![]() ![]() However, the absolute bare minimum should be no more than three hours before the ship returns (though we definitely suggest more time). We recommend scheduling a flight no earlier than five hours after your ship arrives back at home for most cruise ports. In any case, given that it can take a considerable amount of time to get off the ship, what time should you book your departing flight? The good news is that debarking these days tends to be relatively quick. What this all means is that getting off the ship can sometimes take literally minutes. Note that if you are traveling with a birth certificate instead of a passport, this option isn’t always available. These day, you can often just take a photo that documents you leaving the ship and then walk right off. It used to be you had to wait in line to meet with a border agent who would check your citizenship documents. Second, most ports have switched to a facial recognition technology that dramatically speeds up getting off the ship. While this means you won’t get off the ship first, the process of actually leaving is usually faster since the lines are shorter by that time. Other passengers wait for their selected debarkation time (the ship will assign a time to all passengers the day before the ship arrives home). Lines to leave the ship during self-assist can have hundreds of people. We’ve seen lines around the ship first thing in the morning that took 1.5 hours to get off the ship and out of the terminal. The major issue is that most people seem to opt for this method, instead of waiting to leave later in the morning and not carry their luggage. So if you have an early flight and can carry all your bags, then you can be among the first to get off the ship. This allows passengers who can carry all their luggage with them to depart first. The good news is that many ports are speeding up the debarkation process.įirst, most ships have “self-assist” debarkation. Combine this delay with thousands of people trying to leave at once and you’ve got a recipe for long waits. And even then, once you depart the ship you now have to go through customs and immigration to declare anything you bought while you were abroad and be checked back into the country. That’s because before the ship can let passengers off, it has to be cleared by authorities to start debarking. In our experience, getting off the ship once a cruise has ended is much more time-consuming than boarding. ![]() The result can be long lines and waits in some cases, meaning if you are in a rush to catch a flight, the stress can be high. They wake up early and stand in line for hours to get off the ship first and head back home. But show up later in the day and the boarding process can take just minutes and you’ll hardly see another person in the terminal.Īt that point, people can’t wait to get off the ship. Show up early and it might take some time to get aboard. Lots of passengers arrive early, standing in line for the opportunity to board early and be among the first on the ship. On cruise day, everyone is excited to board. Why so much time? Truth is, there’s a dramatic difference between the day you get on the ship and the day you get off. What time should you book your flight home after a cruise? Our rule of thumb is to schedule your flight home no earlier than five hours after your ship docks at its homeport.
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