How early can you board?

[danem]

If departure is listed at 4:00pm, how early can you get on the ship or I guess the even more important question is what time do you need to be on the ship?

[gambit57]

Call Princess to be sure. Sounds like your last check-in time will be at around 3pm. That's the latest you wanna show up at the pier. I'm gonna guess you can board at noon.

[cruisequeen10]

Try to get there as early as possible. The boarding time is probably 12 noon. The earlier you get there, the earlier you can relax. Check out your room, have LUNCH (you don't want to miss a meal), check out the ship, relax, life boat drill, watch leaving the port, dinner etc.

[woodofpine]

I concur the earlier arrival the better, after all it does count as a "day" aboard to the line. Getting aboard will vary ship to ship and by region. I don't think the line feel to compelled to "lower the gangway" prior to Noon for Caribbean sailings.

 

On European sailings though Princess will often allow pax to board quite early given that the last disembarking usually aren't off until after 10 AM. On Golden P. in Barcelona a couple years ago, they let folks aboard well before 11 AM. I imagine they do that because a lot of passengers are arriving from the states quite early on red eye flights; since a lot of them will be Princess booked air, there's a service incentive to allow fairly immediate boarding. I recollect that hotel management did request that we hold off from the cabins and passageways until noon. Although special needs and elderly weren't prevented from going to their cabins, the crew and stewards put on their best face and worked around the incoming. Those that needed the rest got their cabins done priority. Come to think of it, that cruise generally shined for passenger logistics. Transporting luggage to hotels in Venice is something to see (but not have to do personally) through the canals...

[Pam in CA]

The official boarding time is usually Noon but sometimes they start boarding earlier. I wouldn't get there much before 11:15AM since chances are that you'll wind up waiting if you do. Once they start boarding, the line moves quickly. I hate the boarding photo-op and walk right past it, blowing past the photographers, stopping only to hand over my cruisecard for that photo.