Boarding time

[ClemMovieRunner]

My travel agent has arranged my flights, hotel before cruise and connection from the hotel to ship. They're picking us up at 11am but Virgin have assigned us a 4.30pm boarding. 

 

If we just show up at midday as expected, they won't make us wait for 4 and a half  hours will they? 

[Essiesmom]

Maybe.  They don’t start boarding u til about 1:30 and that’s Mega Rock stars, rock stars, etc.     My boarding time was 3:30 and I showed up at 2:30 and was waved right on.  EM

[jon81uk]

You will likely be waiting at least three hours. Boarding starts for rockstars at 1.30pm, then priority and then others start around 2pm. If they are running early you might be called about 3-3.30pm.

 

Get your hotel to store the luggage and reschedule the pick up for later on then use the spare time at the hotel pool or exploring Miami. We always head over from the hotel no earlier than 12.30pm after exploring for the morning.

[1025cruise]

Unlike other cruise lines, Virgin doesn't push people off until later. In addition, cabins are ready when you board. The negative, is that boarding doesn't start until later. The earliest you can get in the building (assuming Miami) is 1:30pm. And even then, you might have a wait to board. There are lines outside by checkin time that you will wait in.

[cantgetin]

OK, first see if you can get a late check out from the hotel and move your hotel to dock  time.
Seems that your TA doesn't know much about Virgin.  The earliest possible time is 1:30 and you are asked to not show up more than 30 minutes before that time.  If you do, you will line up in roped off areas by your assigned time or you can leave and reappear later.  Or ask if the hotel can hold your luggage and go to lunch somewhere, again, moving your transportation to the cruise terminal.

For a 4:30 time, I'd recommend showing up about 3.  When everyone with an earlier time who is present has been checked in, you will be able to check in and board. That would typically be about 3:30, so if you show up at 3, you'll have very little wait.

At the WTC terminal in Barcelona, there is a nice coffee shop next door where you can wait, and a little plaza with a few seats.  There is supposedly a coffee shop somewhere near the terminal in Miami, but it doesn't amount to much and I've never seen it.

The good is that on departure day, you don't need to be off the ship until 10:30.  That means you an have a leisurely breakfast rather than the 6am on other lines. Also, regardless of your boarding time, your cabin is ready when you board so you can drop your carry on before you start to enjoy your cruise.

[kaysha2004]

Get a late check out from your hotel and a later transfer to the dock. Depending upon your port departure location, it can be a smooth process... or it can be a nightmare, like I had this week in Portsmouth, United Kingdom.

[ClemMovieRunner]

3 minutes ago, kaysha2004 said:

Get a late check out from your hotel and a later transfer to the dock. Depending upon your port departure location, it can be a smooth process... or it can be a nightmare, like I had this week in Portsmouth, United Kingdom.

Dare I ask what happened..?

[CalaDragonflyLady]

If you purchase SPLASH OF ROMANCE you can arrive after Rock Stars and Deep Blue Passengers and ignore the original set arrival time.  OR if you have status with another cruise line, send it to VV for their status match program.  It's not an exact match but will get you into the loyalty club.

[cantgetin]

Now, if you qualify for the match, you are given Blue Extras, a much more limited collection of perks that you got with the higher level of Deep Blue Extras.  Blue Extras does not include early boarding.  It does give you 2 beverages from Grounds Club each day, a cocktail party, etc.

 

[DCGuy64]

13 hours ago, LibratPDX said:

If you purchase SPLASH OF ROMANCE you can arrive after Rock Stars and Deep Blue Passengers and ignore the original set arrival time.  OR if you have status with another cruise line, send it to VV for their status match program.  It's not an exact match but will get you into the loyalty club.

I am SO glad I learned about Splash of Romance on here, I booked it as soon as I could and am excited about being to able to board early!

[Gretchendz]

If you have a later boarding time than you would like, keep checking the app each day. It is quite common for earlier times to pop up that you can switch to.  And as others have noted, if you arrive earlier, you may get on earlier any way (just don't expect it for sure).

