Embarkation lines on Regal out of Port Everglades

[cruisemom42]

I have Priority boarding (Platinum) but really dislike waiting in line -- or waiting in a room -- for boarding. Being first on board isn't a very high priority for us, we don't care about lunch or being the first onboard to reserve stuff.

 

Our cruise has a pretty short window for boarding - docs say 12:30 to 2:30. We are spending the night before at Embassy Suites and will have our own car -- e.g., we could go get lunch or do something prior to boarding.

 

Can anyone propose a strategy that involves the least amount of waiting? Do the lines die down at some point, or are we doomed to getting there at 9:30 and waiting for several hours, albeit in a holding room?

 

Thanks -- first time on a large ship in a while. ;)

[C-LAD]

If I were you, I would drop your luggage at the ship around 11:00 and then drive somewhere for a relaxing lunch. Return about 2-2:30 and lines and wait times should be minimal if at all.

[skynight]

Passengers will start arriving as early a 10am and stand outside waiting. Around 11am check in will open, passengers will check in and be shown upstairs to a waiting area. Somewhere around 11:30/noon boarding will begin with priority boarders first then all others in the order of arrival. The waiting area will be fairly empty by around 12:30. If you arrive at the pier around 12:30/1pm you should check in and board fairly quickly.

There is no need to have lunch before boarding the ship. Just have a nice breakfast at the Embassy Suites, their breakfast selections are really good, and once on board have a light sandwich at the International Cafe or a nice meal at Alfredo's. The Regal's buffet is very large with lots of different selections. Choose anything from a salad, a taco, to a full carved meat selection with all the sides. Or skip the mid day meal and dine early in the evening.

Are you parking right at the pier. It is easy access to the terminal from the parking deck.

[-Lew-]

We usually arrive at the terminal between 12:30 and 1:00 and find checkin and boarding go quite quickly. Get in the shortest line entering the terminal...not necessarily the Elite/Platinum line. Also, pick the shortest checkin line...not necessarily a priority line.

 

Enjoy your cruise...

 

[floridalover5623]

Getting there early is the only way for me. I get nervous about missing boarding so I would rather wait around for hours that get indigestion.

Of course if waiting get you upset then arrive around 2 PM or later & get right on board.

[cruisemom42]

Not too worried about missing the ship -- been cruising since 1972 and I haven't let one get away without me yet....;)

 

 

Thanks for the ideas on timing. Sounds like anytime from about 12:30 on shouldn't be too bad. Does Embassy Suites ever allow a late checkout? Otherwise we have to be out at 11:00 (in which case having lunch somewhere just seems to make sense, since we'd have an hour and a half to kill).

 

On the other hand, I AM eager to try Alfredo's.....:D

[Hlitner]

Platinum will give you priority with half of the other passengers :(. If you truly want to avoid lines, consider arriving at the port around 2pm. This means you miss some nice time aboard, and lunch at a normal lunch time. But by 2, there will not be any long lines to deal with at check-in or getting on the ship.

 

Hank

[Woodinville]

We stayed at Embassy Suites and asked for an extra hour and they were very accommodating.

[riclop]

I have Priority boarding (Platinum) but really dislike waiting in line -- or waiting in a room -- for boarding. Being first on board isn't a very high priority for us, we don't care about lunch or being the first onboard to reserve stuff.

 

Our cruise has a pretty short window for boarding - docs say 12:30 to 2:30. We are spending the night before at Embassy Suites and will have our own car -- e.g., we could go get lunch or do something prior to boarding.

 

Can anyone propose a strategy that involves the least amount of waiting? Do the lines die down at some point, or are we doomed to getting there at 9:30 and waiting for several hours, albeit in a holding room?

 

Thanks -- first time on a large ship in a while. ;)

Get there around 1 pm.

[Colo Cruiser]

We arrive at around 10:30 regardless. Want to get onboard as soon as possible.

[eagletwo]

We arrived on December 3rd at Pier 21 for the Caribbean Princess around 10:30 am. As we were in a suite, we had priority boarding. The port is controlled chaos. If I had been in a private car/rental car, I would have been lost. Priority boarding is way overrated.

