Boarding Crown in Dublin

[JRA1708]

Hello all,

Myself and three other adults will be arriving in Dublin May 16th for a British Isles cruise.  Our plane arrives around 9:00 am and we plan to go straight to the cruise port.  I have been notified by Princess that our boarding time is at 1:00 pm, ugh!  That's so late!  Does anyone have experience with this?  If we board at 1:00 pm will our cabins be ready?  We want to do some sightseeing obviously, and I know we could drop off our luggage but don't want to lug around our heavy purses and totes.  Any help with this subject is greatly appreciated!

[rocklinmom]

The cruise before yours (May 4th) docks in Dublin at 8:30am. Allowing for customs clearance and docking procedures, that means the passengers should be starting to disembark at around 9am at the earliest. Then the crew has to prepare all of the cabins for the May 16th passengers like yourself.  I wouldn't plan on embarking before noon.  Since your plane lands at 9am, you will still have to go through customs and collect your luggage, etc. so that will kill some time.  It's probably twenty minutes or so to the port.  That puts you closer to being able to drop off your luggage (once they start accepting them for your cruise, maybe around 11am or so).  At that point you would just be waiting at the port and ready to board as soon as they are ready.  It looks like your cruise doesn't even sail until 9:30pm that night.  So you will have plenty of time later that afternoon to go sightseeing. 

[jasbo49]

2 hours ago, JRA1708 said:

I have been notified by Princess that our boarding time is at 1:00 pm, ugh!  That's so late!  Does anyone have experience with this?  If we board at 1:00 pm will our cabins be ready?

When you say you've been notified boarding is at 1 p.m., is that one of those board by deck things? Those don't seem to mean much.

 

The main thing is almost everyone on that ship (Crown, I assume) will have boarded a few days earlier in Southampton. Dublin is kind of an alternate point of embarkation where maybe 10 percent of the ship comes on. So the crew won't have a whole shipload of cabins to ready, and the cruise terminal should be almost empty. My guess is you will be able to board pretty early, then drop your stuff in the cabin and go explore the city.

 

Dublin is a fun city where, even during the daytime, you can find pubs with live music. In the Temple Bar area, there are fun shops and reasonably priced pubs for lunch.

 

Jim

[rocklinmom]

That's a good point that you will be part of a smaller group of passengers boarding in Dublin.  So you should be able to board by noon I would think, drop your bags in your cabin, have lunch, and head out to see the city.  The majority of passengers will already be off the ship on their shore excursions.  You would probably have your muster drill later in the evening too.