[ClemMovieRunner]

8 minutes ago, Gretchendz said:

If you have a later boarding time than you would like, keep checking the app each day. It is quite common for earlier times to pop up that you can switch to.  And as others have noted, if you arrive earlier, you may get on earlier any way (just don't expect it for sure).

Thanks! What timing, I just checked and got the time I wanted! 

 

Thanks @Gretchendz!

[TotesMcGotes]

When first booking, I was able to get a check-in time of 1:45pm.  Ended up later getting the SOR and was able to board at 1:30pm.  I actually just checked the time stamp of a photo I took just before crossing the bridge onto the ship it and it said 1:39pm.

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, TotesMcGotes said:

When first booking, I was able to get a check-in time of 1:45pm.  Ended up later getting the SOR and was able to board at 1:30pm.  I actually just checked the time stamp of a photo I took just before crossing the bridge onto the ship it and it said 1:39pm.

That's pretty normal with priority boarding.  I've never checked crossing the bridge, but I know we've been in our cabin by 1:45 on a couple of our cruises.  As long as you have done all the pre-boarding stuff on the app, the process is very smooth.  And one of the best things VV has done is that there is a separate "help" area for people who have not completed things on the app.  They are not holding up the line for the rest of us who did complete things.    No shade on those who might have had app issues, but it is nice that they don't delay the rest of us.

[macusr]

7 hours ago, Gretchendz said:

If you have a later boarding time than you would like, keep checking the app each day. It is quite common for earlier times to pop up that you can switch to.  And as others have noted, if you arrive earlier, you may get on earlier any way (just don't expect it for sure).

Thanks for the tip!  I was just able to change our boarding time from 3:15 to 2:00!  We aren't Rockstars or SOR.

[Gretchendz]

1 hour ago, macusr said:

Thanks for the tip!  I was just able to change our boarding time from 3:15 to 2:00!  We aren't Rockstars or SOR.

 

That's as fast as you can possibly get without being a rockstar or Splash--congrats!

[kaysha2004]

On 9/12/2024 at 2:08 PM, ClemMovieRunner said:

Dare I ask what happened..?

Upon arrival at the terminal for my assigned priority boarding time (Deep Blue Extras) at 1:45 p.m., it was a mass mob of people clustered together at the bottom of the stairs shoulder to shoulder screaming at the two Virgin reps to get a boarding card.  They were handing out laminated and numbered boarding cards.  Never had this experience previously. 

 

There were no delineated lines whatsoever.  There was no priority boarding at all and no one checking boarding times.  It was a free-for-all.

 

Once the rope dropped, it was chaotic, with pushing and shoving and luggage wheels running over feet.  It reminded me of the days of Black Friday when you would arrive hours before a department store would open, then the floodgates opened and the madness begins to be first.

 

This was an epic fail for Virgin and another reason to add to my list for not booking future cruises. 

[Cloud9 Bob]

1 hour ago, kaysha2004 said:

This was an epic fail for Virgin and another reason to add to my list for not booking future cruises. 

Wow! Miami doesn’t seem so bad now.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, kaysha2004 said:

This was an epic fail for Virgin and another reason to add to my list for not booking future cruises. 

Wow. Just wow.

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, kaysha2004 said:

Upon arrival at the terminal for my assigned priority boarding time (Deep Blue Extras) at 1:45 p.m., it was a mass mob of people clustered together at the bottom of the stairs shoulder to shoulder screaming at the two Virgin reps to get a boarding card.  They were handing out laminated and numbered boarding cards.  Never had this experience previously. 

 

There were no delineated lines whatsoever.  There was no priority boarding at all and no one checking boarding times.  It was a free-for-all.

 

Once the rope dropped, it was chaotic, with pushing and shoving and luggage wheels running over feet.  It reminded me of the days of Black Friday when you would arrive hours before a department store would open, then the floodgates opened and the madness begins to be first.

