How early should we arrive at Port Everglades to board Regal?

[capriccio]

1 minute ago, TracieABD said:

I have only been on one cruise where my cabin was not ready upon boarding. It was an Emerald cruise out of FLL- and it was the cruise the boarded after a Spring Break cruise. My room was pretty messy- but I dropped my bag and headed to the MDR for lunch. It was ready by 1 pm.

Our experience was on the Ruby out of Seattle (an Alaska cruise) leaving in late June.  Dropping bags off wasn't even an option since the hallway doors were locked.  We (all 7 of us) went up to the Lido for a drink and then at noon to the MDR for lunch dragging our carry-ons (no problem with storage in the MDR).  A ship-wide announcement was made at 1 pm that the cabins were ready.

[TracieABD]

2 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Our experience was on the Ruby out of Seattle (an Alaska cruise) leaving in late June.  Dropping bags off wasn't even an option since the hallway doors were locked.  We (all 7 of us) went up to the Lido for a drink and then at noon to the MDR for lunch dragging our carry-ons (no problem with storage in the MDR).  A ship-wide announcement was made at 1 pm that the cabins were ready.

That is a bit different. I wonder if they were deep cleaning or just had a ton of turn-around....

[capriccio]

36 minutes ago, TracieABD said:

That is a bit different. I wonder if they were deep cleaning or just had a ton of turn-around....

I have a feeling that Princess was testing a change.  A number of other ships did the same this past summer according to this August thread.  See

But I haven't seen any comments/complaints lately.  Personally I just want to get on the ship as soon as possible instead of standing in a long line (sometimes outdoors) for check-in to begin.  Obviously I'd prefer to go directly to my cabin but it won't (and didn't) ruin our cruise dragging our carry-ons around until 1 pm.

[Colo Cruiser]

53 minutes ago, capriccio said:

Our experience was on the Ruby out of Seattle (an Alaska cruise) leaving in late June.  Dropping bags off wasn't even an option since the hallway doors were locked.  We (all 7 of us) went up to the Lido for a drink and then at noon to the MDR for lunch dragging our carry-ons (no problem with storage in the MDR).  A ship-wide announcement was made at 1 pm that the cabins were ready.

I call it a trade off. We get on early.

We have found the cabins were not ready until 1:00 on the last few cruises.

They set up a secure place onboard you can check some stuff if you like.

There are those that will find a way to get to their cabin anyway and probably screw it up for everyone else eventually.

We get on early and they get to finish cleaning the cabins.

I can live with that.

[Rebels82]

Are suites ready before other cabins?

[capriccio]

37 minutes ago, Rebels82 said:

Are suites ready before other cabins?

Suites have priority boarding and if all the cabins are ready the suites are too.  If the cabins are not ready, some folks with suites have reported being able to drop their carry-ons off.  If the hallways are locked, no one can access their cabin.

[starofmay]

Thanks so much for all the valuable info! I think we’ll arrive around 10:30 or 11 and plan to wait a bit. It’s a group cruise with very few of us meeting in person previously, so waiting together will give us a chance to get to know each other. And we hope to get on early enough to have lunch in the MDR. 🙂

[voljeep]

count us in the early to arrive group - at least at PE/FLL

 

we start out a DEFCON 1 when leaving home and driving down - about 4 hours only..

DEFCON 2 - reach FL turnpike

DEFCON 3 - reach exit in Fort Lauderdale

DEFCON 4 - parking garage at port ( if going out of 2 )

DEFCON 5 - on board, beer and pina colada in hands

DEFCON 1	COCKED PISTOL	Nuclear war is imminent	Maximum readiness
DEFCON 2	FAST PACE	Next step to nuclear war	Armed Forces ready to deploy and engage in less than 6 hours
DEFCON 3	ROUND HOUSE	Increase in force readiness above that required for normal readiness	Air Force ready to mobilize in 15 minutes
DEFCON 4	DOUBLE TAKE	Increased intelligence watch and strengthened security measures	Above normal readiness
DEFCON 5	FADE OUT	Lowest state of readiness

[floridalover5623]

18 hours ago, capriccio said:

Suites have priority boarding and if all the cabins are ready the suites are too.  If the cabins are not ready, some folks with suites have reported being able to drop their carry-ons off.  If the hallways are locked, no one can access their cabin.

I've never seen hallways locked tight. If the fire door is closed you can still make way to your cabin and if not ready just drop off your bags so you won't have to lug them around. 

[floridalover5623]

20 hours ago, TracieABD said:

I have only been on one cruise where my cabin was not ready upon boarding. It was an Emerald cruise out of FLL- and it was the cruise the boarded after a Spring Break cruise. My room was pretty messy- but I dropped my bag and headed to the MDR for lunch. It was ready by 1 pm.

Bingo.

The doors are always open when they're working on the cabins & if they're closed, it means the cabin is done. Either way you can at least drop off your bags. 😉

[TracieABD]

3 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

Bingo.

The doors are always open when they're working on the cabins & if they're closed, it means the cabin is done. Either way you can at least drop off your bags. 😉

Yes. That was really nice for that cruise, because I only had carry-on and it was getting quite cumbersome at that point.