Suite class check in @ Cape Liberty?

[rM3panno]

We have sailed out of Cape Liberty only once before and my memory is foggy.

 

 What is suite class check in like at Cape Liberty? Is there a separate bag drop and entrance or just the line marked for suite class once you enter the terminal?

 

Headed to Bermuda in August in a Royal suite!

Edited May 17, 2019 by rM3panno

[Jim_Iain]

6 hours ago, rM3panno said:

We have sailed out of Cape Liberty only once before and my memory is foggy.

 

 What is suite class check in like at Cape Liberty? Is there a separate bag drop and entrance or just the line marked for suite class once you enter the terminal?

 

Headed to Bermuda in August in a Royal suite!

 

Special bag drop is only available for RS and Penthouse (also Signature Suite and Reflection Suite on Reflection).   Like other ports there is a separate Suite Class check in line and if in a CS or above they will escort you to Michael's  Club after checked in.

[jcpc]

"Special Delivery" bag drop off (for PH and RS only) is located in dropoff Area #6 (right in front of the entrance door to the terminal).  You will see a "Special Delivery" sign on the sidewalk.  Once you enter the terminal, Suite passengers are directed to the left of the security line and you will proceed through Security.  After Security the Suite/Zenith Check-in Area is to your left - all the way to the end of the terminal and right in front of the door to embark the ship. As soon as the ship is ready for boarding the Retreat (i.e. Michael's Club) Concierge will greet all the suite people and escort them en mass onto the ship.  If you arrive a bit later after they have begun the embarkation process, my experience is that after check-in the RS and PH suite passengers will be personally escorted onboard the ship and into The Retreat Lounge (formerly Michael's Club).  Lunch will be available in Luminae from approximately 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Edited May 17, 2019 by jcpc

[rM3panno]

1 hour ago, jcpc said:

"Special Delivery" bag drop off (for PH and RS only) is located in dropoff Area #6 (right in front of the entrance door to the terminal).  You will see a "Special Delivery" sign on the sidewalk.  Once you enter the terminal, Suite passengers are directed to the left of the security line and you will proceed through Security.  After Security the Suite/Zenith Check-in Area is to your left - all the way to the end of the terminal and right in front of the door to embark the ship. As soon as the ship is ready for boarding the Retreat (i.e. Michael's Club) Concierge will greet all the suite people and escort them en mass onto the ship.  If you arrive a bit later after they have begun the embarkation process, my experience is that after check-in the RS and PH suite passengers will be personally escorted onboard the ship and into The Retreat Lounge (formerly Michael's Club).  Lunch will be available in Luminae from approximately 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Thank you so much for all of the details!

 

90% of the time we sail in sky suites and our last Royal Suite was in 2016 departing from Amsterdam. It was either before the new suite amenities or right after the rollout but the boarding process there was terrible. We waited in an insane line out of the building until we got our keys at which point they realized we were in a Royal suite and the whole process changed. The onboard experience was unforgettable though and we look forward to experience it again!

 

We are fortunate to have 2 Royal suites booked this year but the 2nd is on the Equinox over thanksgiving. Hopefully the rooms get freshened up a bit with the altered drydock schedule.

[djh]

On 5/17/2019 at 12:41 PM, jcpc said:

"Special Delivery" bag drop off (for PH and RS only) is located in dropoff Area #6 (right in front of the entrance door to the terminal).  You will see a "Special Delivery" sign on the sidewalk.  Once you enter the terminal, Suite passengers are directed to the left of the security line and you will proceed through Security.  After Security the Suite/Zenith Check-in Area is to your left - all the way to the end of the terminal and right in front of the door to embark the ship. As soon as the ship is ready for boarding the Retreat (i.e. Michael's Club) Concierge will greet all the suite people and escort them en mass onto the ship.  If you arrive a bit later after they have begun the embarkation process, my experience is that after check-in the RS and PH suite passengers will be personally escorted onboard the ship and into The Retreat Lounge (formerly Michael's Club).  Lunch will be available in Luminae from approximately 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

When talking to the shore side concierge today, he said that our traveling companions ( not in a suite) could join us  in the waiting area after they checked in and be escorted on board with us. Is there a designated suite waiting area at Cape Liberty? The concierge made it sound like it was a retreat type waiting room like in Ft Lauderale.

[philpcruiser]

3 minutes ago, djh said:

When talking to the shore side concierge today, he said that our traveling companions ( not in a suite) could join us  in the waiting area after they checked in and be escorted on board with us. Is there a designated suite waiting area at Cape Liberty? The concierge made it sound like it was a retreat type waiting room like in Ft Lauderale.

