Embarkation Day

[Bllybb758]

Hello, I am curious if I show up after the process of boarding has begun - will I be better off? Or should I get there as early as possible. Boarding times just became available for me to choose and the windows go all the way from 11-4PM. I am staying at the MCO Hyatt Regency hotel and I also was curious what the windows of operation are for the airport transfers are too. Im going to be in Florida for 2 ADDTL days before my cruise. So in Florida for the 5th (at night) then boarding the Sunshine on the 7th. But the question I have is, though there are a lot of times to choose from what one should I be going with because we aren’t to sure. We have never done the carnival journeys before and my roommate is going to be a carnival first. I just want the best experience possible.

 

 

Checkout time is at 11AM for the hotel.

Edited July 26, 2017 by Bllybb758
Forgot some of the good details like finishing a sentence

[A&Jfamily]

Personally I would go early and get settled. No point in hanging around hotel. When we went out of PC in December traffic was a nightmare - 45 min to get to terminal once inside the port

 

 

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[Canadian_J]

I'd plan to go later, after boarding has already begun, for a few reasons. First off all, keep in mind that you get a check-in time, not a boarding time. They won't guarantee when boarding will begin, and just remember there's a priority order. That brings me to my second point: you mentioned you're on a Journey's cruise, and usually those have a lot more guests entitled to priority boarding. So if you show up for a very early check-in, you may have a long time to wait for your actual boarding time. If you don't have priority, I wouldn't consider going before noon, going from 1-2 is probably going to be the smoothest time though. I'd much rather sleep in and hang out in the hotel (maybe go for a swim) then slowly make my way over, then be sitting around a cruise terminal all morning...

[HerbertandB]

I've been pondering the same question myself. I'm leaning toward going later.

[winddawn]

Grab the earliest check in time available to you. Carnival allows you to check in at your leisure any time after your assigned time, but does not allow you to check in before your scheduled time. So choose the earliest time available for the most flexibility.

[Organized Chaos]

Since you have to check out of your hotel at 11:00, that could help you decide right there. If you pick a later check-in time well after 11:00, you'll have time to kill. Do you have plans after checking out of the hotel and before getting to the terminal? Or maybe you'd just like to go wandering around. Just keep in mind, if you pick a later arrival time, you can't get into the terminal before that time if you show up early.

 

As others have said, the later you arrive, the more people who will already have gone through the check-in process and, if they've already begun boarding, the less you have to wait to board yourself. Maybe even breeze right through check-in and board right away if you get there late enough. So it's a matter of preference...do you want to get on as soon as you can or do you mind getting on later?

 

In regards to winddawn's post below, I'm sure many people do what she's suggesting, but those early time slots are limited. If you have no intention to arrive early, you might want to be considerate of others who would actually use one of the earlier time slots.

 

Grab the earliest check in time available to you. Carnival allows you to check in at your leisure any time after your assigned time, but does not allow you to check in before your scheduled time. So choose the earliest time available for the most flexibility.