Early Boarding on Princess....is this something new?

[satxdiver]

I just read a review from someone on a Alaska Cruise on the Ruby & when checked in they were told that they could board right away as this was a new policy for Princess.

Here's what they mentioned, "There was a postcard in our cabin explaining that Princess was trying a new early boarding procedure, and that we should enjoy the ship, but understand that the stewards might still be getting our rooms ready."

 

Anyone heard or experienced this?

Tom😎

 

We boarded the Ruby in Seattle on July 29. We always arrive at about 11 AM to board after waiting until boarding time. We are elite so we get to be first on board. So we arrived at the terminal at about 11 AM per our practice, turned in our checked luggage and proceeded to the usual checks. When we got to the desk to get our boarding documents, there were no pax waiting which was unusual to say the least. They checked our documents, handed us our cards and told us to go aboard the ship. We walked aboard the ship at about 11:15 or so and was in our cabin a few minutes later. The room steward was still cleaning the cabin and asked us to come back later but did allow us to leave our carry on luggage. We had to wait until noon to go to the MDR for lunch. Yes, the card was in our cabin as reported. It was really great but if they continue it, I can imagine huge crowds that will be there early. Princess did send out the usual tiered boarding plan but we ignored it.

 

So believe the story because it is true.

[ams cruiser]

The cruiser thought they needed to wait until an assigned boarding time of 1 PM. To him/her, any time boarding before the suggested time of 1 PM was early.

 

I'm the cruiser who wrote the review about my Ruby Alaska cruise. We left our hotel at around 10:50, and we're sitting in Da Vinci for lunch by 11:50! There really weren't any lines at that time, and we were quite pleasantly surprised. We honestly couldn't figure out where all the people were.

[ams cruiser]

We boarded the Ruby in Seattle on July 29. We always arrive at about 11 AM to board after waiting until boarding time. We are elite so we get to be first on board. So we arrived at the terminal at about 11 AM per our practice, turned in our checked luggage and proceeded to the usual checks. When we got to the desk to get our boarding documents, there were no pax waiting which was unusual to say the least. They checked our documents, handed us our cards and told us to go aboard the ship. We walked aboard the ship at about 11:15 or so and was in our cabin a few minutes later. The room steward was still cleaning the cabin and asked us to come back later but did allow us to leave our carry on luggage. We had to wait until noon to go to the MDR for lunch. Yes, the card was in our cabin as reported. It was really great but if they continue it, I can imagine huge crowds that will be there early. Princess did send out the usual tiered boarding plan but we ignored it.

 

So believe the story because it is true.

 

:D

 

I'm the original poster of the Ruby Alaska review, and was so pleasantly surprised that there were no lines. When we boarded at around 11:15, our Caribe room was ready. This was only our second time sailing Princess, and we didn't have elite status, so we were really expecting the long wait we remembered from our first cruise, over a decade ago.