45 day pre check-in time question

[racnwdow]

I have read conflicting reports.  Does the 45 days check in start at midnight EST or midnight of the time zone for the sailing port (Alaska for this instance)?  

[leaveitallbehind]

Port of departure time zone.

Edited August 20 by leaveitallbehind

[royal3]

They use the departure port time zone. However, it is not uncommon for it to be a few minutes past that time (unlike Southwest Airlines which is almost to the second). For our last cruise, it was 16 minutes late.  

[Biker19]

6 hours ago, racnwdow said:

Does the 45 days check in start at midnight EST or midnight of the time zone for the sailing port (Alaska for this instance)? 

Sleep on it - there's no need to rush to check in to get an early arrival time.

[cruisegus]

17 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Sleep on it - there's no need to rush to check in to get an early arrival time.

Depends, the last 2 cruises I checked in for, I stay up and yes it can be a few minutes past.  I also checked again a 6 am when up that next morning, avaliable time slots were 30 minutes later for on and an hour later for the other.

 

I have no way of knowing how many openings they allocate for each half hour slots, or even if they are evenly distributed.  I would suspect not, and imagine less of the first and maybe slot to account for Suites and The Key,  who always get to ignore time slots.

 

So if an early boarding slot is important to You, I recommend staying up or setting an alarm and getting up.   YMMV

[Biker19]

27 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

So if an early boarding slot is important to You,

The chances of arrival times being enforced are so low that no one should sleep over it. 

[Iamthesea]

My check-in time should be tomorrow night at 12:01am.  So that I am prepared, what will be needed for check-in?  I have 3 staterooms to check-in.

[ARandomTraveler]

11 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

My check-in time should be tomorrow night at 12:01am.  So that I am prepared, what will be needed for check-in?  I have 3 staterooms to check-in.

Passports (or passport #'s and expiration dates if the physical passports aren't in your possession). Don't worry about the photo they ask for, just skip it, they'll take your photo at the port.

[cruisegus]

13 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

The chances of arrival times being enforced are so low that no one should sleep over it. 

Agree

 

One might want the early arrival time as most ports stage you outside before the terminal doors open.  That can affect when you board, especially if you have UDP and want popular reservation times.

 

But to each their own.

[Biker19]

11 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

One might want the early arrival time as most ports stage you outside before the terminal doors open. 

 

Someone with a 2PM arrival time could line up before someone with a 10:30 arrival time if that staging takes place, so what does a 10:30 arrival time buy you?

[Biker19]

31 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

So that I am prepared, what will be needed for check-in?

If doing it in the app, nothing. Just pick an arrival time and do the rest sometime later. 

[cruisegus]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

 

Someone with a 2PM arrival time could line up before someone with a 10:30 arrival time if that staging takes place, so what does a 10:30 arrival time buy you?

I can tell you at both Port Canaveral and Galveston they stage you outside by your arrival time.  Suites, Key, Pinnacle then by boarding time when the terminal doors open.  That's been our experiences last few years.

[Biker19]

8 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

17 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

 

I can tell you at both Port Canaveral and Galveston they stage you outside by your arrival time. 

You are one of the first CC posters to say that terminal staff check and deny entry to later arrival time customers in recent times. 

[not-enough-cruising]

47 minutes ago, cruisegus said:

I can tell you at both Port Canaveral and Galveston they stage you outside by your arrival time.  Suites, Key, Pinnacle then by boarding time when the terminal doors open.  That's been our experiences last few years.

Have cruised out of Galveston 3 times this year, not once has anyone paid any attention to time slots. All 3 cruises we walked from the parking lot directly onto the ship between 1030-1100

[cruisegus]

35 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

You are one of the first CC posters to say that terminal staff check and deny entry to later arrival time customers in recent times. 

I wouldn't say they always look at your boarding pass, but they ask and there are signs at the different serpentine entrances, by boarding time.

 

I'm not in the habit of lying to jump a line.

