Xpress pass deadline

[mspink98]

I found out this morning that our credit card was stolen. All is fine, Cap One caught it and is issuing a new card. All I need to worry about is updating info for all my auto payments, which is a PITA, but a minor one.

 

My question is this: we sail next Saturday, and fly out next Friday. I'm sure we'll have the new card by the time we leave, but is there a deadline by which I need to have the xpress pass completed? I already did it a couple of weeks ago, but of course that was with the cc # that no longer works. if I get the new card early next week, will I have time to redo my check in, or should I prepare for a delay at the port?

[ghstudio]

You can change the credit card that they use for your on-board expenses at the dock....however, like everything, call celebrity and tell them of the issue and verify that giving them a new card at the dock is OK. We've done it and it took less than a minute...no hassle at all.

[Char]

This is from the Celebrity web site:

 

Guests are requested to complete Online Check-in at no later than 3 days prior to the cruise in order to expedite the pier check-in process.

 

[ORDMan]

Requested being the operative word, not required. Just use a different card at check in at the port.

[cruisnuts]

you only input the last 4 digits of the cc you are going to use anyway. They take the cc at the port when you check in and run it.;)

[Sloop-JohnB]

You can change the credit card that they use for your on-board expenses at the dock....however, like everything, call celebrity and tell them of the issue and verify that giving them a new card at the dock is OK. We've done it and it took less than a minute...no hassle at all.

 

Hi Mspink98,

 

Agree with GHSTUDIO, can't "hurt" to call and let Celebrity and give them a heads-up.

 

That said, here is what we discovered when we recently checked in for our cruise (Fort Lauderdale)

 

When we (Mr Sloop & I) handed in our "completed" X-Press Pass to the nice lady behind the counter she asked / confirmed with us that the Credit Card info was correct... and that would be the account we'd be charging our Onboard Expenses to.

 

Maybe this is standard procedure, lol, or maybe she's been working at Celebrity a long time, and seen too many cases where she has to start-over the check in process. :rolleyes:

 

But that is what we encountered... in your case, I'd just walk up and say "Sorry we will have to change our Credit Card info, as we were recently notified by the bank that the card number we gave Celebrity originally has been compromised"

 

In any case, the whole check in won't take long... even with the delay that we encountered with the Sea Pass Card maker not working properly... we were still with the nice lady under 10 minutes.

 

Delays at the port (bottlenecks) in the process, seem to be more likely due to things like... Traffic - Line-Ups at Security or Check-In - and time spent in the Waiting Room until the ship is ready to be boarded.

 

Lol, hopefully though your experience will as smooth as ours was... I don't think we spent much more than 20 minutes from the time we stepped onto the curb outside the Terminal until we stepped off the gang-plank onto the Ship and took our first sip of Champagne !!

 

Hope this is helpful,

 

Cheers!

[Lsimon]

I don't know if you can change your express pass info or not, I do know that there is a deadline of about 3 days prior to complete on-line checkin and that after that time the checkin must be done at the dock. I was told this by customer service once when we were doing a last minute booking about 4 days before the cruise.

 

The purpose of the credit card info on the express pass is only for establishing who will control an on board charge account and which people will be charging to it. That is why only the last 4 digits of the credit card is entered and not all the card info. The full card info is not taken until you check on at the dock.

 

Changing this account info at the dock is a pretty minor change and shouldn't take more than a couple minutes. I really wouldn't be concerned about it at all. If you can make the change on-line ahead of time then do so, but if you can't then I wouldn't bother calling the cruise line or taking time for anything else before you get to the dock. Besides, with all the reports here of customer service phone reps giving out inaccurate information who knows what they might tell you that could worry you for no reason.

[cruzeluver]

I can confirm that Larry is correct. On out last two X cruises, we used one credit card for filling out the Xpress pass and changed to a different one when we checked in at the pier. It added maybe two minutes to the check-in process. Easy-squeezey!!:p

[mspink98]

Great news! Of course this was my primary concern when I discovered the issue this morning. Not major identity theft, but OMG will our vacation be in jeopardy??? LOL. Thanks for the reassurance that it won't be an issue.

[fleckle]

........My question is this: we sail next Saturday, and fly out next Friday. I'm sure we'll have the new card by the time we leave, but is there a deadline by which I need to have the xpress pass completed? I already did it a couple of weeks ago, but of course that was with the cc # that no longer works. if I get the new card early next week, will I have time to redo my check in, or should I prepare for a delay at the port?

No need for concern. Your current xpress pass is fine. There is no need to print another one.

 

We have "been there, done that" and can assure you that it was no problem at all. When we checked in at the pier, we just mentioned that we were using a different credit card. The clerk swiped the new card, handed us our seapass cards, and we were on our way. It took no longer than checking in for any other cruise.

 

I would strongly suggest bringing credit cards from two different accounts along on any cruise however. Take only one card off the ship with you in port and always leave the other card locked up in your safe.

 

That way, in case a credit card should be lost, stolen or compromised, you just cancel it and still have the other one to use.

[mspink98]

I would strongly suggest bringing credit cards from two different accounts along on any cruise however. Take only one card off the ship with you in port and always leave the other card locked up in your safe.

 

That way, in case a credit card should be lost, stolen or compromised, you just cancel it and still have the other one to use.

 

Totally agree! We have another card which is usually locked up except for vacations. The plan was to dust it off next week sometime, but thanks to the a$$hole who got the info on our primary, I took it to Target today to make sure it worked. We always travel with both, and lock one in the safe permanently. Great advice!

[Adammara]

We often go down to Southampton a couple of days before we sail. On the evening of the first day I was going to top my phone up, but the card had been 'compromised' and was refused, and it was the only card I had!

 

LloydsTSB were fantastic and couried down a new card, which I got at 3pm the next day. Must have delayed check in by a minute or so!

 

Lesson learnt, I now have 2 cards from different companies!

 

Richard

[FrankinPA]

Another thing we learned on our recent B2B2B cruises is that we needed to go by Guest Relations to have them rescan our credit card when we started the new cruise segment. Since we did not have to go back out to the port check in facility, Celebrity needs to do it on board. We only learned this when we got a note from Guest Relations the next day saying they did not have our credit card on file.

 

Otherwise, the B2B2B process worked beautifully. We were off the ship maybe 20 minutes just to go thru customs, smile and say hi, and then turn around and get back on the ship with your new sea pass card in hand.

[ghstudio]

Totally agree! We have another card which is usually locked up except for vacations. The plan was to dust it off next week sometime, but thanks to the a$$hole who got the info on our primary, I took it to Target today to make sure it worked. We always travel with both, and lock one in the safe permanently. Great advice!

 

Don't forget to call the credit card companies and tell them where you are travelling so they don't block your card for fraudulent use in a foreign country.