When do you get nervous about DOCS?

[Schplinky]

Last cruise, we got edocs about six weeks before the cruise. This time, we don't know what we'll be getting but it's 3.5 weeks out and I'm starting to wonder. Not in a panicked way, mind you. Well, not yet. Our TA says that two weeks out it when you start to worry but I'm wondering when experienced X cruisers have typically received their docs?

[tbelian]

2 weeks

[dmarch@islc.net]

About a month...that said, I still don't have docs for Jan. 2 sailing. Oh well!

[Marie Stevens]

I bet you are on the Summit to Hawaii on Jan 2. We are too, annnnnd we still have not received our documents either. I called Best Price Cruises, our travel agency, and they said their policy is to put them in the mail 2 weeks before sailing, so they should be here today or tomorrow-----I hope.

[mii]

We got our last Celebrity docs two weeks out. And now with the xmas mailings it might be a little slower.

 

marilyn

[Schplinky]

Thanks everyone. I am guessing we will be getting real docs since if they were sending edocs, I presume we would have gotten them by now. Who knows. I'll report back when we get them.

[dmarch@islc.net]

I bet you are on the Summit to Hawaii on Jan 2. We are too, annnnnd we still have not received our documents either. I called Best Price Cruises, our travel agency, and they said their policy is to put them in the mail 2 weeks before sailing, so they should be here today or tomorrow-----I hope.

Same TA (we're not supposed to tell) and date, different ship. I really loved our cruise to Hawaii though. We settled for a jaunt around the Carib (easy and cheap).

 

Have fun,

David

[Karynanne]

I bet you are on the Summit to Hawaii on Jan 2. We are too, annnnnd we still have not received our documents either. I called Best Price Cruises, our travel agency, and they said their policy is to put them in the mail 2 weeks before sailing, so they should be here today or tomorrow-----I hope.

 

Marie, we are also on your cruise, with the same TA, and our docs were mailed just yesterday...they routinely mail them 2 weeks before.. Aloha!

 

Karyn

[Leela]

The last cruise I went on (Mercury, late September), I never got my docs. The travel agent kept telling me they were eDocs and kept telling me they sent them, and that they'd re-sent them. When I told the agent I was in a bit of a panic because the cruise was less than two weeks away, they just said they'd re-send them electronically. When I asked for paper, they said they couldn't do that. We never got any docs at all, and the agent never gave us any advice as to what we could or should do about it. We're never using that agency again, believe me.

 

Fortunately the good people here at Cruise Critics told me I could get what we needed off the Celebrity web site.

[pbcbbc]

Leela is right. You can print it all from thier website, including luggage tags. Not getting docs is not big deal.

[teedee]

Not that I would expect this to happen to anyone else, but a couple of years ago I was starting to get worried because everyone else on my rollcall got their docs, but I didn't. I finally called my TA and found out they "forgot" to make my final payment!! It all got straightened out, even though the travel agency had to eat some extra charges. Needless to say I no longer use that TA.

Terri

[chessbriar]

I never worry about my documents. You don't need them as long as you fill out your paperwork online. Print those pages, get your luggage tags from the porter and have fun. I have not had to pull out my documents on any of my last 4 cruises. Just the online docs and my passport. But keep in mind, I book my own airfare and transfers.

 

Three weeks before the cruise is when you can expect them

[Schplinky]

Chessbriar,

 

That's my general approach to it, as well. We woldn't actually panic, since we're already checked in for the cruise.

[flashdog_1]

I've gotten all mine 4 weeks out, except the one with cruise/air and it really made me nervous not knowing what flights I'd be on two weeks out.

 

Double check your air reservations w/cruise/air. Mine contained wrong numbers, didn't have me connected to my frequent flyer number etc.

 

I had to save all receipts and boarding passes and send them after the fact to get the mileage points (It was to Alaska so the number of points was substantial).

[kannna]

i just got mine monday cruiseis 12/24.

[Karynanne]

I just got mine today also! Doc Dance time....

 

Karyn

[DonMaryCar]

We are using a new travel agent this cruise and have been used to getting our documents about 6 wks prior to crusing, but we are now about 4 wks out and no documents. This thread has been very reassuring. I have already printed out our express pass so I guess if we don't get the actual documents we can still board the ship. I know our friends already got their documents for our cruise but they used different agent.

 

Merry Christmas everybody

 

Mary:)

[Schplinky]

To reassure you further, our American friends got their docs last week (or 4 weeks out) but the other couple we are travelling with still doesn't have theirs.

[calamity]

We are on the Summit 18th Dec got my docs on Thursday.I paniced and rang Celebrity and they told me that even if they were lost, I can have edocs sent to me.

[ocngypz]

Never. Because all you really need is your ID and credit card.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

Not that I would expect this to happen to anyone else, but a couple of years ago I was starting to get worried because everyone else on my rollcall got their docs, but I didn't. I finally called my TA and found out they "forgot" to make my final payment!! It all got straightened out, even though the travel agency had to eat some extra charges. Needless to say I no longer use that TA.

Terri

 

This happened to us on our 1st cruise. We lost our mid ship cabin and ended up in a forward cabin on the same deck. The TA gave us a nice ship board credit & the cruise was great.

[Jimsgirl]

I think it depends on the agency you use (and the agent within that agency)

 

On my recent Infinity cruise, Celebrity sent them to myagent, they laid aroun the office for about 10 days, then came "Wilma" office damaged, so the filing cabinet paperwork sent to Orlando, their they could not handle the "extra work" so another delay, while they obtained temp staff, then docs were delivered to somone else in my town not me.

 

In three weeks I am going on another cruise this time with HAL, and through another agency and an other agent. My agent went on vacation (R/T Princess cruise 14 days to which of course she is fully entitled to do). She left instructions with another gent in the office to check and send out my docs, overnight delivery.

 

Well docs came, did not get checked, did not get sent overnight delivery, phone call after phone call to substitute agent and then just to anyone who would answer the phone - actually no one ever did. When docs came they were not correct , flights changed , traqnsport changed, etc. still no one at agency. Finally made contact with my own agent via cell, she was on a shore trip in Kona. She took time to sort everything out.

 

Two days later got an E mail from agency, full of excuses, "A" was ill, "B" had a faily emergency, "C" was at conference, of "D" was on vacation. so office was in effect not open.

 

Trouble is I like my own agent she is terrific to work with, gives me her home phone and of course called me back from Kona, but the company she works for well lets us say they *****.

[stacey75]

I was getting nervous also. My sailing is on the Summit 1/2/06, but we are leaving for L.A. on 12/30. I called my TA and she told me not to worry. Now I know why. Everything came by e-mail. I got e-docs this morning when I checked my e-mail. It says to get our luggage tags from the porter. They even included "detailed" directions for filling out the luggage tags to make sure we receive our luggage in a timely manner. Since I already printed out our express boarding pass we are ready to go. Vacation here I come in 14 days!!!!!!

[MopedMama]

hehe, I got my docs on Tuesday and I leave tomorrow! :D But I was a last-minute booker.

 

Has anyone ever NOT gotten their docs? Just wondered, I've never heard of it happening.

[Verystormy]

As as a TA for a large cruise agency, the normal rule is that any cruise line will officialy get documents to us at 3-4 weeks before departure and we get them to the customer at 10-14 days before departure. Sometimes we get them a lote earlier - i have know some to arrive up to a year ahead, but we dont send them out any earlier, though some agencies do and we used to, the amount of customers who would lose their documents was amazing. Therefore we now keep hold of them in a safe untill two weeks before.