Staggered Embarkation and FTTF

[vanderty]

We depart on the Breeze 7/12 and today I got an email from Carnival telling me that would be doing a staggered embarkation and our time was from 1pm-2pm. It said if we arrive earlier we might be denied boarding. However, we purchased FTTF, so am I correctly assuming that this email does not apply to me? I certainly hope I didn't purchase FTTF to not be able to get on the ship until 1:00 PM.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[SadieN]

Arrive when you want. Rarely are those emails about a real reason beyond staggering pax.

 

FTTF works whether you arrive before or after boarding starts.

 

If you arrive before boarding begins FTTF folks go after the other priority pax. If you arrive after boarding starts you simply follow the priority signs/directions.

[ma_t_gus]

me too !!!!!

[Shipof6Fools]

Sorry for the silly question but what is FTTF?

[javajunkie91]

FTTF is "Faster to the "Fun. You pay a fee to get on board earlier.

[beastbeason]

FTTF is Faster to the Fun. Priority check-in, boarding after diamond and platinum, direct to room, priority tender, diamond/platinum customer service line, priority disembarking. Costs about $60 found in the excursion section of your departure port. Only one FTTF per stateroom needed and slots are limited. Some people like me love it, some would rather save the money.

[jvmiami]

We depart on the Breeze 7/12 and today I got an email from Carnival telling me that would be doing a staggered embarkation and our time was from 1pm-2pm. It said if we arrive earlier we might be denied boarding. However, we purchased FTTF, so am I correctly assuming that this email does not apply to me? I certainly hope I didn't purchase FTTF to not be able to get on the ship until 1:00 PM.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

 

Hi im also sailing on the 12, i also received the email for embarkation time of 2-3 P.M. Since i purchased FTTF also i plan on being there early, Don't mind the Email, everyone gets it..

 

Have you visited our roll call

[javajunkie91]

Where is the roll call?

[RjayB]

I understand Carnival wanting to spread out the embarkation to make the lines shorter for everyone, but sending these emails to FTTF / Plats / Diamonds is a bit ridiculous. All it shows is that Carnival doesn't even use any filtering at all before sending random emails :rolleyes:

[sc4125]

I'm sailing on the Conquest on the 12th & received the same email (1:30 - 2:30 assigned boarding time). This is the first time I've ever gotten the email, (I'm Platinum) but I'm going to act like I never got it & get to the port early.

 

I know that I've seen on here that those getting the emails ignored them, but don't remember ever seeing anyone coming back to let us know if there was a problem. Anyone?

[rtap23]

I'm sailing on the Conquest on the 12th & received the same email (1:30 - 2:30 assigned boarding time). This is the first time I've ever gotten the email, (I'm Platinum) but I'm going to act like I never got it & get to the port early.

 

I know that I've seen on here that those getting the emails ignored them, but don't remember ever seeing anyone coming back to let us know if there was a problem. Anyone?

 

Sc4125 I'm on the same sailing as you. I received the email yesterday but with a boarding time from 12:30 - 1:30.

[sc4125]

Sc4125 I'm on the same sailing as you. I received the email yesterday but with a boarding time from 12:30 - 1:30.

 

So, are you going to risk it & get there earlier? I've never sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale (well I did MANY years ago when I was working onboard), so not sure how well embarkation works there.

 

My sister & I will be staying at the Fairfield Suites the night before & leaving our car there -only about $10 more than the parking alone would cost at the port. We live in Lakeland (central Fla), only about a 3 1/2 hour drive, so we normally drive to the ports the day of. But, with that cost I'm looking forward to a relaxing morning the day of sailing.

 

Hope to see you onboard - do you spend much time in the casino?

 

Shirley

[SeeBurd]

We depart on the Breeze 7/12 and today I got an email from Carnival telling me that would be doing a staggered embarkation and our time was from 1pm-2pm. It said if we arrive earlier we might be denied boarding. However, we purchased FTTF, so am I correctly assuming that this email does not apply to me? I certainly hope I didn't purchase FTTF to not be able to get on the ship until 1:00 PM.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

If they're sending them out to ,f,t,t,f purchasers, it tells me they still have a system that does not recognize nor matches arrival times to notification times. If I werent a VIP member I would be personally concerned.

