How is check in with everyone now having a noon time?

[Laminator]

It appears HAL has changed their check in process with everyone showing a noon time. Even those with priority boarding. Anyone have a clue how this is working out so far? 

[msteries]

People are mixing up checkin time (show boarding pass, maybe take pic, then sit in waiting area) with boarding time (when you get called to board the ship)!!!

[Crew News]

32 minutes ago, Laminator said:

It appears HAL has changed their check in process with everyone showing a noon time. Even those with priority boarding. Anyone have a clue how this is working out so far? 

My phone boarding pass did not have a check-in time, rather just a boarding time. 

 

At least for Port Everglades, everyone used to have a 1:00 PM boarding time for a 4:00 PM departure.  Experienced cruises arrived either early or late to avoid the crowds.  Now with most departures at 3:00 PM, the new noon boarding time appears to be a return to the "good old days".

 

Feb 3d, I arrived at 11:25, dropped luggage with porters, asked at the terminal door if I had a barcode, queued for carry-on Security scan, completed facial recognition scan, and arrived in my stateroom at 11:50 AM. Reminded me of the pre-COVID days but with no sitting.

 

Now if Vancouver can be so smooth in April and May for my Alaska cruises.

Edited February 19 by Crew News

[Ilovesailaway]

6 minutes ago, Crew News said:

Feb 3d, I arrived at 11:25, dropped luggage with porters, asked at the terminal door if I had a barcode, queued for carry-on Security scan, completed facial recognition scan, and arrived in my stateroom at 11:50 AM. Reminded me of the pre-COVID days.

Good to hear. I will be boarding NS in 13 days at Port Everglades. I have not been assigned an arrival time yet but will keep an eye out. If I don't get one I guess i will head to the pier at noonish. 

[Laminator]

19 minutes ago, msteries said:

People are mixing up checkin time (show boarding pass, maybe take pic, then sit in waiting area) with boarding time (when you get called to board the ship)!!!

There is no confusion. HAL used to assign letter groups at 20 minute intervals. That is no longer the case. Everyone now has a noon check in time. 

[SilvertoGold]

15 minutes ago, Crew News said:

My phone boarding pass did not have a check-in time, rather just a boarding time. 

 

At least for Port Everglades, everyone used to have a 1:00 PM boarding time for a 4:00 PM departure.  Experienced cruises arrived either early or late to avoid the crowds.  Now with most departures at 3:00 PM, the new noon boarding time appears to be a return to the "good old days".

 

Feb 3d, I arrived at 11:25, dropped luggage with porters, asked at the terminal door if I had a barcode, queued for carry-on Security scan, completed facial recognition scan, and arrived in my stateroom at 11:50 AM. Reminded me of the pre-COVID days but with no sitting.

 

Now if Vancouver can be so smooth in April and May for my Alaska cruises.

Don't count on it but you may be lucky with the Vancouver boarding. However our experience is this is early in the season for Canada Place and it is usually not well organized. "No one is the boss, everyone is the boss". Good luck and will watch for your blog to see how it went for you. Which ship are you on this year?

[Crew News]

Just now, SilvertoGold said:

Don't count on it but you may be lucky with the Vancouver boarding. However our experience is this is early in the season for Canada Place and it is usually not well organized. "No one is the boss, everyone is the boss". Good luck and will watch for your blog to see how it went for you. Which ship are you on this year?

Compounding the Canada Place early Alaska season cruise experience is the Marathon running on the first weekend of May.  Canada Place is a single terminal that must move thousands of passengers to the appropriate Convention Center cruise ship check-in entrances.  Chaos reigns and the sound volume makes the shouted instructions from cruise line reps futile.  IMHO directional signs, either posted on the walls or held above the heads of cruise line reps, would be a big help.

 

My April cruise will be on Koningsdam followed by an overnight stay at the Pan Pacific before boarding the Nieuw Amsterdam for 14 days.  This means that I will experience two Canada Place check-in processes in eight days and be able to provide suggestions for those HAL Alaska cruisers that will follow.

 

FWIW I have learned that the HAL check-in entrance is the first one in the long Convention Center hallway.  Staying next to the right wall keeps me out of the mob and gets me quickly into the HAL check-in area.  

[MinnesotaMommy]

Boarded yesterday at FLL. Arrived at 1145 and was in the ship around 1215. Very quick and easy!  

[SilvertoGold]

2 hours ago, Crew News said:

Compounding the Canada Place early Alaska season cruise experience is the Marathon running on the first weekend of May.  Canada Place is a single terminal that must move thousands of passengers to the appropriate Convention Center cruise ship check-in entrances.  Chaos reigns and the sound volume makes the shouted instructions from cruise line reps futile.  IMHO directional signs, either posted on the walls or held above the heads of cruise line reps, would be a big help.

 

My April cruise will be on Koningsdam followed by an overnight stay at the Pan Pacific before boarding the Nieuw Amsterdam for 14 days.  This means that I will experience two Canada Place check-in processes in eight days and be able to provide suggestions for those HAL Alaska cruisers that will follow.

 

FWIW I have learned that the HAL check-in entrance is the first one in the long Convention Center hallway.  Staying next to the right wall keeps me out of the mob and gets me quickly into the HAL check-in area.  

That check-in is definitely good.  We have had an easy time of it when they do it that way. If there aren't any other ships in, so much the better, too!

