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What Check In Time Do You Prefer ?


Lhound92
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We always get there early. We purchase FTTF on every cruise to get our vacation started earlier. For us we get to the port as they allow you in and get checked in. Take our seats in the FTTF area and sit back and wait for usually about an hour and board as called. Skip the boarding photos and head straight up to the lido for our burgers, bbq and of course drinks. Drop the couple of small carry ons we take off in the room and grab our favorite chairs by the pool by the slide and enjoy the next several days. We get there and onboard before all the so called chaos I hear so much about starts.

 

The old saying hurry up and wait seems to apply here!

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The old saying hurry up and wait seems to apply here!

 

 

That is exactly what it is. I asked my wife a couple cruises back "why do we do this anymore?".

 

  • Wait in traffic at the port
  • stand in line at security
  • stand in line again inside to get to check-in
  • wait for our boarding number
  • enter the ship to find thousands of other people running around all stuck in the common areas
  • stand in line to eat
  • hope you can find a table
  • finish eating and try to find somewhere out of the way for us and out luggage until the cabins open

 

One day we realized that was not relaxing nor an early start to our vacation...it was just a hassle.

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I like getting there as early as possible. We're platinum so we can check in, drop off luggage, and go eat. At that time, we can usually find a table near Guy's Burgers. Once we're done eating, we head back to cabin to unpack carry-on and wait for our luggage. We're usually unpacked and everything put away by muster drill.

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In recent years, the later I board, the better.

 

Whether I get on at 11 or 2 the ship's not going anywhere till around 5...

 

Have completely skipped Lido lunches on boarding day since it's a mad house and have done the Steakhouse early on the first night in recent cruises in lieu of lunch.

 

I carry my luggage on (one bag) and my cabin is always ready. (Premier or Platinum)

 

Works for me!

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Going to ask a silly question, but hey, you never know...

 

 

My "arrival appointment" is 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM. Assume I want to get on the ship as early as possible. Does that mean I should arrive at the terminal at 1 PM? Or, get there earlier so that I can get processed and be ready to board the ship at 1 PM? Is there a possibility that I can show up early and get on the ship sooner than 1 PM?

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I like 1-1:30 arrival. Although Diamond, I hate fighting the crowds and I despise waiting (in general) and avoid at all costs. . At 1PM I park, walk right through security and usually no lines at all and I board and go to the cabin. I am usually onboard by 1:45 - 2 pm, right about when everyone is able to get into their cabins, which leaves the food lines and usually prime tables free... easy peasy

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I typically arrive early (I'm Platinum) so it's nice to get everything in the cabin & get to the Lido before the huge crowds. This last cruise out of Tampa, we decided to take our time since we live only 30 minutes drive from the port - not a good idea. We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for 45 minutes as there were 3 ships in. For those who don't know how the Tampa port is laid out, there's this "drive around" circle at the parking garage & 2 of the piers - OMG, - drivers were totally confused & didn't know which lane to be in. It was total chaos!

 

I'm also concerned about parking and traffic when I go to Miami. It's a circus if you get there either shortly before or while passengers are disembarking. It's very difficult to find a parking space and you're dodging all the disembarking passengers as they are trying to get across the street to the parking garages. So, this may be a port that I will start to arrive after 1:00, and hope that there won't be an issue with parking.

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Going to ask a silly question, but hey, you never know...

 

 

 

 

 

My "arrival appointment" is 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM. Assume I want to get on the ship as early as possible. Does that mean I should arrive at the terminal at 1 PM? Or, get there earlier so that I can get processed and be ready to board the ship at 1 PM? Is there a possibility that I can show up early and get on the ship sooner than 1 PM?

 

 

 

In my experience if you aren’t there within your window they will have you get in another line for people who are early or late. That’s how they did it in Miami. If you arrive a little early you can always just wait to get in the right line too

 

 

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I typically arrive early (I'm Platinum) so it's nice to get everything in the cabin & get to the Lido before the huge crowds. This last cruise out of Tampa, we decided to take our time since we live only 30 minutes drive from the port - not a good idea. We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for 45 minutes as there were 3 ships in. For those who don't know how the Tampa port is laid out, there's this "drive around" circle at the parking garage & 2 of the piers - OMG, - drivers were totally confused & didn't know which lane to be in. It was total chaos!

 

I'm also concerned about parking and traffic when I go to Miami. It's a circus if you get there either shortly before or while passengers are disembarking. It's very difficult to find a parking space and you're dodging all the disembarking passengers as they are trying to get across the street to the parking garages. So, this may be a port that I will start to arrive after 1:00, and hope that there won't be an issue with parking.

Totally agree with you on the parking. We arrived in zfort Lauderdale with a 2:30 time and there was no parking anywhere. It was very stressful.

 

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Interesting, all this talk of lines and herding cattle. We must have caught a bad day at Port Canaveral on our Sunshine cruise a couple of weeks ago. As we always do, flew in day before cruise, rented a car, spent the day/night near Disney World. Cruise morning, had breakfast at hotel, drove to port, dropped wife off at port with luggage, took rental car back to rental car office near port, Ubered back to port...hooked up with wife, walked in terminal, checked in, added gift cards to S&S account at GS at port, walked on ship....in cabin unpacking at 11:15. Not a line one. Third consecutive cruise with similar experience.

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Going to ask a silly question, but hey, you never know...

 

 

My "arrival appointment" is 1:00 PM - 1:30 PM. Assume I want to get on the ship as early as possible. Does that mean I should arrive at the terminal at 1 PM? Or, get there earlier so that I can get processed and be ready to board the ship at 1 PM? Is there a possibility that I can show up early and get on the ship sooner than 1 PM?

The 1:00-1:30 time range is when you will be allowed into the port building to check in for the cruise. These times have nothing to do what time you can board the ship.

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Totally agree with you on the parking. We arrived in zfort Lauderdale with a 2:30 time and there was no parking anywhere. It was very stressful.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

We don’t have to park, but I agree with this. When we arrived at 1:30 or 1:45ish New Orleans port parking was booked.

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We prefer a later time, usually 12:30-1:30, then we know our cabin is ready and we can drop our bags off before we eat. We have a 6.5 hour drive, so 12:30 works great for us.

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