thekidsandi Posted June 6 #1 Share Posted June 6 Our check in day is 6/23 for an Alaska cruise out of Seattle. We live in California. On past Carnival cruises, regardless of where the cruise left from, we could start our check in at 9:01 p.m. PT on the day before our check in day, since that would be 12:01 a.m. in Miami. We were told that Carnival uses Miami time, since that is where they are located. However, I recently heard that they may have changed the check in time to the time of wherever the ship departs from - so in our case, we would have to wait until 12:01 a.m. Can anyone who has cruised recently and knows the answer to this question let me know? I guess we can just try at 9:01 p.m. and if doesn't work, set an alarm for 12:01 a.m., but I was just wondering if anyone knows for sure. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Are.we.there.yet? Posted June 6 #2 Share Posted June 6 Hi, We used to be able to do this but on our Panorama cruise last week, I had to wait until midnight. 😞 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlanoTim Posted June 7 #3 Share Posted June 7 5 hours ago, thekidsandi said: Our check in day is 6/23 for an Alaska cruise out of Seattle. We live in California. On past Carnival cruises, regardless of where the cruise left from, we could start our check in at 9:01 p.m. PT on the day before our check in day, since that would be 12:01 a.m. in Miami. We were told that Carnival uses Miami time, since that is where they are located. However, I recently heard that they may have changed the check in time to the time of wherever the ship departs from - so in our case, we would have to wait until 12:01 a.m. Can anyone who has cruised recently and knows the answer to this question let me know? I guess we can just try at 9:01 p.m. and if doesn't work, set an alarm for 12:01 a.m., but I was just wondering if anyone knows for sure. Check in for our Carnival Jubilee cruise out of Galveston this past April didn't open till midnight Galveston time (Central Time). We tried and tried starting at midnight Eastern Time, but nothing worked till midnight in Galveston rolled around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 7 #4 Share Posted June 7 So, everything being equal, does that mean that check-in opens up at the following times: Cruises leaving from California: 12am Pacific time 1am Mountain time 2am Central time 3am Eastern time 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number12 Posted June 7 #5 Share Posted June 7 I checked in for an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle last week and had to wait until after midnight, Pacific time to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thekidsandi Posted June 7 Author #6 Share Posted June 7 1 hour ago, VentureMan_2000 said: So, everything being equal, does that mean that check-in opens up at the following times: Cruises leaving from California: 12am Pacific time 1am Mountain time 2am Central time 3am Eastern time I would think that would be correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #7 Share Posted June 8 It's 9:03pm Pacific, June 7 for my June 8th check-in. Cruise leaves California. Here is the splash-page that comes up when I try to check-in at 9:00pm Pacific: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #8 Share Posted June 8 So, What I'm taking away from this is that Carnival has taken action regarding hits on their servers (computers, for the non-technical folks) during check-in, which makes a lot of sense to me. At midnight Eastern time, everyone that had a check-in that date would try to check in, all at the same time. This would put tremendous pressure on the check-in thruput, to the point that the servers just bogged down trying to process all the check-in requests. I'm sure many on this board have previously experienced a 1-hour to 2-hour check-in that during non-peak check-in times might have taken less than 15 minutes. So... what action could a company like Carnival take to alleviate this issue ? Instead of having everyone for all Carnival cruises check in at exactly 12am Eastern, they now have then check-in on the time zone of the port the ship leaves from. Essentially, without splitting hairs, Carnival has eliminated 2/3rds of the hits on its servers (again, computers, for the non-technical folks) during check-in as each of the mainland USA has 3 time zones. Makes perfect sense. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #9 Share Posted June 8 10:06pm Pacific... still not able to check in. The "Complete Online Check-in" is lit up, but get the afore mentioned display when I click on "Complete Online Check-in". