Hi Harry! I love your trip reports, been reading them for years. I’m glad I found this one while you’re still on day one. Lol.
In January, my husband and I were sailing on Celebrity Apex out of Ft. Lauderdale. All aboard was 3:00pm. We had a terrible morning and arrived at the luggage drop off at 2:45pm. The porters were gone, so we carried all our luggage. We stepped onboard at 2:55pm (whew!), completed our muster video/check in by 3:05. The ship started sailing at 3:30pm. I had also thought there was a 90min rule, but who knows. If their intended sail away was always 3:30pm, then they only gave a 30min window.