How long does it take to get off a cruise ship on disembarkation ?

Question

Our RCCL Voyager of the Seas ship's scheduled disembarkation is at 6 am at Barcelona port. We have to catch a flight at 9 am at the barcelona airport. How long does it take to get off the ship. I know that we can notify the ship's staff about our plans after disembarking and we will be given priority on leaving the ship. Can we make it ?

Answer 1

You will be cutting it very very close.   I do not think you can count on your being able to start departing the ship at 6:00 AM.  It may be closer to 7:00 AM or even later.   I have cruised out of Barcelona twice and our ships docked between 6 and 7 AM but departure started shortly afterwards.  I know that the airport is about 30 to 45 minutes drive from the port by taxi, depending a lot upon how much traffic there is.  The freeway runs right through downtown near the port right to the airport and its a quick drive once you are on it.  BUT, there is the delay of getting from the ship and over the causeway bridge into the city and then through a few streets to get to the freeway on-ramp.  That was the delay on our last taxi ride to the Barcelona airport.

Then you have to find and negotiate the airline checkin line.  Again the number of other travels will determine how quickly you get through the line.  And then you have to get through security and to the gate.  And security in the Barcelona airport is about the same as any US port.

So you basically have four (4) delay points:

-getting off the ship on time

-getting to the airport quickly

-getting checked in quickly, and

-getting through airport security and to your gate

My advice to you is if you can change your scheduled departure flight to about noon!!!

Answer 2

Some RCL ships offer express checkout. On the last night of your cruise. Check with Guest Services and see if they offer it. If so get your express checkout pass(s) from them. Just remember if you use this sevice you need to carry all your lugage off the ship. Do not leave it outside the door on the last night of the cruise.

Answer 3

As long as the cruise line know what time your flight is leaving you should have to problem, but I would make sure you're down in the show room where you wait in plenty of time, and have a taxi waiting at the port for you.

Answer 4

You are cutting it close.

Despite what some people are saying here, you can't just get off the ship as soon as it docks.  The ship must first clear Customs and Immigration.  How long that takes depends on how many people of various nationalities are on board, and how efficient Customs is.  I have not heard of any particular problems with this in Barcelona - but I still don't see how you are gonna get off the ship much before 7am.  And then YOU have to clear Customs and Immigration.

Given that you should be at the airport at 7 am for a 9am departure.....yeah, get a cab.  And you should probably try to arrange it before you begin the cruise.

Answer 5

I once had a 9am flight and we were able to get off the ship at 5am even though it stated disembarkation began at 6am. This was in Venice and the ship arrived there the day before. But unless your ship will be in port like the night before, I would also change my flight to later. The last thing you want is to be in a panic on the last day of your vacation. It would be worth it to change your flight if possible. By the way, disembarkation goes really fast once your color code on your luggage tag is called. What does take a while is finding your luggage among thousands once you get off the ship.

Answer 6

Normally you report you flight time to the cruise line and they will give priority disembarkation to people with earlier flights.

Answer 7

the usual is 1hr tops. but it will still depend on what type of cabin you had onboard. usually the higher cabin categories disembark first.

Answer 8

Usually the ship starts letting people off about an hour to an hour and half after docking at the port. You will get colored luggage tags at last night of your cruise, and since your flight is early, you will be one of the first ones off of the ship. Also, if your colored lags aren't the first ones called because maybe some other cruisers have an earler flight than you, you can always take your luggage off of the ship by yourself and disembark whenever you want to. I've been in the same situation in the past and have made my flight on time, so I think that you will be fine too.

Hope this helps.

Answer 9

I was on the exact same places/ship last week, the ship docked at about 6:30. You get tags delivered to your room the night before, for example if you get 'Purple 2' you disembark when it's called over the tanoy on the ship, but since your flight is 9am, i would definately book a taxi because you will miss the check in for your flight most likely because you have to wait for everyone from your 'colour/number' code to get on your bus to the airport, and a taxi will guarantee you get there asap.

Simply(lol): You can disembark the ship as soon as it's docked and connected to port side(6;30), but if you are in a higher number(eg 'Blue 10') you won't be leaving till 8;30 IF you have organized a trip on the bus to the airport with royal carribean, hence getting a taxi as soon as it docks is much faster.

By the way, you do NOT want to book your flight later in the day, the staff just play for tips everyday and act very nice till the last day, the day you disembark the ship they don't care about anything and it's very rushed, we had to get off the ship at 8;30 and our flight wasn't till 2;30, some people had to get off at 9;00am and there flight wasn't for another 10 hours. It's ridiculous.