Cruising Part Four-Final Disembarkment

Cruising Part Four-Final Disembarkment

 I had no idea what to expect when it came to final disembarkment from our fantastic cruise.  It was definitely organized chaos. 
The afternoon before the final cruise day, the staff holds a disembarkement informational brief in one of the lounges.  It's a power point presentation explained in detail by a staff member.  The staff went through the information in multiple languages.  It's very helpful and has some SUPER important information in it-so DO NOT MISS this.
The way the cruise handles disembarkement of the masses is really thought out.  They arrange set times for each member or family to leave the cruise ship based on how you are traveling out of the final port destination.  For example, our final port was Venice.  If you were flying out of Venice on a morning flight, you left earlier than those that had an afternoon flight.  I hope that makes sense.  If you take a look at the below hand out that was given to us the night before, then It might be a little more clear.

You can see how the cruise line categorized departure with group colors based on departure info.

The disembarkment groups are categorized by colors.  We were in the brown group.  The final night on board, we were given the disembarkement guide/times and our brown luggage tags.  The luggage had to be set outside of our room by midnight.  This is IMPORTANT!  Since you have to leave your luggage in the hallway outside of your room by midnight, what do you do with your toiletries and all that you'll need to get ready the following morning?  Make sure to have a carry on type of bag set aside.  Here's my tip: leave out the pajamas for the last night, the clothes you will need for the following day, and all your toiletries and keep them in this one carry on.  Pack everything else in your luggage and place it outside your room, in the hallway by midnight, to be picked up by the staff. 

Brown luggage tag (I regretfully did not take any pictures of the tags before putting them on our luggage:/)

The final morning we had plenty of time before it was the brown group's designated time to disembark.  We had a leasurely breakfast in the buffet and played cards waiting to get off the cruise ship.  When it was our designated time, we went to the deck 6 (as directed by the instructions given).  It was VERY easy.  We just walked off the ship and followed the masses to a building that you had to walk through to get into the final port, which for us was Venice.  When we walked into the building, there was luggage everywhere.  But, it was all sectioned off by color. 

We found all the brown labeled luggage, grabbed our 4 bags and walked out of the building.  Then we caught our bus back to Frankfurt. 
That was it!  We had a great time and I recommend going on at least one cruise while stationed in Europe.  It's a fantastic way to see a lot of countries and not have to haul luggage from destination to another, book train tickets, Airbnb lodging, etc.  I have to say that we were able to have a lot of time with one another and relax and enjoy family time.  It really was a trip of a lifetime!