Arriving at the port later rather than earlier?

[Silent Penguin]

Usually, we like to arrive at the port as early as possible, but this upcoming cruise, we have something we want to do before coming to the port. We're leaving out of Baltimore, only an hour and a half from home. We could make it by noon or 12:30, but I expect that's a really busy time and the lines to check in are very long. I don't mind standing in line, but just for the sake of having a choice, I would like to know if the crowd thins out toward the later end of the embarkment window. If so, would arriving at 1:00 or 1:30 mean shorter lines?

[smc0320]

Hmmmm.....we have been thinking same thing for our Legend cruise out of Tampa this December. We have always had to fly in the day before (when we lived in Ohio) and have always been in a hurry to get onboard quickly......but hate waiting for the rooms to open. So we thought, now that we live in Ft Myers, we're in no hurry to get on right away and would rather get there after 1pm when the rooms are ready.....but we are VIP (suites) so not sure we need to worry about lines at 1pm.

 

Looking forward to replies.....

[falkcor]

it does thin out about, IN GENERAL, a little later. i've done this for pride in baltimore (which i expect you're boarding) and would estimate it about 30 minutes from walking through the front door to being on the ship... and a net benefit is when you actually do board the ship you can go right to your room, instead of 1) sitting and waiting to board for a while, and 2) having to carry around your carryons, etc. until rooms are ready. while you may wait a little longer 'in line', than those that arrive at the crack of dawn, you're not waiting at all to board, and once you do check in, you'll pretty much be ushered right on the ship.

[Silent Penguin]

Thanks, that's kind of what I thought. It's like rush hour in DC. I can leave at 5pm and get home at 7pm, or I can leave at 6:15pm and get home at 7pm.

[cruznlobo]

It works the same for VIFP boarding.

Last January we got caught in traffic in Miami and got to the port about 2 hours later than we hoped.....We were on the 'boat about 15 mins after we dropped off our luggage. I was just informed it was 20 mins.