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Assigned Boarding Time

oma&opa

By oma&opa,
in Holland America Line

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oma&opa

oma&opa

Posted
Posted

Are these assigned times strictly enforced?  We have not cruised since pre-covid, but it used to be that 4 star mariners, which we are, and suite passengers, which we are,  had priority boarding. Is this no longer so?  Our time is long after the Welcome Mariner Lunch.  Any advice?  Thanks.

 

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Cruise4food

Cruise4food

Posted
Posted

In Vancouver this July, I stayed in Pan Pacific hotel booked through HAL. As per the guide sheet, I visited the the HAL agent in lobby at 8:30 am and confirmed how many pieces of luggage would be in my room. The agent advised to proceed to the HAL check-in room at 10 am. 

 

At the HAL room entrance, no one asked about assigned times. They were looking for 4 star, 5 star or Neptune codes (none applied to me). During that morning, the only processing area with a line up more than 20 people deep was at US customs.

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VMax1700 "Live from...." Rare

VMax1700

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Posted
3 hours ago, just_cruising_along said:

Anyone here board in Amsterdam recently?  How was the embarkation experience?  We have only boarded the ship from Ijmuiden.  Thanks!

Just boarded today!

Best yet.

Having Navigator App with securtiy photos uploaded may have helped, but no queueing at any stage (except when my boarding pass in the App decided to go walk about and showed an error).

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MikeD4134

MikeD4134

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My last cruise sailed from Aukland, It was great they checked your boarding pass and if it was not your time you got to wait in the hot sun outside the terminal until it was your time.  Everybody breezed through every step of the process as there was no backup caused by selfish people who show up when they please.  HAL should require every port authority to force people to comply with the time schedule, everybody wins by not wasting time sitting in a terminal waiting your turn.

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CruiserBruce

CruiserBruce

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7 hours ago, MikeD4134 said:

The priority Bording is built into your assigned boarding time. As a 4 Star I am usually in the 2nd or 3rd boarding time group.

No, it's not. When we boarded the Zaandam 12 days ago, we never had an assigned boarding time prior to 1:40. We are 5 Star and in a Neptune Suite. We arrived at the port at about 1045, and were literally the 4th and 5th people to board the ship when boarding started at 1115.

 

In 4 cruises post resumption,  we have never had a boarding time before 1pm.

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sailawayward

sailawayward

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, just_cruising_along said:

Anyone here board in Amsterdam recently?  How was the embarkation experience?  We have only boarded the ship from Ijmuiden.  Thanks!

 

@just_cruising_along -- we sailed out of Amsterdam in June on the Rotterdam. We were staying at the DoubleTree/Hilton Central Station and used a taxi from our hotel. Honestly we could have walked, but we had one too many pieces of luggage since it was a 14-day cruise.  At the terminal, we dropped off our bags easily and the security process was a breeze.  I will note that there was a norovirus outbreak on the previous sailing, so we weren't able to board until much later than our original check-in time.  We were given plenty of notice and arrived as instructed, but it was disappointing to still be unpacking when the ship started sailing. 

 

I will say that the disembarkation process was a clusterf*ck because there wasn't an organized queue in the baggage area once we were off the ship. Finding your luggage was one thing, but getting in line to exit with our luggage was just awkward. We don't speak Dutch, but there wasn't any signage to give us an idea how we were supposed to leave.  We did walk back to the same hotel because waiting for a ride would have been a nightmare. 

Edited by sailawayward
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gameazel

gameazel

Posted
Posted (edited)
20 hours ago, just_cruising_along said:

Anyone here board in Amsterdam recently?  How was the embarkation experience?  We have only boarded the ship from Ijmuiden.  Thanks!

We boarded on August 19; very smooth around 12.30-1pm! We were onboard within twenty minutes, at most. 

Edited by gameazel
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sciencewonk

sciencewonk

Posted
Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, syesmar said:

Thanks. Are you saying there was no Priority Line at check-in?

I did not see any Priority Line and the port staff was not letting us board prior to our printed boarding time.  This was shortly after the COVID restart to cruising and I got the impression that the port staff was suffering from start-up blues. I hope things are better now that they've had practice.

Edited by sciencewonk
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CruiserBruce

CruiserBruce

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12 minutes ago, sciencewonk said:

I did not see any Priority Line and the port staff was not letting us board prior to our printed boarding time.  This was shortly after the COVID restart to cruising and I got the impression that the port staff was suffering from start-up blues. I hope things are better now that they've had practice.

Shortly after restart? Things have changed...

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lais

lais

Posted
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1 hour ago, sciencewonk said:

I did not see any Priority Line and the port staff was not letting us board prior to our printed boarding time.  This was shortly after the COVID restart to cruising and I got the impression that the port staff was suffering from start-up blues. I hope things are better now that they've had practice.

There’s arrival time then boarding groups (a, b, c etc) 

so the time that is printed on your boarding pass is your arrival time 

not boarding time. 
priority boarding happens inside not in line outside. 

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VMax1700 "Live from...." Rare

VMax1700

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, lais said:

There’s arrival time then boarding groups (a, b, c etc) 

so the time that is printed on your boarding pass is your arrival time 

not boarding time. 
priority boarding happens inside not in line outside. 

Priority refers to the check in specifically (source - Mariner Society) and the boarding by necessity as they do not want a lot of people waiting longer than necessary.

 

 

 

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horseymike Holiday Sharing Rare

horseymike

Posted
Posted
On 9/23/2023 at 11:27 AM, oma&opa said:

Are these assigned times strictly enforced?  We have not cruised since pre-covid, but it used to be that 4 star mariners, which we are, and suite passengers, which we are,  had priority boarding. Is this no longer so?  Our time is long after the Welcome Mariner Lunch.  Any advice?  Thanks.

 

Anyone not adhering to their assigned boarding time will be forced to walk the plank.

🤣🤣🤣.

Only kidding. Hope you have a great cruise.

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