Regal Embarkation

[Carol28]

I just read a thread about the Ruby embarkation and how terrible it was. We were given our time to board for the Aloha deck between 12:30 - 1:30.

 

How has the embarkation been in Ft. Lauderdale?

[Miss L.A.P.]

My DH and I were on the Nov. 6th sailing of the Regal - 3 day cruise and we arrived at the port at 11am and were on the ship by 11:20am.

 

It was the smoothest embarkation ever.

 

We sailed on the Caribbean Princess in May and arrived close to noon and it was not bad but definitely crowded and it took us over an hour to get on board.

[fishywood]

I just read a thread about the Ruby embarkation and how terrible it was.

 

I take it you are referring to this thread in which the OP reported arriving at the terminal at 11:40 and not being able check in until (horrors!) 12:00 even though their boarding pass stated check in would start at 12:30. Yeah, talk about terrible...

[Evelyn143]

I just read a thread about the Ruby embarkation and how terrible it was. We were given our time to board for the Aloha deck between 12:30 - 1:30.

 

How has the embarkation been in Ft. Lauderdale?

 

 

I have embarked many times on Princess from Port Everglades. It is usually very efficient. Last year there was a long delay because of a Government inspection. Delays are not always caused by the cruise lines.

 

Evelyn

 

 

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[rdsqrl]

I just read a thread about the Ruby embarkation and how terrible it was. We were given our time to board for the Aloha deck between 12:30 - 1:30.

 

How has the embarkation been in Ft. Lauderdale?

The Regal carries 3600 pax (give or take). Boarding generally begins around 12noon and ends around 3.30. That's 3.5 hours to board 3600 people, through maybe 2 gangways. Do the math. You are going to have lines; you are going to have wait time; you are going to have crowds surrounding you. Bring a bottle of water, a book, and your patience. Fretting and stressing and getting agita won't hurry things along. After all, it's not like the cabins are held on a first-come/first-served basis.

Edited November 18, 2014 by rdsqrl
Regal/Ruby; potato/potahto

[ar1950]

.......Bring a bottle of water,.......

 

Bring two. One to drink if you need to prior to check-in and the other to remain sealed until you go through security and then you can open and drink it. On our recent Golden cruise out of San Pedro we had water bottles that we had brought from the airport that were mostly full, but had been opened. The security people saw that they had been opened and we had to toss them before going through. There was a big barrel with lots of partially filled water bottles. First time that we had that happen. :mad:

[Carol28]

We've only had one bad experience and that was this year on NCL in New Orleans where there seemed to be no organization. We've traveled from Ft. Lauderdale often (since we live here) and have not experienced a problem, but usually we travel HAL or RCCL. This is our first Princess. Since it is the port employees that run the embarkation, it's hard to believe that it will be disorganized since they have to deal with the Allure and Oasis.

 

My favorite part of the cruise is that first step onto the ship. It breathes happiness into me. I hope the embarkation goes smoothly.

[5:00_Somewhere]

I have embarked many times on Princess from Port Everglades. It is usually very efficient. Last year there was a long delay because of a Government inspection. Delays are not always caused by the cruise lines.

 

Evelyn

 

 

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We have also embarked many times from Port Everglades, and agree that it used to be a very efficient operation.

 

However, last year boarding the Royal, and a week ago boarding the Regal were two of the most inefficient, disorganized and frustrating embarkation experiences we've ever had. I'm not "blaming" Princess, but I do really think something needs to be done. There definitely needs to be a better coordination between Princess and the Port personnel, and just a better system overall. The system is definitely broken at P.E. right now, at least as far as the Royal and Regal are concerned.

 

The Regal carries 3600 pax (give or take). Boarding generally begins around 12noon and ends around 3.30. That's 3.5 hours to board 3600 people, through maybe 2 gangways. Do the math. You are going to have lines; you are going to have wait time; you are going to have crowds surrounding you. Bring a bottle of water, a book, and your patience. Fretting and stressing and getting agita won't hurry things along. After all, it's not like the cabins are held on a first-come/first-served basis.

 

Good advice. Don't worry, be happy.

[HRPro]

We arrived at the Port around 1:00 pm on Sunday and were checked in and on the ship by 1:30pm. There was a short line outside the terminal, but no lines inside and not wait to check in. we walked right on th ship. Others that arrived earlier had a short wait but apparently the process went smoothly. No worries!