Self-Assist in Miami

[mj]

When you exit the ship, how difficult is it to take your luggage off at Carnival's new terminal? I will have one large suitcase and a carry on bag. Is there an elevator or is it faster to use the escalators? US Air changed my flight time from 1 pm to 11:30 am, so now we are going to use the self assist.

 

Thanks

[Carnival Game]

We each had a large bag and had no problem.

[GB Chicago]

Miami uses the same type of carousels as the airports now so very easy. Customs is usually the only hold up

[donesteamboatin]

Good Morning

Leaving the Valor in Miami I took my own luggage . There is an escilator and I had no problem walking with a cane.The day before you get of the ship go to see the purser and show them that your flight is changed to an ealier time and they should give you one of ealier times to leave. That is what they told the passangers on The Valor.

[UpstateCruizer]

Good Morning

Leaving the Valor in Miami I took my own luggage . There is an escilator and I had no problem walking with a cane.The day before you get of the ship go to see the purser and show them that your flight is changed to an ealier time and they should give you one of ealier times to leave. That is what they told the passangers on The Valor.

 

 

If you plan on using self assist there is no need to see the purser as you don't need a number to get off with self assist. They will call you by decks during the self assist part of debarking. With an 11:30am flight I'd make sure to get off with the first deck called just to be safe. With an 11:30 flight I would definatly do the self assist.

[okgirl]

When you exit the ship, how difficult is it to take your luggage off at Carnival's new terminal? I will have one large suitcase and a carry on bag. Is there an elevator or is it faster to use the escalators? US Air changed my flight time from 1 pm to 11:30 am, so now we are going to use the self assist.

 

Thanks

 

It's very easy to use the escalator with a large bag, just have it trailing behind you step onto the elevator and your bag will come right along on the 3rd tread behind you. I just did this with my bag (47lbs/26") and it was a breeze.

[Chief Cruiser]

I had a 10:55 flight out and made it to the airport with about 45 minutes prior to boarding. I did not do self-assist, but was one of the first groups called due to getting the early out luggage tags from the purser's desk on Thursday. Getting our luggage and getting through customs was a nightmare. They tell you not to try and debark until your "zone" is called, but one of the problems is they pile up the luggage from all the zones on the carosel, thus taking additional time to find your luggage. Why put luggage from zones 5, 8, 11, 13 etc. on a luggage carosel when you have only called zones 1 and 2??? Just doesn't make sense to me. Once you do get your luggage, customs is another animal.

 

Although the customs booths had room for 2 agents to process people, each booth only had 1 agent present so it took some time to get through. The Liberty was near capacity and the lines were long.

 

As the customs agent was checking our passports, she actually initiated a conversation with me and was telling me how much she needed a vacation.....on a beach....in a far away country. I told her she could do that on a cruise. To which she laughed and mocked very quickly, there would be no way she would take a cruise and have to come back through the cruise terminal and customs in Miami!!!!!!! The luggage porters were not happy either because they just could not turn around many trips with the long wait times trying to get through customs.

 

You shoud be able to get to the airport for the 11:30 flight if everything stays on schedule and you do the self-assist. As far as whether or not the Miami terminal is a "breeze'......you'll just have to judge for yourself. Having sailed out of 5 different ports, it is my least favorite. I have decided the ship and itinerary are going to have to be pretty inviting for me to sail out of Miami again. JMHO.

[Marie51]

I just got off the Valor last Sunday. I had an 11:05 flight and got tags from the purser for early debarkation. I did not do self assist. I was off the ship by 7:45. Pepple who did self assist had to wait for their deck to be called and many of them were still on the ship waiting when I was already off. So just because you do self assist does not mean you will be off the ship first.

[Socref124]

When you exit the ship, how difficult is it to take your luggage off at Carnival's new terminal? Is there an elevator or is it faster to use the escalators? US Air changed my flight time from 1 pm to 11:30 am, so now we are going to use the self assist.

 

Thanks

 

Theren is an elevator but we have never used it. The escalators will be fine.

[mrsfuzzmo]

We have an 11:30 am out of FLL so we will definitely be doing both. Seeing the purser for early release and self-assist.

 

I know we are really chancing it with that early of a flight, but the next flight was at 6:30 pm and I do NOT want to hang around until 6:30 pm to fly home after a cruise. Been there, done that. We will only do that if we miss our first flight! ;)

[debster818]

We have a 10:55 flight from Miami. I also did not want to hang at the airport the whole day to catch a flight home. I sure hope we can get off quickly....if not I guess we catch a later flight and grin and bear it.

