Boarding time in Auckland

I'm sure it's been answered somewhere but I've not seen it, nor do I wish to take the time to search through the thousands of posts to find it.

My wife and I will be cruising on the Nov. 6, 2017 Noordam cruise from Auckland to Sydney, our first time EVER to New Zealand and Australia. My question is this, the ship is scheduled to depart at 10pm from Auckland, what time is actual boarding. I know most ships try to board by 11:30am. Is that still the case for the later departure? Also, can we board later than the usual boarding time if we desire? I assume dinner will be served that evening (we have anytime dining) but if it's not please advise.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

The fleetwide, worldwide boarding time is to start at or about 11:30. This is occasionally delayed by unscheduled events (deep cleaning, inspections) but that is very rare. The sail away time doesn't typically change the boarding time.

Too bad you didn't want to look around. You are missing lots of info by not investigating a little. You would find dinner in these situations is frequently open seating.

On the other end, what is the _latest_ boarding time? For a 10pm departure, can you board at 5 or 7 or 9pm?

You will be notified what the all aboard time is. It is never 1 hour before sailing, to allow for the lifeboat drill. It is normally 2 hours before sailing, but for some of these late sailings, sometimes it is 3 hours prior to sailing.

I would check with HAL for the official word.

We were on a Baltic cruise last month leaving from Copenhagen. Our sail-away was 10:00 pm. The all-onboard was supposedly 7:00 pm so we planned to embark mid-afternoon.

Because we had been in CPH for a few days before, that day we ventured out to Helsingor figuring to arrive back to the ship by 3:00-4:00 pm. As luck would have it, our train broke down so we didn't arrive until 5:00 pm. As we boarded we were informed that the muster drill had been held at 4:00 pm - six hours before sailing! The next day we were required to attend the make-up drill at 9:00 am.

Many thanks! I will look for the all-aboard time. Just knowing the right words helps so much.