Disembarkation

Also known as Debarkation.

Exiting from the ship. The night before the ship reaches its destination, passengers are normally asked to place their main baggage outside their cabin on retiring, where it will be collected and off-loaded on arrival. Anything left in the cabin will be considered hand luggage to be hand-carried off on leaving.

Passengers will also be given a customs form to fill out. Any duty-free items bought from the shop on board must be included in the allowance. It is a good idea to save the receipts in case a customs officer requests to see them.

Before leaving the ship, passengers should leave their cabin key in their cabin, and remember to claim any items they have placed in the ship's safety deposit boxes.

Passengers may not go ashore until all the baggage has been offloaded, and customs and/or immigration inspections or pre-inspections have been carried out. In most ports, this takes 2-3 hours after arrival. For this reason, it's a good idea to leave at least 3 hours from the time of arrival to catch a connecting flight or other transportation.

Once off the ship, passengers will identify their baggage on the pier before going through customs inspection. Porters may be available to assist.