Embarkation time??

[Iowa-Cruiser]

Others have stated that embarkation usually (barring any unforeseen issues) starts at around 11 AM. I am looking at my cruise ticket that I printed off, and it says the embarkation time is 1 PM.

 

Does this mean we have to wait until 1 PM to board, or that we should be on board before 1 PM?

 

Similarly, the disembarkation time is 7 AM - do we need to be off the ship at 7 AM?

 

Thanks.

 

Details (if that matters):

Ship: Zuiderdam

Port: Ft. Lauderdale

[Randyk47]

Typically you'll be on the ship before 1 PM. Yes, there are occasions or situations that arise that delay boarding but generally speaking folks start getting on after 11 AM. We usually plan to arrive at the terminal between 10:30 AM and 11 AM and I can only think of one occasion where we weren't on the ship by noon. That doesn't mean your cabin will be available until 1 PM or later.

 

Disembarkation is pretty much the same thing but in reverse. If all goes well with arrival and Customs then passengers can start getting off the ship at or close to 7 AM. Again, there are occasions or situations that can delay that. You can stay on the ship after 7 AM but they really try to clear the ship of disembarking passengers and I think the latest we've left is 9:30 AM with the exception of a really delayed 12:30 PM disbarkation due to late arrival and then some unexplained Customs problem.

[Krazy Kruizers]

For our Zuiderdam cruises we arrived at the pier at 11 and had to wait a few minutes for the doors to open. Even on our other cruises we have never been able to enter the terminal before 11 AM.

After that we go through security and then proceeded to the check-in lines. Got our picture taken and went upstairs to have a seat.

Boarding as a rule begins around 11:15 - 11:30.

Once on the ship you can go to the Lido for lunch. If you have sailed on HAL before then you can go to the dining room for lunch (hours on the Zuiderdam were 11:30 - 1:30).

The cabins are usually ready at 1:30.

Disembarkation -- once the ship has been cleared disembarkation will begin. Early in the cruise you will be given a form to complete indicating what your plans are for disembarkation day. This will determine the time that will be assigned to you for leaving the ship.

We did back-to-back cruises on the Zuiderdam -- on both of them the self-disembarking passengers did not start to leave the ship until after 7:30. Then something happened and everything got backed up and disembarkation actually stopped for awhile -- it resummed around 8:30.

So if you are planning on flying out on the same day -- plan on a flight after Noon.

[kalliekae]

Has anyone sailed on a ship that departed at 8pm? If so, I am wondering what time embarkation will begin? All our previous cruises sailed at 5pm so we boarded the ship around 1pm. However, our next cruise (11/2010) does not sail until 8pm so we are not planning to fly into FLL until that day.

[Typhoon1]

1:00 PM is the standard time printed on all documents.

 

Boarding normally begins sometime between 11-11:30. You will be checked in well before that time, but just be sitting around until the boarding process begins.

[Halfmoonfan]

I think we are in the minority on this board in the fact we do not show up at 11:00am in FLL to board but we prefer to wait until around 2:00 pm. There are a couple of reasons why this works better for us.

Like most we fly down the night before. We prefer to fly into MIA because we like spending the night in Miami Beach, but we have spent may a pre-cruise stay in FLL, and you can not go wrong in either city. We like to stay ocean front, no matter the time of the year, but did stay once at the Mandarin in Miami and would do so again. We always ask for a late check out (1:00pm). We have a good dinner out and do not worry about setting an alarm on cruise day. We have some time walking on the beach and then a late breakfast \ early lunch. We get to the dock around 2:00 and walk right on, no waiting and drop our stuff off in the room.

On our last cruise before we adopted this approach my wife looked at the sea of passengers (us included); with half our homes in our carry on bags, all camped out in and around the lido and said “this looks like a cross between a refuge camp and the land of the lost”.