Boarding times at OPT for Royal Caribbean

[aussiescouser]

Hi guys, just a quick one in regards boarding at OPT, I recently cruised on Radiance of the Seas and boarded at 11am. I have a friend who is boarding on thursday and on his seapass it says boarding at 3pm, i believe they are now trying to stagger boarding to avoid the congestion that tends to happen at the OPT, his problem is he booked transport to get him there at 10am so will he be allowed to board at 11am or are they enforcing the time on the seapass, any assistance would be appreciated i told him there would be no problem with dropping his luggage off first thing but not sure about boarding early???

[Tigerman00]

well as you would know, the boarding is a mess. If they do not enforce it, it will never change. So I feel it should be enforced, of course if there is no one in line it will be ok, otherwise I hope they are staunch .

K

[The Fox]

Originally Posted by aussiescouser

Hi guys, just a quick one in regards boarding at OPT, I recently cruised on Radiance of the Seas and boarded at 11am. I have a friend who is boarding on thursday and on his seapass it says boarding at 3pm, i believe they are now trying to stagger boarding to avoid the congestion that tends to happen at the OPT, his problem is he booked transport to get him there at 10am so will he be allowed to board at 11am or are they enforcing the time on the seapass, any assistance would be appreciated i told him there would be no problem with dropping his luggage off first thing but not sure about boarding early???

Hi Pete,

your friends cruise is scheduled to leave 6.30pm according to sydney ports...perhaps that has sometning to do with it.However on both our rhapsody cruises they were 6.30pm depatures and we boarded both times around 11.15.the ship nealy always clears its paasengers by 10-10.30 at the latest.

Col

[Debsta]

Col, there has been some recent changes to boarding on RCL at OPT
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1601129

However, if my transport had been booked, I would still turn up and try my luck.

[aussiescouser]

thanks guys, pretty much what i said to him deb, id just try my luck and if worse comes to worse he can get rid of his luggage and spend a day in the most beautiful city in the world!!! cheers

[gbenjo]

Perhaps a quick phone call to Royal Caribbean and explaining his transport set up might help. If he is coming from out of Sydney there would not be a problem and as they are only just started trialling the staggered times there could probably be some leeway. Also if the queue is not too long when he gets there he should be ok.

After all RCI are trying this to make check in faster & better for passengers not create hassles.

[The_Big_M]

I think RCL has always said a boarding time around then for its cruises departing in the evening.

[sandandsea lovers]

We received the email the week before our cruise. I sent a reply that we could not change our transfers and they sent an email back understanding our predicament and that we could board at 11.00am.
They did not enforce or even look at which level anyone was on and check in began at 11.00. By 11.10 we were on board. They were extremely quick with check in considering how many passengers were queued.