RCI/Carnival Embarkation...

[trishalee]

We have always sailed RCI, and are trying the Carnival Liberty in January. I'm reading such horror tales about embarkation on that large ship in Ft. Laudrdale! Do any of the Voyager class ships sail out of FLL? They are about 30,000 tons larger than the Liberty. Are their embarkations having cruisers standing in line for 2 or 3 hours as a regular thing? Just trying to determine the best way to handle it. DH is 80 years old (although he certainly doesn't look it!) and will not be able to stand that long. Thanks in advance for your info.:D

[Cruising89143]

Embarkation/Debarkation can vary from week to week. The last two times in Miami on the Navigator OTS it was 12:30 before they started to the load the ship as it took that long for the previous passengers to clear immigration and customs. By this time the lines were very long.

 

If there are a lot of non US citizens on board that can slow things down as can there not being enough agents to do the clearing which happens also. All of the above are out of the hands of the cruise line. I think that it will be hard for anyone to give you a definite answer on this. If you want to go then I suggest that maybe you arrive around 3:00 in the afternoon and let most of the passengers get on board. This should make it easy to get on the ship.

[Butterfinger1954]

We sailed on Carnival Glory last Jan. out of Port Canaveral. We arrived about 3 pm. and there was no waiting line at all. Breezed through embarkation and got right on the ship. We sail RCI out of Tampa in early Dec. and arrived about 1:30 and spent a good hour and a half in line. (and the lemonade and cookies in the terminal were all gone!) My best advise is arrive early or late. Inbetween you will have long lines.

 

Kathy in Maine

[Cuizer2]

There are no Voyager class ships in FLL. One in San Juan, one in Cape Canaveral and three in Miami. During the summer one goes to NJ. Next summer one is going to Europe.

[chotton]

I have one and only experience on Carnival and the embarkation process was the worst ever. We stood in line for almost 2 hours and it was very unorganized. On the other hand Princess in my opinion has the best embarkation if you don't have some sort of priority embarkation.