Are we the last to Board at 2 with sailing time at 4?

[OC PAT]

We board the Rotterdam at our assigned time at 2 in Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday.  Isn't this a bit late with her leaving in 2 hrs? Judging from what I have read people have arrived a bit early but not too early for fear that they would have to wait.  We're sort  in a bad spot as we have to check out of our hotel by 10. Suggestions?  How strict are they with the assigned boarding times in Ft. Lauderdale?  Can you request an earlier time?  I suspect we had the late time because we were driving from Maryland.

[aliaschief]

8 minutes ago, OC PAT said:

We board the Rotterdam at our assigned time at 2 in Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday.  Isn't this a bit late with her leaving in 2 hrs? Judging from what I have read people have arrived a bit early but not too early for fear that they would have to wait.  We're sort  in a bad spot as we have to check out of our hotel by 10. Suggestions?  How strict are they with the assigned boarding times in Ft. Lauderdale?  Can you request an earlier time?  I suspect we had the late time because we were driving from Maryland.

The times are randomly picked by the computer, we have been told by Hal personnel that they allow a twenty-thirty minute either way time schedule. Enforced? Some say yes and others say no.

 

You can request for late check out at hotel. They will also stow your luggage and you can go to a nice lunch or maybe pre cruise excursion.

[Heartgrove]

I believe that boarding times could be allocated up to 20-30 minutes before departing. Maybe even tighter than that.

[CruiserBruce]

47 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

I believe that boarding times could be allocated up to 20-30 minutes before departing. Maybe even tighter than that.

Ah, no. All lifeboat drill activities, even the new ones, need to be completed before sailing. In the pre Covid days, those begun at least 45 minutes prior to scheduled sailing.

 

For @OC PAT, somebody has to be last....😅

[Heartgrove]

2 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Ah, no. All lifeboat drill activities, even the new ones, need to be completed before sailing. In the pre Covid days, those begun at least 45 minutes prior to scheduled sailing.

 

For @OC PAT, somebody has to be last....😅

 

No, they can be completed the next day with a makeup mandatory drill.  One cruise we were departing at 10:00 pm from Copenhagen. We boarded at 5:00 pm - but the muster drill was held at 4:00 pm. We were handed a letter upon boarding that the makeup drill was at 9:00 am the next day.

[CruiserBruce]

Just now, Heartgrove said:

 

No, they can be completed the next day with a makeup mandatory drill.  One cruise we were departing at 10:00 pm from Copenhagen. We boarded at 5:00 pm - but the muster drill was held at 4:00 pm. We were handed a letter upon boarding that the makeup drill was at 9:00 am the next day.

In some circumstances yes. But I doubt they will be, after Costa Concordia, going to be deliberately encouraging people to miss the normal drill procedure.

[Heartgrove]

1 minute ago, CruiserBruce said:

In some circumstances yes. But I doubt they will be, after Costa Concordia, going to be deliberately encouraging people to miss the normal drill procedure.

 

Our cruise was after the Costa Concordia disaster so that did not have an effect.  I never said that they would encourage people to miss the scheduled muster drill. But there are allowances made if need be. Cruise ships never leave exactly to the second on time. The Koningsdam, for example, left San Diego last night 48 minutes late.

[Laminator]

4 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Our cruise was after the Costa Concordia disaster so that did not have an effect.  I never said that they would encourage people to miss the scheduled muster drill. But there are allowances made if need be. Cruise ships never leave exactly to the second on time. The Koningsdam, for example, left San Diego last night 48 minutes late.

It's my understanding that the drill is now a 2 minute process done individually at whatever location you are assigned. You actually watch drill on your TV. You can not select any other channel until the drill is viewed.

[FlaMariner]

We had a 2:20pm boarding time for the Rotterdam on 10/20 in Amsterdam.....

 

We arrived at 11am or so and we were able to proceed thru the line....we were on board in time for lunch. IMO, the boarding times are to push the crowd out further in the day but they were not turning away a passenger w/luggage in hand at the pier.

 

Of course, your situation may be entirely different but if it was us, we would just head to the pier and see what happens.

[Heartgrove]

7 hours ago, Laminator said:

It's my understanding that the drill is now a 2 minute process done individually at whatever location you are assigned. You actually watch drill on your TV. You can not select any other channel until the drill is viewed.

 

Yes, that is what we experienced on our Viking cruise in July. Once onboard and through Security, six of us at a time were parceled off (small ship) to a hallway to have a crewmember demonstrate and don the life vest. We watched the remainder of the "drill" on our television in our stateroom.

[OC PAT]

Thank you all.  Interesting discussions.

[scubacruiserx2]

3 hours ago, OC PAT said:

Thank you all.  Interesting discussions.

 

Of the 5 or 6 ships that sailed from Port Everglades last Saturday every ship sailed at least half and hour to an hour and a half later than the scheduled time . The Nieuw Amsterdam was an hour and fifteen later than their scheduled time .

[Btimmer]

When we boarded the Nieuw Amsterdam in Seattle last month, we were assigned a boarding time of 2:40pm.  Arriving at the terminal at 2:45pm, there were virtually no other passengers waiting to board so the check-in process went incredibly fast.  We were on the ship in under 15 minutes.  We then went to our room, dropped our carry on luggage, and went to our muster station to check in.  We were then sent back to our room to watch the safety drill and by then the LIDO was closed for noon dining so we had to wait until our 5pm Tamarind dining reservation which we enjoyed on the sail out of the Seattle harbor and up Puget Sound. 

 

Needless to say, we were impressed with the rapid speed to check in.  We'll see in a few weeks if it's the same for the Rotterdam in FLL.