Late Arrival question

[wannagonow123]

We are diamond, and we have decided to get on our Nov 2nd cruise late. No sense getting on and sit around for hours doing nothing. My question is, how will they scan our luggage. Final boarding is 5pm. we plan on boarding around 4pm. I know there will be no porter service, so we will just wheel our luggage on, but they will be full sized luggage. 

[Elaine5715]

1 minute ago, wannagonow123 said:

We are diamond, and we have decided to get on our Nov 2nd cruise late. No sense getting on and sit around for hours doing nothing. My question is, how will they scan our luggage. Final boarding is 5pm. we plan on boarding around 4pm. I know there will be no porter service, so we will just wheel our luggage on, but they will be full sized luggage. 

They will scan your luggage

[sanger727]

Is the time listed as sail away at 6:30? I thought you had to be on 90 minutes before the final time listed?

[MCC retired]

Sitting around doing nothing on Embarkation Day ???????

[marci4tony]

Drop the luggage off earlier - let them take care of it!

[Squadleader]

Haha, I saw a t-shirt recently on someone, who had oddly enough, either consciously or unconsciously, perfectly described themselves. It said "Sorry I'm late, I really didn't want to come".

 

She's famous for being late and no-showing, and it surprised me she was willing put that honest a label on her behavior. 

 

You're obviously a very seasoned cruiser with Diamond status and all, so it's definitely better for you to figure out how close someone can cut boarding to sailing, to being turned away, rather than a Newbie, who's still excited about boarding the ship. 

 

I admire your daredevil spirit of arriving an hour before sailing, especially since Diamond can get priority boarding anytime during the boarding process. 

 

This should be an interesting discussion on what it feels like to almost miss the ship! I'll bet some members have some good stories with this one!

 

You're right about one thing though, a long time ago we took a Disney Cruise, and we arrived maybe two or three hours before sailing, I can't remember why we were that late, but there was absolutely no one in the terminal except employees when we went into the terminal, and we walked right up to the counter, checked in, and walked right onto the ship. I didn't expect the terminal to be completely empty and it surprised me a little bit.

 

We've done maybe 20 cruises now and we still enjoy embarkation day, and getting on the ship as soon as possible. You're probably like me, I hate lines, and boarding an hour before sail away, will definitely get you out of any lines, assuming there's no traffic issues and you miss the boat.

 

I think one of the reasons I like cruises is because there isn't anything to do, just what you want to do, even if it's sitting in the cabin reading a book or watching a movie, which are definitely things that could be done with less trouble and expense at home, but to me anyway, are still more fun on a cruise!

[cruizergal70]

I admire the OP. I  don't like to arrive to the terminal before 1-1:30 pm. Why shlep lugguge around for 2-3 hours. Crowds have died down, walk on and walk straight to the room. Get settled in and muster drill is coming up.

[serene56]

If your sail away is 5pm they will not let you board at 4pm.   If we sail at 4   the last time they want people to check in before 2pm

 

[serene56]

1 hour ago, Squadleader said:

 

 

This should be an interesting discussion on what it feels like to almost miss the ship! I'll bet some members have some good stories with this one!

Our first cruise I scheduled a non stop flight for 6:55am     2 1/2 hr flight...  Plenty of time right?     THe flight got cancelled and the next flight available got us there too late after the ship sailed.      I found out a lot that day-  If a flight gets cancelled because of a mechanical problem the airline MUST pay the airline to get you to your destination on time.   (I wonder if this is still the case today?   as this was back in 2000)    the flight we booked was Airtran.    BEFORE 9/11 and you can schlep your luggage all over the airport back then.  No cell phones like we have today   No internet     We were going from gate to gate looking to get us there before the ship sailed.  Found United.   Who put my family and another family on the flight getting us to the port at 3:45 for a 4pm sailing.  (we kept in contact with the cruiseline)   they asked the people sitting in front to move back so we can get off the plane first.      they made us keep our luggage on the plane instead of checking it under the plane.     We arrived at exactly 3:45       paid a cab 50 bucks to speed to get us there.     We arrived as they were doing the safety briefing.  We had to check in at guest services      we had to carry our luggage from the front to the back   and go down 3 flights.  to find out room.  (the other family- never even filled out documents until they arrived   all that time on the plane   arghh  

[wannagonow123]

Departure time is 6:00pm for this sailing. My boarding pass says 5pm for final embarkation. We plan on getting on something like 3pm or so. 

 

This will be my 32nd cruise with Carnival. More with other lines. Yes, I can get on and my room is ready, so we don't have to haul my things around. When we board early, we eat, then head to the casino to smoke until muster. We vacate the tables in the Lido as soon as we are done so other people can eat. Not interested in hanging by the pool. Not interested in casino specials. We arrange for off ship massages for a way cheaper price. I don't drink , so Cheers sales pitch not for me. Art is also not my thing. Once muster is over, I am on vacation. 

 

We will not be arriving into Port Canaveral until the afternoon. We are driving, so we can come whenever. 

[Squadleader]

That's a good one Serene, your stomach must have been in knots for that whole ordeal. 

 

It's funny how fast time passes and things change. Things that seem like yesterday to us, our children never even knew.

 

The hijackings of the 1970's installed the practice of being screened, and like all laws and bureaucratic rules, it was done lightly at first, with 911 finishing the process of completely changing the focus of the travel industry from the common goal of travel companies to move passengers if at all possible, and as quickly as possible, to what we have now, complete non-flexible security and bureaucracy.

 

You could park, jump out of the car, run to the gate, and even if the Jetway door had already been closed, if they hadn't pushed back the plane yet, they'd stop, reopen the door and put you on. 

 

There're pluses and minuses of course, but the vast majority of the population has not known anything else now, so that's not going to change.

 

I appreciate Wannagonow's goals which are reasonable, it just made me a little nostalgic for when things were more flexible than they are now. It's the old comment that when we completely reorder our entire society because of criminals, perhaps we gave up much more voluntarily to the criminals, than the criminals themselves could ever have taken from us.

 

Point being, that it is nice that cruise ships have such a large boarding window because I suspect that if there is a company policy that prohibits boarding x number of hours before sail away, I doubt the agents would give even 5 minutes of leeway on that policy.

 

Flying has become so unpleasant and such an ordeal now, that we usually just drive down to Florida, and because of Murphy's Law, we always arrive the day before the cruise. That's insurance, and the odds say it isn't necessary, we know cruise lines book lots of same day flights for passengers, but I don't think I'd ever do it, all it takes is a line of thunderstorms to rock your world.

[Joe817]

Squadleader, that is an excellent analysis of how things were....and how they are now, and how they came to be. Thank you for putting your thoughts down on 'paper'.  

[RWolver672]

21 hours ago, Squadleader said:

. That's insurance, and the odds say it isn't necessary, we know cruise lines book lots of same day flights for passengers, but I don't think I'd ever do it, all it takes is a line of thunderstorms to rock your world.

 

And the crazy part is that the storms, being either snow or thunderstorms don't even have to be anywhere near you.  West coast storms delay flights to the east coast making for delayed or canceled flights all across the US.  Same for east to west.