Arrival Time at Pier vs Boarding Time

Why does NCL let you pick a time to arrive at the pier 2 hrs before boarding even begins? What's the purpose? Does that mean you'll be standing around from 10:00 AM to Noon when boarding begins??

Thanks,

Becca

What is your departure port? What time is your ship departing?

If your ship departs at 4 pm, say, you must be on board by 3:30 pm for muster drill. Many people like to arrive early to check-in and get on board as early as possible for lunch and to explore the ship. You don't need to arrive at 10 am, in fact that may be a bit early for a 4 pm departure. But arriving by 10:30 or 11 am or so means you would be able to check-in, wait in the waiting area, and get on board as soon as allowed. If you wait until noon or later you might not have to wait much at all. It's up to you.

Departure Port- Miami

NCL SKy

Can get to the pier as early as 10, but can't board till noon.

Was just trying to figure out why they even let you get there 2 hours early if you can't board till noon.

My guess would be they have a lot of people to check in so arriving early could help eliminate the bottleneck going through security and such. It's pretty status quo for all the cruise lines I've been on. Just a side note, for the first time ever we didn't rush to the port to try and be one of the first on board a few weeks ago in Tampa. We arrived at 11 and we were boarded by 11:30. It was so nice to skip all the waiting!

The scheduled boarding time is Noon, however the boarding process can begin anytime around 11:30 A.M. or a little earlier. There are lots of people have have to be the first ones on the ship for whatever reason.

I have seen people waiting in line to board as I am disembarking.

Departure Port- Miami

NCL SKy

Can get to the pier as early as 10, but can't board till noon.

 

Was just trying to figure out why they even let you get there 2 hours early if you can't board till noon.

Ignore that. We were on the Sky last year. We got there around 10AM and if you do as well, you'll be among the first there. You'll get through security quickly and be waiting upstairs by 10:30 or so. Ship will board somewhere after 11AM. We were on board at 11:10 or something like that.

I always take the opinion that its my first day on the ship. Get there early and enjoy your first day.

My usual routine. Arrive at 10:30, board by about 11:30 usually. Then let the vacation begin.

Departure Port- Miami

NCL SKy

Can get to the pier as early as 10, but can't board till noon.

 

Was just trying to figure out why they even let you get there 2 hours early if you can't board till noon.

Would you rather have everyone who is sailing arrive at the exact same time?

We always arrive early, sometimes at 9am if we are getting Vibe passes

Ignore that. We were on the Sky last year. We got there around 10AM and if you do as well, you'll be among the first there. You'll get through security quickly and be waiting upstairs by 10:30 or so. Ship will board somewhere after 11AM. We were on board at 11:10 or something like that.

 

I always take the opinion that its my first day on the ship. Get there early and enjoy your first day.

cool- thank you!!

Would you rather have everyone who is sailing arrive at the exact same time?

 

We always arrive early, sometimes at 9am if we are getting Vibe passes

Nope- I would not prefer for everyone to arrive at the same time. However, on RCCL and Carnival, I have received an arrival time, rather than a "pick your own"... so I was not familiar with why they allow you to choose a time 2 hours earlier than they say they allow you to actually get on board.

The reason why is probably because a) arrival and boarding are not the same, and b) the arrival process is more involved than the boarding process.

Much like they tell you to arrive 2 hours before your flight, but they don't board the plane until 30 min before takeoff.

A great number of people have no trouble arriving several hours prior to the stated boarding time for the joy of being first in line to get on the ship.

As to why they allow it - probably so they can watch and laugh. I'm sure it never gets old.

Nope- I would not prefer for everyone to arrive at the same time. However, on RCCL and Carnival, I have received an arrival time, rather than a "pick your own"... so I was not familiar with why they allow you to choose a time 2 hours earlier than they say they allow you to actually get on board.

Although boarding time is 12pm or 1 pm, it better to get to pier / port at least before 11am because everyone else will be making a bee line for the x-ray machines and then the sail card account setup. Those lines for x-ray and onboard setup at around 11am are long because 1,000 people decide to show up thinking it will be one hour to get process then board at 12pm and instead, it going to be 2-3 hours wait on line just to be x-rayed.

Take the others advice and go in the morning, so you're not stress out standing on line for hours and instead you're seating down relax while waiting to board. Best way to start any vacation - calm and relax!!!

So when is the WORST time to arrive. We just want the window that will have the shortest wait/processing time.

So when is the WORST time to arrive. We just want the window that will have the shortest wait/processing time.

Between 10am an 12pm for a 4pm departure. This is when the masses converge since ships typically start boarding around noon.

Arrive between 1pm and 2pm and youwill have little to no wait. Guaranteed.

I like getting there about 11am and usually am on board by noon eating a nice lunch in the MDR. My guess is lines are shorter after 1pm as I see less people streaming on board at that time.

Thanks for asking this question... I am a first time NCL cruiser and wondered the exact same thing! I'm planning to arrive to our 4 day Sky cruise between 10:30-11:00 for the Noon boarding and 5pm departure.

Just curious , are the pre-selected boarding time slots enforced on NCL if I arrive earlier (Miami - NCL Getaway) ? Because I booked late , only time slot was the latest one 11:30am - 1

Just curious , are the pre-selected boarding time slots enforced on NCL if I arrive earlier (Miami - NCL Getaway) ? Because I booked late , only time slot was the latest one 11:30am - 1

No, nobody has been a bit interested about the time selected when we have arrived.

On 4/10/2015 at 7:04 AM, nbsjcruiser said:

 

Ignore that. We were on the Sky last year. We got there around 10AM and if you do as well, you'll be among the first there. You'll get through security quickly and be waiting upstairs by 10:30 or so. Ship will board somewhere after 11AM. We were on board at 11:10 or something like that.

 

I always take the opinion that its my first day on the ship. Get there early and enjoy your first day.

There are a lot of factors here when trying to figure out arrival time vs boarding time.  Personally, I like to get on the ship as early as possible to have some lunch, get a drink and chill.  Also, take care of any booking we may want to do, buy cruisenext certs, etc.  I have noticed that there is a sweet spot on when you arrive and how long you may have to wait in the queue lines or the waiting area to board.  So, either you check in early and wait in the waiting area or you wait in the extra-long queue lines and board a little later.  If you arrive after 11 your chances of waiting in the queue lines goes up quite a bit.  If you show up closer to 2pm the lines will be shorter, but you have lost about 2-3 hours of total on ship time.  It is not exact science, just what I have observed.

This topic is 7 years old

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

This topic is 7 years old

Interesting, I wasn't even paying attention to that.  The topic is so often brought up though.

3 hours ago, Chs71 said:

 

This thread is 9 years old. Please avoid touching old threads because they often contain pre-pandemic out of date information. 

33 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

This thread is 9 years old. Please avoid touching old threads because they often contain pre-pandemic out of date information. 

Actually, almost all threads contain misleading, false, or out of date information.