Are rooms ready at boarding time?

[dorisis]

Yes, the cabins are ready by the time you board...BUT if you are checked in early, you may be asked to wait in a waiting area. it is usually seperated for elite and suite passengers and may have pastries and beverages.

 

A lot depends on the ship and the port.

[susancruzs]

I had an issue one time, extenuating circumstances, involving the ship arriving late, an inspection, a crew issue, etc.! I would never make a blanket statement on that one experience, it was an exception from years go.

 

All I did was ask if I could set my stuff out of the way, go to the buffet, while he finished up. Sometimes I do the same thing in the a.m., always ask nicely if I can leave my carry on while I get breakfast.

[5:00_Somewhere]

Add us to the list: our cabin has been ready on every one of our 20 Princess cruises. We are Elite now, and typically are among the first to board the ship, and still the cabin is always ready. Last January, our boarding time for the CB was delayed due to extensive Norovirus cleaning, but when we boarded our cabin was fully cleaned and available for occupancy.

[greenie082756]

We have only cruised once on Princess and our cabin was ready and the stewardess met us almost immediately answering any questions and showing us everything we needed to know about the cabin.

 

That first impression is what made us decide that Princess would be our main cruise company.

 

Previously with Disney we had to haul our carryon's with us as they directed us immediately to the buffet and told us to enjoy lunch until our rooms would be ready after 1 pm. That was a bit cumbersome as hubby and I had to maneuver around the luggage at the table.

 

Because Princess guarantee's to the best of their ability to have the cabin ready at time of boarding is a great first impression IMHO. :)

[hawkeyetlse]

I've had my room ready on embarkation every time I've sailed on Princess. From what I understand, the tradeoff is having to be out of your room by 8am on disembarkation day where other lines will generally let you stay in your room until you disembark, but then won't have them ready until after you board.

On our last Princess cruise, staterooms had to be vacated by 8:30am, and there were disembarkation group times scheduled up until 10:40am.

 

On our last NCL cruise, staterooms had to vacated by 8:30am and everyone had to be off the ship by 9:30am.

 

I am concerned by the many people who post on CC to say "ignore the afternoon boarding time Princess tells you and just show up at 11am". This puts the crew under enormous pressure to get staterooms and public areas ready for the next batch of passengers. Your stateroom may look ready, but did the steward really have time to do a proper thorough cleaning or did he maybe have to cut corners and overlook some things because he only had 20 minutes to do everything?

 

People often mention how their boarding was delayed for noro cleaning. I would be happy to board later on every cruise so they could do this every time! Or even just so that the whole crew could have an extra hour or three to make turn-around day a little easier for them.

[love2cruisegal]

I agree with you all. We have been able to go directly to our cabin on every cruise; most of the time in our cabin by 12:30 and a couple times at noon. In 2010 we decided to try RCCL one more time and walked up to our cabin around 12:30 and they had someone by elevators telling us they won't be ready till after 1:00. So we dragged our luggage to the buffet along with everyone else...what a mess that was with luggage all over and in the isles. Buffet area was a zoo! We decided then we would go back to Princess.

[PescadoAmarillo]

We've only had one Princess cruise where our rooms were not available on boarding (Royal Princess, 10/29/13), and we were given notices upon boarding telling us that.

[JimmyVWine]

I am concerned by the many people who post on CC to say "ignore the afternoon boarding time Princess tells you and just show up at 11am". This puts the crew under enormous pressure to get staterooms and public areas ready for the next batch of passengers. Your stateroom may look ready, but did the steward really have time to do a proper thorough cleaning or did he maybe have to cut corners and overlook some things because he only had 20 minutes to do everything?

 

I have to take issue with this. If Princess feels "squeezed" and time is tight for allowing the "early birds" to board, then Princess has within its complete control to prohibit boarding until it feels that everything on board is up to snuff. No one gets on the ship until Princess allows them to. I doubt that Princess routinely lets people on board with an eye roll, muttering under its breath: "You really shouldn't have arrived so early. We aren't ready for you. But we will let you on anyway." When Princess drops the rope and lets people on board, it does so only after everyone with a walkie talkie has given the OK to do so.

[maggie.1008]

Do Mini Suites get priority boarding ? I know on Celebrity they do.

[JimmyVWine]

Do Mini Suites get priority boarding ? I know on Celebrity they do.

 

No. If you book a Mini Suite, you must have Elite/Platinum status to board first.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I agree with you all. We have been able to go directly to our cabin on every cruise; most of the time in our cabin by 12:30 and a couple times at noon. In 2010 we decided to try RCCL one more time and walked up to our cabin around 12:30 and they had someone by elevators telling us they won't be ready till after 1:00. So we dragged our luggage to the buffet along with everyone else...what a mess that was with luggage all over and in the isles. Buffet area was a zoo! We decided then we would go back to Princess.

