Boarding In Dubai

We are booked on a repositioning cruise, my favourite type of cruise, on-board MSC Lirica, also,my favourite MSC Ship, from Dubai back to Venice.

The booking states that our boarding date, in Dubai, is the Friday. No boarding time given until tickets are issued, which is months away. However,the ship is in Dubai for two days with departure late on the Saturday evening.

As with most repositioning cruises with MSC it is cruise only, so will have to organise our own flights.

Because of the time difference between the UK and the Emirates it poses several variations of flight/boarding configurations.

1. We could fly overnight Thursday arriving Friday morning and either go to the ship in the hope of early boarding. Not our favourite option.

2. Or again fly as above but arrange a hotel day room for Friday morning and board in the afternoon. Again, added expense.

3. We could fly on the morning flight from London on the Friday, arriving Dubai around 8pm and go directly to the port to board. This would be our preference.

The problem with scenarios 1 and 3 are:

Will the ship be able to board us if we arrive either early in the morning or late at night? With the last option I would hate to arrive off the evening flight to be refused to check onto the ship on the Friday evening!

Time will not allow us to stay in Dubai in advance of the cruise so that option is not on the cards. Any help on this subject would be most appreciated.

You Can board early so Go and have a Nice Day on the ship or after boarding and lunch, Take a taxi an make a trip around to see some of the famous buildings in Dubai

Thanks Preziosa, but you may have noticed that your solution was not one of my preferred options. Do you know anything about a late 8 to 10 pm check in following an evening arrival in Dubai?

As a retired travel writer I have been to Dubai several times so I do know my way around what I term as the middle eastern Las Vegas!! Dubai, like it's airline Emirates First Class Suites, can be a bit over the top and a wee bit too glitzy.

I am one of the minority of cruisers who much prefer to stay on the ship instead of going on extortionately pricey and over long shore trips. After all once the ship discharges its passengers onto port trips you can experience the shear pleasure of the ship all to yourself.

I Don t Remember How late you Can arrive. But it is a Big risk arriving so late if your fligt is delayted. Better relax on a Cruise ship than sitting in the airport knowing that Maybe the ship Will sail witout you.

The arrival/departure timings are:

Ship arrives from its India Cruise at 09:00 on Thursday 14th March

The Repositioning Cruise, our cruise, is set for boarding on Friday 15th March

The Ship sails from Dubai on Saturday 16th March at 20:00

Now MSC guidelines state that embarkation closes 2 hours before sailing time. That gives some 59 hours in which the ship is docked in Dubai. From say 10 am on Friday 15th which you indicated is the earliest that I might be able to board, following an overnight flight, which I detest, until 2 hours before sailing time at 20:00 on Saturday 16th allowing some 32 hours for possible embarkation.

BUT!!

Will there be staff on duty in the terminal to board you during the whole 32 hours or will there only be a set period of opening hours and if so how can you find out? MSC are notoriously bad at customer service reply’s and most of my contacts are ship based and none have sailed out of Dubai.

You see not such a simple problem to resolve, when to get good flight seats, you have to book early.

They will check you on after 8pm on the Friday night. You will not be the only arrival at that time. We did this a few years ago, albeit a Costa ship, without difficulty.

They will check you on after 8pm on the Friday night. You will not be the only arrival at that time. We did this a few years ago, albeit a Costa ship, without difficulty.

I have looked at 3 airlines that I can book from the west coast of Canada. One not suitable because it leaves to take me home at the same time the ship docks. The other two have merged so flight arrival time is 2300h so I expect that may be pushing it

Hi.

Looks like we will be on the same cruise.

We are landing in Dubai at 8am Friday 15 and have a shuttle booked to cruise terminal. (not sure at what time is the bus)

We have also booked Hop On and Off bus for Friday to see Dubai as we will be first time there.

I did ask MSC info line if we can embark early, leave suitcases and go back to the town and I was informed that after coming on board of the ship we will not be aloud to go out at the same day as too many people will be coming and it will be too difficult for the staff to organise it??? Only next day on Saturday we will be able to go to town.