 

We arrived December 2nd into FLL and rented a car. Stayed at the Embassy Suites. Dropped the car back at FLL, shuttle to the port. Next time, I would ask/pay for late check out and arrive at the pier around 1:30 pm. Why? We got to wait in line and got into the terminal around 11:15 am. Boarded the ship at 11:45 am. Too much hassle and aggravation. I may have missed having lunch in one of the MDR's, but we enjoyed the buffet at 12:30 pm. Just my humble option.

[4cats4me]

I have to disagree with some who suggest 12:30-1:00 as being a good time to arrive. although we usually arrive around 11:30, on our last sailing on Regal we chose to arrive around 12:15-12:30 and there were no fewer than 600-700 waiting in line, the entire length of the building. Okay, maybe 400-600? At any rate, we had priority boarding and breezed right in. Apparently there had been some type of a delay and the doors to the building had opened at 12:00 as opposed to 11:00

We learned later that people had been waiting for around 2 hours, as many had arrived around 10:00 am.

to avoid the congestion that we witnessed, I would suggest from 2:00 on

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[cruisemom42]

Thanks for all the tips. We're leaning toward asking Embassy Suites for a later check-out, then meandering over to the port around 1:00 to 1:30. Hopefully there won't have been any hang-ups or delays (since the turnaround time is short....)

[easyboy]

We usually arrive before noon. While there may be lines, it does move just about right with many check-in staff. We are usually in our cabin in less than an hour. If you really want to avoid a crowd, 2:30pm may just be right.

[Lucky TGO]

If you don't like to wait in line a would show up at 1:45 pm. That's just a good guess. Good luck!!

Tony

[pablo222]

Platinum will give you priority with half of the other passengers :(.

 

When we were on royal in november, there were 1400+ elite+platinum.

 

I'm pretty sure that when I arrived at the terminal, they were all in the

'preferred' line ahead of me.

[Hlitner]

When we were on royal in november, there were 1400+ elite+platinum.

 

I'm pretty sure that when I arrived at the terminal, they were all in the

'preferred' line ahead of me.

 

Funny thing about preferred lines. They are often the longest and many folks insist on being in their "preferred line" no matter what! Because we have cruised so often on so many lines we are generally in some kind of preferred category on nearly every cruise. On Princess we have been Elite for a very long time (probably from when they started the category). We recently boarded the Regal Princess at Red Hook ( Brooklyn) for a 10 day cruise that must have been more then 50% Elites. When we got inside the Red Hook terminal, one of the staff directed us to the priority line (for Elites) which we quickly noticed was very long. But the regular lines (no priority) were empty...so we just walked over to regular line and were quickly processed....while more then 100 priority folks stood patiently waiting their turn. And we have done this on more then one line and at many ports. Some folks simply insist that they want their "priority".....even if that means waiting in a long queue. Go figure. Color us stupid, but we prefer the shortest line.

 

It is the same in buffets. If there are 3 different lines there will likely be 1 or 2 which are long...and often 1 which is quite short. But for some strange reason, many folks tend to get in the longest lines (something to do with human nature and the tendency to follow the herd) without looking for other alternatives. You will also see this at airports (we do a lot of flying). If there are multiple security lines....most will simply head for the longest line (like following cattle). We will often ask security or a TSA employee where to find the shorter line and its often at the next security check-point a few minutes stroll away from the long line. But folks seem to prefer standing in line for an hour as opposed to walking another 5 minutes for the short line. Go figure. Even more then forty years ago when I went to a University, I recall a psychology professor doing a short lecture on "queue avoidance strategies." He said the best strategy was to simply seek out the shortest line...which is a strategy that many folks ignore.

 

Another queue strategy involves lunch buffets. Say you go to the Lido buffet at noon, and there are long lines, no empty tables, etc. You finally manage to get your food and find some seats...and start to eat your food (which is often cold because it took so long to find a seat). You finish lunch around 1, and as you are leaving the Lido you notice there are no longer any lines, there are plenty of empty tables, etc. The next day you again go back to the Lido at noon and fight the crowds. Well it might shock some folks, but a few of us would learn from that first day and simply eat lunch a little later (perhaps at 1). Meanwhile another will be heard to complain, "I hate these long lines and crowds at the buffet.....but I simply must eat at noon!" Kind of brings up the definition of insanity :)

 

Hank

Edited December 20, 2016 by Hlitner

[floridalover5623]

When we were on royal in november, there were 1400+ elite+platinum.

 

I'm pretty sure that when I arrived at the terminal, they were all in the

'preferred' line ahead of me.