Not really.  Simply an area with softer chairs, a pot of coffee, and some water.

[Cruise it or lose it]

Do you give your bags to any porter? Or something else?

[Jim_Iain]

49 minutes ago, Cruise it or lose it said:

Do you give your bags to any porter? Or something else?

Unless you are in a RS or PS you just give you bags to a regular porters.  

[Cruise it or lose it]

15 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Unless you are in a RS or PS you just give you bags to a regular porters.  

And if you are in a RS? 

[wrk2cruise]

You bring the bags to the point where the "Special Delivery" flag is and they will put them directly on a cart then off you go...

[JFontaine]

They will put a second tag on your bag, with the plan being quick delivery.  It didn’t work for me (PH) and I found my bag in a heap of 50 others near the service elevator at 7 pm. 

[jcpc]

9 minutes ago, JFontaine said:

They will put a second tag on your bag, with the plan being quick delivery.  It didn’t work for me (PH) and I found my bag in a heap of 50 others near the service elevator at 7 pm. 

Sorry to hear that.  I have to say that every time I've used Special Delivery at Bayonne my luggage is in my suite by 1:15 pm at the latest.  A few times it was already in the suite when we entered the suite as soon as they made the announcement that the rooms were ready.  I don't think what happened to you is the "norm" for the Special Delivery service at Cape Liberty.

 

Also, one time last year we had friends who were traveling in the same limo as us to Bayonne.  They were not in a RS or PH but rather in a sky suite.  The shoreside concierge had their names added to the "list" which I thought was an extremely nice thing to do.

Edited May 21, 2019 by jcpc

[JFontaine]

I agree it was probably not the norm, and it wasn’t a big deal.  The only issue is I looked forward to it, and it didn’t happen. 

 

On the the plus side, I was told to call when I was ten minutes from the port, I needed a wheelchair for my mom, and it was practically being rolled to the car as we pulled up.  Also, I asked that we be allowed to go directly to the cabin at arrival (12:30) and they worked that out twice. Extremely helpful. So while the execution wasn’t perfect on the luggage, the rest of the experience was great. 

[Jim_Iain]

2 hours ago, Cruise it or lose it said:

And if you are in a RS? 

You will get directions from the Shore side Concierge to drop you luggage at an area with a big sign that says "SPECIAL DELIVER".     An agent will then escort you through Security and to a checkin desk.   After checkin a representative from the ship will escort you aboard to either your room or Michael's Club.

[djh]

12 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

You will get directions from the Shore side Concierge to drop you luggage at an area with a big sign that says "SPECIAL DELIVER".     An agent will then escort you through Security and to a checkin desk.   After checkin a representative from the ship will escort you aboard to either your room or Michael's Club.

 From the shore side concierge-

Celebrity Cruises has started a luggage program for our Penthouse and Royal Suite guests! Once you arrive to the pier, you will want to keep your eye out for the "Special Delivery" sign, which stands at about 6 feet tall. From there your luggage will be taken and you will be will be escorted through the check-in and security process and then right onboard, where you can either dine in Luminae for lunch or head to the Michael's Club Lounge until your Suite is ready. Our goal is to have your luggage in your suite shortly after the suite is ready.

[JFontaine]

Here's a report on the mess that this was a week ago.

 

We were in the PH, and I had two other cabins also, including one for my 90 year old mom.  I told them that I would be there at noon, and needed a wheelchair. 

 

We pulled up at exactly noon, and there was no one at the Special Delivery area.  I hunted around and found a guy hiding behind a stack of luggage playing on his cell phone.  He came over to the car, checked his list, saw my name at the top of the list, and said he knew nothing about a wheelchair.  He tagged the bags Zenith/Suite, the same tags that you will get when you disembark.

 

I was told to go inside and ask about the wheelchair, and when I got there, I was told to go through the metal detector and ask there.  It was hot and humid and I was not happy.  I found someone to come out with a wheelchair, and they took us to someone who checked us in before the metal detector.  As I had checked in on line, and had printed boarding passes and my phone out ready to be scanned, we were done in about a minute.  But the wheelchair escort was gone - and the women who checked us in just told me to keep going.  So I push it through security, through the large room and to the elevator, when I realized that I couldn't safely push it down a ramp.  So I told an officer that I was in the PH and I needed help, and they told me to wait for a while and then finally someone came.

 

And the bags showed up after 5 pm when my butler went to look for them.  He also left someone else's bag, and rather than just leave it in front of my door, I went off to deal with that.