Carry Our Own Luggage - Late Arrival

[jlandz09]

Our already-purchased train/bus tickets are depositing us at the port entrance at 1:05 for a 5:00 departure in Civitavecchia. My guess is that fiancé will not want to depart from our luggage and would like to take it straight to the room ourselves.

 

I am aware that typical protocol is to just go ahead and let the workers take your bags and meet up with them when the room is ready because rolling your bags around the ship while waiting for your room to be ready is a nuisance. However, it is very rare for me to show up to a cruise to start boarding even as late as 1:00, so I don’t know a) what crowds will look like at this time, b) how zippy the process will be so late in the day (my guess is that most like to get there early but I can easily see where I’d be wrong) c) how NCL might differ from my typical RCI experience and d) what time in the afternoon you’re allowed to enter your room.

 

Any guidance will be much appreciated as always!

[complawyer]

the cabins are usually ready for occupancy between 130-230.

 

i think y ou'll be doing yourself a major disservice dragging  your luggage around. tell your fiance not to worry if he gives your luggage to the porter at the dock. it'll reach your cabin.

[UKstages]

do you have carryon only?

 

if so, you can take it onboard yourself.

 

but anything you take onboard must be able to fit through the x-ray machines at the port, so if you have larger bags, you most likely won't be able to do that.

[dbrown84]

take them onboard yourself, especially if you're boarding that late.  For me, I don't get it.  I see people mention about "dragging" your bags around like it's a big deal, but then mention a carry on.  I'm starting to think it's just what people means by those words.  I always carry on my bag, but to me it's just a carry on.  There would never be a problem with it fitting thru an x ray machine.  I'm only going on a 7 or 10 day vacation, so I don't need to pack everything I own.

[jlandz09]

Ah, well we do have two carry-ons and two larger bags, so maybe we will just have them take the two larger ones then since you’re all saying the larger ones won’t go through X-Ray. Good to know, thanks!

[hallux]

6 hours ago, complawyer said:

the cabins are usually ready for occupancy between 130-230.

Valid in the past, may no longer be valid.  Some reports recently (including my experience in March) that cabins were not ready until after 3 PM.  Maybe a European cruise will be a little different with the multiple embarkation ports? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[complawyer]

ok, but we took 1 cruise in jan, and 4 last year, and all of the cabins were ready in that time frame. i just answered to op from personal experience, although 3 last year were from european ports, one was from seattle, and in january from panama.

 

but if  you got to your cabin after 3, i would attribute that to a lack of personnel on the part of ncl.

(pure speculation of course)

 

less stewards, more time involved. we're leaving from southampton at the end of july. I sincerely hope we dont have to wait that long 

[BirdTravels]

10 hours ago, jlandz09 said:

Ah, well we do have two carry-ons and two larger bags, so maybe we will just have them take the two larger ones then since you’re all saying the larger ones won’t go through X-Ray. Good to know, thanks!

Well, you can't be dragging 4 bags around. If you leave 2, might as well leave 4 with the porters. 

 

If Rome is the only embarkation port on your cruise, then your room will not be ready at 1:00. NCL has gone to a single housekeeping service a day and added additional rooms to each cabin steward's roster, so it takes longer to turn around rooms. 

 

NCL, RCI, they are all the same. Embarkation day is busy, lots of people in public areas. Lots of people in restaurants. And none of your fellow passengers want to deal with people who are trying to drag bags through crowded areas and crowded elevators. 

[zqvol]

21 minutes ago, complawyer said:

ok, but we took 1 cruise in jan, and 4 last year, and all of the cabins were ready in that time frame. i just answered to op from personal experience, although 3 last year were from european ports, one was from seattle, and in january from panama.

 

but if  you got to your cabin after 3, i would attribute that to a lack of personnel on the part of ncl.

(pure speculation of course)

 

less stewards, more time involved. we're leaving from southampton at the end of july. I sincerely hope we dont have to wait that long 

Things have changed since they went to only making up cabins once a day. It’s taking the stewards longer to get to all of the cabins. 

[shoptom]

Just off the Getaway and they kept announcing you could leave bags in the casino.  Rooms were ready by 2pm.