Disembarking

[panda24]

I'm taking my first cruise. We're going to Alaska rt from Seattle. Does anyone have any idea about how long the disembarking takes? I wanted to rent a car to explore the day we get back and didn't know what time to put on my reservation.

 

Also has anyone rented cars from the Pier?

[paul929207]

Debarkation will start as soon as theship is cleared by local authorities. That is usually sometime between 7 and 8 am. It should be done by 10am.

 

You may want to consider self-debarkation. You carry your own bags off the ship, and are the first ones off.

[Host Carolyn]

If you are going on Princess.. and I assume you are since it's on this board, they are sailing from new port area this year (Pier 91) and not sure how the car rental process is going to work there.. you might want to go look at West Coast Departures board and see if any locals there know..

FYI: Seattle in my opinion is not the place to rent a car unless you want to get out of town. Traffic and parking can be a hassle and so much of what you want to see is along the waterfront or accessible by monorail from downtown to Space Needle.

If you can make arrangements for your luggage that would be my choice.. just for what it's worth;)

[mauiedin87]

Disembarkation usually starts around 7:30 a.m. and is done by 10 a.m. if all goes well. But all does not always go well! The last two cruises we did the "self help disembarkation", taking our one large suitcase off ourselves and that went ultra smoothly. We were off the ship in 15-20 minutes. Yesterday, returning from the Golden, was a whole different story and another lesson in listening to one's gut feelings!! First, we found out two nights before that we'd been assigned late-departing luggage tags for an 11:45 am departure from LAX. We got that changed to one of the early ones, but disembarkation started late, announcements were barely audible over all the loud talking in the waiting lounges. When we got into the huge terminal well over an hour later than expected, our one suitcase could not be found anywhere, certainly not under the color and number it was assigned! Another 45 minutes later, together with many other passengers who were also missing luggage, we were finally allowed into the "late departure" luggage tags and found our suitcase under the wrong number and wrong color. We had transfers to LAX, but we just got into a cab at curb side because we were getting quite frantic about making our flight home. The cab cost, but got us to LAX in under 30 minutes and we made it on the plane in time.

A lot of things can go really wrong, particularly if it's a large ship! Be prepared for every imaginable screw-up! :rolleyes: