Miami Embarkation Question

[trigger]

My wife and I are going on our second NCL cruise in August and are wondering how fast the the embarkation process is. On our last RCI cruise last year, it took 20 minutes from dropping off our luggage, parking and checking in  to boarding  the ship. Is NCL comparable? Thanks in advance.

[tallnthensome]

Maybe if you arrive at the terminal right before the ship leaves port or at least after general boarding has begun. If you arrive early it could be an hour or more depending ......

[cruiseman90]

It varies for larger ships like the Escape. Boarding has usually taken less than an hour but on our most recent cruise, we arrived around 1 PM had to wait outside for two hours since they were only using half the terminal and the building kept reaching full occupancy. NCL's new facility should be open by the time of your cruise, so hopefully you won't have to deal with this. 

[trigger]

Whoa.

[Pat.D]

I sail both NCL and RCCL regularly out of Miami and nothing compares to RCCL in speed of boarding, specially with their new terminal and in app full check in, photo and passport-scan check.

 

Last november I sailed a fully sold out Symphony OTS and boarding at 11:30 peak time took me 18 minutes from curb to being on board.  I've never had an NCL miami boarding take less than 40 mins when I arrive around 2pm after the rush to way over an hour between 11am-1pm.

[CruiseFanatic223]

We sailed on the NCL Sky back in December. Everything, except for where to drop off luggage, was super smooth. 

We arrived in the port area at around 9:45. Parked in the garage, walked to Terminal C, couldn't find the drop off area for bags and the workers had bad english and didn't explain it well. There were also several others lost like us. After finding the luggage area, we went right in, no lines at security, straight to the check in counter, again no line. We were given Group 1 to board and were seated in the terminal by 10:00. 

Boarding began around 11:30 and were among the first to board. 

[PelicanBill]

There are some unpredictable mornings as NCL borrows various terminal buildings. We had the spacious Terminal G when I boarded Breakaway last October. Plenty of room, but then a full Coast Guard inspection delayed boarding by 2 hours.  So it was past 1pm when they started and the hall was packed. Boarding did not finish until 4pm.  And the company under contract to do security and manage people movement messed up the boarding with terrible confusion over who was boarding at any time. Different people were calling different categories at the same time!

 

 

 

[2+2]

Just back .  Miami took two hours.  But big time passport screening going on.

    You will be at the new terminal, and all the bugs should be worked out by then. 

[CruiseFanatic223]

8 minutes ago, 2+2 said:

Just back .  Miami took two hours.  But big time passport screening going on.

    You will be at the new terminal, and all the bugs should be worked out by then. 

So the new terminal is open which means they're not sharing half of C?

[BirdTravels]

On 2/29/2020 at 6:51 PM, trigger said:

Whoa.

We normally show up around 10:15 to avoid the wait at security and check-in (. Priority boarding starts before 11:00. General boarding starts before 11:30. You'll be onboard before the restaurants open at 11:30. If you are on a big ship, you will be at the new terminal which should speed boarding (hopefully). 

[Comi.uy]

On 2/29/2020 at 7:03 PM, cruiseman90 said:

NCL's new facility should be open by the time of your cruise, so hopefully you won't have to deal with this. 

When is this new facility expected to be completed?

[mreic082]

On 2/29/2020 at 4:03 PM, cruiseman90 said:

It varies for larger ships like the Escape. Boarding has usually taken less than an hour but on our most recent cruise, we arrived around 1 PM had to wait outside for two hours since they were only using half the terminal and the building kept reaching full occupancy. NCL's new facility should be open by the time of your cruise, so hopefully you won't have to deal with this. 

 

When did you cruise? Did they do anything differently for check in because of this virus? I read somewhere that they are checking passports page by page and was hoping to verify some of the additional screenings going on.