I was thinking about possibility of leaving our luggage at the cruise terminal and embark late, after visiting the city but not sure if there is a place for leaving safe our belongings and what would be the latest time to come to the ship on Friday.

Any advise from someone as MSC Customer Service is not very helpful at this matter. 

5 hours ago, Poldek007 said:

 

We have also booked Hop On and Off bus for Friday to see Dubai as we will be first time there.

I did ask MSC info line if we can embark early, leave suitcases and go back to the town and I was informed that after coming on board of the ship we will not be aloud to go out at the same day as too many people will be coming and it will be too difficult for the staff to organise it??? Only next day on Saturday we will be able to go to town.

I was thinking about possibility of leaving our luggage at the cruise terminal and embark late, after visiting the city but not sure if there is a place for leaving safe our belongings and what would be the latest time to come to the ship on Friday.

Any advise from someone as MSC Customer Service is not very helpful at this matter. 

That answer from MSC seems ABSURD!!! How can they NOT allow you to get back off the ship on Friday? We will have the same situation at the end of March on the Splendida and have already purchased Viator tickets for an afternoon/evening dune bashing/BBQ dinner in the desert and Friday was the only time we could do this excusion as the ship excursion was SO much more expensive and only offered on Saturday (ship shows NO Friday excursions!) and our flight to Dubai arrives too late on Thursday to do in then, as well. Hoping our BLACK cards hold some sway. But if not, we will just take our luggage to the pier in the morning from our Dubai hotel, check in and get our boarding cards and just not board until we return from our excursion about 9pm that evening. Glad you mentioned this possibility as we never dreamed we might encounter that kind of strictness and refuse to be prisoners on the ship when there is so much to see and do our first time in Dubai!

7 hours ago, Poldek007 said:

Hi.

Looks like we will be on the same cruise.

We are landing in Dubai at 8am Friday 15 and have a shuttle booked to cruise terminal. (not sure at what time is the bus)

We have also booked Hop On and Off bus for Friday to see Dubai as we will be first time there.

I did ask MSC info line if we can embark early, leave suitcases and go back to the town and I was informed that after coming on board of the ship we will not be aloud to go out at the same day as too many people will be coming and it will be too difficult for the staff to organise it??? Only next day on Saturday we will be able to go to town.

I was thinking about possibility of leaving our luggage at the cruise terminal and embark late, after visiting the city but not sure if there is a place for leaving safe our belongings and what would be the latest time to come to the ship on Friday.

Any advise from someone as MSC Customer Service is not very helpful at this matter. 

We are on different cruises but expect that not being allowed off after boarding will apply to me. I have emailed requesting clarification re this and also what the latest time I can board. Because of my arrival time - I booked a hotel so not concerned because hopefully = the hotel will store my luggage after check out. Will update if I get a reply

I am having a very hard time believing that we will not be allowed off the ship in Dubai once we board on Friday! In Cuba, a couple months ago on a cruise, we were allowed to get off and on our ship as many times as we wanted! But we had been warned on a CC board like this one, that  it would be very difficult to get on and off. The First time was a bit of a line due to checking visas, but later in the afternoon and evening they just waved us through. Piece of cake!  Hard to believe that Cuba, a communist country, is less restrictive than Dubai!!!!

On ‎1‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 1:57 PM, KathyBC said:

 

 

We are on different cruises but expect that not being allowed off after boarding will apply to me. I have emailed requesting clarification re this and also what the latest time I can board. Because of my arrival time - I booked a hotel so not concerned because hopefully = the hotel will store my luggage after check out. Will update if I get a reply

I received an email stating:

" This is from our operations department:"

"the check-in will start at 13:00, they can embark and then leave the ship to go ashore to explore Dubai."

He did not answer my question as to how late you can board. Also did not reply to another question so I expect he is done with me …..

We will be visiting: Sir Bani Yas Is, Muscat, Aqaba, Eilath. Do you have any passport control and visa requirement in those ports or is it like in Europe just Cruise Card as an ID?

MSC retain passports until last night for inspection if required by customs. They then hand you an immigration card at the ports which you show if required and hand back in when you board again, this was how it worked in UAE.

Thank you Cruiser Man 60.