Boarding Time

[JOHN 57]

We are scheduled to sail on 1 December on the Summit.  Our plane lands at San Juan airport at 1628, and it is a 20 to 30 minutes from airport to cruise terminal.    Our ticket says boarding time 1230-1900, and to board 2 hours before.  Our ship sails at 0230.  Would this be plenty of time, and does Celebrity strictly enforce boarding time, that ends at 1900.  Thank you, John

[jelayne]

According to the Celebrity website departure is 2350 (8:30 pm.)

the ship is required in most ports to turn in the manifest 90 minutes before departure.  So yes, they are serious about having every one checked in and on board. 

[bEwAbG]

The FAQ says you must be checked in and on board no later than 60 minutes before the published sailing time.  This is the standard from U.S. ports.  However, it says to refer to your guest ticket book for deviations or for non-U.S. ports.  I know Puerto Rico should be considered a U.S. port, but you should go by what the ticket book says.  As already noted, they have a cutoff time to submit a manifest, so even if you can see the ship sitting there, you might not be able to board if you're too late.

 

That said, if you can change your flight to arrive earlier, you should definitely consider that. Most of the standard advice is to arrive a day before so that in case there are delays, you have time to recover from them.  This summer, I had a 1-hour arrival delay because a hazmat team was called to check some sort of ground operations issue for the plane that was parked beside us. One of the vehicles that responded to that was parked directly behind our plane, so we had to sit there until the person with the keys to that truck finished whatever they were doing and moved it.  So even if the weather is perfect, there are always other reasons why a plane may get delayed.

Edited November 20, 2018 by bEwAbG

[Palms2Pines2Sea]

John,

I believe you should think of the posted boarding times as written in stone. And I believe you should re-think the statement that "our plane lands at 1628", and amend it to "our plane is scheduled to land at 1628". 

If your plane lands on time, you should be fine. But please be prepared for plan B if your plane is delayed.

😎

[JOHN 57]

thank you both for the information.

[JOHN 57]

called celebrity, and they said, I should be ok.  I have already gone online to register.

[davekathy]

1 hour ago, JOHN 57 said:

We are scheduled to sail on 1 December on the Summit.  Our plane lands at San Juan airport at 1628, and it is a 20 to 30 minutes from airport to cruise terminal.    Our ticket says boarding time 1230-1900, and to board 2 hours before.  Our ship sails at 0230.  Would this be plenty of time, and does Celebrity strictly enforce boarding time, that ends at 1900.  Thank you, John

I believe you meant 2030 which is 08:30 PM. That's when the Summit is scheduled to leave the Pan Am pier at SJ. Bon Voyage. 🥂

Edited November 20, 2018 by davekathy

[JOHN 57]

yes 8:30Pm(2030)

[Muffinz]

the one piece of advice we got from fellow Cruise Critic members was to arrive at our boarding / embarkation port the day before the cruise..... it only takes 1 delayed flight, one traffic jam / accident on the motorway or something and your whole cruise could be ruined

What if you make it to San Juan but your luggage goes to San Jose by mistake? Celebrity will not wait for you or your luggage to arrive.

if you can change your flight to arrive earlier in the day or the day before that would be a lot better and less stressful on yourself!

[DENIE]

We did this once (and only once).  But that was a flight from Phoenix to San Diego, only an hour.  There is also shuttle-like air service between those cities, and we took the earliest flight possible. The dock is 10 minutes from the airport. It turned out just fine...no delays. But after reading numerous stories, decided we would not do again.  Since then, we have flown in the day ahead of time for the multitude of reasons already mentioned. I have flown often enough to have experienced several 4-5 hour delays.  Even our Infinity cruise a year ago September, we drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles a day ahead.

[JOHN 57]

thank you Denie, but we I think, will barely have enough time.