Boarding Time

[groundloop]

Excuse all the rookie questions..... despite having over a dozen cruises under my belt this is my first time on HAL.

 

Our daughter is cruising  with us and has her own cabin  (Eurodam out of Seattle in June).  We were given a boarding time of 1:00 and she has 2:20.  Is it possible for her to board with us, or will we have to wait and board at 2:20 with her?

[john2003]

Have you linked your bookings? If not, I would recommend as HAL will know there is a link. Your TA or HAL can do it. If you do this, you might be successful in getting the change.

[rj59]

Not a rookie question, but for a 3-star who hasn't been on HAL since restart--are they enforcing assigned boarding times, or is it the same show-up-when-you-want procedure as before? The boarding time they gave me for a cruise next month out of San Diego is at 1, which would make me miss the embarkation lunch in the dining room. 

[groundloop]

44 minutes ago, john2003 said:

Have you linked your bookings? If not, I would recommend as HAL will know there is a link. Your TA or HAL can do it. If you do this, you might be successful in getting the change.

 

Yes, I made sure to link them as soon as they were booked (we booked directly with HAL).

 

Are you saying that one of us might be able to call HAL and get the boarding time changed, or to just show up at the pier together?

[zgscl]

56 minutes ago, rj59 said:

Not a rookie question, but for a 3-star who hasn't been on HAL since restart--are they enforcing assigned boarding times, or is it the same show-up-when-you-want procedure as before? The boarding time they gave me for a cruise next month out of San Diego is at 1, which would make me miss the embarkation lunch in the dining room. 

Since the restart most ships do not seem to have an embarkation lunch in the dining room. I have not yet seen one on 4 cruises, but others have reported mixed results. You should plan on eating in the Lido regardless of your embarkation time. 

 

I am assuming your 1PM embarkation is group A? On every sailing I have been on out of San Diego Group A has been allowed on as soon as the ship is declared ready by the powers that be around 11 or 1130. Depending on the day they have allowed other groups on or not at the same time. 

[zgscl]

4 hours ago, groundloop said:

Excuse all the rookie questions..... despite having over a dozen cruises under my belt this is my first time on HAL.

 

Our daughter is cruising  with us and has her own cabin  (Eurodam out of Seattle in June).  We were given a boarding time of 1:00 and she has 2:20.  Is it possible for her to board with us, or will we have to wait and board at 2:20 with her?

I think you will have  very good chance of getting on together if you all show up at the same time. You should also know that your boarding time is not yet final. There is a batch process that runs at 50 days out, then again 21, 14, 7 & 3 days prior to departure. Your boarding time can change at each of these intervals. If you linked bookings after the 50 days out it may automatically put you back together at 21 days.

 

Boarding times seem to be prioritized on a number of factors with the highest priority given to people on HAL hotel & air transfers. Mariner status & Neptune suite don't seem to play a big role but usually have a separate line once inside the terminal. What does seem to impact it is the flight arrival time you put on your online checkin with early arriving flights on embarkation day given earlier times. 

 

All that being said boarding times do not seem to be strictly enforced in most cases though they seem to be more of a guideline. 

[ScottishMaid]

The NA today had a 10 pm sailing time from San Diego. We were assigned boarding at 4:20 pm then it changed to 5:20 pm. After half an hour on the phone to Seattle it was reluctantly changed to 4 pm. So we get there at 4 and not another boarding passenger in sight. All on the ship hours before. I even got a phone call from the ship at 3:45 pm to find out if we were still coming!

[john2003]

1 hour ago, groundloop said:

 

Yes, I made sure to link them as soon as they were booked (we booked directly with HAL).

 

Are you saying that one of us might be able to call HAL and get the boarding time changed, or to just show up at the pier together?

In normal times, I would say call but I think that us difficult now. You could try a chat, but then they may say it can't be changed. 

As you can say you linked the bookings, I would think you are in a very defensible position to show up together. It may also change several times before you sail based on what I am seeing on CC. Makes you wonder why they do it this way.

[KKZ1923]

We’ve cruised with HAL three times so far this year. No one at embarkation has ever asked us for our assigned boarding time. 
 

In January we were able to have lunch in the main dining room on embarkation day, but only the Lido was open for our February and March cruises. 

[steve4031]

I am in a Neptune suite on Koningsdam out of Vancouver in August.  We arrive the day before.  What would our likely arrival time be?  I understand that there is a separate line to check in for Neptune suites so I suspect it would be relatively quick to get on the ship no matter our arrival time.  Just curious about other's experiences.  

[jhsocal]

Boarding time enforcement seems to vary from cruise to cruise. Suspect the original idea was to minimize number of people waiting to board due to covid risk. If cruise is booked well below capacity, good chance you can board early.   

[schag001]

3 hours ago, steve4031 said:

I am in a Neptune suite on Koningsdam out of Vancouver in August.  We arrive the day before.  What would our likely arrival time be?  I understand that there is a separate line to check in for Neptune suites so I suspect it would be relatively quick to get on the ship no matter our arrival time.  Just curious about other's experiences.  