 

I have to take issue with this. If Princess feels "squeezed" and time is tight for allowing the "early birds" to board, then Princess has within its complete control to prohibit boarding until it feels that everything on board is up to snuff. No one gets on the ship until Princess allows them to. I doubt that Princess routinely lets people on board with an eye roll, muttering under its breath: "You really shouldn't have arrived so early. We aren't ready for you. But we will let you on anyway." When Princess drops the rope and lets people on board, it does so only after everyone with a walkie talkie has given the OK to do so.

 

Our last three cruises were out of San Pedro, so I believe the 1pm time was more to handle traffic coming into the World Cruise Center, rather than forcing Princess to let people board before the proper cleaning of cabins can be completed. If cars are arriving at 10am, there's the possibility of a major traffic jam with vehicles taking out disembarking passengers.

[hawkeyetlse]

If Princess feels "squeezed" and time is tight for allowing the "early birds" to board, then Princess has within its complete control to prohibit boarding until it feels that everything on board is up to snuff.

Princess is not the one being squeezed, they are the ones doing the squeezing. In part because passengers want to board as early as possible, and in part because they'd rather have you on board starting to spend money than sitting in the terminal grumbling about having to wait. Sure, boarding doesn't start until all the people with walkie-talkies give the go-ahead, but all the people with walkie-talkies know that Princess needs them to give the go-ahead as quickly as possible. I know they ship's crew is really hard-working and efficient, and they have turn-around day down to a science, but there is a trade-off between how fast you want a job done vs. how much can be done and how well it can be done.

[Who Knew]

and odds are' date=' it would be the very rare exception with a likely reason. Another reason to like Princess!:)

[/quote']

 

Exactly! In all my cruises with Princess, only one time was the steward still in the room. He was basically done, but just had a few little things to do. As I recall there actually was a good reason (though can't recall what it was now), combined with the fact that they let me on earlier than seemed usual. I just put my bag down and went to the buffet...how bad can that be, lol.

[Carolyn&Phil]

We just returned from the Royal Princess September 27th cruise from Red Hook (NY). We arrived at the terminal at 10:50 and were assigned a number and escorted to the Plat/Elite waiting area. We were given a piece of paper at 12:15 that said that the cabins would not be ready upon boarding. The Coast Guard was doing an inspection of the ship ( just returned from a Transatlantic). Well, at 1:10 they opened the doors and everyone rushed to get on board. A real mess - dangerous to say the least, with lots of walkers, scooters, wheel chairs and the rest of us all trying to get onboard.

 

Dropped of carry on in the cabin (not ready yet) and went to buffet. Cold foods were out, but very limited hot items available. 30 minutes later hot food arrived. Again, we were told, sorry, it was because of the Coast Guard inspection.

 

Our cabin was not completed until after muster drill, which was delayed 15 minutes.

 

I know this is an exception, but it was very poorly handled by Princess. Yes, the shoreside folks are not Princess personnel, but they (Princess) are in control.

 

It took from Saturday (boarding) until Tuesday (Boston) for the ship's supplies to be distributed to the various locations. Example, our wine was fine on Saturday, then not available again until Tuesday. Head waiter blamed it on the Coast Guard inspection. They also had only one brand of Scotch in the dining room on Sunday and Monday!

 

Everything improved from there and it was a great cruise, even with the bumps in the road.

[bhopal21]

I can understand that as those USCG inspections are unannounced and pretty thorough.

 

So I am willing to cut them some slack and give time to regroup.

 

When I am on vacation, as long as I am fed and the bar is open I don't worry about a hell of a lot.

 

Mike:)

[islandatsea]

I can understand that as those USCG inspections are unannounced and pretty thorough.

 

So I am willing to cut them some slack and give time to regroup.

 

When I am on vacation, as long as I am fed and the bar is open I don't worry about a hell of a lot.

Mike:)

 

Very true !!!

[capriccio]

The only time our embarkation was delayed was also due to a USCG inspection -- the Royal Princess (the old one, not the current) had just returned from a season overseas. We were told that when a ship returns to the US after months overseas, the USCG frequently schedules an extensive inspection that impacts the entire crew. We chalked that up to a learning experience - and try to avoid the initial US cruise of the season for that very reason.

Edited October 6, 2014 by capriccio

[HBINLA]

Also have been on many Princess cruises, and no matter what the loyalty level, all cabins are ready right on time to board. I think it's obnoxious for other cruise lines makes you pay extra to have the room ready on time!!! And we are not talking about high end cruise lines that do this.

 

 

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