Debarkation fiasco on RCL Voyager

In article <rjqjs016qv8tqlpaivtk94s9o0jpoc1ni6@>, Bob
<me@rogers.com> wrote:

> Although this was our 8th cruise, we learned something new. If you
> have a fairly tight connection on the way out, don't rely on entering
> you departure info on the in cabin TV. Go to the purser's desk in
> person and make sure that everything is OK and that you are scheduled
> to get off in time.

I have always done that from the first cruise. You need to check if you
have flights.

--
Charles

"Bob" <me@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:rjqjs016qv8tqlpaivtk94s9o0jpoc1ni6@...
> On our Voyager cruise Dec 4-11 we had a flight to catch out of MIA at
> noon.
>
> Our travelling partners had a flight to catch out of MIA at 1:15 pm.
>
> Guess who's "color" was called first? We found out later that our
> color was to be the last left off the ship...nice work RCL!!
>
> Then began the fiasco trying to get off the ship. I'll spare you the
> details but suffice it to say we were down by the luggage carrousel
> waiting for our bags at 11:00 and our flight was at noon. By a series
> of small miracles and no help from RCL, we somehow made the flight
> which was indeed boarding on time.
>
> Although this was our 8th cruise, we learned something new. If you
> have a fairly tight connection on the way out, don't rely on entering
> you departure info on the in cabin TV. Go to the purser's desk in
> person and make sure that everything is OK and that you are scheduled
> to get off in time.
>
> Bob
>
You were so patient to wait until your color was called. While color is
used to keep order in the debarkation process there is nothing cast in
stone. Instead of getting stressed out why didn't you just get off
regardless of your color? No one will send you back to your seat.
MLD

In article <cf2ks0p842lv685o7hjgeeoi3n2o8dlrtf@>, Bob
<me@rogers.com> wrote:

> The luggage is loaded onto the caroussels in the same order as the
> people are called off the ship. So we got off the ship and had to wait
> half an hour for our bags. Actually had to get someone to go behind
> the security doors and look for our bags after we described them to
> him.

Readers who have not been on Voyager class ships out of Miami may not
be familiar with this system. It is unlike the typical cruise terminal
debarkation where all the luggage is sitting in the terminal in color
coded piles. Instead the luggage is put on a carousel like they have at
the airport. The luggage comes out in color order, all the colors are
not there at once so it very important to have your luggage coded
correctly. If you leave the ship earlier than your color it won't do
you much good as you will have to wait for your luggage to be put out.
It is not sitting out available.

> It was ugly and will not happen again.

Your posting is a good warning. It may save someone else from the same
hassle.

--
Charles

MLD,
Things are changing. On My 11/27/04 cruise on the Diamond Princess out
of Los Angeles they were the most strict that I have ever seen and DID
turn away people without the proper color tag. They even had this in
writing in the departure literature and also over the P.A. system. You
pysically had to show a color stub and I.D. upon leaving.

Steve Hayes



MLD wrote:
> You were so patient to wait until your color was called. While color
is
> used to keep order in the debarkation process there is nothing cast
in
> stone. Instead of getting stressed out why didn't you just get off
> regardless of your color? No one will send you back to your seat.
> MLD

MLD,
Things are changing. On My 11/27/04 cruise on the Diamond Princess out
of Los Angeles they were the most strict that I have ever seen and DID
turn away people without the proper color tag. They even had this in
writing in the departure literature and also over the P.A. system. You
pysically had to show a color stub and I.D. upon leaving.

Steve Hayes



MLD wrote:
> You were so patient to wait until your color was called. While color
is
> used to keep order in the debarkation process there is nothing cast
in
> stone. Instead of getting stressed out why didn't you just get off
> regardless of your color? No one will send you back to your seat.
> MLD

In article <1103762188.237090.243570@c13g2000cwb. .com>,
<shayesship@msn.com> wrote:

> Things are changing. On My 11/27/04 cruise on the Diamond Princess out
> of Los Angeles they were the most strict that I have ever seen and DID
> turn away people without the proper color tag. They even had this in
> writing in the departure literature and also over the P.A. system. You
> pysically had to show a color stub and I.D. upon leaving.

Not sure things are changing. There has always been some variation on
how debarkation is handled by different cruise lines and even among the
same cruise line at different ports. As I recall Princess was always
fairly strict about checking the colors leaving out the ship while RCI
and Celebrity called the colors but went on the honor system. I never
had any problem with exchanging the color tags on Princess, Celebrity
or RCI if the origional issued tags were not early enough for me to
make my flight.

--
Charles

In article <20041222202404.07924.00002795@mb-m07.>, Donnassei
<donnassei@> wrote:

> Thanks for the warning, we need to be off early too for an 11:05 flight out of
> Ft. Lauderdale after our Jewel cruise. I'll make sure to go down to the
> purser's desk and make sure we have an early color.....

On Jewel of the Seas they put a form in your cabin midweek. It lists
all the colors and the order of debarkation. You select the color that
applies to you. It is an honor system. I marked it for white tags, the
early debarkation, and those were the tags delivered to my cabin.

--
Charles

Charles wrote:

> In article <1103762188.237090.243570@c13g2000cwb. .com>,
> <shayesship@msn.com> wrote:
>
>
>>Things are changing. On My 11/27/04 cruise on the Diamond Princess out
>>of Los Angeles they were the most strict that I have ever seen and DID
>>turn away people without the proper color tag. They even had this in
>>writing in the departure literature and also over the P.A. system. You
>>pysically had to show a color stub and I.D. upon leaving.
>
>
> Not sure things are changing. There has always been some variation on
> how debarkation is handled by different cruise lines and even among the
> same cruise line at different ports. As I recall Princess was always
> fairly strict about checking the colors leaving out the ship while RCI
> and Celebrity called the colors but went on the honor system. I never
> had any problem with exchanging the color tags on Princess, Celebrity
> or RCI if the origional issued tags were not early enough for me to
> make my flight.

On my last RCI cruise, Rhapsody of the Sea, there was a bin of luggage
tags in the lobby. It was unattended and you could take what ever tags
you wanted.

sue

In article <32uqbuF3rnqibU2@>, Sue and Kevin Mullen
<kjmullen@> wrote:

> On my last RCI cruise, Rhapsody of the Sea, there was a bin of luggage
> tags in the lobby. It was unattended and you could take what ever tags
> you wanted.

I have seen that on some ships.

The absolute worst debarkations, some ships don't debark by the color
tags, they call flight numbers. They like to do that on RCI's San Juan
debarkations. You sit there and are supposed to listen to all these
numbers of different airline flights and catch your flight number when
it is called. Never could sit through all that. Just walked off when I
got tired of listening for the flight numbers.

--
Charles

Charles wrote:

> The absolute worst debarkations, some ships don't debark by the color
> tags, they call flight numbers. They like to do that on RCI's San Juan
> debarkations. You sit there and are supposed to listen to all these
> numbers of different airline flights and catch your flight number when
> it is called. Never could sit through all that. Just walked off when I
> got tired of listening for the flight numbers.

I haven't seen that yet, but it sounds horrible. I also would of
gotten tired of listening and walked off the ship. I still think that
the cruise lines could learn a lot from Disney, best debarkation ever.

sue