Palma Boarding time

[newmills]

We fly into Palma on 4 May - the day before we sail on the Dream. We are staying at the Hotel Costa Azul on the Paseo maritimo the night of the 4th and have to vacate our room mid-morning. We know Palma very well so don´t really want to spend too long wandering about there.

 

Does anyone know what is the earliest time you can board the Dream?

 

Thank you.

[kruzseeka]

We fly into Palma on 4 May - the day before we sail on the Dream. We are staying at the Hotel Costa Azul on the Paseo maritimo the night of the 4th and have to vacate our room mid-morning. We know Palma very well so don´t really want to spend too long wandering about there.

 

Does anyone know what is the earliest time you can board the Dream?

 

Thank you.

 

 

It looks to me as though the first flights out of the UK are at 6.00 am so they should be set up for registering passengers for embarkation by sometime before 9.30 am. (UK time time - correct +/- if necessary). If that's the case, I can't see that you would have any problem going at any time after that - unless you have something in your documentation which actually specifies your embarkation time.

 

It might be worth just checking out likely flight arrival times (departures from the Uk are listed in the brochure) as they don't necessarily 'man' the reception desk if no flights are due in. We once arrived in Marmaris to an empty reception area - our flight was a couple of hours after the first rush and was the first of the next batch which were expected. And we'd arrived about half an hour early - after a short delay - they came running from the ship. I just mention this as it is just possible there may be significant lulls in the procedings when it's not worth them sitting around doing nothing for an hour or two.

 

I couldn't get the link to the brochure to work so here's the relevant bit in the brochure. Under 'Check in' it states:

 

" You'll be able to check-in and board the ship as soon as you coach from the airport or hotal arrives at port (not relevant to you). Your cabin will be ready for you. If you've opted for a 'cruise-only' holiday it means you've just booked the cruise part with us and you'll need to organise your own flights and transfers to the ship (which you know!). the last check-in is an hour before the sailing time shown in your ticket wallet or on your booking confirmation'.

 

No mention of any particular time - just the latest you can check in.

 

So, I wouldn't really expect you to have a problem if you go straight from your hotel - you won't be the first to embark and Thomson are very good at managing this rolling programme of embarkation as flights arrive throughout the day. Incidentally as soon as you do embark, all the facilities on the ship are available to you so you can eat whenever you're ready. The only issue may be that your cabin might just not be ready if they haven't got an arrival time for you. (The stewards prepare the cabins for passengers arriving on early flights first so they tackle cleaning the cabins in order of when they expect the next occupants to arrive. Perhaps because independent travellers' arrival isn't known, they will do them early 'just in case'.)

[newmills]

Thank you Kruzseeker for such an excellent reply.

 

I will post details when we return in case it is of interest to future visitors.

 

We are flying in from Malaga and it was as cheap to travel a day early and have a nights Half Board in Palma as it was to fly in on the actual day - and no stress about delayed flights on the actual sailing day.

[Jim The Scot]

Hi newmills

 

In our experience, stay then cruising your normally picked up from hotel at midday for transfer to ship which is only a 20 min journey...The year we arranged our own transfers we were at the ship for 11-00am,boarded no problem.

[Roberth1]

Hi New MIlls

We are on the Dream ahead of you doing the crossing from the Caribbean.

The scheduled arrival time of the ship in Palma is 0600 hours.

Our flight from Palma to Gatwick is scheduled to depart at 1150 hours.

So we should be off the ship fairly early.

Hope this helps

[Sailaway487]

We fly into Palma on 4 May - the day before we sail on the Dream. We are staying at the Hotel Costa Azul on the Paseo maritimo the night of the 4th and have to vacate our room mid-morning. We know Palma very well so don´t really want to spend too long wandering about there.

 

Does anyone know what is the earliest time you can board the Dream?

 

Thank you.

 

Just looking at the flights to Palma, and the earliest are a Cardiff and a London Gatwick that land at 09:15. It then would take them about one and a half hours from landing to getting to the ship, so they'd probably be checking in at the port around 10:30. Any time after this should be fine then. :)

[doaf]

Also doing Caribbean Crossing any idea how many formal nights there will be?

[Roberth1]

Hi Doaf

Glad to have found someone else on this cruise.

I have communicataed with a couple of others but here has not been a lot of mention of it here on the forums.

I am guessing at 3 one each week, they have us all on board for the 20 nights so I am assuming they will do one a week. Or maybe they will do 2 in the five day sea crossing

[doaf]

Hi Doaf

Glad to have found someone else on this cruise.

I have communicataed with a couple of others but here has not been a lot of mention of it here on the forums.

I am guessing at 3 one each week, they have us all on board for the 20 nights so I am assuming they will do one a week. Or maybe they will do 2 in the five day sea crossing

Thanks, Hope its not more than three, I may need to buy another shirt!!!! Perhaps someone who did it last year can remember. the chat will start when the tickets start arriving.

[Almondson]

Hi Doaf,

We did 20 night Transatlantic Cruise from Barbados to Palma on the Destiny in 2010 and there were 2 formal nights. Our first one was Captains Cocktail Party on the first night of the crossing which was the 8th night of the cruise. The second one was a Masquerade Ball, and if I remember rightly, it was after leaving Madiera en route for Gibralter when we had one day at sea. Hope you have a great cruise, and as calm crossing as we did. Watch out for whales on the crossing!!!