[Haljo1935]

On 2/19/2024 at 11:47 AM, Crew News said:

...Now if Vancouver can be so smooth in April and May for my Alaska cruises.

Good luck with that.🙄

But do let us know how it goes. Although the itineraries are better, DH says "NO!!" to leaving from Vancouver.

[mcrcruiser]

when we did our 5 Alaska cruises we all boarded them from Vancouver .Funny ,then we had no problems boarding any of the ships .All 5 cruises were in May  .& several were add on to  our repositioning cruises  up to Canada Place . The last one we flew into Vancouver & stayed at a hotel where we could see Canada Place .Even then we had no problem boarding . How things have changed with reports of problems boarding in April /May 

[mcrcruiser]

with Club Orange in Hand we would arrive in our home port SD at 10:15 yo 10:30 AM for priority boarding  .If no Club Orange we then arrive 1:30 to 2 PM & loose the crowds from  the earlier times 

[Laminator]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

with Club Orange in Hand we would arrive in our home port SD at 10:15 yo 10:30 AM for priority boarding  .If no Club Orange we then arrive 1:30 to 2 PM & loose the crowds from  the earlier times 

The main issue is that the boarding passes do not indicate priority boarding like they did in the past. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, Laminator said:

The main issue is that the boarding passes do not indicate priority boarding like they did in the past. 

 

My pass did 2 weeks ago (paper pass). I am 4 star and had CO. The pass said PRIORITY BOARDING PASS and it had the 4-star logo. it also had an orange border. I don't know if that's because HAL is into the whole Orange thing or because I had CO.

 

But it didn't matter. Zaandam was at Miami. I got to the ship around 11:15, there was a person at each kiosk, so dealing with the passport scan and facial recognition was fast. Then I was told that boarding had already started, so I headed to the ship. It all happened so fast, I didn't think to check my watch when I got to my cabin. 

[Cruise Suzy]

Boarded the Nieuw Amsterdam on Saturday, 2/24. Arrived at terminal via parking lot shuttle just before 11. Quite a few of us were on Deck 9, mid-ship by 11:15. All were taken there because rooms weren't yet ready. Many found window seats in the Lido area and accessed the self-serve tea and lemonade while waiting for it to open. However, DH went to stateroom and left carry-on luggage in room because he found our room keys in the slot. With room keys in hand, we were able to order from the bar - no servers roaming yet though. Discovered bartenders were also accepting proof of stateroom from Navigator on smartphones. At 11:30 Lido opened, NY Pizza began taking orders and bar servers started roaming the Sea View Pool area. Dive-In probably opened then as well. We grabbed sandwiches from the Lido and took them out to the shaded area around the aft pool. Rooms were ready for occupancy before we finished lunch.

[vicd1969]

On 2/21/2024 at 8:17 AM, Haljo1935 said:

Good luck with that.🙄

But do let us know how it goes. Although the itineraries are better, DH says "NO!!" to leaving from Vancouver.

Same here, never again from Vancouver until US CBP changes their processes or add enough manpower. The cruise line check-in isn't the real bottleneck.

[Caribbean Chris]

The HAL check-in staff at FLL Port Everglades usually seems very efficient and experienced. I guess lots of practice makes perfect.

[cruisingrob21]

1 hour ago, vicd1969 said:

Same here, never again from Vancouver until US CBP changes their processes or add enough manpower. The cruise line check-in isn't the real bottleneck.

the trick with vancouver is board around 2pm.  No lines.  The area around canada place is nice to spend a few hours in.

[Fluoroman11]

So, does the priority check in line for 4/5* an CO still exist at the terminals?

[Crew News]

16 minutes ago, Fluoroman11 said:

So, does the priority check in line for 4/5* an CO still exist at the terminals?

They did on Feb 3 in Port Everglades.

[vicd1969]

2 hours ago, cruisingrob21 said:

the trick with vancouver is board around 2pm.  No lines.  The area around canada place is nice to spend a few hours in.

This was the crowd in the CBP room ahead of us at 1:07 pm maybe about 2/5done for us - took us about another hour afterwards. But there were three ships leaving that day, with the Nieuw Amsterdam being the smallest one. I did notice the last people came around 1:45 but their waiting time wouldn’t have been much faster.

 

[Haljo1935]

39 minutes ago, vicd1969 said:

This was the crowd in the CBP room ahead of us at 1:07 pm maybe about 2/5done for us - took us about another hour afterwards. But there were three ships leaving that day, with the Nieuw Amsterdam being the smallest one. I did notice the last people came around 1:45 but their waiting time wouldn’t have been much faster.

 

Ugh

[YourWorldWithBill]

On 2/21/2024 at 7:17 AM, Haljo1935 said:

Good luck with that.🙄

But do let us know how it goes. Although the itineraries are better, DH says "NO!!" to leaving from Vancouver.

Just want to agree with that. And as @vicd1969said, the problem is getting through the first line to get through security that all lines share. CBP is after the security, but I think the real hold up is only the security part. 

[Btimmer]

In July, 2023 we departed from Vancouver, BC for our Alaska cruise on the Noordam.  It took 2 hours from the time we entered the terminal after 2pm until we were on the ship.  The bulk of the delay was the CBP process.  It's not a port that we enjoy departing from.  But Boston was worse for us in 2022, and that's another story. . .

[NanaJPB]

San Diego departure at 3 PM means everyone needs to be checked in by 1:30 (90 minutes). Three ships in port.  12 PM checking doesn’t seem doable!