[cruisegus]

4 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Have cruised out of Galveston 3 times this year, not once has anyone paid any attention to time slots. All 3 cruises we walked from the parking lot directly onto the ship between 1030-1100

Then you were not there before they opened the terminal doors.

[Iamthesea]

2 hours ago, ARandomTraveler said:

Passports (or passport #'s and expiration dates if the physical passports aren't in your possession). Don't worry about the photo they ask for, just skip it, they'll take your photo at the port.

 

Thanks!  I have my passport and DH's.  One daughter (in separate stateroom) has her passport,  but she is off on a trip right now.  Not sure if I can get in touch with her.  The other daughter and two grandchildren (in the third stateroom) will be using birth certificates.  Does the online check-in ask for birth certificate information? 

 

I would prefer to use my computer, but will use the app if I need to.

[ARandomTraveler]

2 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

 

Thanks!  I have my passport and DH's.  One daughter (in separate stateroom) has her passport,  but she is off on a trip right now.  Not sure if I can get in touch with her.  The other daughter and two grandchildren (in the third stateroom) will be using birth certificates.  Does the online check-in ask for birth certificate information? 

 

I would prefer to use my computer, but will use the app if I need to.

Hmmm 🤔 That's a good question. I just looked at one of my cruises that is available for check-in, and I don't see anywhere that you can put in anything other than passport info. Not even a box you can check that says you don't have a passport.
 

I'm gonna guess that perhaps people who don't have passports might have to wait until the day of the cruise to do their check-in at the ship, but I don't have any real info on that. Somebody who does will chime in eventually. 
 

Edit: I see that @Biker19 replied that you can just pick an arrival time without filling out the other stuff. So I guess just skip the passport part and the photo part and do both of those on boarding day, but you'll be allowed to pick an arrival time on the app ahead of time. 

Edited August 21 by ARandomTraveler

[Biker19]

3 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

 

I would prefer to use my computer, but will use the app if I need to.

The app would be useful in many situations, so if you will ever use it, you might as well start at check in.  

[Biker19]

4 hours ago, cruisegus said:

I'm not in the habit of lying to jump a line.

Everyone in any such staging line is there well before their RCI requested arrival time (unless there was some very rare case and likely an IT glitch and one somehow got a 9AM arrival time). 

[not-enough-cruising]

10 hours ago, cruisegus said:

Then you were not there before they opened the terminal doors.

So what? They still weren’t checking anyone’s check in times 

[PhillyFan33579]

11 hours ago, cruisegus said:

I can tell you at both Port Canaveral and Galveston they stage you outside by your arrival time.  Suites, Key, Pinnacle then by boarding time when the terminal doors open.  That's been our experiences last few years.

I have cruised out of Port Canaveral close to a dozen times over the last year or so. No one at the port has ever verified arrival times. That has been the same thing I have experienced on two dozen other cruises over the last two years when cruising out of Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Tampa and Vancouver. 

[dragontrainer]

12 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

My check-in time should be tomorrow night at 12:01am.  So that I am prepared, what will be needed for check-in?  I have 3 staterooms to check-in.

It may be helpful to check this post if you haven't seen it:

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

12 hours ago, cruisegus said:

I can tell you at both Port Canaveral and Galveston they stage you outside by your arrival time.  Suites, Key, Pinnacle then by boarding time when the terminal doors open.  That's been our experiences last few years.

We sailed from Galveston last month.  We never saw the staging areas.  We had "Express Boarding" (still don't know how we qualified), found a sign for that, were let into the building right at the bottom of the escalators, went up, did our checks, waited about 15 minutes, then boarding started. 

 

We had originally grabbed 11:00a, and that was just a few minutes after check in opened. 

[Tree_skier]

11 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

 

 The other daughter and two grandchildren (in the third stateroom) will be using birth certificates.  Does the online check-in ask for birth certificate information? 

 

I would prefer to use my computer, but will use the app if I need to.

It does not ask for birth certificate info...