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #10 Share Posted June 8 11:06 Pacific... same check-in response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #11 Share Posted June 8 12:06am Pacific... same check-in response. I tried until about 12:17am and finally gave up and went to bed. I woke up at 2:30am and tried again. This time I was successful. I got my arrival time and went back to bed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 8 #12 Share Posted June 8 So, I'm still not convinced that the online check-in time begins at midnight of the cruise port as at 9:00pm Pacific, my Cruise Manager check-in highlighted, and I was able to select it. The fact that I received this same message even after midnight indicated that they may have had some software maintenance going on at the time -- maintained that likely ended after 12:30am or later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BlerkOne Posted June 8 #13 Share Posted June 8 I checked in for our recent cruise at Midnight Eastern time. I have no idea what time that was at the embarkation port (Barcelona). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisegus Posted June 9 #14 Share Posted June 9 How many days prior to your cruise can you check in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 10 #15 Share Posted June 10 (edited) 6 hours ago, cruisegus said: How many days prior to your cruise can you check in? Log into carnival... it tells you the date . Edited June 10 by VentureMan_2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvercrikhix Posted June 10 #16 Share Posted June 10 I live in CST and 2 nights ago was able to check in at 12:10am EST. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvercrikhix Posted June 10 #17 Share Posted June 10 (edited) On 6/7/2024 at 11:22 PM, VentureMan_2000 said: Error sorry Edited June 10 by silvercrikhix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csm5986142 Posted June 11 #18 Share Posted June 11 We've been on 35 cruises with Carnival and for as long as I can remember, I have been able to check in at exactly 9 pm (midnight Eastern) 16 days prior to embarkation (being platinum/diamond) but tonight, for the first time, it's not working for me. I'm getting the same error that was posted above. We are sailing out of Seattle, so I guess I'll try again at midnight here on the west coast (or just wait until tomorrow morning). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 11 #19 Share Posted June 11 13 hours ago, csm5986142 said: We've been on 35 cruises with Carnival and for as long as I can remember, I have been able to check in at exactly 9 pm (midnight Eastern) 16 days prior to embarkation (being platinum/diamond) but tonight, for the first time, it's not working for me. I'm getting the same error that was posted above. We are sailing out of Seattle, so I guess I'll try again at midnight here on the west coast (or just wait until tomorrow morning). Were you able to check in at midnight Pacific ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csm5986142 Posted June 11 #20 Share Posted June 11 Unfortunately I fell asleep. 🙂 I had tried again just after 11 pm and it still didn't work. I checked in when I woke up this morning at 6:15 am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PayneAS Posted June 12 #21 Share Posted June 12 On 6/10/2024 at 4:09 PM, silvercrikhix said: I live in CST and 2 nights ago was able to check in at 12:10am EST. It isn't about where you live but where your ship is departing from. If you were departing from an East Coast port, then yes, you would have been able to check in at 11 pm CDT (midnight EDT). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VentureMan_2000 Posted June 12 #22 Share Posted June 12 45 minutes ago, PayneAS said: It isn't about where you live but where your ship is departing from. If you were departing from an East Coast port, then yes, you would have been able to check in at 11 pm CDT (midnight EDT). Not that simple... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PayneAS Posted June 13 #23 Share Posted June 13 21 hours ago, VentureMan_2000 said: Not that simple... It really is. That is what this whole thread is discussing. Previously, you could check in at Midnight EST/EDT no matter what (well for NA cruises. Don't know about Euro/Austra cruises). Now they've apparently changed it so you can check it at Midnight for the time zone your ship is departing from. Departing from San Fran? Midnight PST/PDT. Departing from NY? Midnight EST/EDT. Depart from Galveston, Midnight CST/CDT. I don't know what time zone they pick for European or Australia cruises, I don't think I've seen any posts for those yet. It would be interesting if they went by AEST. Then you would be checking in at 10 am EST/EDT the previous day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modes Posted June 13 #24 Share Posted June 13 This is something new because I also can’t check in and it’s after 9pm pacific time . Has anyone received a notice about this change ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top_of_the_Cube Posted June 13 #25 Share Posted June 13 To me, it makes sense to tie the midnight check-in to the embarkation location time zone, but apparently it was just a computer glitch. I believe John Heald addressed this, saying that he was told the IT dept. will be "correcting" this so that it goes back to midnight EST. Of course, it could also be that Carnival IS working on making this change but the programming went live before they actually intended. I recall this happening a few times in other areas of their web site over the years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now