Questions about staggered boarding

Hi all, haven't been on here in quite some time, sadly, but I'm embarking Sunday for my first cruise in several years! So exciting!

The last time I cruised was before staggered boarding. For those of you who have done it recently, how was it? Did you get in pretty quickly? Was your room ready? Was the dining room open for lunch, or did you have to go to the buffet? We're on Lido deck and board at 1:00.

Thanks for any insight!

Staggered boarding has become the default; the dining room will be open for seating until 1:30, the horizon court and on-deck options will be open until muster drill. Rooms will be ready.

If you arrive at the pier at noon, in most ports other than Vancouver, you're highly likely to be boarded by 1.

Staggered boarding has become the default; the dining room will be open for seating until 1:30, the horizon court and on-deck options will be open until muster drill. Rooms will be ready.

 

If you arrive at the pier at noon, in most ports other than Vancouver, you're highly likely to be boarded by 1.

Awesome. Thank you!

Staggered boarding times are a suggestion, not a requirement. The dining room may or may not be open. I've boarded, went to the dining room and it had just a very limited menu. No salad. No soup. No appetizer. Not worth staying.

My treat on the ship's with one is to go to Alfredo's for a sit down personal pan pizza. No charge and much more civilized than the buffet. If your ship has an International Cafe, that's a good alternative.

We usually get to the ship by noon and board by 1:00. Our favorite is lunch in the main dining room. So relaxing . We have started our vacation! Princess cabins are clean and ready. Enjoy.

December 2015, Caribbean Princess--great lunch in the dining room. Plenty of selections, good food and good service. A great way to start the cruise. Yes, our cabin was ready upon boarding.

We had read about limited selections at lunch, so went with the idea of checking the menu....and were pleasantly surprised.

We stagger on and off on all our cruises.:)

Hi all, haven't been on here in quite some time, sadly, but I'm embarking Sunday for my first cruise in several years! So exciting!

 

The last time I cruised was before staggered boarding. For those of you who have done it recently, how was it? Did you get in pretty quickly? Was your room ready? Was the dining room open for lunch, or did you have to go to the buffet? We're on Lido deck and board at 1:00.

 

Thanks for any insight!

Staggered boarding is a suggestion, not enforced. When we boarded last year in SF boarding went smoothly and quickly. Arrive about 11am, you will go through security and be checked in and shown to a waiting area. Priority boarding begins around noon, followed by general boarding in the order of arrival. You should be on board by 12:30. Your cabin should be ready, you can drop off your things and start your voyage. One DR should be open from noon to 1:30. Other no charge options on the Grand Princess include Alfredos, where you can get an individual pizza; the International Cafe, with a selection of paninis, salads, soup, beef pies, quiche, desserts; The Trident Grill with burgers, fries, brats, dogs, chicken, veggie burger; Prego Pizza, pizza by the slice; and the Horizon Ct. buffet.

Note: If you like espresso drinks ask about the Cafe Selects Card (Coffee Card) at the International Cafe.

Until last Summer -- my first cruise w/Princess -- I hadn't cruised in years. Our suggested time was 4pm or shortly thereafter; but since we were in Barcelona and had to check out of our hotel around 11am anyway, we just got in a taxi w/our bags and went directly to the ship (Emerald) to begin our (Med) cruise.

I have to say, and compared to my earlier cruise (on Carnival) which took hours, I was EXTREMELY impressed with the outright efficiency of the entire process. We stepped out of our taxi at the dock around noon and I SWEAR we were in our cabin in less than 40 minutes, and took our first bite in a sail-day (swanky) MDR lunch at around 1pm! Granted, at noon, there weren't hundreds of people (and perhaps that's a little tip for you similarly), but there still were quite a few people. It's just that they had the boarding logistics down to such a degree that we didn't wait in any line more than, I dunno, 10 minutes at the most (the most time was spent filling out a medical form or security form or two -- maybe 10-15). Honestly, it was a complete pleasure and now that you've made me think of it, I was almost disappointed NOT be involved for any more time in the general exuberance of the boarding process. Heck, I've almost taken longer showers (OK, so a bit of an exaggeration..)! But I'm sure you get the picture.

ENJOY!

my last cruise (San Pedro, CA, 100% occupancy) i showed up at about 2:00pm, and was on board the ship as fast as I could walk. never had to wait behind more than 1 other person at any stop along the way.

If you don't mind missing out on that one moderate-quality, rushed buffet lunch, there's something to be said for showing up just an hour later than everyone else. :-)

Just go to the terminal even before your boarding time, then check in. You may be called for boarding even before your scheduled time.

We have always been to allowed to board before the scheduled time. Only once has our cabin not been ready until the scheduled check in time. In transit, elites, suites (and platinums I think) go first then everyone else by boarding group. The earlier you get to the port, the lower your boarding group letter/number will be and the earlier you will get on the ship.

If you get an email mentioning delayed boarding, that's the one to pay more attention to. Coast Guard drills on embarkation days means until the drills are finished no one gets to board.

Just thought I'd come back on to say how it went. Our scheduled boarding time was 1:00, and I can't remember exactly what time we got there because my sweetie dropped me off, we got a porter to take the bags, and then he went to park the car (55 Francisco garage). I waited on the sidewalk for him to walk back. This whole process took a little time, but not bad--the porters and parking guys kept people moving through pretty well, and the garage was pretty close.

We walked in, went through security with almost no wait, filled out our forms, and got in line to check in. Again, almost no wait--there was maybe one or two couples in front of us. Checked in and had a seat, and they called us to board within five minutes. Then we walked on and went straight to our cabin. Easy Peasy!

By the time we dropped our stuff, it was 1:30. I had hoped to check out Alfredo's as someone above suggested, but we were tired. I get stressed and anxious when traveling, and that wears me out plus I didn't sleep well for several nights before. So, I was done being lost and trying to figure stuff out. Our cabin was on Lido, so we just went to the buffet. It was fine, we found a seat to relax and eat, and it was a good start to our voyage. Since we had a balcony, we retired there to relax with some wine and watch San Francisco slide by as we sailed out of port. Gorgeous!

Coming home was just as easy. We were in one of the last groups to disembark, but we got off about 10 minutes before our meeting time. All the lines moved quickly, we found our luggage, and we walked with it to the garage with no problem.

I may do a full review at some point, but for now I'll just say we had a truly fabulous time--and my concerns about boarding and disembarking were needless!