Boarding before the official time?

[AmoMondo]

al though I ve cruise before with Costa on both occasions my flights were late in the day so I arrived house aft boarding officially started. On my next cruise on the Atlantica from Dubai, I've booked cruise only and will be flying in the evening before. Costa tell me boarding starts at 3pm. How likely if I turn up an hour or so before this I'll be Ble to board or is it more likely I'll just have a long wait in the terminal?

 

Thanks

[Jazmyn49]

We just got off the Atlantica, Dubai to Dubai. Our flight arrived late the night before so we booked a room at the Holiday Express at the airport (free shuttle and breakfast). We took a taxi to the port the next afternoon and found the 3PM check-in was correct. The terminal was quite comfortable with good chairs, shops, a café and free wi fi. There were exhausted looking passengers waiting, many sleeping. Keep an eye on the check in counter as the line gets long very quickly.

We were told to board and go to the buffet that had 'lunch' waiting for us. Dinner that night was open seating as passengers from the previous cruise were still on board, waiting for late night flights. Cabins were ready after 8 PM and our luggage was delivered around 9:30.

We had not been on Costa previously and had read many reviews that were less than glorious. We LOVED it. The decor was over the top! The shows were excellent, the food pretty good (except for the desserts which was not an altogether bad thing), the crew friendly and competent. The itinerary was great, lots of time in Dubai plus Oman and other ports in the UAE. We enjoyed Khasab the most with the amazing fjords. We walked off the ship and found Suleiman with a small boat taking passengers for a most affordable rate. We recruited half a dozen other passengers and had a super day for about 20 Euros per person. A Sicilian passenger did the negotiations for us and by the end of the day, he and the captain were brothers.

We believe we were the only Americans on board, despite the very attractive pricing. It was a super trip and we highly recommend the Atlantica for this itinerary.