We are currently sitting in the waiting room. 

No one has boarded yet because the Canadian Government ordered a full sanitation of the ship. 

Sucks big time. For a 2 night cruise cutting into Lido time. 

Getting really hungry and everyone will run to the Lido once we can actually get on board. 

 

 

[FlaMariner]

23 hours ago, KKZ1923 said:

We’ve cruised with HAL three times so far this year. No one at embarkation has ever asked us for our assigned boarding time. 

 

Ditto for us....In October and December.....Boarding times do not matter.....Go early and get lunch...get the party started!

[steve4031]

19 hours ago, schag001 said:

We are currently sitting in the waiting room. 

No one has boarded yet because the Canadian Government ordered a full sanitation of the ship. 

Sucks big time. For a 2 night cruise cutting into Lido time. 

Getting really hungry and everyone will run to the Lido once we can actually get on board. 

 

 

Sorry that happened to you.  On a shorter cruise that really has an impact.  Does HAL have a way of notifying passengers when this happens?  If I knew around 9 a.m., then we could relax at the hotel until checkout and possibly eat lunch before heading to the port.  We would be in Vancouver.  

[KKZ1923]

On 4/26/2022 at 4:25 PM, groundloop said:

Excuse all the rookie questions..... despite having over a dozen cruises under my belt this is my first time on HAL.

 

Our daughter is cruising  with us and has her own cabin  (Eurodam out of Seattle in June).  We were given a boarding time of 1:00 and she has 2:20.  Is it possible for her to board with us, or will we have to wait and board at 2:20 with her?

@groundloop I just wanted to follow up since I embarked the Eurodam today in Seattle. As has been true all year with HAL, no one asked us for our boarding time today. Also, the line to embark was very long (at least an hour’s wait if not considerably more). Passengers were in a line snaking far across the parking lot (probably because we’re all ignoring our official boarding times 🙂). However, if you had already completed VeriFLY, there was a separate entrance to a line with almost no one in it. Look for the VeriFLY sign.  Once through security, be sure to let the HAL rep know if you qualify for expedited boarding (suite passengers, high level Mariners, etc) or they will send you through another very long check in line. The expedited line was not marked, so ask. And we WERE required to have downloaded and filled in ArriveCAN in order to board. In summary, save yourself a tremendous amount of time by filling out VeriFLY and ArriveCAN before you head to the pier. I hope this is helpful.  

[zgscl]

37 minutes ago, KKZ1923 said:

@groundloop I just wanted to follow up since I embarked the Eurodam today in Seattle. As has been true all year with HAL, no one asked us for our boarding time today. Also, the line to embark was very long (at least an hour’s wait if not considerably more). Passengers were in a line snaking far across the parking lot (probably because we’re all ignoring our official boarding times 🙂). However, if you had already completed VeriFLY, there was a separate entrance to a line with almost no one in it. Look for the VeriFLY sign.  Once through security, be sure to let the HAL rep know if you qualify for expedited boarding (suite passengers, high level Mariners, etc) or they will send you through another very long check in line. The expedited line was not marked, so ask. And we WERE required to have downloaded and filled in ArriveCAN in order to board. In summary, save yourself a tremendous amount of time by filling out VeriFLY and ArriveCAN before you head to the pier. I hope this is helpful.  

I think the line is so long exactly for the reasons you mentioned. It is the age old problem. Everyone wants to be on first and no one wants to board at the 2PM or 3:30 time on their boarding pass, and if it is not enforced the long lines are pretty much inevitable. 

 

This is so good to know about VerifFLY & about suites and 4/5 stars for Seattle. We will make sure to look for a separate line before joining the very long line. Did you notice by any chance if there were wheelchairs readily available at the entrance or anywhere? 

[KKZ1923]

7 minutes ago, zgscl said:

I think the line is so long exactly for the reasons you mentioned. It is the age old problem. Everyone wants to be on first and no one wants to board at the 2PM or 3:30 time on their boarding pass, and if it is not enforced the long lines are pretty much inevitable. 

 

This is so good to know about VerifFLY & about suites and 4/5 stars for Seattle. We will make sure to look for a separate line before joining the very long line. Did you notice by any chance if there were wheelchairs readily available at the entrance or anywhere? 

I’m sorry @zgsclbut I didn’t notice the wheelchair availability.  

[zgscl]

3 hours ago, KKZ1923 said:

I’m sorry @zgsclbut I didn’t notice the wheelchair availability.  

No worries, thanks! Hope your cruise is off to a good start

[nml]

Does anyone know how long ahead you can book your embarkation time?  Were sailing on the Rotterdam in Amsterdam June 24th.

[CruiserBruce]

13 minutes ago, nml said:

Does anyone know how long ahead you can book your embarkation time?  Were sailing on the Rotterdam in Amsterdam June 24th.

You don't book your boarding time. They are assigned.

[nml]

On 5/13/2023 at 3:31 PM, CruiserBruce said:

You don't book your boarding time. They are assigned.

Thanks