Breakaway Embarkation / arriving early

[Rocket J]

Good morning. 6 days till setting sail aboard the Breakaway! I have no status with NCL. Our e-Docs state check-in begins at 12:00 PM -- "don't arrive earlier than 1hr before embarkation time". Many reviews indicate past cruisers have gotten to the pier around 9:30am to 10:30am.

I will probably have a bottle of wine to declare and would be interested in getting Vibe weekly passes.

 

1. When you arrive at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal do you in essence line up at that time/ taking your position to eventually board the ship?

 

2. When would I be able to declare the wine and pay the corkage fee and, when I do that, am I loosing my position to board the ship and possibly loosing my chance to getting Vibe passes?

 

With all the talk about the passes (limited quantity) and Vibe's popularity I envision something like the mad dash of "The Amazing Race" to get to the clue box!!

 

I'm probably making this harder than it should be (Type-A really in need of a vacation!). :D

[trish1c]

When you arrive at the NY port very early, you get jammed up in all the people trying to disembark. Once inside the terminal you get in one of those roped off maze lines to wait to get to the scanners. It's hot. There is no place to sit & they jam you in. Once you clear the metal detectors you get in another line to set up your sign & sail account. When you finish doing that you are given a boarding group number then you go to a seated waiting area until your group is called. From there you go to the photographers to take your embarkation picture, then you make your way up the gang planks. Sometimes the pay for your corkage tables are right there before the gangplank; other times they are by the doors to the ship. Either way you don't really lose much time at the tables.

[Rocket J]

When you arrive at the NY port very early, you get jammed up in all the people trying to disembark. Once inside the terminal you get in one of those roped off maze lines to wait to get to the scanners. It's hot. There is no place to sit & they jam you in. Once you clear the metal detectors you get in another line to set up your sign & sail account. When you finish doing that you are given a boarding group number then you go to a seated waiting area until your group is called. From there you go to the photographers to take your embarkation picture, then you make your way up the gang planks. Sometimes the pay for your corkage tables are right there before the gangplank; other times they are by the doors to the ship. Either way you don't really lose much time at the tables.

 

What, an embarkation picture after we get all hot and sweaty? LOL. Thank you Trish. I appreciate your response.

 

Eric

[garycarla]

If they see the wine and you have to pay... no delay. Just do that and keep moving along. A half dozen people will probably bypass you at that point.

 

As to pictures... we always walk around them and head right to the ship. We have no suitable walls at home to post these pictures. LOL!

[Fl0werChild_]

I know ! My boyfriend wants to be there at 830 for the passes ! I guess there's a nap awaiting me once I get to my room !!!

[ThreeDancingMatthews]

9:30 am sounds a bit excessive to me- like others have said, you'll run into pax disembarking from the prior cruise. Though I haven't done Breakaway. I've done the Jewel out of NYC, and a few other ships out of different ports- all smaller than Breakaway. NCL's "don't get here til 1!" is disingenuous. I aim for 11am- I've found that that usually gets me there before the giant crowds and I can walk right on after clearing check in. Then again, I've also heard it's a sprint for the Vibe passes, so maybe you would want to be one of the first to arrive to get into the first or second boarding group.

[jjikids]

Got there at 9:30 in May. We were in a suite so got on the ship at 11:15. By then the lines were out the door with people checking in. After we got on the first regular group followed us. We prefer getting on the ship early.

[grobma]

Got there at 10:30 on 8/25. Breezed right through security, right to a check-in agent, and were given a boarding card. We were on board at 11:30 and went straight to the spa for passes, of which there were plenty left at that time. Corkage table was set-up as you entered the ship. Very easy process.

[Rocket J]

If they see the wine and you have to pay... no delay. Just do that and keep moving along. A half dozen people will probably bypass you at that point.

 

As to pictures... we always walk around them and head right to the ship. We have no suitable walls at home to post these pictures. LOL!

 

 

I dug up some old boarding pictures from my earliest cruises. Gosh, 1987 Carnival Festivale. A few balloons and fake palm trees along with some big grins!

[Rocket J]

Sounds like a good idea! But I'll bet the excitement and adrenaline will put any nap on hold.

[Rocket J]

Got there at 10:30 on 8/25. Breezed right through security, right to a check-in agent, and were given a boarding card. We were on board at 11:30 and went straight to the spa for passes, of which there were plenty left at that time. Corkage table was set-up as you entered the ship. Very easy process.

 

9:30 am sounds a bit excessive to me- like others have said, you'll run into pax disembarking from the prior cruise. Though I haven't done Breakaway. I've done the Jewel out of NYC, and a few other ships out of different ports- all smaller than Breakaway. NCL's "don't get here til 1!" is disingenuous. I aim for 11am- I've found that that usually gets me there before the giant crowds and I can walk right on after clearing check in. Then again, I've also heard it's a sprint for the Vibe passes, so maybe you would want to be one of the first to arrive to get into the first or second boarding group.

 

Thanks for the advice. I had hoped that any last bit of stress before vacation would be something off the ship ... but a sprint for a pass sounds like stress on board. That will be a good reason for a cocktail!

[MCAT48]

If you get there before security opens up you have to sit and wait then form a line to go through security. Then you sit and wait afterwards until they start calling numbers. I always end up getting high numbers even though I'm usually there before most others!!

[bigfoot88]

We drive in from Boston area, stay outside of the city, we try to arrive by 930.

 

This is a routine, stay in NJ, get up and go to IHOP, stop for last minute items at Walgreens then we hit we hit the tunnel.

 

Being that parking is first come, we don't we to get left out looking.