boarding V.O,S at the O.P.T.

[Miamia65]

we havent cruises from the OPT for a while but at wharf 5 they have an area roped off for anyone needing wheel chair assistance and they are wheeled on by p&o staff to their cabin

rkmw yes there are RCI staff who will assist with people who need a wheel chair.

 

Rather than lining up, go to the automatic opening doors on the street side of the OPT, there are RCI staff there and ask for assistance. You will be allocated a staff member who will push you in the chair from that point all the way to your cabin.

 

The check-in process is very short, as once you get taken upstairs, via the lift, you will be taken to a special check-in area.

[barnsey1802]

We came up on the train and arrived at about 11.30. They were asking for deck 10 passengers. (we were deck 9) but they let us joint the que anyway. After a little while the priority line started moving, then eventually our line stared moving.

 

Once we got up stairs the lines were very long, but moving at a steady pace. We boarded at about 1pm.

 

One couple we spoke to arrived at 11.30 and because they were on deck 6, they were told to come back at 3.30:eek: they came back at one and ended up boarding 2 hours later.

 

Obviously with this being a one day cruise people were anxious to get on as early as possible. But I guess it would probably go smoother if everyone arrived at their allotted time. Also my set sail pass said 1pm, but the email I got the day before said 12.30.

 

We really enjoyed the ship, dinner in the restaurant was ok, not spectacular, but no bad either. The waiters did a dance through the restaurant and sang an Italian song,which was great. Again being a one night cruise it was hard to fit everything in, but we had a nice time. Shops and casino opened at about 10.30 and were packed. There was one show at 11pm. Which we caught the second half of ( illusionist show) what we saw was excellent.

 

The biggest hassle however for us was trying to disembark today.

We always put cash on our card and this cruise was no different. We put $400 US dollars on the card and when we went to get what was left over this morning we were told that we had to produce all of our receipts. Yes all of them. See the system was down and they had no way of knowing what we had spent. Of course We didn't keep them. The only one I had was from the souvenir shop. Lots of other people were having the same problem.

 

We were then told to register our credit card so we could be charged later, but we and many others didnt want to do this. Mainly because we couldn't check our bill and also we didn't want to deal with the exchange rate and most of all because if they put the wrong charges on the card we didn't want to have to try to get it back later.

 

We are a big believer in checking all the charges BEFORE leaving the ship.

So we were told to wait probably about an hour:confused: and eventually We were given back our money minus the amount on the receipts we had.

 

Now please don't get me wrong. We are more than happy to pay for the drinks etc, that we had. If rcl send us the bill we will gladly pay it, but we were not willing to give our our cc details and hope for the best.

 

One thing I forgot to mention that was the slips for most of the drinks we had didn't have the price on them anyway. I can't understand how they expected people to keep every receipt anyway.

 

So we eventually disembarked at 10.30. Like I said I really liked the ship. The main restaurant and theatre were especially beautiful as well as the boardwalk.

 

Deidre:)

[Cruise ship fan]

Regular guests can expect a huge wait to get on. C&A and suites has a huge advantage. The que outside is smaller and the queue for it is smaller once again inside, once movement of starts its pretty quick to get on, not so much for regular guests though. Wheelchair access is at the entrance to the terminal.

[Tigerman00]

We are getting very excited about cruising next week. Anyone else here on the Radiance of the Seas

 

Yes, 14 of us in our group really excited now ..

 

K

[kaseyoz]

C and A gold card holders can use that left hand quick lane but then once up the escalator you have to wait with everyone else in line. Only platinum and suites get a fast line up there. We were on board by 12.30 pm. No problems getting off as we had our cc listed. Did not know about the other problem Crazy..slows everything down. All drinks etc were manually doen recipt wise.

[abbeymay0]

C and A gold card holders can use that left hand quick lane but then once up the escalator you have to wait with everyone else in line. Only platinum and suites get a fast line up there. We were on board by 12.30 pm. No problems getting off as we had our cc listed. Did not know about the other problem Crazy..slows everything down. All drinks etc were manually doen recipt wise.

 

Just wondering what deck you were on? We are gold C & A member too and was wondering if we can get on any earlier?

[bazzaw]

Got our set sail pass for the cruise on 27 Jan today. Strangely, although we are on Deck 10 , it says a boarding time of 1PM (was expecting 11.30AM)

 

Does anybody know about luggage tags??

 

Barry

[abbeymay0]

Got our set sail pass for the cruise on 27 Jan today. Strangely, although we are on Deck 10 , it says a boarding time of 1PM (was expecting 11.30AM)

 

Does anybody know about luggage tags??

 

Barry

 

Every sets ail pass is saying 1 pm so you are deck 10 which means 11:30, did you book with a TA?

[bazzaw]

Every sets ail pass is saying 1 pm so you are deck 10 which means 11:30, did you book with a TA?

 

Yes -- booked with a TA

 

Barry

[Miamia65]

Got our set sail pass for the cruise on 27 Jan today. Strangely, although we are on Deck 10 , it says a boarding time of 1PM (was expecting 11.30AM)

 

Does anybody know about luggage tags??

 

Barry

Your luggage tags are part of the set sail pass pdf document you receive as part of the online checkin Barry.

 

They prefer it printed in colour if you can and some people laminate them so they dont get damaged.

[6andy6]

I hate to rain on your parade - but the fact is that the airline industry is far more important economically than the cruising industry . There really is no comparison between the two.

 

But....you sure of that (particularly In Sydney's case). Once again think laterally.

