Check-In time bait and switch? (11am to 4pm) - 2 day cruise

[Svea817]

We are taking our first MSC cruise this weekend out of Port Canaveral (Friday-Sunday) and when I did the online check in on August 27 I received an 11AM check-in open time but now that I'm printing out my documents, I see 16:00.  This is disappointing given that the entire cruise is only 2 nights so the afternoon is a larger percentage of the short vacation than it would be on a longer sailing. This change in time also happened after the cancellation window and all costs were paid.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it something MSC will resolve either over the phone or at the terminal? The boarding documents state that you will have to leave if it is before your time so I don't know about gambling with just showing up. 

 

I do have the original email with the 11am time saved and can print it if that's been helpful to others.

 

 

 

[Mark_T]

Check what time the ship is due to arrive on the day you board and adjust accordingly.

 

The printed boarding times do move around a lot, but there is little enforcement of those times, just make sure you are not arriving early morning for a ship that has not actually docked yet, or leaving it so late that you risk missing the cut-off to board...

[Two Wheels Only]

Your check-in time on the paper is pretty much irrelevant. Show up at the time that you had planned. You'll deal with your paperwork and actually board the ship when your group is called. There's no guarantee as far as when you'll board. On my last cruise out of Port Canaveral,  Yacht Club boarding began at 12:08 followed by wheelchair assist,  then Aurea/VC priority. If you're one who checks-in early, you'll wait but you'll board before those who check-in at 4pm.

[Svea817]

Thanks everyone.  Do they call out groups by individual parties or larger group numbers etc?

 

[lukeca]

We did a MSC cruise out of Port Canaveral. We had a pretty big group of people and we did not all have the same boarding times, but the time on the boarding pass did not seem to matter, we just walked up and got in line for that first initial check-in. You go through an initial check-in where they make sure you have your boarding pass and documents, it's real quick. Then you go through security. Then you get in a longer line where you check in at a desk and get your room keys and stuff. At that point, they give you a card with a number, like group 12 for example. Then they just keep announcing the next boarding group and you get in line to walk on the ship when they call your boarding group. The boarding groups are not individual parties, they are large boarding groups.

[dexddd]

We got three different times.  One in email, one in docs, one in app.

[nyyhoneybee]

We will be on the cruise with you. We are planning ING getting there hopefully around noonish 

[miched]

How were you able to check in on Aug 27?    When I try to check in for a cruise on Feb 15 it says that check in is 30 days prior.   Thanks 

 

WEB CHECK-IN 

To receive your e-ticket, provide the required guest information for all cabin guests in accordance with their passport details. Remember, web check-in is accessible starting from 30 days before and up to 24 hours prior to your cruise departure 

 

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

No one at the cruise terminal looks at your boarding time.

And don't call it to anyone's attention.

Just get there when you get there and get in the queue to check-in.

[Tallyfins]

I too would like to confirm with someone that has 'boarded early' recently at Port Canaveral with MSC. We have a group going out of Port Canaveral on 1/18 that we booked 8 rooms through a travel agent. When I did the Web Check-In, it says my boarding time is 3pm. To the OP's point, I don't want to miss most of the afternoon on board by sitting around in my hotel room waiting for 3pm to arrive. 

So you guys are saying if I show up at say, Noon, and just get in line and play dumb, I should be able to get on within an hour or so after that?

TIF,

Tallyfins

[Essiesmom]

Yes.  EM

[Svea817]

To affirm the other responses...

 

We ended up taking our time in the morning and got to the port at 12:30. There were two lanes (divided by poles with the nylon pullout ropes between them) each with a feather banner. One read something like "Checking in on time" and the other read something to the effect of "Checking in not on time."

 

Before I could even consider the moral choice, the employee stationed there directed us into the "on time" lane and was clearly just trying to keep both lines moving at an even pace.  

 

From there we snaked through the terminal in a line created by seats and ropes and landed at one of a few dozen friendly employees who reviewed our paperwork and gave us a pamplet with "some information about the ship" and told us our cruise cards would be on our door.  From there it was off to boarding.  

 

In hindsight, it was pretty quick and simple.  But, in what would become a theme of our short cruise, a lot of strange "performance art" in their methods that made things messier than they should have been.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 1/7/2024 at 8:52 PM, Svea817 said:

a lot of strange "performance art" in their methods that made things messier than they should have been.

that appears to be MSC's main theme. 🙂

[DCGuy64]

Just to chip in on this topic: When I did our online check-in a week or so ago, the first available time was 1 pm, so I chose that. However, no matter what I did, clicking on that time yielded an error message (something to the effect of "incorrect time format"). I gave up after 4 tries and selected the next available slot, 3:30 PM. That took. Now our luggage tags and QR code for embarkation say 3:30 PM. We're in the YC and I know the time is irrelevant, but it still is annoying that I couldn't get the time slot I wanted when it was right there on the screen. It is what it is, and we're planning to get there at noon this Sunday. We're only on for 4 days and I want to enjoy every minute!