Ted

Thanks for all of the thoughtful responses to my OP that I thought would have a simple answer.

I have cruised out of Baltimore many times (out of both the old and the current cruise ports) and love it. Since I live only a little over an hour away (at least on Sunday mornings), I can wait to leave home until I find out whether the ship is delayed and by how much.

However, because it is a small port there is not enough parking for both embarking and disembarking passengers at the same time. This can really screw things up if the ship is delayed. Thus, I would VERY strongly recommend that anyone cruising out of B'more register for text updates from Carnival as to ship arrival, and base their arrivals accordingly (note that my original post was predicated on the ship arriving on time).

As a side note, a few years ago, this was incredibly helpful in New Orleans when the ship was delayed by fog on the Mississippi, and what was supposed to be a 4 pm departure did not actually happen until almost midnight (and yes, they did serve a very, very late full dinner in the main dining room). Thanks to text updates, we were forewarned and were able to get a partial day rate to continue our stay at the wonderful Hotel Monteleone where we were eventually able to see the ship coming up the river, thus thus avoiding many hours sitting around at the port.

This is my first time with timed boarding. If I understand correctly, they ask for a time from Platinum members for planning purposes, but unlike the general rule allow you in even if you arrive before your announced time. So, my question is, assuming Pride arrives on-time, when does boarding actually begin?

Big thanks!

Just learned about this. We are doing Hawaii on Pride next spring, and this seems wonderful with all of the sea days.