Caribbean Princess boarding begins at 1pm???

[Greg and Mary]

We are leaving July 9th :) and our tickets say, "embarkation begins at 1:00pm. Check in ends at 4pm, Experience a faster check in by arriving after 2pm."

 

I've read on this board that boarding usually begins around 11am for Caribbean Princess. I called Princess and they said that it does not start for this itinerary until 1pm.

 

Does anyone know if they actually start boarding prior to the posted boarding time on this particular cruise?

 

This is our first cruise...any info is appreciated.

[cruiserforlife]

I'm pretty certain that the info Princess gave you was incorrect and I wouldn't believe anything corporate told you anyway.I thin k they are just trying to avoid the usual crowd.

If you get there around 11am,I'm pretty sure you'll be on the ship no later that noon or shortly there after.

[monk888]

I was just on the Caribbean Princess sailing on June 4-11. Our tickets said the same thing. While I didn't arrive until later, many passengers told me that they opened the doors to boarding around 11:30AM as usual. They are just trying to get people to arrive later so they have more time to turn over the cabins. That being said, there are definitely fewer crowds the later you arrive.

[2theship]

I was just on the Caribbean Princess last week. We arrived at 11:30 but the doors were not open yet. We stood at the end of a very long line. About 5 minutes later the doors opened and the line started working its way through security. Once we were through security, check in took about 5 minutes and we walked onto the ship at 12:15. If we had arrived later, we would have spent less time in line but I loved being on the ship early.

[roe2ship]

Last year, they opened the doors at exactly 11:30 am. This year it was about 11:45 am. Enjoy your cruise!

[spongerob]

Yes, you can get on earlier, if you don't mind standing in the steamy Florida sunshine or whatever weather the day decides to offer awaiting the opening of the doors. Call me crazy, but I think that's a lot of fun. It sure beats bouncing off the walls in some hotel room and driving my poor wife mad.

[CruiseFever]

We do the same thing for the same reasons. Princess has been really pushing the idea of coming later to avoid the crowd which is true. They've sent me faxes urging this.

 

All I can hope is that everyone except in-the-know Cruise Critic members who have the desire to get going read that stuff and do it...that will be less competition for us when we go early.

 

They are right though, if you go after 1:00 you'll probably have little or no wait.

 

We go at 10:30 and are usually one of the first on board when they open the doors sometime before Noon. By the time those people come on board at 2:00 we've seen our cabin, done a tour of the ship, had lunch and it's naptime while the crowd jams the buffet lines.

[castroville cruiser]

We are also on the 7/9 trip. A little concerned about Dennis right now !!

We are also planningto arrive about 11 am. Have found that the embarkation always starts before the printed time on the tickets. :)