Board before my assigned time?

[taglovestocruise]

4 cruises this year, 1 from Seattle, one from Vancouver,  two from Los Angeles.  Time was never checked and we were hours early. 

[George C]

Suites can board early, separate checkin .

[hotsauce126]

7 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

 

If everyone shows up early, then the people that actually have an early time will need to stand in line much longer than expected……note,  I’m not assuming that you did that , but I’m sure many do and on the large popular ship like Wonder, it would be a madhouse of zig zag lines if people don’t stick to their time.

yeah this happened to me on the odyssey last year and boarding was miserable

[blueslily]

It's interesting how frequently this question is asked these days here on these boards. I guess it's more people starting to cruise again. Seems useless to be given a time if folks just keep showing up to check in whenever they want. Oh well. That's not much different than many other things and situations in life I guess.

[Norwich Cruiser]

7 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Wonder wasn't sailing from Port Canaveral either of those times though.

It was on one of the occasions

[island lady]

18 hours ago, Starry Eyes said:

Same here.  

I have not seen the “cattle gates” with times for many months at port Canaveral .  Those gates with times did not seem to even work well when passenger counts were low, as people did not get in correct line.  Perhaps still seeing the cattle gates, you hd not noticed the lack of time signs.  I have not seen anybody tuned away due to a later arrival time.

 

Wonder what Wonder will do on the 13th?  😉 

[island lady]

20 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

On all our cruises this year they’ve never checked our boarding time.

 

Did they look at your set sail pass?  

[island lady]

18 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

Nobody asked to see any paperwork other than passports and the set sail pass.

 

On every cruise we generally arrived at the port about 10.30 and have always been onboard by 11.00 or a little after.

 

Your check in time is printed boldly on your set sail pass.  

[island lady]

11 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

It was on one of the occasions

 

Nope...wrong.  

 

We are currently on Wonder.  She will make her very first appearance in PC this coming Sunday to replace Harmony on the western/eastern 7 night runs.  

 

Wonder sailed briefly from Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) before doing her Med itinerary this last summer. 

[crzndeb]

Here’s the thing about all of the threads on showing up earlier than your check in, arrival time (it’s not a boarding time). If I show up at my designated time, and others decide to show up early, and I have to wait in a long line, this wouldn’t make  me a happy camper. I like in some ports, they have designated time placards set up where you can go to your designated spot.

[Starry Eyes]

2 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Your check in time is printed boldly on your set sail pass.  

Yes, so boldly that I could sometimes.see much later boarding times on passes of people in front of me in line (people were told to have those documents in their hands while waiting).  None of them were turned away.  They were in line before me and entered the building before me.  It did not really matter. Once the doors opened the line moved nicely and we waited in the terminal board as called.

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by Starry Eyes

[island lady]

1 hour ago, Starry Eyes said:

Yes, so boldly that I could sometimes.see much later boarding times on passes of people in front of me in line (people were told to have those documents in their hands while waiting).  None of them were turned away.  They were in line before me and entered the building before me.  It did not really matter. Once the doors opened the line moved nicely and we waited in the terminal board as called.

 

 

 

So it is simply OK for everyone to totally ignore assigned check in times.  Hmmm....why then ....does RCI still insist on having you pick a check in time then?  

[Robo1098]

Our cruise out of Port Canaveral on 10/20/2022 they were being strict about time and had separate lines for different times.

 

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

 

So it is simply OK for everyone to totally ignore assigned check in times.  Hmmm....why then ....does RCI still insist on having you pick a check in time then?  

I did not say it is OK, I am reporting what I observed.  When a poster asks a question, I will tell the truth as I observed it.  
 

When we book last minute, only later arrival times are available when we check in.  DH and I then both repeatedly re check the app and, so far, manage to snag early check in times when they randomly pop up.  We do that because we follow the rules, not because we believe we will have to stand in a cattle gate at PC for hours if we show up before our assigned arrival time.

[dmfleischmann]

On 11/8/2022 at 8:10 AM, lovesthebeach2 said:

With this ship being new and most likely full, they may make you stick to your check in time. 
We’re on this cruise too and got an early time.

us too!! 10:30 but I checked in right at midnight

 

[reallyitsmema]

15 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

It was on one of the occasions

 

You should look back at your records, it has not sailed from Port Canaveral.

Edited November 9, 2022 by reallyitsmema

[Starry Eyes]

1 hour ago, Robo1098 said:

Our cruise out of Port Canaveral on 10/20/2022 they were being strict about time and had separate lines for different times.

