Arrive Early for Embarkation, yes or no?

[The_Graphic1]

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

 

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

[6rugrats]

I probably would stick to what Carnival suggests, but it's your choice.

[KKB]

I figure it is the first day of my cruise & I want to be on as soon as I can! I figure I can wait at my hotel or wait at the port, really, what is the difference?

 

Twice we have arrived around 3PM due to flying in the day of departure...I will say, we walked right in, NO lines either time.

Edited January 20, 2015 by KKB

[paul929207]

With Carnival, your cabin will not be ready until 1:30 or so. That means you will be carrying around your carry on luggage until then.

 

Carnival offers early boarding for an extra fee, so they are in no hurry to get others on

[cb at sea]

I wouldn't get there to early, unless you bought FTTF....Carnival CHARGES to be the 1st on the ship!

If you get there around noon, you shouldn't have much wait at all.

[VTX-AL]

...or, get there early and just "people watch" until it's your turn :D .

 

...VTX-Al

[The_Graphic1]

Thanks for the quick responses. We will probably end up just getting there a little early I guess and see how things go. Then if we have to wait at least we haven't waited for several hours.

[preschool teacher]

I haven't been on carnival for a while....but we always arrive at 9:30 and are

among the first on. even if you are not among the first people on, you will checked in, sitting down, waiting to be called.

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

We always arrive before noon. ONly time we were delayed was for a looonnnnngggggg coast guard inspection where noone was allowed to board.

[Surfdiva83]

We always arrive early and it's never been an issue. You are given a boarding card with a number and are called to board after those with priority boarding/FTTF. We've never waited long at all. We check our luggage and each pack a backpack with what's needed for the evening to carry on with us in case our luggage takes awhile to arrive.

[Cruisin' Chick]

It's been some 12 years since we've been on Carnival, but we arrive when we arrive. Usually before noon. I seem to remember that cabins used to be ready when we've boarded Carnival, but it's probably a good idea to keep your carry ons manageable then.

 

On our last three cruises (on Princess) we've received an "emergency" email that said not to arrive before 1pm. So we got there between 11:30 and 12:15 (that time the transportation company we've booked through screwed up so we got picked up much later than we waited). We've never been turned away and in fact two of those times, didn't have a wait to check in. Also, Princess has the cabins ready when you board.

[kelkel2]

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

 

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

 

I always arrive to the port around 10:30 Boarding with Carnival typically starts at 11:30ish. Sometimes it's later if there's been a hold up with customs clearing the ship or an inspection or something like that, but that doesn't happen every time.

Honestly though, we stay at a hotel the night before and we have to be out of the hotel by 11 anyways. My husband is kind of slow going in the morning and it can be hard to get him moving so I always try to get him out of the room and to the port early because it always seems like I have to completely re-pack his suitcase the morning of the cruise.

If we didn't head to the port that early we really wouldn't have anywhere else to go other than the lobby of our hotel. I realize we could have the hotel hold our luggage for us while we go do something but that's a lot of back and forth when you could just head to the port. Unless you go extremely early, say 8am, they aren't going to turn you away.

 

OP- if you're talking about the email Carnival sent you about a scheduled time you should arrive to the port you can absolutely ignore that email. IF something bad happened that actually delayed the ship you would hear about it all over cruise critic. Carnival sends out those emails in hopes that people will not all come at once and will be more dispersed through out the day.

Edited January 22, 2015 by kelkel2

[CheckersMidwest]

We always arrive at the port by 10:30 & we're always on board before noon. A couple of times we bought Faster To The Fun and were on board about 11:15. With that, your rooms are ready immediately to drop off your stuff, otherwise, the rooms are ready at 1:00. Just don't take a lot of carry on stuff.

 

There's music playing on the lido, pools are open, food is ready for lunch, etc. We treat embarkation day as a sea day. We like to have our things put away, lunch, explore the ship & take pictures before people show up, and ready for sail away.

 

Everyone gets the infamous email not to arrive early. It's so not everyone gets there at the same time. We've never really had a line going earlier in the morning, even without FTTF.

[The_Graphic1]

I always arrive to the port around 10:30 Boarding with Carnival typically starts at 11:30ish. Sometimes it's later if there's been a hold up with customs clearing the ship or an inspection or something like that, but that doesn't happen every time.

