2, yellow 1 & 2, orange 1 & 2, brown 1 & 2, light blue 1 & 2, blue 1 & 2, purple 1&2, green 1 & 2, and pink 1 & 2

[cb at sea]

Don't plan on lounging about in a relaxed manner that last day! Even if you are the last to disembark, all the crew cares about at this point is GETTING YOU OFF THE SHIP!!!!!! There is no real service at this point to speak of--your cruise ends when you go to bed that last night!!!! It's my least favorite part of a cruise.

[andnickali]

For the most part color is determined by deck number. The exceptions are those with early travel plans and large gropus that need to leave together.

 

The irony of the whole thing is how they distribute the tags. Since it is your cabin stewarts responsiblity to give you the luggage tags you get whatever color your floor has. The day before you leave it is in the announcements what the order will be for the tags. For instance I think pink was high on the list when I was getting off in NJ.

 

If everybody just kept the color they were assigned then all would be well and good- but they do not. The last day near the purser's desk is a table set up with rolls and rolls of every colored tag. I guess so that if you need more you can help yourself. Well guess what- you saw a lot of people taking tags (which surprised me since the room steward gave us alone 6- a few more than we needed) and the most popular color- PINK!

 

So, I can not speak for ALL of the people taking pink (or other high ordered colors) but you can not tell me that they were not switching their tags out to get called off earlier.

 

I think we waited at least 45 minutes between the first three sets of colors to be called the day we got off. If everybody would just wait their turn and not clog up the system by circumventing the order of disembarking then it may end up going smother.