12:00-12:30 Arrival Time

[cruisin2604]

Just completed online check-in for the Vista out of Galveston.  Is 12:00-12:30 the earliest check-in time now?  It was the earliest that appeared on the screen as choices and I logged in at midnight to try to get a good time.  I can remember years past having 11:00 an option.

[klfrodo]

The earlier options are already assigned.

 

Did you sign in at midnight local time or Eastern, or GMT?

[cruisin2604]

midnight eastern time -- 11:00 my time in Texas .. no way they could have all been taken that fast.... is there?

[DukeASUGirl]

I think they hold the earliest check-ins for the Diamond passengers, maybe? But to answer your question, yes, these things can fill up fast. If you were stalking your keyboard and hitting refresh so you could login immediately, so were others.

[Organized Chaos]

I agree with DukeASUGirl. They more than likely reserve earlier slots for P/D. When they sell FTTF, it's capacity controlled and many suspect it's based on the number of P/D who book the cruise. Last year, we bought FTTF. I then picked 11:30-12:00, which was the earliest check-in time available at that time. A couple months before the cruise, I got an email notifying us that our check-in time had been bumped up to 11-11:30. More than likely, they determined there weren't enough P/D's to take up all of the earliest check-in times, so they allowed FTTF folks to fill in the gaps. So what you're probably seeing is the earliest time for you. Carnival is probably reserving earlier times for P/D/FTTF who have already booked, and keeping some time slots open as a "just in case" for any who may still book.

[LuckyStar]

2 hours ago, cruisin2604 said:

Just completed online check-in for the Vista out of Galveston.  Is 12:00-12:30 the earliest check-in time now?  It was the earliest that appeared on the screen as choices and I logged in at midnight to try to get a good time.  I can remember years past having 11:00 an option.

We are on the 4/21 sailing and we have an 1130-1200 check in.  

[coldinkansas]

I liked the later check in. We don't buy FTTF and the 12:00 - 12:30 puts us on the ship with little wait time on rooms being ready. Drop off all the "stuff" and off we go.  Nothing wrong with earlier check in if you don't have to lug all your carry on with you.  No matter what time you get on the ship, At least you are on VACATION !!!😎

[Shaded Lady]

Like the OP I am sailing on Vista June 15, have FTTF and got a noon checkin time when I went to reserve it... not that I care, since I have FTTF.

 

I have previously gotten as early as 10:30 checkin from Galveston... not sure if that's a thing of the past or not. As for reserving the earlier slots for the P/Ds, why would Carnival do that? Don't those guys check in whenever they want, like FTTF?

[briternik]

I too am on the Vista on June 8th.  I logged in at 10:55 my time, and kept refreshing until it opened up.  The earliest I was able to get was 12-12:30.  😞  

[jbethel11]

On 3/25/2019 at 1:00 PM, cruisin2604 said:

Just completed online check-in for the Vista out of Galveston.  Is 12:00-12:30 the earliest check-in time now?  It was the earliest that appeared on the screen as choices and I logged in at midnight to try to get a good time.  I can remember years past having 11:00 an option.

 

On 3/25/2019 at 1:48 PM, klfrodo said:

The earlier options are already assigned.

 

Did you sign in at midnight local time or Eastern, or GMT?

When is Check-In available? Sailing late August!

[3poundpuppies]

38 minutes ago, jbethel11 said:

 

When is Check-In available? Sailing late August!

90 days from sailing usually

[jbethel11]

1 minute ago, 3poundpuppies said:

90 days from sailing usually

So like Final Payment Date?

[3poundpuppies]

1 minute ago, jbethel11 said:

So like Final Payment Date?

Yep that's when mine showed up.

[Shaded Lady]

Ours was Mar 17 for check in, Apr 1 for final payment... so ~ 2 weeks before your final payment. If you log into Carnival, it will tell you on the same page as your booking info what the date is for your online check in....

[Organized Chaos]

As for reserving the earlier slots for the P/Ds, why would Carnival do that? Don't those guys check in whenever they want, like FTTF?

Even though P/D and FTTF are allowed to show up anytime, Carnival still encourages those people to arrive at the time they chose. It helps streamline the process. So my guess is they hold those earlier times to ensure priority boarding goes smoothly.

Last year, we had FTTF and the earliest time I could pick was 11:30-12. At some point before the cruise, we got an email notifying us that they moved our time up to 11:00-11:30. I’m guessing they didn’t have as many P/D’s as they planned for, so moved up some of the FTTF.

[fdwt994]

Any chance all check in times at Galveston are being pushed back due to the occasional fog?

[jbethel11]

6 minutes ago, fdwt994 said:

Any chance all check in times at Galveston are being pushed back due to the occasional fog?

Given this is Galveston in spring, this is quite possibly the reason why the time you were given is 12:00-12:30

[PhillyFan33579]

I just got off Horizon today and talked to the CD about appointment times at the D&P party.  He said right now Vista and Horizon appointment windows start later due to the consistently high number of Diamonds and Platinums that are on every cruise on these ships right now. The 8 day cruise I just completed had 39 Diamonds and 411 Platinums.  They started boarding Diamonds right around 11 AM with Platinums boarding approximately 5 minutes later.  There were a LOT of Platinums in the terminal when boarding started. 