 

But until I read that someone was delayed passage due to such, I will continue to give the same advice; arrive early and/ or when you like. Nothing shouts NO louder than a company that tells you to arrive late, just to help them accomodate a silly program for $$ at the expense of the other customer.

[rtap23]

So, are you going to risk it & get there earlier? I've never sailed out of Ft. Lauderdale (well I did MANY years ago when I was working onboard), so not sure how well embarkation works there.

 

My sister & I will be staying at the Fairfield Suites the night before & leaving our car there -only about $10 more than the parking alone would cost at the port. We live in Lakeland (central Fla), only about a 3 1/2 hour drive, so we normally drive to the ports the day of. But, with that cost I'm looking forward to a relaxing morning the day of sailing.

 

Hope to see you onboard - do you spend much time in the casino?

 

Shirley

 

Shirley

 

Yes we will probably arrive at port around 10:30 so I guess we will find out what happens. We drove down to Miami last weekend for a pre cruise vacation and now we are at the Florida Keys. Hope to see you on board. I only spend a couple of hours per night in the casino.

[dchoney]

I am also on the July 12th Breeze!!! Can't wait -- 4 days and counting! I also have FTTF and received the letter for a 1:00pm boarding time. I plan to ignore it and arrive around 10:30am!!! Can you tell that I'm a little excited :)

[jimbo5544]

It is interesting that there appears to be more and more of this going on. Obviously, Carnival is trying to implement a staggered embarkation to rid the mob scene of people trying to get on the ship, as other cruise lines have done. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. I would love to see a copy of the email, wording like "denied boarding" sounds extreme.......

 

If I had paid for FTTF, I would still get there early, I wonder if plats and diamonds get the same email (we shall see 8/8/15 when we board the Sunshine)?

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

If they're sending them out to ,f,t,t,f purchasers, it tells me they still have a system that does not recognize nor matches arrival times to notification times. If I werent a VIP member I would be personally concerned.

 

But until I read that someone was delayed passage due to such, I will continue to give the same advice; arrive early and/ or when you like. Nothing shouts NO louder than a company that tells you to arrive late, just to help them accomodate a silly program for $$ at the expense of the other customer.

 

I don't think the availability of 50 or so FTTF excursions has much impact on the boarding process...but the ever increasing amount of platinum cruisers may. Besides, the fact that so many cruisers totally ignore the published boarding time of 1 pm (SEE Carnival website) and the gridlock at piers where debark and embark collide are becoming ever more pronounced. Once the holding rooms are full the check-in line stops and at many piers this means passengers may get stuck outside standing in the hot sun...and if boarding is delayed for any reason I have seen these lines holding hundreds if not thousands of passengers.

 

As long as people insist on being the first one at the pier, the first one onboard, and the first one diving into lunch the embarkation problems will continue to escalate. I am sure cruise lines are trying diligently to improve the process and these "hated" emails are probably effective in staggering the newbies...but with ever increasing loyalty passengers (I have heard of as much as 1/4th of a sailing from retirement areas) it won't be to much longer before the cruise lines will stop priority boarding and boarding will be assigned when the cruise tickets are purchased (some lines are already using this method).

 

So go ahead and arrive early and ignore all emails....if the process doesn't get better soon you may not have the opportunity to do so in the not to distant future.

[SeeBurd]

I don't think the availability of 50 or so FTTF excursions has much impact on the boarding process...but the ever increasing amount of platinum cruisers may.

 

I remain suspect, and realize I may never find out, that they are only selling a limited amount of pure profit "passes". In true conspiracy theory, I'm gonna venture that they fill up the announced passes, and then burp out a couple here and there.

 

But I do wonder if they are trying to do this for aesthetics. What do they care if the line is 3 hours deep, which I encountered one cruise where I thought it was a good thing to work half a day.

[HectorAchilleus]

It is interesting that there appears to be more and more of this going on. Obviously, Carnival is trying to implement a staggered embarkation to rid the mob scene of people trying to get on the ship, as other cruise lines have done. It will be interesting to see how it all works out. I would love to see a copy of the email, wording like "denied boarding" sounds extreme.......