[Marie51]

If you do self assist then you do not get luggage tags from the purser. They call you to disembark according to the floor your cabin is on. So as I said, folks who did self disembark were still on the ship when I left and I was given #2 since I had an early flight.

And for anyone thinking about using luggage express........my sister did this last Sunday when we left the Valor. Carnival is supposed to take your luggage right to the airport for you for a $20/pp fee. Well, she had 3 pieces of luggage, none of them were there when she arrived home at the airport. The next day Delta found 2 of them and the third one is still missing and they claim they don't know where it could be. I wonder if it got left on the ship and is now taking another cruise without her.

[debster818]

If you do self assist then you do not get luggage tags from the purser. They call you to disembark according to the floor your cabin is on. So as I said, folks who did self disembark were still on the ship when I left and I was given #2 since I had an early flight.

And for anyone thinking about using luggage express........my sister did this last Sunday when we left the Valor. Carnival is supposed to take your luggage right to the airport for you for a $20/pp fee. Well, she had 3 pieces of luggage, none of them were there when she arrived home at the airport. The next day Delta found 2 of them and the third one is still missing and they claim they don't know where it could be. I wonder if it got left on the ship and is now taking another cruise without her.

 

So, what do you recommend? Our last cruise we had a late flight and stayed on the ship as long as possible. This time we need to get off ASAP.

Thanks for your help.

[TabithaK]

What order do they call the decks for self-assist - i.e. if they start from the lowest deck, then the Lido deck would be one of the last to debark in this way? How long does it take each deck to debark?

Thanks.

[Marie51]

I will try to answer a couple questions. When I left the Valor on Sunday, I was already off the ship before they started calling the self debark people(ones taking their luggage of the ship), so therefore I don't know which deck they start with. My flight was at 11:05 so I went to the pursers desk and they gave my tags that said #2. I was called at 7:45 to leave...plenty of time to get to the airport.

For anybody flying Delta, they are charging $3/bag to do curb side checkin.

[dbookman1]

I've used self assist on all but one cruise. That was a nightmare. Self assist I'm off and out within 35 to 40 minutes and that includes customs. Don't worry about deck calling or any of that. Get up and head on down to deck 4, as soon as they say they are cleared leave. Yeah, you bump the line but it goes fast. And you don't need to worry about the bag pickup or any of that. And if they start debarkation around 8 The latest I've ever made it to the parking lot was 8:40. Most of that was because it's a long walk. you should not have any problems.

[Djford75]

Do they offer the Luggage Express program in Miami?

[grandmato4]

On the Victory out of Miami last Feb we did self-asist. We did have tags as we didn't decide for certain until shortly before it would have been time to put our luggage outside the door that we were going to do self-asists so we simply didn't use the tags. They called the decks for self-asists from the top down so Lido was called quickly. Because things were going so smoothly we chose to stay in our cabin and enjoy the balcony for a few extra minutes. When they called for the last of the self-asists passengers we took our luggage and got an elevator very quickly and down we went through the line, which was moving quickly and were off the ship in a matter of only a few minutes. It was nice to go straight to customs and not have to locate our luggage on the carousel which without a doubt saved a number of minutes. Just remember that you have to be able to handle all your luggage yourself if you do self-asists. We found the new terminal in Miami to be great and look forward to using it again in the future ! :) Now if the lines at the Miami airport had just moved half as efficiently all things would have been great!;)

[Marque]

My wife and I always do self-assist. She is vision impaired and there are always elevators available. She does not do escalators or stairs.

[winddawn]

I would recommend that you update your Funpass with Carnival on their website and be sure to enter your earlier flight info for your return flight home. With that earlier flight time, you should receive special luggage tags the day before debarkation in your cabin (steward will leave them on your bed) with instructions on where to report the next morning to get off the ship first. The meeting place is usually in one of the lounges. Carry your own luggage off. You will not have any difficulty with 1 suitcase and 1 carryon making it down the escalator. We did this last cruise in Miami and were at the airport at the gate by 9:30 AM. We used a taxi to get to the airport. Don't even consider transferring any other way with this early flight. Hope this helps.:D

[basill1970f]

I was just on the valor sailing that marie51 was on. I am a firm believer in self assist if you can at all handle it. We were on the lido deck and we were in the first set of people called for the self assist. We were off the ship and through customs by 8am and on our way to FLL. Our flgiht wasnt until 405. So we sat for quite a while but at least i was sitting and not standing in customs line with 3,000 people. Since my sailing on aug 2007 carnival has once again improved their debarkation process.. I LOVE IT>>>>>>>> WAY TO GO CARNIVAL...