Disney Cruise Debarkation Day With Kids: What to Expect Before You Leave the Ship
Disney Cruise debarkation day moves quickly, but after sailing on a couple of Disney Cruises with our two young kids, who are currently 5 and 2 ½, we’ve learned what to expect and how to make the morning go more smoothly. Preparing the night before can make a big difference, and understanding things like the luggage process, breakfast schedule, and debarkation groups ahead of time can help your family feel more organized on the final morning of your cruise.
Whether this is your first Disney Cruise, or you just need a refresher before your next sailing, we’ll walk through the debarkation process step by step and share a few things we’ve learned that have helped make the final morning go more smoothly with young kids.
Preparing the Night Before
Taking care of everything you can before bed means you’ll have less to worry about when it’s time to leave the ship. Here are the things our family has found most helpful to do ahead of time.
Settle Gratuities
When you first book your Disney Cruise, there’s an option to prepay gratuities. If you choose not to prepay them, which is what many people do, Disney will leave a letter in your stateroom on one of the final days of your trip detailing how the gratuity process works, including the option of automatic gratuities.
For our sailing, Disney added gratuities of $16 per day for each person in our stateroom. These gratuities are distributed among a few Cast Members that you likely interacted with during your cruise, including your Server, Assistant Server, Head Server, and Stateroom Host.
On the reverse side of your letter, you’ll find a breakdown of the gratuity amount for each Cast Member along with detachable tickets. Disney also provides labeled envelopes if you’d like to personally give them to your Server team and Stateroom Host before the end of your cruise. If you’re unable to give them the envelopes in person, the gratuities will automatically be charged to your account and distributed on your behalf.
From a planning perspective, this is one of the costs you’ll want to account for when budgeting for your cruise. For our family of four on a four-night sailing, the automatic gratuities added up to $256.
If you’re wondering whether you’ll need cash for onboard gratuities, the answer is generally no. As long as you have a credit card on file, the gratuities can be charged directly to your onboard account. If you’d like to give an additional tip beyond the automatic gratuities, you can certainly do so in cash, or Guest Services can help adjust the amount charged to your account before the end of your cruise.
That’s one of the reasons I recommend adding a credit card during online check-in, which we’ll talk more about in the next section.
Review Onboard Charges
When you complete the online check-in process, you’ll have the option to place a credit card on file for onboard purchases. I recommend doing this, as it makes paying for onboard expenses much easier and allows you to set individual permissions if, for example, you want to prevent your kids’ Key to the World Card or DisneyBand+ from making purchases.
Another benefit of having a card on file is that you won’t need to visit Guest Services to settle your account at the end of your cruise, which can save time since lines are often longer on the final night and early morning of debarkation day.
You can review all onboard charges directly in the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app throughout your sailing. Before leaving the ship, I recommend taking a few minutes to review your charges and download a copy if you’d like one for your records. Once you leave the ship, you’ll have 90 days to visit the Disney Cruise website and download the charges from that sailing.
Finalize Your Placeholder Reservation
Disney Cruise Line offers you the opportunity to save money on future sailings by purchasing a placeholder reservation. For a $250 fully refundable deposit per stateroom on up to two staterooms per sailing, you’re essentially reserving the option to book a future cruise at a discounted rate. Disney typically offers around 10% off future bookings made with a placeholder reservation, and they occasionally run promotions that increase the discount to 20% or even 25%.
This offer is only available while you’re still onboard your current cruise and cannot be purchased once you’ve left the ship.
Since the deposit is fully refundable if it’s not used within the allotted timeframe and can save quite a bit on future sailings, it’s something we purchase on every Disney Cruise. If you’d like to learn more about how placeholder reservations work and whether they’re a good fit for your family, you can read more about them here.
The purchase only takes a few minutes and can be completed directly in the Navigator app. Because it’s easy to forget while enjoying the final night of your cruise, I recommend taking care of it before heading to bed.
Return Oceaneer Bands
If your kids spent time in Disney’s Oceaneer Club or Disney’s Oceaneer Lab during your cruise, don’t forget about their Oceaneer Bands before heading to bed on your final night.
Kids ages 3 to 10 need either a DisneyBand+ or an Oceaneer Band to access the youth clubs. If your child doesn’t already have a DisneyBand+, you can purchase an Oceaneer Band onboard for $25. The band functions similarly to a DisneyBand+, but it’s only used for the youth clubs and can’t open your stateroom door or be used to make purchases.
At the end of your cruise, you can return the Oceaneer Band to Disney’s Oceaneer Club by 11:00 PM on the final night of your sailing to receive a credit on your account. You can also choose to keep it if you’d like a souvenir, but you’ll be charged the $25 fee.
If you plan to sail with Disney again, you may want to keep it. The bands do have a limited battery life, but as long as they’re still working, they can be reused on a future Disney Cruise.
Pack Luggage
On the final night of your cruise, Disney will leave luggage tags in your stateroom for any bags you plan to check. Pay close attention to the character and color on each tag because you’ll use them to identify your debarkation group the next morning and to find your luggage once you’re off the ship. I recommend taking a quick picture of the tags just in case you need to reference them later.
Before bed, pack up anything you won’t need on your final morning. Then fill out your contact information on the back of the luggage tags, attach them to your checked bags, and place your luggage in the hallway outside your stateroom. This step typically needs to be completed by 10:00 PM or 10:30 PM, but be sure to verify the exact time in the Navigator app.
Make sure you keep anything you’ll need the next morning with you, including travel documents, medications, valuables, a change of clothes, and everyone’s DisneyBand+ or Key to the World Card.
I highly recommend checking as many bags as you’re allowed. On our first cruise, we thought it would be easier to keep everything with us, but trying to manage our luggage, stroller, and two young kids while leaving the ship was more challenging than we expected. On future sailings, we checked almost everything except our diaper bag and one backpack, which made the morning much easier.
Review Disney Cruise Line Navigator App Instructions
Before heading to bed on your final night, take a few minutes to look through the Navigator app. It contains a lot of helpful details about debarkation day, including breakfast, settling your onboard account, the luggage process, U.S. Customs Allowance requirements, Lost and Found, and what can and cannot be brought off the ship.
Make a Breakfast Plan
I recommend deciding on a breakfast plan the night before so everyone knows what to expect the next morning. There is a complimentary sit-down breakfast available, along with a few lounges that are typically open for specialty coffees. You’ll be able to confirm the exact locations and times in the Navigator app.
Depending on your travel plans, it may make sense for your family to eat before getting off the ship. Since we drive ourselves to Port Canaveral, we typically let the kids sleep until their usual 7:00 AM to 7:30 AM, have something small that I’ve brought with us like a granola bar, and then get ready to leave the ship. Once we’re off the ship, we usually grab breakfast on the way home.
If you’re using ground transportation or have a flight to catch, breakfast onboard may be a better option. Just be sure to review where you need to be and when so you can leave yourself enough time to get there. We found the elevators could take a little longer than usual on debarkation morning since so many people are trying to get to the same places at the same time.
I’ll share more detailed information about how breakfast works on debarkation day in the next section.
Breakfast on Debarkation Morning
On debarkation morning, a complimentary sit-down breakfast will be offered at one of the rotational dining restaurants. Your seating time will depend on whether you had the early dinner seating or the late dinner seating. If you had early dinner, you will have an early breakfast that begins around 6:45 AM. The later breakfast seating is typically around 8:00 AM. Disney asks guests to arrive on time so everyone who would like to participate has time to eat before leaving the ship.
There are also a few lounges onboard that will be open for specialty coffees and may have seating available while you wait for your debarkation group to be called. Keep in mind that continental breakfast delivery is not available on debarkation morning.
Review the exact location and time of your breakfast in the Navigator app and leave yourself plenty of time to get there. We found the elevators and staircases could take a little longer than usual since so many people are heading to the same places at the same time.
You’ll need to bring any luggage that you kept with you to breakfast because once you’re finished eating, you’ll be expected to leave the ship soon after. As soon as you leave your stateroom that morning, Disney begins preparing the rooms for the next sailing later that day.
On previous sailings, it seemed like most guests who brought luggage to breakfast left it just outside the restaurant, similar to where strollers are typically parked.
Our family usually skips the onboard breakfast and opts to sleep in a little later instead. Since we typically have the earlier breakfast seating, it’s a little too early for us to get everyone up, dressed, and down to the restaurant. Having something small that I’ve brought with us, like a granola bar, tends to work better for our family.
Leaving the Ship
Before anyone can leave the ship, Disney must receive clearance from Customs. Once that process is complete, they’ll begin calling groups to disembark based on the color and character luggage tags you received the night before.
You’ll hear shipwide announcements as new groups are called. Once you make your way to the atrium, there will also be electronic display boards showing which groups have been called.
On our first sailing, it took us longer to wait for an elevator than any other part of the process. On our most recent sailing aboard the Disney Wish, we were able to get right on an elevator but waited about 30 minutes in the atrium for our group to be called.
As guests begin gathering to leave the ship, the atrium can become fairly crowded. There are plenty of Cast Members nearby who can answer questions and help point you in the right direction while you wait.
Once you see your group has been called, you’ll join the final debarkation line with the other guests and make your way toward the gangway. On our most recent sailing, the line looked really long, wrapping around the fourth-floor atrium, but it actually moved surprisingly quickly.
The last stop before leaving the ship is to present either a DisneyBand+ or Key to the World Card for each member of your stateroom, so make sure to keep those handy. DisneyBand+ can make this a little easier since everyone can simply wear their band. If you’re using Key to the World Cards instead, I recommend keeping them together in a lanyard or another easy-to-reach location.
After leaving the ship, you’ll make your way through the terminal until you arrive at the baggage claim area. Look for the section that matches the color and character on your luggage tag to find your checked bags.
There are porters standing nearby with luggage carts who can assist if your family has a lot of bags. Just keep in mind that it is customary to tip the porters for their assistance.
Once you’ve retrieved your luggage, you’ll continue through Customs before heading to your next destination. If you drove yourself to the port, that means making your way back to the parking garage. One thing that’s easy to forget is to keep your parking ticket somewhere safe during your cruise, as you’ll need it to exit the garage. We typically leave ours right in the car so it doesn’t get misplaced. If you’re using ground transportation, you’ll follow the signs to your designated pickup area.
On our most recent sailing, we were off the ship, back to our car, and driving away from Port Canaveral by around 9:00 AM.
Overall, we found the process pretty straightforward. The longest part is usually waiting for your group to be called. After that, it’s a simple and easy-to-follow process off the ship. On our first cruise, I was worried about how difficult it would be to find our checked luggage, but Disney’s system makes it surprisingly fast. We’ve never had any trouble locating our bags.
Although the morning goes by quickly, Disney does a good job guiding people through each step of the process. After our first cruise, we knew exactly what to expect, which made future debarkation mornings feel much more manageable.
Final Thoughts
No one is ever excited about having to leave their Disney Cruise. But after experiencing a few debarkation mornings with our kids, we’ve found the process is much easier than it first appears.
The morning starts early and goes by quickly, but once you understand how things like breakfast, luggage, and debarkation groups work, it’s a fairly straightforward process. Taking care of a few things the night before can also help the morning feel a little less rushed.
I hope this guide gives you a better idea of what to expect so you can focus on enjoying those final moments of your Disney Cruise.