 

If I had paid for FTTF, I would still get there early, I wonder if plats and diamonds get the same email (we shall see 8/8/15 when we board the Sunshine)?

 

I am a Plat, and I received the same notice with a 2:00 boarding time. I called and asked if FTTF (our friends ordered it so we could board together) and Plats should ignore the notice, and they informed me that Priority boarding just means that you get on faster and move to the front of the line; it does NOT mean that you are guaranteed to be first on the ship. In other words, when you arrive at the designated time, you get right on. Our friends, BTW were assigned 1:00 boarding times. So much for their Loyalty Program.

 

I think this development is all made necessary by the increasing number of people who are FTTF, Plats, Diamonds and arrive early.

 

We decided to arrive at 1:00 with our FTTF friends and got right on the ship - no comments or questions asked.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

I remain suspect, and realize I may never find out, that they are only selling a limited amount of pure profit "passes". In true conspiracy theory, I'm gonna venture that they fill up the announced passes, and then burp out a couple here and there.

 

But I do wonder if they are trying to do this for aesthetics. What do they care if the line is 3 hours deep, which I encountered one cruise where I thought it was a good thing to work half a day.

 

I would hazard a guess that FTTF is directly correlated to the amount of loyalty passengers who book a cruise. The less platinums the more FTTF.

 

Besides, FTTF just like platinums is really priority boarding not necessarily "early" boarding. It means, once passed security, you can go to a special check in line and then move to the head of the line where people are waiting in the holding rooms.

 

Of course Carnival cares about lines....based on all these threads it is patently obvious that cruise passengers hate waiting. Someone trying Carnival for the first time isn't going to be to impressed if they have to wait for hours at the terminal just to get onboard the ship.

 

I think the emails are great. And if FTTF passengers and loyalists don't understand them and get upset by them that just means they haven't been doing their homework.

[jimbo5544]

I am a Plat, and I received the same notice with a 2:00 boarding time. I called and asked if FTTF (our friends ordered it so we could board together) and Plats should ignore the notice, and they informed me that Priority boarding just means that you get on faster and move to the front of the line; it does NOT mean that you are guaranteed to be first on the ship. In other words, when you arrive at the designated time, you get right on. Our friends, BTW were assigned 1:00 boarding times. So much for their Loyalty Program.

 

I think this development is all made necessary by the increasing number of people who are FTTF, Plats, Diamonds and arrive early.

 

We decided to arrive at 1:00 with our FTTF friends and got right on the ship - no comments or questions asked.

Very interesting, thanks for the info.

[rtap23]

I would hazard a guess that FTTF is directly correlated to the amount of loyalty passengers who book a cruise. The less platinums the more FTTF.

 

Besides, FTTF just like platinums is really priority boarding not necessarily "early" boarding. It means, once passed security, you can go to a special check in line and then move to the head of the line where people are waiting in the holding rooms.

 

Of course Carnival cares about lines....based on all these threads it is patently obvious that cruise passengers hate waiting. Someone trying Carnival for the first time isn't going to be to impressed if they have to wait for hours at the terminal just to get onboard the ship.

 

I think the emails are great. And if FTTF passengers and loyalists don't understand them and get upset by them that just means they haven't been doing their homework.

 

When you purchase fttf it says that the excursion starts at 11. So even though I received the email with a later boarding time I will be there earlier.

[Sweet Dutch Girl]

When you purchase fttf it says that the excursion starts at 11. So even though I received the email with a later boarding time I will be there earlier.

 

If the published time is 11 why then are peeps getting to the terminal at 9:30 and adding to the congestion curbside of people trying to get off their cruise and to their cars, cabs, or airport transportation?

[SeeBurd]

If the published time is 11 why then are peeps getting to the terminal at 9:30 and adding to the congestion curbside of people trying to get off their cruise and to their cars, cabs, or airport transportation?

 

Traffic. In our port, if you're not there the latest 10:30, you sit for hours sitting among those leaving, and those arriving. We have our arrival and departure down to a science.

[sotuffexecutive]

Interesting that I have never received a boarding time email. I was on Paradise in Dec. with FTTF and no email. Head out in a week on Sensation with FTTF and no boarding time email. Perhaps only the bigger ships are attempting to incorporate staggered boarding times.