What time can we board?

[Customcruiser]

We are sailing on Oceania Regatta October 8, 2005 from Barcelona. What time can we board? I am setting up pickup time at our hotel at 2:00 pm. Does this sound like a good hour? I want to go shopping for soda's etc. beforehand.Thank you for your help. Carol

[macbest]

In Athens a couple of weeks ago, we were able to board starting at 1pm. If you are on one of the concierge floors or suite, they got to board at 11:30. This is where the extra couple of hundred dollars really pay off since those individuals got to book 2 times each in Polo and Toscana (whereas everyone else books only once in each) and got to book spa reservations prior to anyone else on board. By the time we got on board, all of the massages for at sea days were booked and it was a real hassle trying to get extra times at either restaraunt.

 

As a note to FDR if he is checking this: here is a suggestion that was very poorly handled at embarkation that I never have experienced on other cruise lines:

 

when cueing to check documents prior to boarding, everyone is broken down into three areas based on their room type: white, silver and gold. There are two or three lines for white cardholders (those not on a concierge level and not in a suite who are in silver and gold card lines respectively) and 2 lines for each of silver and gold guests.

 

At 1pm when we checked in, there was no one in the silver and gold lines (many had already boarded between 11:30 and 1pm) and hundreds of passengers in the white lines. Not once did the silver and gold line representatives ask to check in anyone in the white line. They just sat around and talked and laughed. This was very disappointing. It doesn't mean that you "fill up" those lines so that you couldn't provide excellent service from others, but they could strip one or more persons off the white line passengers and speed everyone through the process. This was a very bad way to start a cruise as it really pointed out the various "levels" that exists like on the QE2.