 

That was the day I went shopping & returned to find the line completely down the length of the terminal. There were no signs directing the in-transit people where to go so I went to the head of the line with my small suitcase & some guy got insulted & though I was trying to cut in & told me to get to the end of the line since he was preferred. :D

[marco]

I also do not like lines, queuing and waiting, so we usually arrive around 2. From getting out of our car to being on the ship takes about 5 minutes.....maybe less. The buffet luncheon is still being served, most people are done with that and a vacant table is pretty easy to come by. Waiting for over an hour just to get on the ship an hour sooner has no appeal for me.

[pablo222]

I went to the head of the line with my small suitcase & some guy got insulted & though I was trying to cut in & told me to get to the end of the line since he was preferred. :D

 

Sorry, I didn't know it was you.

 

:) :) :) :)

 

I was referring to 16-November.

[iceleven]

Our one and only experience at the Pier in Ft. Lauderdale was very different from our experiences here at our own home port.

 

In November we arrived, via Uber, around 11:45 and sat in a traffic queue for more than 30 minutes, barely moving. There were charter-type buses letting people off and removing their luggage and tying up one entire lane. Cabs and cars were trying to navigate around them and then the one-by-one drop offs were now slowing down that lane.

 

We felt so terribly sorry for our driver because he was stuck there even after we chose to get out early and just walk the remaining distance. We couldn't see where the porters were accepting the luggage because of the massive crowds. It was utter chaos.

 

We were in line starting around 12:30 and there already was a line more than three quarters down the side of the building. No signs marked for elite or platinum but staff came along at one point directing those of us to follow her to a shorter line all the way up front. And yeah, we shared that line with the blues, golds, etc. but I felt as long as the lines were moving, and they were, I didn't care. They moved slowly but steady and probably in less than 3/4 of an hour we were finally on deck and heading toward our cabin.

 

I know this was our one and only experience at this pier but there were no other ships in port that day so why the traffic jam. If/when we cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale again, we will make a point to show up closer to 2 pm. I'll find something to do before showing up there any earlier.

 

It was suggested to drop off your luggage earlier and then go have lunch elsewhere but our worst experience with this cruise was the car, cab, and bus traffic chaos at the pier. You cannot avoid that by dropping off your luggage early. At least not by our experience.

[floridalover5623]

Sorry, I didn't know it was you.

 

:) :) :) :)

 

I was referring to 16-November.

 

It very well could have been. They used to have an in-transit re-entry around the side of the building last year & the sign is now removed. It eliminated a lot of confusion.

[TW6cruiser]

We are also platinum. We boarded the Regal very quickly in early December when we arrived around 11:15 am.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ILCruzr]

I was on the 12/11 sailing...but was in the line with the masses...we arrived at like 11:15 and didnt get on the boat until 12:30-there was a HUGE line for embarkation and it was very disorganized with no signage of where people should wait. The people in front of me were priority but didnt know they were supposed to be in a different line and waited in our line for about 30 mins before they got to where they were supposed to be. Embarkation for princess was a total disaster and having sailed on Carnival and RCL, it was much more organized with them.

 

 

Now Debarkation took like an hour-it was awful. They try staggering the times but so many people just walked off and they wind you through REALLY long lines and make you wait. Again it was better on Carnival and RCL...we just breeze on and off those ships-Princess likes to control things....was really bad and mentioned in that in our post cruise survey.

[floridalover5623]

I was on the 12/11 sailing...but was in the line with the masses...we arrived at like 11:15 and didnt get on the boat until 12:30-there was a HUGE line for embarkation and it was very disorganized with no signage of where people should wait. The people in front of me were priority but didnt know they were supposed to be in a different line and waited in our line for about 30 mins before they got to where they were supposed to be. Embarkation for princess was a total disaster and having sailed on Carnival and RCL, it was much more organized with them.

 

 

Now Debarkation took like an hour-it was awful. They try staggering the times but so many people just walked off and they wind you through REALLY long lines and make you wait. Again it was better on Carnival and RCL...we just breeze on and off those ships-Princess likes to control things....was really bad and mentioned in that in our post cruise survey.

 

I can't speak for Carnival but it does sound like they're more organized for boarding.

I only wish that Princess would relabel their boarding lines with clear signs. We know from previous cruise where to wait but newcomers could certainly be confused.

btw- the side of the line for preferred boarding hasn't changed.