Sail & Sign cards in mailbox

[Garth2]

Yes, they put your cards in the mailbox on most or all of the ships.  Yes, they will be in a sealed envelope.  No, we have never heard of anyone having someone use their card fraudulently.  Yes, you can use your boarding pass to order a drink after you board, while you are waiting for access to your cabin.  Yes, every card has a hole punched in it in the corner, even if you don't use a lanyard.  Yes, the picture they take when you board will be linked to your card.

[bury me at sea]

Nice start to a new FAQ.  Are you planning to do a section on Cheers?

 

Happy sailing.

[woodman]

Good answer

 

Garth 2 you covered everything. Never had a problem with the card in the mail box.

[UKJJ]

My family was sailing on the Magic for the December 2nd sailing.  We had FTTF and went straight to our rooms where our cards were already in the boxes awaiting our arrival.  We had no issues with our cards.  However, upon opening the envelopes we discovered that there was an additional card belonging to a gentleman that we did not know.  We went to the first carnival employee we could find (an assistant cleaning rooms) and were told to take the wrong card to guest services at our convenience.  We did so, but sucked that we had to stand in line to return a card that we had nothing to do with back to guest services on embarkation day.   I'm sure that the gentleman whose card we had also had to jump through a few hoops to get his card.  The point of this post is it's not a perfect process.  We did our part by approaching a Carnival employee about the mistake.  They did not take the card.  Instead they directed us to guest services.  Not a huge deal but when you pay decent money for a vacation, its not exactly fun to take time out of it for someone you don't know.  Also, it was a bit unnerving that the employee told us to hang on to a card that didn't belong to us. 

[pusywillow]

I would have walked to the front of the line and handed it to the first person behind the counter or probably just placed it on the counter and said, This is not me!

[robc1972]

Not a big deal if you get the wrong card, plenty of options on what to do

With FTTF you get to the special line at the front desk, or just walk right up front and say this was in my envelope, not us and drop on counter.

Or just find one of the officials all over the ship on the first day that are there to answer questions and give it to them.

Go to a bar and order a drink and when you get your card back say you found this one and hand it over.

Or just do nothing about it, go about your vacation and let the other guy deal with it.

[CruzCrazy]

We had priority boarding on our most recent cruise on Horizon, Dec. 1, 2018.  This was our first time dealing with the S&S cards in the mailbox.  Boarding was delayed about an hour due to some issue on the cruise before ours.  We boarded around 12:30 and went straight to our cabin, but there were no cards in the mailbox.  The door was closed, so I knew the cabin was clean and ready.  We found our steward, still very busy cleaning other rooms, and thought we would be directed to guest services, but instead he asked his assistant, who still had a big stack of envelopes with S&S cards.  He asked our cabin number and just handed over our cards.  They apologized, saying things are hectic and it was just an oversight.  We were so glad we didn't have to go all the way to guest services.  I thought later we could have just said any cabin number on that floor (not that we would) and they might have handed us the cards, as they didn't ask to see our boarding passes.  I agree that it's not a perfect process, but it all worked out okay.

[Doggielover68]

It works out fine for us. It's kind of nice to not have to go through a separate check in line during embarkation. 

 

Although there was a problem for someone during the muster drill. She boarded late and didnt get a chance to go to her room to get the card and she was separated from the rest of her party. It took some extra time for them to confirm her identity with her passport to check her in as present for the muster drill. 

Edited December 21, 2018 by Doggielover68

[Treyatl2006]

What process is perfect? All I know is the embarkation process is much faster and smoother than it was a few years ago. Before... It could take a couple hours to get onboard. Now it takes about 20 mins.

[serene56]

On 12/19/2018 at 11:51 PM, UKJJ said:

.  Also, it was a bit unnerving that the employee told us to hang on to a card that didn't belong to us. 

that crew member was only protecting himself.    Cruisers report crew members about the silliest things-- and they could lose their jobs.

what he told you was correct