[fdwt994]

On 3/31/2019 at 11:40 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

I just got off Horizon today and talked to the CD about appointment times at the D&P party.  He said right now Vista and Horizon appointment windows start later due to the consistently high number of Diamonds and Platinums that are on every cruise on these ships right now. The 8 day cruise I just completed had 39 Diamonds and 411 Platinums.  They started boarding Diamonds right around 11 AM with Platinums boarding approximately 5 minutes later.  There were a LOT of Platinums in the terminal when boarding started. 

Thank you for the info!

[evandbob]

I think the days of boarding a ship at 10AM, or even 11AM are done and over.  I usually arrive in MIA or FLL around 11AM to check in as a Diamond, and I've had to wait till noon or later to board.  

 

My last cruise on the Magic last month didn't begin boarding until 1:30PM, ostensibly due to a surprise USCG inspection.

[evandbob]

On 3/31/2019 at 11:40 PM, PhillyFan33579 said:

I just got off Horizon today and talked to the CD about appointment times at the D&P party.  He said right now Vista and Horizon appointment windows start later due to the consistently high number of Diamonds and Platinums that are on every cruise on these ships right now. The 8 day cruise I just completed had 39 Diamonds and 411 Platinums.  They started boarding Diamonds right around 11 AM with Platinums boarding approximately 5 minutes later.  There were a LOT of Platinums in the terminal when boarding started. 

 

 

We had 125 -130 Diamonds on the Horizon repo from NY a few yrs back!   There were between 90 -100 Diamonds on the Magic Ultra cruise St Patty's Day.

And I'm thinking there'll be plenty of Diamonds aboard when the Legend sails the Norwegian Fiords.

Edited April 3, 2019 by evandbob

[dmdiver]

We have 5 cabins with a check in time of 11-11:30 for 2 of them and 12:30-1 for the other 3.  What is odd, is when we first booked the cruise last year, I was able to start on online check in & pick 11-11:30 check in time.  Then, after all the website changes, I noticed that 3 of the cabins were no longer showing a check in time.  I called Carnival to see what was going on & the phone rep said she didn't know, but wasn't able to make any changes to check in times.  Her suggestion was for all of us to show up at the earlier time.  I don't really want to do that, since I'm pretty sure they would make the others wait until their assigned time.  We all want to board together to get our welcome aboard pic together - there are 9 of us.  Plus, we are all riding together, so it's dumb to have different check in times.  I would say we could leave home later, but I like to have plenty of cushion in the event of car or traffic issues.  Sounds like we may just have to figure out a way to kill time before boarding.  I'd rather eat a Guy's burger for lunch than eat in Galveston somewhere.  Anyway, it's just odd that we were able to pick a check in time at booking when we hadn't made final payment.  It's also odd that the check in time disappeared on some cabins, but not others.

[Organized Chaos]

1 hour ago, evandbob said:

I think the days of boarding a ship at 10AM, or even 11AM are done and over.  I usually arrive in MIA or FLL around 11AM to check in as a Diamond, and I've had to wait till noon or later to board.  

 

My last cruise on the Magic last month didn't begin boarding until 1:30PM, ostensibly due to a surprise USCG inspection.

 

We sailed on the Glory out of Miami last year. I can't remember exactly when they started boarding. With FTTF, we had our carry-ons in our cabins, waited a few minutes while our steward sorted out the stack of S&S cards he had, went up to Lido for lunch, and were done eating by 11:25. I originally had to pick a 11:30-12 check-in time, but Carnival eventually bumped it up to 11-11:30. My guess is, they didn't end up with as many P/D's.

 

As PhillyFan was saying, there's a high number of P/D's on Vista & Horizon right now, causing them to issue later check-in times to general boarding. I'm hoping those high numbers drop by the time we're on Horizon next year. Not that I care about the number of P/D's on board, but maybe it'll move up the check-in times. FTTF was already available, but we hesitated and now it's sold out. We'll keep checking though.

[TNcruising02]

For one of my cruises, my only option was a late check-in time.  After choosing it, I kept checking to see if an earlier time would open up and it eventually did.

[grandmarnnurse]

On 3/25/2019 at 2:47 PM, Organized Chaos said:

I agree with DukeASUGirl. They more than likely reserve earlier slots for P/D. When they sell FTTF, it's capacity controlled and many suspect it's based on the number of P/D who book the cruise. Last year, we bought FTTF. I then picked 11:30-12:00, which was the earliest check-in time available at that time. A couple months before the cruise, I got an email notifying us that our check-in time had been bumped up to 11-11:30. More than likely, they determined there weren't enough P/D's to take up all of the earliest check-in times, so they allowed FTTF folks to fill in the gaps. So what you're probably seeing is the earliest time for you. Carnival is probably reserving earlier times for P/D/FTTF who have already booked, and keeping some time slots open as a "just in case" for any who may still book.

It does not matter what check in time you choose if you have FTTF. You can arrive as early as 9:30, and as soon as boarding begins, once the P&D board, FTTF board. The check in time you choose has no relevance.