Online check-in question

[KPookey]

Hi,  fairly new to Carnival.  My online checkin opened two days ago (Pride 1 week cruise from Baltimore). I logged on and started through the process and chose a boarding time.There were several options, I chose 1 pm. I told another person in my group I’m traveling with to checkin, but he is unable to get a boarding time.  He got an error message that said “server error, please try again”.  Does anyone know why?  Just curious how the boarding times are assigned.  I keep hearing people mention faster to fun, priority boarding on this board.  How do the boarding times generally work?

Also, are they strict about you keeping in your time slot?

 

Thanks. 

 

[TNcruising02]

I've been having problems with the Carnival website lately, so I think your friend should just keep trying.

Sometimes they are strict about the appointment times and sometimes they are not.  Best case scenario is to arrive during your appointment time.  If you are either early or late, sometimes they have early/late lines.  I was sent to the early/late line once when I missed my appointment window by 5 minutes while cruising on the Vista out of Florida.  When I cruised out of Baltimore on the Pride, I was a little early and just went to a line where nobody seemed to look at the boarding pass time.  It may be different now and can vary with different employees.  Every other cruise I have been on in the past few years they looked at the appointment time.  When I cruised out of New Orleans, I was early and went to the early/late line.  

Edited April 18, 2019 by TNcruising02

[emoorehead]

Tell your friend to keep trying. As the other poster said, the website has been having issues.

 

Your arrival appointment is your check in time, not the time you will board. Depending on the port, it may be very quickly after that ot you any have to wait. 

 

It is my understanding that how strict they are about check in times varies by port and by day. There are a lot of factors at work here. Best idea is to arrive at your scheduled check in time.

 

As for priority boarding: it goes wedding parties, diamond, platinum, FFTF, general boarding.

[teknoge3k]

3 hours ago, emoorehead said:

 

As for priority boarding: it goes wedding parties, diamond, platinum, FFTF, general boarding.

Don't forget suites. They board before FTTF. 

[emoorehead]

11 hours ago, teknoge3k said:

Don't forget suites. They board before FTTF. 

Thank you.....I knew I left one out.

[Organized Chaos]

The boarding times are part of Carnival's "staggered check-in" system they began a couple years ago. Before that, everyone showed up whenever they wanted, lines were crazy, and check-ins were hectic. So now they stagger them out throughout the morning/afternoon to alleviate some of the long lines. So to Carnival, it's important that you pick a time when you'll be arriving at the terminal to help the system run as efficiently as possible. As others have said, what happens if you show up earlier or later than your chosen time kind of depends on the port and the employees that day. Typically, they don't want to let people in the terminal until their assigned check-in window.

 

If your friend ends up with a later window than you because of the site problems, there's really not much you can do about it. When you get to the terminal, you could always approach Carnival personnel outside and explain that you're together and what happened with the website and check-ins. It's at their discretion whether or not they let your friend join you during your check-in window. Otherwise, if you want to go through together, you'll have to wait for their check-in time. Hopefully they're able to get checked in and get the same time as you. Tell them to keep trying.

 

Once they call all of the priority passengers to board, as someone listed above, they'll begin general boarding. Those passengers are assigned zone numbers when you check in. They start with zone 1 and go from there.

[emoorehead]

Organized Chaos, very well put and thorough. Thank you for the detailed explanation.

[TNcruising02]

Regarding zone numbers, for the first time I was assigned a zone number for a cruise.  My appointment time for the Magic is 12:00 to 12:30 and I am in zone A15.  If you don't have a zone number printed on your boarding pass, then you will probably get one when you arrive.  For my Vista cruise, I got my zone number while going through the line.

[ObstructedView2]

On 4/18/2019 at 5:32 PM, emoorehead said:

 

As for priority boarding: it goes wedding parties, diamond, platinum, FFTF, general boarding.

 

 

On 4/18/2019 at 8:38 PM, teknoge3k said:

 

Don't forget suites. They board before FTTF. 

 

 

 

When does boarding begin for passengers with disabilities?

 

.

[teknoge3k]

1 minute ago, ObstructedView2 said:

 

 

 

When does boarding begin for passengers with disabilities?

 

.

 

You board with your zone number. When you do your online check-in, you select a check-in time for the terminal, and it also has a zone number on your boarding pass. 

[evandbob]

On 4/18/2019 at 8:38 PM, teknoge3k said:

Don't forget suites. They board before FTTF. 

 Ultra and Premier Casino guests have some sort of priority boarding as well.

[Shaded Lady]

4 hours ago, ObstructedView2 said:

 

 

 

When does boarding begin for passengers with disabilities?

 

.

 

Typically in my experience passengers with disabilities do not get preferred boarding... but if requested they can get help from Carnival personnel when it comes their time to board.