The FIRST ONE !!

[block]

Has anyone been the first one on the ship??

Who is that person? :)

[DMH15]

Has anyone been the first one on the ship??

Who is that person? :)

 

My mother and I were #1 and #2 boarding Carnival Ecstacy, after the crew of course. We like to board early whenever possible. We did this little "happy dance" when they said welcome to us as the first pax to board.

[Susie51]

Closest I have been to the front is about #10.

[jdvmd]

Was No. 1 on our Liberty of the Seas sailing a few years back. We weren't allowed to board yet so our family and a few other people were kept in an area near the escalators. Within a minute or two, the cruise director said to follow him up the escalator. I thought we were going to another holding area but in fact, he lead us right onto the ship. I felt like I had come in first in a marathon. It was very cool to be the first one to go "ding" with your cruise card.

[coka]

Great question! Never the first but I was the LAST ONE to embark the Norwegian Sea many years ago. I was with a group of 30 and they were holding the ship for us as our flight arrived late. I remember because I was a chaperone and told everyone to go ahead so I could count as they whisked up the gangplank. Once I jumped across and landed onboard, they closed the gate behind me. I turned and looked down and the ship was moving away from the pier.

 

coka

[LOWTYD]

I think wedding parties get to go first so that won't be me!

[cruisemainiac]

We did a B2B a couple of years ago on Spirit. There were 8 of us who gathered at 10 am to go through customs. By 10:15 we were back on the boat and had the whole place to ourselves for almost 2 hours.

[sesasheep]

we were 1-4 on the gems second sailing for christmas 2007(bahamas and florida)

 

-sesasheep

[sparks1093]

Great question! Never the first but I was the LAST ONE to embark the Norwegian Sea many years ago. I was with a group of 30 and they were holding the ship for us as our flight arrived late. I remember because I was a chaperone and told everyone to go ahead so I could count as they whisked up the gangplank. Once I jumped across and landed onboard, they closed the gate behind me. I turned and looked down and the ship was moving away from the pier.

 

coka

 

Oh, coka, last on the ship, first in our hearts:D.

[LOWTYD]

Great question! Never the first but I was the LAST ONE to embark the Norwegian Sea many years ago. I was with a group of 30 and they were holding the ship for us as our flight arrived late. I remember because I was a chaperone and told everyone to go ahead so I could count as they whisked up the gangplank. Once I jumped across and landed onboard, they closed the gate behind me. I turned and looked down and the ship was moving away from the pier.

 

coka

 

Sounds like something out a movie!

[ILOVEOSU]

Our family was on our last cruise. It was so exciting because it was the first cruise for my children and sister in law. It was when they were still doing the free champagne (or orange juice) when you boarded, so they thought that was pretty great, too. We looked around the ship a little, then went to lunch, where we were the first ones seated. Very cool.

[stanmoto98]

I have to side with Coka in this conversation!

 

We were sailing the Jewel last spring on her repositioning from Miami to NY. We arrived in FLL a couple days early to spend time with some of our best friends and to attend a wedding in Vero Beach the night before the cruise. Well, you'd have to know the group of people that was at the wedding. But needless to say it turned out be a rather rowdy event. We were fortunate enough to have a designated driver but that didn't change the fact that we didn't get back to our friend's house in Ft Lauderdale till about 3AM.

 

I awoke around 11AM, got up and ran some errands to pick up items that we never pack because of the added weight for the flights. By the time I got back and we left for MIA to drop off the rental car it was about 1:30PM. It was my first time trying to find the rental car center at MIA and by the time we found it was almost 3PM. But we figured we had plenty of time to make the 5PM embarkation, right!?

 

We had to wait until about 3:20PM for the shuttle to the port and after the ride over it was about 3:35-3:40. We were stunned to find no one else entering the security screening area and the place was a ghost town with the exception of the security agent manning the x-ray machine. My wife proceed through the check point and I put my carry-on on the machine, informing the agent that there were three bottles of champagne inside that I would be paying the corkage. The agent hollered down the hall to a NCL representative "we've got bottles". No response from the NCL rep. Once more, "we got bottles!" When the NCL rep didn't respond the second time the agent looked at me and said, "have a nice cruise." I said thanks with a smile.

 

As I said, the place was a ghost town, save the handful of NCL counter agents that were just kind of hanging out at this point. We were the only passengers in the the entire check-in area. We checked in and proceeded up onto the ship. We thought it was odd that there was no photographer taking embarkation photos in the usual location. Across the gangway we went. It was about 3:55 and we had barely boarded the ship and were making our way up to our cabin when we heard the ship's horn sound and thought we felt the ship shudder. The horn sounded a second time and I looked at my wife and said, "I think we're underway!?" This was with a very confused look on my face.

 

We got to our cabin and looked out the balcony. The ship was indeed moving. I looked at the daily lying on the bed and almost choked when I saw "Embarkation 4PM" posted on the header.

 

Holy moly, were we're stunned and grateful that we'd made it!!! Needless to say, we won't be attending any more weddings like that the night before any of our future cruises... or at least making sure what time embarkation truly is if we do!!

[Scrappygrrl]

Happened to us. We were in the VIP waiting room and they got us from that area of the waiting room. There was another couple with us, but they were not ready to board for whatever reason. so it was just me, hubs and my son being escorted aboard, no behind us even!. First folks on, several staff lined up by the door welcoming us aboard. We were escorted to a conference room where the concierge, Carlos explained his services and suite perks, etc... Then he came back, and said, "Well, we have an interesting situation, it seems that there was a miscommunication and we were not technically ready for passengers to board. Since our cabin was not ready, he took us the Star Bar to wait until Cagney's opened for lunch. Meanwhile, we were the ONLY passengers onboard for about 40 minutes! We watched the crew get the pool area in shape, and walk around up on Deck 13. It was definitely bizarre but a once in a lifetime experience!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

We were 1-4 on the Pearl some years ago (it was her first season, so whenever that was). It was great fun, especially since it was DSIL's first

cruise.

[DGP1111]

I've enjoyed the experience several times. :)