What will happen if we arrive early?

[Justcrusin]

We are staying overnight close to the port. What will happen if we show up early for our check-in “appointment”.

 

This is the first time we are sailing with the staggered arrival times.

 

Thanks.

[hpugirl27]

I also wondered this as the only check in time left was the 1:30-2pm slot and we've never arrived that late before.

[esm54687]

Carnival enforces the "staggered arrival time". If you arrive prior to your assigned time you will be expected to wait until that time. If you arrive after the assigned time then there's no penalty and you may enter. This is done to better manage crowd control at ports

[GaCruisersII]

They will not let you into the terminal building until your appointment time. Some ports won't even let you into the parking deck until your scheduled arrival time.

 

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[DallasGuy75219]

It depends on the port and what rules they decide to follow on any given day. I've also seen a separate line for people arriving before or after their assigned arrival times, and they let people from this line into the terminal as the line for people who have arrived on-time permits.

[poz222]

If Miami or Fll, You will sit outside in the sun and wait till your time slot. The staggering only works if people respect their times... so to avoid the mess that used to happen, they enforce.

[klfrodo]

You get to stand outside and enjoy some beautiful weather.

[yogibear]

The only time you can arrive earlier:

1. Platinum/Diamond levels.

2. FTTF

3. Deluxe Suite accommodations.

 

Karen

[boomhower]

If Miami or Fll, You will sit outside in the sun and wait till your time slot. The staggering only works if people respect their times... so to avoid the mess that used to happen, they enforce.

 

Same in Jacksonville.

[beerman2]

Carnival enforces the "staggered arrival time". If you arrive prior to your assigned time you will be expected to wait until that time. If you arrive after the assigned time then there's no penalty and you may enter. This is done to better manage crowd control at ports

Not true on our sailing/week. We arrived an hour earlier than our appointed time.

 

Went to the early/late arrival line, went right through security , received Group 4 boarding and waited until called.

 

 

Not going to quote all others saying you have to stay outside, won't let you in building etc., etc.

None of which we encountered on the May 5th sailing. No questions asked, the only response we received was Welcome /Thanks for sailing Carnival.

[Justcrusin]

Thanks for the replies all. We are on the Vista next week. I never found the rush to be bad, but we always arrived early.

[Crusin Hogs]

Galveston will let you sit outside the terminal and get fresh air and hopefully sunshine until it is your check in time !

[asalligo]

As an above poster said, all depends on the port. Ports like Jacksonville will not even let you in the parking lot early, but most will let you park and just not into the terminal early. They really are enforcing it now though.

[rufflesmom]

I have sailed out of Galveston twice since they started the check-in times. Galveston enforces the times. I've seen people turned away at the door because they were early.

[Lottacruises]

Galveston will let you sit outside the terminal and get fresh air and hopefully sunshine until it is your check in time !

I always see people going to the early/late line, which is to the right of the on time line. The on time line splits into priority and on time at the door.

The only time people wait outside in Galveston is if you get there before the doors open, or if the line happens to be that long.

[Lottacruises]

I have sailed out of Galveston twice since they started the check-in times. Galveston enforces the times. I've seen people turned away at the door because they were early.

No, that's not why anyone is turned away at Galveston. Once you reach the doors you have already been separated and in the line you belong in. Early and late, on time, or priority. It has been this way since July of last year, when they implemented keys on board.

[BallFour4]

First, the line in Galveston is shaded.

Second, priority is the line on the left and it’s poorly marked if you happen to walk up and see the line waiting for their respective check- in times.

It’s easy to say that someone with priority should know, but if they bought FTTF or have never cruised from here they might not.

There are uniformed check in staff members that screen documents and direct you to the left or right, but sometimes they don’t make it very far back.

A few weeks ago on the Breeze this was the case, and the regular line was spread out the entire concourse outside. As stated above, you’d need to know to walk out from under the covered area and go forward to priority. We did...

[simplelife]

Not true on our sailing/week. We arrived an hour earlier than our appointed time.

 

Went to the early/late arrival line, went right through security , received Group 4 boarding and waited until called.

 

 

Not going to quote all others saying you have to stay outside, won't let you in building etc., etc.

None of which we encountered on the May 5th sailing. No questions asked, the only response we received was Welcome /Thanks for sailing Carnival.

I think it depends on how smoothly things are going with embarkation. Last cruise were a few minutes early and expected to wait, but they went ahead and let us in. Lines were short and moving.

[NCbmwmom]

Not true on our sailing/week. We arrived an hour earlier than our appointed time.

 

Went to the early/late arrival line, went right through security , received Group 4 boarding and waited until called.

 

 

Not going to quote all others saying you have to stay outside, won't let you in building etc., etc.

None of which we encountered on the May 5th sailing. No questions asked, the only response we received was Welcome /Thanks for sailing Carnival.

 

Same with us in PC. Our hotel only had one shuttle so we had no choice but to go early. No trouble whatsoever.

[Ariel1985]

We cruised out of NOLA in April 2018 and arrival times did not appear to be being enforced. It wasn’t the smoothest embarkation and took probably 1.5 hrs to get on the ship (we got there around peak time, though). Having said that, times were enforced April 2017 out of Miami, and it was the quickest embarkation I’ve experienced. We were on the ship in abt 20 min.