Honestly though, we stay at a hotel the night before and we have to be out of the hotel by 11 anyways. My husband is kind of slow going in the morning and it can be hard to get him moving so I always try to get him out of the room and to the port early because it always seems like I have to completely re-pack his suitcase the morning of the cruise.

If we didn't head to the port that early we really wouldn't have anywhere else to go other than the lobby of our hotel. I realize we could have the hotel hold our luggage for us while we go do something but that's a lot of back and forth when you could just head to the port. Unless you go extremely early, say 8am, they aren't going to turn you away.

 

OP- if you're talking about the email Carnival sent you about a scheduled time you should arrive to the port you can absolutely ignore that email. IF something bad happened that actually delayed the ship you would hear about it all over cruise critic. Carnival sends out those emails in hopes that people will not all come at once and will be more dispersed through out the day.

 

We had initially planned on going to port about 10:30'ish ourselves. The info I was referring to was in our cruise documentation I printed out from Carnival's website with our boarding passes and luggage tags.

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I would prefer to get there and get boarded earlier in the day, but I also didn't want to end up having to sit from 11 or 11:30 until 2 or 3. As first time cruisers I feel like there is a ton to learn, lol.

[Lionesss]

Oh we always arrive early.

 

Nothing like letting the anticipation build at the pier sitting and waiting.

 

On our last two Allure sailings we were at the port by 10:30, thru check-in and picture taken sitting in the suite lounge by 10:45.

 

Two feet on board by 11:30am.

 

Love it!!!

 

Safe travels.

[kelkel2]

We had initially planned on going to port about 10:30'ish ourselves. The info I was referring to was in our cruise documentation I printed out from Carnival's website with our boarding passes and luggage tags.

 

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I would prefer to get there and get boarded earlier in the day, but I also didn't want to end up having to sit from 11 or 11:30 until 2 or 3. As first time cruisers I feel like there is a ton to learn, lol.

 

Unless something goes terribly terribly wrong you won't be waiting to board until 2-3. If that happens it's because the ship itself came in late and that would be communicated to everyone and the whole boarding process would be delayed because everyone would be delayed getting off. It does happen occasionally due to weather but it's not often.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with showing up between 10:30-11:00 and waiting the half hour to hour for boarding to begin. Boarding "generally" starts around 11:30. They start with platinum and FTTF and then they will go in order of boarding groups. You get a number tag assigned to you notating what time you got there. People who get there super early get a "1" and then 2 and so forth.. so whatever boarding number you have dictates when you will board. Regardless staterooms on Carnival will not be ready until 1:30.

[Folk Singer]

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

 

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

 

My answer is yes. Arrive early.

[spookwife]

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

 

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

 

soonest you can expect them to begin boarding at 1130 or so. arrive prior to that and you will be stuck in a large waiting area, possibly without enough seats to handle the crowd. within an hour, it will be cleared out enough that you could walk right on. they want to stagger arrival times to AVOID the large crowds that just congest everything.

[panoramaofthepast]

We are first time cruisers and are leaving out of New Orleans on Feb. 2nd on Carnival. I've heard some people who suggest arriving well ahead of your scheduled embarkation time and that you can get on board, eat lunch, explore the ship, etc... This was our plan to arrive early in the day well before our 1:30-3:00 p.m. boarding time. Looking through my documents from Carnival however I see a "Special Notice - Embarkation" that says you are encouraged to NOT arrive more than 30 minutes prior to your scheduled boarding time.

 

 

 

So my question would be should I arrive earlier in the day or not?

 

 

We usually arrive between 10:30-11am and are on board by noon at the latest. Generally rooms won't be open until 1pm. Have you considered buying Faster to the Fun? That will guarantee that your room will be ready and your luggage will be delivered quickly. You can find it under excursions for your home port.

 

Embarkation is always a hurry up and wait kind of day. Just go with the flow until the ship is underway!

 

Il

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[Folk Singer]

It is always fun to get on board as early as you can. To view the ship and to explore have a quiet meal and a drink or two and watch the fun from the Deck.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Folk Singer

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

It is always fun to get on board as early as you can. To view the ship and to explore have a quiet meal and a drink or two and watch the fun from the Deck.

 

So true. We did a B2B in December, and really enjoyed that day. This pormpted me to purchse FTTF for my next cruise in April