Carnival Victory AGAIN: Debarkation

Whew! Sorry for the distance between posts! I have been training for the Disney Princess Half Marathon- but more on that later!


Debarkation- everyones least favorite day. The night before you have all your stuff packed up. You can leave your luggage outside of your door for them to collect and for your pickup once you are back at your home port. A lot of people take that route but we prefer to carry off because of how hectic debarkation can be. You add in looking for your luggage that morning along with the other grumpy passengers getting off board and it could throw a wrench in your plans.

We had an early flight to catch at MIA so we were up early to catch a little to eat, room service of course! Then we waited for them to call for any one who was doing self assist debarkation. Basically that is when you take all of your belongs off yourself.  We had packed up our stuff and hung out on the lido. They did self assist by deck and since we were on the Panorama, we were about the last to be called. With that being said we were still off, through customs in 15 minutes and at Miami Airport by 7:45 am.  The airport was getting busy so the earlier you can get there, the better.


Carnival and all other lines have "guidelines" in regards to what is the earliest you should book a flight on debarkation day. In this instance, the recommendation for leaving Miami is 11:30- 12pm. Our flight left at 11:05, just slightly sooner than their recommendation. Our only options were early morning flights that we would NEVER make, this flight or a 9 pm flight. This worried me some but as you can see, we made it just fine. We have also always came in to the cruise the day of, either by flight or car. The most important thing is going with what you are comfortable with, if it will add extra stress to have to rush to the cruise port to make it on time or to the airport to make your flight, it may be better to have a pre/ post cruise stay planned.