How to get early boarding?

[alwzrgt]

I am traveling with 3 children and and infant - and I guess 1 large child (DH)

I'm looking for information on how to get early boarding - mainly to avoid:

 

Me lugging everyone around, watching 3 very excited kids, holding one baby and keeping track of all documents, boarding passes, "carry ons" - diaper bag, gameboys, ipods, etc....

 

So early boarding may assist in me NOT having to hold onto everybodys items for a long period of time.

 

All help is appreciated?

[lvtotrvl1]

Unfortunatly is every family got priority boarding it would not be called priority boarding any longer. Some suites and past pax have the priority boarding. I would suggest arriving early to try to be at the beginning of the line. Bring things to keep the kids busy if possible. They will proably meet new friends in line:)

[RoofingPrincess]

Plus, even if you are able to get on board early, depending on what time that is, your room may not be available for you to go dump all your carry-on stuff in, so you will be lugging it around the ship.... Generally, by the "published" boarding time, the rooms are ready, but if you're able to board before that, OR, if the prior cruise took longer than usual to clear out, they may not be.

[Jim Gallup]

lvtotrvl1 is right. I never understand the mad rush to be first onboard. Reminds me of kindergarten when everyone fought to be first on the bus so they could sit directly behind the bus driver. If you go through the hassles of boarding early, there is a good chance that your cabin is not even ready yet. You end up milling around with a few thousand other lost souls, waiting and complaining that they cannot go to their cabins.

 

The true key to avoiding the crowds, lines, confusion, screaming, shouting, clawing, spitting, cursing, etc, is to board LATE. If boarding starts at 11am for example, you should time it to get to the terminal around 3pm. At that point, there are no crowds, plenty of porters with nothing to do, no lines for anything, check-in clerks standing around waiting for you, and plenty of people to help you out. You check in and get onboard in minutes, go straight to your cabin, and start your cruise already relaxed.

[alwzrgt]

As a "Latitude" member we can board an hour early. Roaming the ship is a better option than the clutter of the boarding area - at least I can find a chair and have a seat with the baby while DH take sthe kids around.

[eyzwdeshut]

First I think you should hand over some of the things you need to keep track of to your DH :)

 

Then you only have 1/2 as much to deal with... of course, don't trust him with the important docs. We know what happens after that :)

[alwzrgt]

I see you understand men. :p

 

Thanks for the humor.

 

Maybe I can get him to hold the baby? :rolleyes:

[winnyd]

I've seen a person in a wheel chair that was given priority at N Y last year by a Supervisor ,lifted the tape & allowed them to go ahead .You might want to talk to him/her ,with your situation you certainly should get their attention you would think . We had a group of 5 ,A 5mth old baby & 2 seniors ,one just got out of the Heart Hospital.But we didn't rate even though we had travelled before on that line ( Past Passenger Privleges)Didn't apply to Non Americans We had to wait our turn 2 hrs, in the Non US line.The trip was worth it though.

[chasetf]

Have you thought about arriving late after the crowd has died down. :confused: :confused: Then you should be able to walk right on. :D

[gizmo]

As others mentioned, arriving late is the best way for you to go.

[WindinmySails]

Once we boarded at 12:00 and once at 3:30.

At 3:30, one person was ahead of us in line. It was less than 20 min. from the time we were dropped off by taxi at the Port of Miami to the time we took our first drink of the day sip!

 

Boarding at 12:00 was nottoo bad, but it was a longer wait. My children were with me. It seemed everything was moving smoothly, but it certaily took longer. The kids were just excited during the whole process, but yes, antsy to get on the ship.

 

Go for the later time.

[luvs2sun]

Last 2 sailings we've been to the port at 11:30 and were one of the first to board-pretty much walked right on. We also travel to the port a day early too-not sure if you are able to. We are sailing out of Miami on Sat. Feb 10th and will fly in on Friday night. I love to be onboard early! I don't get to vacation as much as others ( 3 kids and a job put a dent in that)

and I love to go places and see new things. This is a new ship and a new line for us too so alot of investigating will be in order.

I too understand about the hubby thing-I'm lucky if he packs his own stuff, but I do not trust him with passport/birth certificates.

Anyway-enjoy!!!!!:)

[czcruiser13]

My experience has been that the rooms aren't ready until 1pm. They close the doors at the entrance to the hallways and have signs posted. So, if you get before then just head up to the pool and hang out or go eat lunch.:)

[cruise.freak]

I like to board early and start my vacation early. We usually arrive at the port around 11:30 and on by 12:30. Everytime we have been able to drop off our carryons in our room (maybe we have just been lucky). I like to explore the ship and take my pictures of the ship without the massive people and enjoy a leisurely lunch.

[krystall]

We're usually at the cruise terminal by 11am, on the ship if nothing has gone wrong by 12:00. We know our cabin isn't ready but go and have a leisurely lunch.

Find our way around the ship and take pictures while

the ship is less full.

 

But I think with your situation the advice being given

is right on. This way you can just flow right onto the

ship and to your cabin to get situated.

 

Have a great cruise!

[sea-u-later]

What we are going to do is to drop off our bags as soon as we can, walk to Bourbon st, watch a parade, then two hours before the ship leaves check ourselves in.

[Happy ks]

You just never know.

 

Sometimes, arriving early you will be able to board early, sometimes you have to wait a whole lot longer. We've done it both ways and it's always different. Our waits have ranged from none at all to over 3 hours, the 3 hour one was when we arrived at noon and there was a computer glitch.

 

I have to agreee with many others who state that if you are anticipating a hassle keeping all (4) kids in line, get there later. All you will miss is an hour or so of exploring the ship and a pretty awful buffet lunch. You will have plenty of time to see everything onboard and there is always food available.

[shops54]

If I see you struggling behind me in line, I'll be happy to give you my place. How well I remember those days and I only have two!! I would be o so happy if they gave moms with kids a break. The airlines do it - why not the ships? Frankly the old grouchy folks don't want to listen to your cranky kids anyway - not that your kids are cranky - mine were. My best tip is to take a double umbrella stroller or two regular ones and dump your stuff in them. But, better yet, why don't we start a groundswell and all of us with reasonable health and no young kids drop to the back of the line in favor of you all. Sometimes when you see injustice you just have to take care of it yourself. Oops, just fell of my soapbox.;) - Eileen

[spookwife]

sorry, gotta disagree here.. having kids of any age should not be grounds for special treatment. doesn't make you any more deserving than anyone else.

[cruisinbuddy]

I'm just off of the Liberty and we were on board @ 12:15 pm. We arrived at the pier at 9:30, started the boarding procedures @ 10 :15 and were able to sit & wait for the call. This I believe would be the earliest you can board. Not to mention that your cabin won't be ready til @ 1-1:30 pm. Good luck, and try to get a night to have a romantic dinner with DH. Also, after reading your post again, I think that you should start talking to your kids about the responsibilities that they have. Ie, taking care of their own stuff, ipods etc. We took our 3 teenagers on the Disney and educated them on how we expected them to act etc. Now your kids sound like that they're younger but still talk to them and let them know how you expect them to act, which means Mommy can't do everything for you. Get them each their own napsack and they put their stuff in that and keep it in their. Hope you can have fun, good luck.