 

This was an epic fail for Virgin and another reason to add to my list for not booking future cruises. 

Sounds like our boarding in Miami when JLo was filming.  She had changed her film date, so VV chose to delay boarding.  Even though we were notified in advance, it was a mob scene.  I see VV ads multiple times each day, but have only ever seen the ad that was filmed that day once....

[Gretchendz]

2 hours ago, kaysha2004 said:

Upon arrival at the terminal for my assigned priority boarding time (Deep Blue Extras) at 1:45 p.m., it was a mass mob of people clustered together at the bottom of the stairs shoulder to shoulder screaming at the two Virgin reps to get a boarding card.  They were handing out laminated and numbered boarding cards.  Never had this experience previously. 

 

There were no delineated lines whatsoever.  There was no priority boarding at all and no one checking boarding times.  It was a free-for-all.

 

Once the rope dropped, it was chaotic, with pushing and shoving and luggage wheels running over feet.  It reminded me of the days of Black Friday when you would arrive hours before a department store would open, then the floodgates opened and the madness begins to be first.

 

This was an epic fail for Virgin and another reason to add to my list for not booking future cruises. 

 

Not making excuses at all here for them. I do find that the first few times they do boarding at a "new" port, there are what one might charitably call growing pains.  Last year, I departed on the second sailing from San Juan and while, it was not as bad as you describe, it was barely controlled confusion.  Clearly there were mainy new, untrained staff (I think they are port staff not Virgin, but I could be wrong about that.). A few weeks later, people were saying boarding was smooth in San Juan.

Not saying Portsmouth is new, but they have not sailed out of there recently.

Edited Monday at 01:54 PM by Gretchendz

[DCGuy64]

Thanks for the tip on checking, I looked at the app a while ago and secured an earlier boarding time than the one I originally had!

[1025cruise]

Since VV's boarding is different than other cruise lines, I would expect a little bit of growing pains outside of Miami since the staff need to be trained properly. Just remember, you won't actually encounter someone who works for VV until you get to the security check in (not the x-ray, but when you ding on). Everyone else there is a contractor. Yes, there might be a few actual employees walking around keeping an eye on things, but all the check in people, people outside, porters are all 3rd party.

[DCGuy64]

1 hour ago, 1025cruise said:

Since VV's boarding is different than other cruise lines, I would expect a little bit of growing pains outside of Miami since the staff need to be trained properly. Just remember, you won't actually encounter someone who works for VV until you get to the security check in (not the x-ray, but when you ding on). Everyone else there is a contractor. Yes, there might be a few actual employees walking around keeping an eye on things, but all the check in people, people outside, porters are all 3rd party.

Right, good point. Our cruise is embarking from San Juan, but I think VV has been doing cruises there for a while now. Our ship (Resilient Lady) starts sailing from San Juan in December. I'm hoping there are few if any hiccups for our January sailing.

[bundtkate]

5 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Our ship (Resilient Lady) starts sailing from San Juan in December. I'm hoping there are few if any hiccups for our January sailing.

We're sailing out of San Juan in February so if there are any lingering issues, I'll trust y'all to set 'em straight in time for our departure. 😜

Honest, we've had embarkation messes with a few cruise lines and I do think unfamiliar port staff are often a factor. The worst one we had was actually sailing NCL in the Haven. We were boarding in what was clearly a Carnival terminal normally so there was no NCL signage up and the staff were not certain where to direct folks to. My parents purchased priority boarding but were told at the terminal that there was no priority boarding. To make matters worse, an issue with computers at the port paused boarding for nearly an hour. We were lucky to be inside in the AC. Those in the non-suite lines weren't so lucky. It's a bummer way to start a cruise and it would be nice if lines sent more employees to help in these cases, but I don't blame the port staff. If I woke up one day and had to completely change how I do my job, I'd be confused too. Most of our embarkation days have gone smoothly and I'd reckon the same will be true of Virgin. These snafus happen, but thankfully aren't the norm.