My thoughts on post-cruising - Disembarkation

I recently posted my thoughts on cruise embarkation.  Now I will share my thoughts on disembarkation.  For international cruises, such as the Mediterranean cruise that we sailed, we did not drive ourselves to the port, nor did we have a family member pick us up from the port, so we had to find our own way to the airport to get home.

Generally speaking, you can count on the boat being on-time / on-schedule for disembarkation.  The end of your cruise signals the ship crew that they need to efficiently get everyone off the boat, clean and prepare for the next set of passengers.  This is a crucial day for them and they can't afford to start this day late.  Their goal is to have a smooth and drama free day for everyone.  Therefore, they will offer transportation to the airport for an additional fee.  The advantages of taking the airport transfer from the cruise company is that you will probably get priority disembarkation and a smooth ride to the airport.  The cruise ship will strongly encourage you to take this option with announcements such as, "There will only be a LIMITED number of taxi cabs available from the port."  The truth is that the cruise company has zero control over how many taxis show up when they dock.  In our experience, every taxi cab in the city will line up outside the port ready to take passengers to the airport.  When the cruise ship uses the word, "LIMITED," they really mean "finite" as in "not infinite" number of taxi cabs. 

Bottom line: Cruise company charged $40 per person for airport transfer. Additionally, the cruise ship's airport transfer was a large charter bus which took a much longer amount of time to drive to the airport.  We took a cab for less than $40 total for 2 people.  We saved at least 50% by taking a cab.  Word of caution: Unfortunately there are a few unscrupulous taxi drivers out there.  One of our fellow cruise passengers was taken for a ride (literally) by their taxi driver.  Fortunately, this family was alert, realized the problem and asserted their request to go directly to the airport to their taxi driver.  If you are completely risk adverse and don't mind the extra cost of the charter bus, then you may want to take the cruise ship option.

Our first cruise (Alaska) was another disembarkation story all together.  We docked in Whittier, AK.  We booked a group charter bus (not with the cruise company) to take us from Whittier to Anchorage.  Since we did not book our transportation off the boat through the cruise company, and we were not VIP, we had practically the lowest priority in getting off the ship.  Additionally, since the crew needed to start cleaning our rooms, we had to vacate our rooms.  The disembarkation process took so long, we started getting paranoid that our independent chartered transportation would leave without us.  I'm somewhat ashamed to say this, but we ended up leaving the boat by pretending we were part of an official cruise boat excursion group.  Essentially, we did not wait our turn, and followed another group off the boat.  We did not miss our independently chartered transportation.  The charter bus company is very familiar with cruise boat disembarkation process and patiently waited for all of the other passengers who had also booked travel to get off the boat.  No one was left behind.

Baggage - Not that I don't appreciate the hard work and services provided by the ship crew, but the baggage system has never worked for me (personally).  The last night of the cruise, you are expected to have your luggage packed and placed outside your door by 9 PM.  Then you have to search for your bags at the port the next day.  If the cruise boat gives me the option, I always opt to take my own bags off the boat.  I see it as a win-win.