Carnival dropped the ball- Boarding mid cruise

We were scheduled to sail from Athens Greece 10/11 on Vista. Due to a strike by air traffic controllers, all flights to Athens were cancelled. The strike was eventually called off but getting to Athens was near impossible. We were in Paris. After searching all options of still trying to make our Athens departure, including a 21 hr ferry ride, we opted to stay in Paris and then fly to Malta a pick up the cruise there. THREE times our travel agent let them know we'd be at the dock at 8 AM. John Held even got involved and knew we'd be there at 8 AM. We received confirmation from Carnival with instructions on where to be for boarding at 8 am. We get there and no one at the port has anything from Carnival about us boarding. At 10:45 after multiple calls by the port to the ship Carnival security shows up and escorts us on board. He acted very annoyed over the entire event. NO ONE to help us with our luggage. We had to sit in a chilly room on metal chairs for over 2 hours. Lousy way to treat a paying guest. There were 3 couples that boarded in Malta. Shame on Carnival.

For the OP, you cannot always "board at any point during the cruise". Now, while both Greece and Malta are Schengen countries, and travel between them does not require any formalities, I don't know what the next port was after Malta, and whether this required Customs and Immigration clearance, but at the very least, the passenger manifest needed to be changed and resubmitted to the Maltese officials for departure, so they may have been waiting on these officials before allowing you to board. Knowing the Maltese, even if they had been told by Carnival to be onboard at 8am, that could have meant an actual arrival of the officials anywhere between 8am to noon.

 

And no, typically when boarding at ports other than embarkation ports, there will be no porters to assist with luggage. Frankly, I don't believe any of the major cruise lines would have handled this differently.

Again, Chief has the accurate response. Take it to the bank. Officials aren't going to roll out at daybreak unless they have to and Security personnel aren't porters.

Again, Chief has the accurate response. Take it to the bank. Officials aren't going to roll out at daybreak unless they have to and Security personnel aren't porters.

The issue is lack of communication, nothing else. If Carnival would have communicated properly with their guests, they would have understood where the hold up is and had realistic expectations. This is Carnivals fault.