 

The only ship on the Port Canaveral schedule for 10/29/2022 is Carnival Freedom.  Was that your sailing?  If so, Carnival’s policies might not be relevant to the OP’s Royal Caribbean sailing.

https://www.portcanaveral.com/getattachment/Cruise/Cruise-Lines-Schedules/CPA-Website-Schedule_Aug22-Dec22.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US

[jessed]

1 hour ago, island lady said:

 

 

So it is simply OK for everyone to totally ignore assigned check in times.  Hmmm....why then ....does RCI still insist on having you pick a check in time then?  

They weren't checking at Cape Liberty last week, just walked right in. But there wasn't any lines at 10-10:30.

[Ret MP]

On our last cruise, Oct 31 - Nov 4, out of Canaveral, we had a 12:00 - 12:30 terminal entry time.  At about ~10:30, as I was waiting on the side of the serpentine line, it was empty, the 10:30 - 11:00 time slot had already entered, no one else in line, and I asked if I had to wait till 12:00 to go into the terminal.  He said that it is now open to all times.  We went in, processed in and went to sit down in the terminal, it as busy but not anywhere full.  The funny thing, the vast majority of people in the Terminal went to seats closest to the entry doors to the ship, prior to boarding the ship.  No social distancing, nothing, just packed in. The seats in the terminal were not spread apart, at all.  We were on the ship long before noon.  

 

Bottom line:  Other than my (my wife's was fine) reservation being totally gone from Royal's Computer system (go figure), which started a whole long laundry list of things that went wrong with my booking on (no OBCs or drink package on my onboard account) and off the ship, the entry into the terminal and ship was a breeze.  

 

This may not happen if an Oasis Class ship is at Terminal #1.  

[PhillyFan33579]

On 11/8/2022 at 11:15 AM, davy jones said:

The intent of the times is to limit the number of people in the terminal to reduce the risk of spreading COVID, flu, or the common cold.  At Cape Liberty, it appeared that if there was no line and the numbers inside the terminal were acceptable, you could get in to keep a steady flow of passengers.  I imagine that a check in line would cause enforcement of the boarding time.

I have been on 12 RCI cruises this year. About half of the time they enforced check-in times while the other half they didn’t enforce them at all. The worst lines I have seen, when they were enforcing check-in times, were on Mariner and Harmony out of Port Canaveral. 
 

Like someone else mentioned, from my experience enforcement seems to be based on how many people show up at the terminal early. If a lot of people show up early, they enforce check-in times. If a lot of people don’t show up early, they don’t enforce check-in times. 

[PhillyFan33579]

23 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

4 cruises this year, 1 from Seattle, one from Vancouver,  two from Los Angeles.  Time was never checked and we were hours early. 

Not really relevant to Port Canaveral. I have cruised out of Port Canaveral 6 times this year on Harmony, Mariner and Independence. I have seen them strictly enforce check-in times to not enforcing them at all. The worst I saw was on Harmony in July where some people we met on the ship said they waited outside the terminal for over two hours before they were allowed to enter the terminal. 

[Tree_skier]

Honestly, I wish they would enforce times.  I go through the effort to do my check in as early as possible to ensure that I get the earliest possible boarding time. It's kind of annoying that lazy people who can't be bothered show up ahead of their time and make me wait in a line that shouldn't exist. 

[Ret MP]

2 hours ago, island lady said:

 

 

So it is simply OK for everyone to totally ignore assigned check in times.  Hmmm....why then ....does RCI still insist on having you pick a check in time then?  

Not to take sides.  But, it isn't the Customer that isn't following the "Check-in Times", it is Royal that isn't following their own rules and allowing people in the terminal prior to their Terminal Entry time.  We shouldn't blame the Customer, at least not in this situation.  Many people show up early not because of their own choosing.  If I ask a question and the answer is to go ahead and enter, who's fault is it?

[Ret MP]

17 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

Like someone else mentioned, from my experience enforcement seems to be based on how many people show up at the terminal early. If a lot of people show up early, they enforce check-in times. If a lot of people don’t show up early, they don’t enforce check-in times. 

Also, the size of the ship.

[bucfan2]

3 hours ago, island lady said:

 

 

So it is simply OK for everyone to totally ignore assigned check in times.  

Makes it fun to harass the busybodies. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by bucfan2