Boarding Time on Documents

[Pompein]

My edocs say board at 1:30pm Vancouver. Do I have to follow this or can I arrive earlier? Does Celebrity have staggered boarding, or does everyone 's say the same thing? Thanks!

[Fisherwoman]

We were on the Celebrity in July. We were at the port by 11:00 AM and boarded immediately! We've done 12 cruises out of Vancouver and only had to wait until 1:00 PM once on Holland America. If you are held you wait in a nice area with chairs and drinks. Go early and enjoy lunch on board!

[Lsimon]

Celebrity usually lists a boarding time of about 3 hours before sailing time on their cruise docs. They list the same time for everyone. If everyone actually came at that time there would be chaos and very long lines!

 

They start boarding within an hour or so after the ship has been cleared of passengers from the prior cruise. Because the time this occurs the can vary a little the actual time varies too but is usually sometime around 11AM. Of course if there is an unusual delay in disembarking passengers then boarding time will be delayed as well.

 

While delays are not the norm there are quite a few things that could cause a delay. Here are some we've heard of: Late arrival in port due to weather or other factors; issues with local customs and immigration slowing down the preceding disembarkation; an inspection by some governmental agency (health department, coast guard, etc); or extra cleaning and sensitization if there was an outbreak of norovirus on a prior sailing.

 

If your sailing is the first sailing after a transatlantic repositioning cruise to a USA port then there is almost certain to be a couple hour delay due to boarder patrol review of ship staff credentials and government inspections.

 

Also: There are a very small number of sailing where the ship disembarks at one port and embarks at another nearby port causing a late embarkation.

 

Even with all the potential for delays we've found the vast majority of embarkations start early and on time. We usually arrive at the pier between 11:30 and noon and embarkation is almost always well under way.

 

If you do arrive at the ship early you will find that the staterooms won't be ready until sometime around 1PM so you'll have to keep your carry-on items with you until then. You'll be directed to the buffet for lunch but you'll also have access to all public areas of the ship. This is a good time to explore the ship and to make any specialty restaurant reservations or spa appointments.

 

Some people prefer to board as late as possible (check your cruise documents carefully for the last boarding or check-in time). But we like to start our cruise early in the day - after all we've paid for it and we love being on the ships.