Why was boarding period shorted to 90min?

[Optotronics]

Just found out today that the 11/5 royal princess cruise changed its departure from 4 to 5pm, but also shortened boarding period from about 4 hrs to 90minutes. Says no boarding before 3pm and everyone needs to be onboard by 4:30.

Any ideas or has this happened on other cruises?

They also changed the previous cruises arrival from 6am to 5am.

Is it even possible to check in and board 3600 passengers in 90minutes?

That's a rate of about 40 passengers per minute. Not sure how many checkin lines they have at the terminal? Or how many passengers the escalators and elevators can move per minute. I can understand a later departure since maybe it takes more time after coming back from the Europe TA, but getting everyone checked in and on board in 90 minutes???

[Robinsoncruiseso]

There may be an inspection or deep cleaning will be required. The ship will not leave until all passengers in the terminal have boarded. They might start checking in passengers but not allow them to board until 3 pm.

[Wacruzr]

First US stop after a summer in Europe. Likely to have extensive immigration, safety and health inspections.

 

Loren

[skynight]

Just found out today that the 11/5 royal princess cruise changed its departure from 4 to 5pm, but also shortened boarding period from about 4 hrs to 90minutes. Says no boarding before 3pm and everyone needs to be onboard by 4:30.

Any ideas or has this happened on other cruises?

They also changed the previous cruises arrival from 6am to 5am.

Is it even possible to check in and board 3600 passengers in 90minutes?

That's a rate of about 40 passengers per minute. Not sure how many checkin lines they have at the terminal? Or how many passengers the escalators and elevators can move per minute. I can understand a later departure since maybe it takes more time after coming back from the Europe TA, but getting everyone checked in and on board in 90 minutes???

The ship will have just arrived from spending the summer in Europe. Princess probably has been informed of inspections and immigration reviews that will take longer then normal. Thus the delayed boarding times. We were on a voyage out of San Pedro with similar issues. Actual boarding began sometime after 2pm. It isn't fun, but there is not much Princess can do. Princess will get everyone on board before they sail.

[Pam in CA]

It's standard procedure for ships arriving in the US after sailing outside the US for a period of time are subject to inspections as well as all crew members cleared by Immigration. Happen just about every time a ship repositions to the US. Nothing new, unusual or different.

[Xport]

They also changed the previous cruises arrival from 6am to 5am.

Is it even possible to check in and board 3600 passengers in 90minutes?

That's a rate of about 40 passengers per minute. Not sure how many checkin lines they have at the terminal? Or how many passengers the escalators and elevators can move per minute. I can understand a later departure since maybe it takes more time after coming back from the Europe TA, but getting everyone checked in and on board in 90 minutes???

 

I have never sailed with Princess but your post provides quick insight--you just didn't realize it--to the reasons for early port arrival of the prior cruise and delayed/condensed boarding for your cruise...

 

When a ship first arrives in a US port following a lengthy absence from US waters [i don't know the exact definition of "lengthy" but it seems to me that Royal Princess probably left for her eastbound Transatlantic to Europe in March or April; that's long enough], a number of protocols are triggered before the ship can resume routine service in US waters...

• All officers and crew members will need to go through the US Immigration process in person... My guess is that officer/crew immigration process will occur aboard ship starting very early in the morning [thus the arrival time acceleration] and before guests from the arriving Transatlantic are allowed to disembark to claim their bags/pass through their own immigration and customs processes inside the terminal...
  
• Representatives from the Coast Guard will come aboard to inspect the ship, life boats/tenders and chase boats thoroughly from a seaworthiness/safety perspective as well as the maritime credentials of those involved in navigation of those vessels--not all work on the bridge--during routine operations and/or safety drills...
  
• Representatives from the Centers For Disease Control will come aboard to thoroughly assess the ship's overall cleanliness, sanitation, food storage/handling processes from galley to common areas to staterooms... Public records--I just looked--show that Royal Princess was last inspected on March 20, 2017 and received a very respectable score of 97 out of 100..
  

These processes are rigorous and can require a good bit of officer/crew involvement beyond the more routine tasks of readying the ship for boarding of new guests and reprovisioning the ship with supplies for the next cruise...

 

I've seen the process on Celebrity as both an arriving guest following a Transatlantic [no crew/officer immigration problems and no sweat; we disembarked as originally scheduled] and I've seen it as a departing guest on the first cruise following arrival of a ship from South American after an extended period outside the US...

