Check-in Arrival Time for Wellness Check

[Ru5tY]

We are sailing on Harmony in mid-May out of Port Canaveral.  We just did the online check-in today after submitting our final payment last week.

 

Normally we aim to check-in around 10:30am-11am, but the earliest arrival time the app is giving me is 1pm.

 

If we show up at 10am-11am, would they make us wait until 1pm?  

 

We need to return the car rental by around 10:30am anyways, which is why ideally we don't want to wait until our 1pm arrival time.

[Merion_Mom]

Yes.  Please adhere to your scheduled arrival time.

 

Keep checking in the app.  Sometimes earlier boarding times pop up.

 

(I don't mean to sound like a scold, but if you had checked in on the first day/45 days before your cruise, you could have gotten the 11 a.m. slot, the earliest one offered)

[smplybcause]

Very likely yes. Some have reported they were allowed in early, but I think I've seen way more post about having to wait. My last royal cruise they had lines set up with signs for arrival windows. I think they let some from the next range go when there were lulls of no one at the first check. 

 

You could luck out, but mid May where you'd be waiting outside on Florida? Yea I'd just walk over to the restaurant where I can sit in the ac... or at least on a porch with a water view. 

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Ru5tY said:

We are sailing on Harmony in mid-May out of Port Canaveral.  We just did the online check-in today after submitting our final payment last week.

 

Normally we aim to check-in around 10:30am-11am, but the earliest arrival time the app is giving me is 1pm.

 

If we show up at 10am-11am, would they make us wait until 1pm?  

 

We need to return the car rental by around 10:30am anyways, which is why ideally we don't want to wait until our 1pm arrival time.

That means you waited to long to check-in. We checked in at 12:01 am 45 days prior to our cruise to get the times we wanted. Don't bother showing up until 1:00

[bucfan2]

Keep checking for an earlier time slot.  If you're stuck w/ the original, weigh the risk/reward of showing up early....if ya don't mind the 'risk' of having to wait in beautiful Fl weather (or not if you're adverse to warm weather), the 'reward' can be well worth it.  You may find yourself in line until 1p.m. outside the terminal, or you may find yourself in line at the buffet/bar at 11:15 a.m.

All the best.

[lx200gps]

We're absolute RCCL newbies, boarding the Oasis in late May in CL. Check-in opened up a few days ago and I grabbed the earliest time, 11:30, as we always like to board a ship as early as possible. How exactly does the check-in work, if we arrive at the pier early do we wait outside until exactly 11:30, or can we arrive earlier, drop off our bags and sit in a waiting area after check-in and wait until boarding starts, as we usually do on Princess?  Sounds like no, but I thought I'd confirm.  Princess lets folks into the check-in process sometimes as early as 10AM but uses waiting areas until boarding commences a bit later. We'll be driving to the port and parking in the CL garage from a nearby hotel, so we can schedule our arrival for whenever we want.

[Biker19]

20 minutes ago, lx200gps said:

How exactly does the check-in work,

This varies by date, time of day, port workers and perhaps some other factors. Sometimes you can check in hours before your slot, sometimes not. Stick to your slot.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Biker19

[bucfan2]

22 hours ago, lx200gps said:

We're absolute RCCL newbies, boarding the Oasis in late May in CL. Check-in opened up a few days ago and I grabbed the earliest time, 11:30, as we always like to board a ship as early as possible. How exactly does the check-in work, if we arrive at the pier early do we .

RCL’s earliest check-in is generally 11/11:30, so you did well.  IMO, not much to gain by showing up earlier in your case (if you had an afternoon check-in and the risk/reward was worth it to ya,  then certainly roll the dice...but in your case - you're in about as early of a slot as you can get). 

Edited April 17, 2022 by bucfan2

[erber]

We returned from Allure of the Seas cruise on Saturday to Port Everglades. Our check in slot was 11:00-11:30. We arrived around 11:15 and walked right in. We were through the boarding check in process within 15 minutes and then had to wait to board in a seating area for another 15 minutes or so. The wellness check consisted of a review of covid test result and vaccine cards paperwork. There was no temperature check or anything else. 

Edited April 17, 2022 by erber

[PhillyFan33579]

On 4/16/2022 at 7:39 AM, lx200gps said:

We're absolute RCCL newbies, boarding the Oasis in late May in CL. Check-in opened up a few days ago and I grabbed the earliest time, 11:30, as we always like to board a ship as early as possible. How exactly does the check-in work, if we arrive at the pier early do we wait outside until exactly 11:30, or can we arrive earlier, drop off our bags and sit in a waiting area after check-in and wait until boarding starts, as we usually do on Princess?  Sounds like no, but I thought I'd confirm.  Princess lets folks into the check-in process sometimes as early as 10AM but uses waiting areas until boarding commences a bit later. We'll be driving to the port and parking in the CL garage from a nearby hotel, so we can schedule our arrival for whenever we want.

On my last several RCI cruises they have strictly enforced check-in times. No doubt this is due to ships, at least the ones I have been on, sailing at much higher capacities recently. If you show up early and they haven’t started check-in yet, you will wait outside. I would show up at the port around 11:30 AM, drop off luggage and park your car. Assuming everything is on schedule, you should be able to walk right into the terminal with little to no wait.  There will likely be a line outside with people who showed up before 11:30 AM. By showing up around 11:45 AM after parking your car the line will likely have dissipated. 

[Ru5tY]

Just posting in case this helps anyone.

 

In my original post when we finalized our final payment at 30 days before sailing, the only check-in time available was 1pm.

But as Merion_Mom suggested, I kept checking over the next two weeks, and at around 15 days before sail date, for some reason many more earlier timeslots opened up and we managed to get 11:30am.  Pretty happy with that as this now lines up with our car rental return.

 

So definitely keep checking as the sail date gets closer!

 

[Subman738]

On 4/16/2022 at 6:39 AM, lx200gps said:

We're absolute RCCL newbies, boarding the Oasis in late May in CL. Check-in opened up a few days ago and I grabbed the earliest time, 11:30, as we always like to board a ship as early as possible. How exactly does the check-in work, if we arrive at the pier early do we wait outside until exactly 11:30, or can we arrive earlier, drop off our bags and sit in a waiting area after check-in and wait until boarding starts, as we usually do on Princess?  Sounds like no, but I thought I'd confirm.  Princess lets folks into the check-in process sometimes as early as 10AM but uses waiting areas until boarding commences a bit later. We'll be driving to the port and parking in the CL garage from a nearby hotel, so we can schedule our arrival for whenever we want.

We just got off of the Oasis at the end of March. We showed up just a little early for our check in and dropped off our bags. There was a line for people for our check in time that people were being directed to after checking their check in time on the app. There really is no waiting area if you arrive early currently. 

 

[constantcruiser]

I'm definitely in the minority here.  Our cruise next week will be our 51st (mostly on Celebrity), and I've gotten over the "must be the first person on the ship" phase.  Now we prefer the 12:30-1:00 arrival time, so we can sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.  By the time we're checked in on the ship, we can go directly to our cabin instead of spending 2 hours jammed into the Windjammer with every other passenger and his/her luggage