Paradise Departure from Tampa

[elklemi]

Can anyone give me earliest time for check in and latest time for Carnival Paradise from Tampa?

[Captain Carnival]

1 hour ago, elklemi said:

Can anyone give me earliest time for check in and latest time for Carnival Paradise from Tampa?

We open the terminal doors at 10:30.  You MUST be inside by 3:00 as the terminal doors will hard close shortly thereafter.

[Saturngrl]

Carnival has staggered check in times, from which (to my understanding) are enforced.  The exceptions to this rule are Suites, higher tier VIFP members and FTTF.   Hope this helps. 

[Gin505]

They do not enforce at Tampa. We got there at noon and no line walked in and on the ship in less than 10 minutes

[Djptcp]

DH works part-time at the Port of Tampa for the cruise lines and said when boarding starts totally depends upon when Homeland Security says it can start. There is no specific time - the ship has to be cleared by HS first. The order of boarding is suites, Platinums and Diamonds are boarded first, second group is FTTF, then general boarding by order of arrival (the later you arrive, the later you board). Having said that, we are Platinums and arrive around 11:15-11:30 and can board immediately as long as the ship has been cleared already by HS.

[stephamiller]

You must select from the available check-in time slots when you do your online check-in. The earliest still available for me when I checked-in was 12:30-1:00 but there may be more options if you complete your check-in earlier. This time slot did not seem to be too strictly enforced in my experience. We got there about 30 minutes prior to our staggered check-in time (which was set for 12:30-1:00) and they told us to go ahead and get in line. Very quick process compared to other cruises I've taken.

 

However, our cruise ended up being behind schedule on our way back due to winds and the ship not having clearance to disembark. We did not get off the ship until about 12:10 pm. There was a huge crowd of people waiting to get onto the ship and they probably were unable to start boarding until at least 12:30pm.