HAL boarding process

[barbon2]

We have cruised on HAL many times and have always had a boarding time.  We are cruising in a little over a week.

Our boarding passes say noon.  It seems everyone’s passes say noon.  There is no specific time.

We are Orange Club and our passes say “priority”.

Someone mentioned that they were told that a recent cruise assigned times were given the night before and they boarded by deck number.

I have cruised over 30 times on different lines and have never heard of this.

Any comments?

[Haljo1935]

HAL has very recently changed the process to show noon on all boarding passes. I have not cruised since that change went into effect. You can still do priority boarding since you have that.

If you're not in a rush to board, especially since MDR will not be open, you may find lighter crowds if you wait a bit. If you decide to board toward the front, just be diligent about showing your priority status so you don't get herded into a group that has to wait.

Safe travels- enjoy your cruise!

[barbon2]

Just now, Haljo1935 said:

HAL has very recently changed the process to show noon on all boarding passes. I have not cruised since that change went into effect. You can still do priority boarding since you have that.

If you're not in a rush to board, especially since MDR will not be open, you may find lighter crowds if you wait a bit. If you decide to board toward the front, just be diligent about showing your priority status so you don't get herded into a group that has to wait.

Safe travels- enjoy your cruise!

Thank you.  I will post about the new boarding process when we return.

[Haljo1935]

27 minutes ago, barbon2 said:

Thank you.  I will post about the new boarding process when we return.

Yes, please - interested to hear first hand experience. Enjoy your cruise!

[mahi mahi]

On our Rotterdam cruise over Easter everyone had a noon boarding time. Priority boarding included Neptunes, 4 & 5 star mariners and club orange (I believe they were last on that list but not 100% sure). It seemed disabled passengers were also allowed to board anytime and there were quite a few. We arrived just after 10:30 and were assigned group 12 in regular passenger group (it was a full ship, 2700 passengers) but boarding was well organized I thought. Once onboard we hit a wall with the elevators and there were some frayed tempers from people forced to wait as long as 20 minutes! We really noticed how the absence of those 4 glass elevators added to crowding on a full ship.

[barbon2]

9 minutes ago, mahi mahi said:

On our Rotterdam cruise over Easter everyone had a noon boarding time. Priority boarding included Neptunes, 4 & 5 star mariners and club orange (I believe they were last on that list but not 100% sure). It seemed disabled passengers were also allowed to board anytime and there were quite a few. We arrived just after 10:30 and were assigned group 12 in regular passenger group (it was a full ship, 2700 passengers) but boarding was well organized I thought. Once onboard we hit a wall with the elevators and there were some frayed tempers from people forced to wait as long as 20 minutes! We really noticed how the absence of those 4 glass elevators added to crowding on a full ship.

Thank you.

[VMax1700]

Let's be honest.......if you had asked the question about boarding time a few months ago the general advice on this forum would be to ignore the time given to you by HAL and turn up at 11 am or thereabouts. 

So, I reckon HAL just cut out the instruction that everyone was telling people to ignore.  Now you are told to check in at 12 noon, but boarding is a different story and will only start whenever the ship is ready to receive pax and then boarding will be based on priority or allocated boarding group at the terminal.  

[richwmn]

1 hour ago, mahi mahi said:

Once onboard we hit a wall with the elevators and there were some frayed tempers from people forced to wait as long as 20 minutes! We really noticed how the absence of those 4 glass elevators added to crowding on a full ship.

My experience, although it has been a while, is that if you walk to another elevator bank the service is a lot quicker. Most people congregate at the elevators right where they board the ship.

[mahi mahi]

You would think walking to another bank of elevators would work but not this time! Ditto for trying to go down rather than up! They were packed solid….some people were absolutely irate especially those who humped their bags down a deck thinking that would work.

 

it was a crowded ship, the most crowded I have seen on a HAL cruise. We were never able to make a reservation for the MDR,

ever. First time for us! That was the only real disappointment we had in an otherwise great cruise.

 

 

[Crew News]

3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Let's be honest.......if you had asked the question about boarding time a few months ago the general advice on this forum would be to ignore the time given to you by HAL and turn up at 11 am or thereabouts. 

So, I reckon HAL just cut out the instruction that everyone was telling people to ignore.  Now you are told to check in at 12 noon, but boarding is a different story and will only start whenever the ship is ready to receive pax and then boarding will be based on priority or allocated boarding group at the terminal.  

The HAL normal North America boarding pass time pre-COVID was 1:00 PM.  Experienced cruisers chose to check-in either early or later which left new cruisers to arrive at the terminal around 12:30 PM to begin their check-in process.  All worked well from my experience as the boarding process was spread over about four hours.

 

With many ships now sailing at 3:00 PM, passengers disembarking at the same time (NLT 9:30 AM), and Room Stewards still having to prepare rooms, the available check-in and boarding processes are compressed. 

 

My advice on another thread was to arrive early if you have priority boarding (mobility challenged with families members, Pinnacle/Neptune suite guests, or 4/5* Mariners).  If you do not have priority boarding and have no desire to sit, arrive at the terminal for check-in after the assigned boarding time.

[RedneckBob]

Just off NS on 3/31/24 at Port Everglades. No specific boarding time. Just show up after noon. We had come off Celebrity Reflection on 3/24/24 and just walked our bags to the NS terminal. Arrived at 9:40 AM, able to check in bags and check in to board. Appeared all HAL agents were ready to receive passengers for checkin. Boarding started at 11 AM!