Email from carnival "debarkation process will run behind "

[mcatmcat]

Hi

I get an email from carnival saying that carnival liberty will have the debarkation process a little bit behind because the ship is coming from Belize. They told

Me not to get to the port before 1pm. Is this popular, does it really takes that long?

Thanks !!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Hi

I get an email from carnival saying that carnival liberty will have the debarkation process a little bit behind because the ship is coming from Belize. They told

Me not to get to the port before 1pm. Is this popular, does it really takes that long?

Thanks !!

 

Here is a thread from Sunday on the same subject.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1853439&highlight=belize

[BrwnEyedGirl45]

We received the same msg as well as a phone call for our April 27th cruise. We still showed up early, around 11am, since we didn't want to pay any more on our car rental. Turns out we were checked in and boarded by 11:30. Quickest embarkation yet for us on Carnival.

Have a wonderful cruise :-)

[okgirl]

Carnival is still trying to spread out the crowds for embarkation. They've gone from sending generic emails about boarding times being between 1 and 3......to giving supposed specific information about why the embarkation will be delayed.......crew inspection....returning from Belize....health department inspection.....

 

Bottom line for me has been....I've never been delayed debarking the ship after having been in Belize.........I've never paid any attention to their emails about when to arrive at the pier.......Even if embarkation is delayed I would rather be sitting among the excitement after checking in at the terminal than sitting in a hotel by myself........

 

I get to the pier (regardless of where I'm sailing from) between 10 and 10:30 and being Diamond I'm usually checked in within 15 minutes and almost always on the ship within 45 minutes of arriving at the pier......

[Lovefuninthesun]

Hi

I get an email from carnival saying that carnival liberty will have the debarkation process a little bit behind because the ship is coming from Belize. They told

Me not to get to the port before 1pm. Is this popular, does it really takes that long?

Thanks !!

Ignore it -- get to the port whenever you like! My experience has always been that we get to board early anyway.

[Aplmac]

I get to the pier (regardless of where I'm sailing from) between 10 and 10:30

and being Diamond I'm usually checked in within 15 minutes

and almost always on the ship within 45 minutes of arriving at the pier......

Have to say that for all our previous 6 Carnival cruises -and three others-

this(above) has been my experience too, and I'm nowhere near Diamond!

 

 

The biggest screw-up/wait we've ever had (by a mile!)

was at Portland, ME back in Oct. 2011

when it seems that all the tours returned to the ship around the same time we were trying to get back on

from our second foray into that very pleasant city!

 

We Love Portland! -and we're doing it again in September!

 

Portland ME boarding.

 

Now I know that the picture above doesn't look like much more than yer average line waiting to get back on board

but trust me when I tell you the line was much worse than you see here

- it tailed across the dock, out of the Secure Area at the port

and snaked its way right up the street for quite aways!

 

Luckily there was a table set up with big coolers of cold refreshing lemonade

waiting for us on the dock near the base of the gangway: that helped!

 

 

Other than that, getting on board for any and all cruises have been reasonably swift and efficient

and I find myself wondering what all the fuss about FTTF Faster To The Fun

and paying Carnival extra....is all about. :confused:

 

Maybe people need status conferred upon them: I don't.

 

.

[oldrailfan]

Carnival is still trying to spread out the crowds for embarkation. They've gone from sending generic emails about boarding times being between 1 and 3......to giving supposed specific information about why the embarkation will be delayed.......crew inspection....returning from Belize....health department inspection.....

 

Bottom line for me has been....I've never been delayed debarking the ship after having been in Belize.........I've never paid any attention to their emails about when to arrive at the pier.......Even if embarkation is delayed I would rather be sitting among the excitement after checking in at the terminal than sitting in a hotel by myself........

 

I get to the pier (regardless of where I'm sailing from) between 10 and 10:30 and being Diamond I'm usually checked in within 15 minutes and almost always on the ship within 45 minutes of arriving at the pier......

 

Believe it or not, we were delayed on our last cruise on Fascination.

 

First, we were turned away at the parking lot because they were late getting the previous cruisers off, then when we got into the terminal, they wouldn't let us thru the metal detectors and x-rays because there was a Coast Guard inspection going on. The whole thing was such a mess they weren't even taking the "sailaway" photos in the terminal. We still got aboard by 1230, but probably because we were Platinum...

[DebJ14]

Hi

I get an email from carnival saying that carnival liberty will have the debarkation process a little bit behind because the ship is coming from Belize. They told

Me not to get to the port before 1pm. Is this popular, does it really takes that long?

Thanks !!

 

On our last cruise out of Galveston we received the same e-mail. They do a full customs and immigration inspection when the ships come back from Roatan and Belize, which means they have to run the passports through the machines and type in all the BC/DL info instead of just looking over the documents. This adds extra time to the process. We heeded the warning and got there just before 1pm. We are Platinum and as soon as we finished check in we boarded the ship. But, the terminal was packed and they had not yet started calling the zone numbers. People who had been at the terminal since 10:30 were furious that they were still not boarding at 1:15pm. Ignore the e-mail at your own risk.

 

I know from past experience with fog in Galveston when they say boarding will be delayed - it is. We got an e-mail not to arrive at the terminal until after 4pm for a Jan cruise on the Magic. We arrived then, were directed to Priority check-in and processed quickly. However, they had a holding pen in the luggage area for all the regular guests. Some of them had been there since 10am. They were packed in like sardines. When they got to the door they received a card with a number on it. They were then called to go to check in by number. It took hours until all were processed and boarded. We never left the dock until 3:45am the next morning. We were ever so grateful that we heeded the warning not to come to the pier and that we were platinum and did not have to endure that mess.