 

In the latter instance Celebrity provided us with notification that boarding would be delayed, the reasons for the delay, and a later than usual suggested arrival time... Some complied/some didn't but no one got to board much before Celebrity's estimated time [check-in did begin a bit earlier]... The cruise terminal was awash with people; folding chairs were set up in just about every available inch of terminal space and water was distributed but more than a few were lined up or milling about outdoors for hours... Not a pleasant way to start a trip but Celebrity did try to keep it orderly; check-in and boarding order followed the seating order with those outdoors filling in as terminal space became available [but I sure wouldn't want to sit there for hours on end to be among the first to check-in/board]! The ship I was on had a guest capacity equal to about 60% of Royal Princess' capacity...

I think you already surmise so but I would be surprised if your ship will depart as originally scheduled...

 

Understand your disappointment but have a good trip... Worse things could happen...

[Colo Cruiser]

OP how did you "find out"? Email/verbally etc?

[Timbles]

OP how did you "find out"? Email/verbally etc?

 

The standard Booking Notification email sent br Princess, mine came in last evening.

 

We will be disembarking from the Regal repo that morning, now have extra time for catching up with emails, chat with the kids, maybe download a few new books. We are hoping to still be allowed to easily transfer from one ship to the other, does anyone know if this will be a problem in this circumstance?

[Colo Cruiser]

The standard Booking Notification email sent br Princess, mine came in last evening.

 

We will be disembarking from the Regal repo that morning, now have extra time for catching up with emails, chat with the kids, maybe download a few new books. We are hoping to still be allowed to easily transfer from one ship to the other, does anyone know if this will be a problem in this circumstance?

 

Based on your info I would say the Regal will sail several hours late.

No way to board all those passengers in 90 minutes.

[pris993]

Interesting, we will be on the Royal from Europe... it has been a few years since we did a TA from Europe, last time was to NYC... do not recall any significant delays getting off. I am glad I book another day in Florida after getting off the Royal... so I will not have any stress making a flight.

Sorry for those waiting to get on board.

[dchip]

Interesting, we will be on the Royal from Europe... it has been a few years since we did a TA from Europe, last time was to NYC... do not recall any significant delays getting off. I am glad I book another day in Florida after getting off the Royal... so I will not have any stress making a flight.

Sorry for those waiting to get on board.

 

We disembark the Regal that Sunday. The flights back to California on 11-5 are crazy pricey. We are heading to Key West for 3 days. Coming home on Wednesday. 🤗

 

Cheers, Denise

[cardiffman]

It's interesting that this boat has always been scheduled to reach US shores after a period in Europe, yet this seemingly predictable circumstance and its effect on the boarding schedule was not factored in until so recently.

 

Relative to the astute observations on boarding logistics, @Optotronics, I would suspect that the gangway-clogging photographers will have to stand down and miss this one embarcation in order to achieve 40 pax/min? One can dream.

[Colo Cruiser]

It's interesting that this boat has always been scheduled to reach US shores after a period in Europe, yet this seemingly predictable circumstance and its effect on the boarding schedule was not factored in until so recently.

 

Relative to the astute observations on boarding logistics, @Optotronics, I would suspect that the gangway-clogging photographers will have to stand down and miss this one embarcation in order to achieve 40 pax/min? One can dream.

 

 

What boat?

[capriccio]

It's interesting that this boat has always been scheduled to reach US shores after a period in Europe, yet this seemingly predictable circumstance and its effect on the boarding schedule was not factored in until so recently.

 

 

The circumstances may be predictable but I'm guessing that Princess gets additional information from the Centers for Disease Control, Immigration and the Coast Guard closer to the actual date. Princess alone has its two largest ships (Royal and Regal) returning on November 5th. There are also 5 other ships in port that day: Eurodam, Zuiderdam, Allure of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, and the Conquest. The Zuiderdam, Allure and the Conquest are not returning from a TA; the others may be since I don't see them on the October Port Everglades schedule (http://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/fort-lauderdale-port-44?month=2017-10#schedule). It there are 4 ships that need to go through the returning TA hoops, that will put a strain on Center for Disease Control, Immigration and the Coast Guard personnel and that could impact passenger disembarkation and embarkation (and I say that as someone disembarking the Royal that day).

[Timbles]

The Regal is arriving from New York, not a transatlantic, there should be no delay is disembarking her.