 

Not only passengers on and off, hotel stays, meals, sightseeing etc - all money being spent and jobs being created.

 

Then you can also add money the cruise line lays down - resuppling the ship with food, drink. Fuel. Water. Docking fee's.

 

Now compared to any airport that is all handled by one wharf - the OPT. I think they can shell out $10mio to bring it a bit more up to date.

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

Got our set sail pass for the cruise on 27 Jan today. Strangely, although we are on Deck 10 , it says a boarding time of 1PM (was expecting 11.30AM)

 

Does anybody know about luggage tags??

 

Barry

 

Barry luggage tags are available from the porters kerb side.

 

Jilly

[Gold Coast Cruisers]

I'm trying to figure out why there was such chaos boarding Voyager, apart from the fact maybe everyone turned up at the same time instead of sticking to their alloted boarding time.

When we boarded Voyager in New Orleans it was a breeze we were on board within 15 minutes. There was no alloted boarding times for anyone on any deck. Barcelona was busy but smooth boarding for those joining the ship there. Dubai was slow boarding due to security apparently. None was as busy as has been reported in Sydney.

At all other ports of call along the way we had no trouble at all getting on or off the ship because they quite often had two exits available.

Jilly:)

[bazzaw]

Your luggage tags are part of the set sail pass pdf document you receive as part of the online checkin Barry.

 

They prefer it printed in colour if you can and some people laminate them so they dont get damaged.

 

Hmmm -- our set sail pass ( when printed on A4 paper) had the first two pages that looked "right" -- but the third page, which had what appears to be a luggage tag, does not look right. This tag is similar to those we have printed off for P&O - but it is VERY small ( 1.5 inches wide and 4 inches long.) Other baggage tags that we have printed have been as long as a sheet of A4 (so that the paper can be folded around a bag handle. )

 

Barry

[Aussieflyer]

The larger coloured luggage tags are part of the cruise booklet. The ones on the set sail are only small. If you save the cruise booklet as PDF you can print off the tags. There is also the cruise contract and credit card authority there as well though from memory it is also on the set sail pass.

[bazzaw]

The larger coloured luggage tags are part of the cruise booklet. The ones on the set sail are only small. If you save the cruise booklet as PDF you can print off the tags. There is also the cruise contract and credit card authority there as well though from memory it is also on the set sail pass.

 

We received an email saying the the set sail pass was ready for download/printing. But the cruise booklet page says that we will also receive an email when that is ready to print?? I find RCCL's ways to be a bit "strange" when compared to other cruiselines :rolleyes:

 

Barry

[barnsey1802]

I'm trying to figure out why there was such chaos boarding Voyager, apart from the fact maybe everyone turned up at the same time instead of sticking to their alloted boarding time.

When we boarded Voyager in New Orleans it was a breeze we were on board within 15 minutes. There was no alloted boarding times for anyone on any deck. Barcelona was busy but smooth boarding for those joining the ship there. Dubai was slow boarding due to security apparently. None was as busy as has been reported in Sydney.

At all other ports of call along the way we had no trouble at all getting on or off the ship because they quite often had two exits available.

Jilly:)

 

When we first got there a staff member told us boarding was a bit delayed due to the coastguard requiring them to to a drill. maybe that slowed thing down a bit at the start.

 

Deidre:)

[Aussieflyer]

We received an email saying the the set sail pass was ready for download/printing. But the cruise booklet page says that we will also receive an email when that is ready to print?? I find RCCL's ways to be a bit "strange" when compared to other cruiselines :rolleyes:

 

Barry

 

Celebrity as it is the same company has the same process.

[abbeymay0]

We received an email saying the the set sail pass was ready for download/printing. But the cruise booklet page says that we will also receive an email when that is ready to print?? I find RCCL's ways to be a bit "strange" when compared to other cruiselines :rolleyes:

 

Barry

 

Your TA will give them to you Bazzaw along with your cruise booklet, that what happen with ours for our radiance cruise in march

[rkmw]

When we first got there a staff member told us boarding was a bit delayed due to the coastguard requiring them to to a drill. maybe that slowed thing down a bit at the start.

 

Deidre:)

 

strange statement for the staff member to make about the coastguard, did they mean customs as we dont talk about coastguard in Australia and why would they need to do a drill for (just to slow down the process)....its mandoraty for ship to do a drill before leaving port or in the first 24 hours

[barnsey1802]

He definately said coast guard. He said boarding is delayed a bit cause they made us do a drill.

 

Deidre.

[rkmw]

He definately said coast guard. He said boarding is delayed a bit cause they made us do a drill.

 

Deidre.

 

you have to do a drill as its mandoraty and maybe the staff member said that to keep people quiet

[Debsta]

I think he's referring to the crew having to do a drill.

 

And don't forget they're probably used to using the terminology coast guard rather than what we would call them here

 

Hi Deirdre :D See you in a month! :D

[Debsta]

We received an email saying the the set sail pass was ready for download/printing. But the cruise booklet page says that we will also receive an email when that is ready to print?? I find RCCL's ways to be a bit "strange" when compared to other cruiselines :rolleyes:

 

Barry

 

Hey Barry, they've given your cabin away........they're just waiting for the right time to tell you LOL :D:D:D:p:p

[rkmw]

I think he's referring to the crew having to do a drill.

 

And don't forget they're probably used to using the terminology coast guard rather than what we would call them here

 

Hi Deirdre :D See you in a month! :D

 

Deb i've never seen a cruise line having a crew drill on embarkment day, later on during the cruise on a port day