Selecting Boarding Time

[RWolver672]

1 hour ago, dmdiver said:

Okay, I have an odd situation.  We booked 5 cabins a year ago - at that time, I was able to select an arrival time for each reservation of 11-11:30.  Since that time, they have been jacking with the website, but when I would log in, I would still see the 11-11:30 check in.  Anyway, once final payment was made, I went to print boarding passes.  I printed 2 of the cabins & it showed 11-11:30 check in & the box where the zone prints was blank.  I then went to print passes for the other 3 cabins, but it said online check in was incomplete & an arrival time needed to be selected.  Of course, the earliest time available was 12:30-1.  So, I call Carnival where the rep tells me that she is not able to make any changes to fix this.  She told me that we should all just show up together, but that there could be a longer wait.  What ticks me off is that the times were selected a year ago & now they've been lost on 3 of the 5 cabins.  I wish I had a screen shot of what the booking looked like before they started jacking around with everything.  It's so frustrating.  

 

It sounds like your cruise is still upcoming.  You shouldn't have been able to select an arrival time a year out from your cruise.  It doesn't open up until 90 days prior to your cruise.   When we booked our last cruise more than a year out, I went online and filled in all of the information.  Later, they implemented the check in time.  I tried to go back in to add our flights and it wouldn't even let me in to do that until 90 days prior to the cruise.

 

31 minutes ago, BBigfoot613 said:

 

Interesting and good to know! I wonder what they consider early or late. I would assume they have some type of cutoff. 5 mins? 10 mins? 0 mins? 

 

Also I saw someone say about online check-in at midnight? Is that when it gets opened up? 

 

I believe it's 0 minutes.  You're either on time, early or late.  

[ProgRockCruiser]

2 minutes ago, RWolver672 said:

 

It sounds like your cruise is still upcoming.  You shouldn't have been able to select an arrival time a year out from your cruise.  It doesn't open up until 90 days prior to your cruise.   When we booked our last cruise more than a year out, I went online and filled in all of the information.  Later, they implemented the check in time.  I tried to go back in to add our flights and it wouldn't even let me in to do that until 90 days prior to the cruise.

 

Not arguing with you - more or less trying to figure out how the poster did what they claimed.

 

Carnival changed the timing of when you select check-in time about May of last year, IIRC.  So if the poster did indeed book "a year ago" (say Feb 2018), then I seem to recall that they could have been able to selected a check-in time roughly six months before sailing - so not when they booked.  Then it changed to "90 days out" in May 2018 (feel free to correct me on the timeframe).

 

I found posts with folks from mid-2017 asking how far out they would be able to select Check-In time, and the response was generally "190 days or so" - i.e. roughly six months like Carnival had stated at the time.  But even then there were folks who couldn't select check-in time until about 75 days out, and others had it available at 215 days out, for whatever reason.

 

IIRC, up until a few years ago, Carnival let you select check-in time when you paid the deposit (i.e. right after booking).  But not within the last two years.

 

But I have no idea how @dmdiver could have selected check-in time a year ago.  We booked our last cruise (Dec 2018) in Dec 2017, and we could not select check-in time when we booked - it was six-months out at that time.  In fact, they changed the time frame a couple months before the "six-months-out trigger" to the 90 days-out limit, which was mildly annoying.

[RWolver672]

13 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

Not arguing with you - more or less trying to figure out how the poster did what they claimed.

 

Carnival changed the timing of when you select check-in time about May of last year, IIRC.  So if the poster did indeed book "a year ago" (say Feb 2018), then I seem to recall that they could have been able to selected a check-in time roughly six months before sailing - so not when they booked.  Then it changed to "90 days out" in May 2018 (feel free to correct me on the timeframe).

 

I found posts with folks from mid-2017 asking how far out they would be able to select Check-In time, and the response was generally "190 days or so" - i.e. roughly six months like Carnival had stated at the time.  But even then there were folks who couldn't select check-in time until about 75 days out, and others had it available at 215 days out, for whatever reason.

 

IIRC, up until a few years ago, Carnival let you select check-in time when you paid the deposit (i.e. right after booking).  But not within the last two years.

 

But I have no idea how @dmdiver could have selected check-in time a year ago.  We booked our last cruise (Dec 2018) in Dec 2017, and we could not select check-in time when we booked - it was six-months out at that time.  In fact, they changed the time frame a couple months before the "six-months-out trigger" to the 90 days-out limit, which was mildly annoying.

 

There never was a check in time until just a year or two ago.  You could check in whatever time you got to the terminal.  That's why they implemented it, to cut down on everyone showing up at the same time.

[ProgRockCruiser]

4 minutes ago, RWolver672 said:

 

There never was a check in time until just a year or two ago.  You could check in whatever time you got to the terminal.  That's why they implemented it, to cut down on everyone showing up at the same time.

 

Looking through the history of this board, there are posts in March 2015 that mention staggered check-in times now being assigned via emails/texts/phone calls from Carnival.

 

In November 2015 it appears that's when the trial went full-blown in Galveston for cruisers able to select their check-in times.  By May 2016 is was in "New Orleans, Galveston, Miami, Honolulu, and Norfolk" (quoted from an old post).  So three years ago it was getting more widespread.

 

It looks like it was pretty well fleet-wide by Jan/Feb 2017.  So that is just over two years now.

 

I can't find the timeline of when Carnival instituted the six-months-out rule for selecting Check-in.  Or rather, it looks like it was all over the place by the time March 2017 rolled around, and it took them until late-2017 to get it settled down to "six months almost always".

[dmdiver]

We booked 1/9/18 for a May 2019 cruise.  At that time, you could select a check in time, just couldn't print boarding passes until final payment 90 days out.  Of course, now that's all changed and apparently 2 of my cabins made it through, but the other 3 didn't.  While I feel like we may not necessarily arrive between 11-11:30, we typically arrive close to noon.  I figure with 3 cars & stops along the way, things will work out fine.  I'll just drive slower.

[RWolver672]

1 hour ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

 

I can't find the timeline of when Carnival instituted the six-months-out rule for selecting Check-in.  Or rather, it looks like it was all over the place by the time March 2017 rolled around, and it took them until late-2017 to get it settled down to "six months almost always".

 

We took two cruises in 2017.  One in February from FLL and one in October from Tampa and neither one had a check in time.  That's what I was going by.  I do remember that it was started a little at a time.  I guess those two ports started later.

[ProgRockCruiser]

3 hours ago, dmdiver said:

We booked 1/9/18 for a May 2019 cruise.  At that time, you could select a check in time, just couldn't print boarding passes until final payment 90 days out.  Of course, now that's all changed and apparently 2 of my cabins made it through, but the other 3 didn't.  While I feel like we may not necessarily arrive between 11-11:30, we typically arrive close to noon.  I figure with 3 cars & stops along the way, things will work out fine.  I'll just drive slower.

 

Hmm, weird. According to everything I have experienced and read, if you booked in Jan 2018 for a May 2019 cruise it should not have allowed you to select a check-in time - at the time the rule was "six months out".  Must have been a mild glitch, which may be why it "self-corrected" on three of them.

[shof515]

59 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

 

Hmm, weird. According to everything I have experienced and read, if you booked in Jan 2018 for a May 2019 cruise it should not have allowed you to select a check-in time - at the time the rule was "six months out".  Must have been a mild glitch, which may be why it "self-corrected" on three of them.

 

i booked in jan 2018 and for june 2019. my online check in was unavailable, only a few days ago it became available.

 

i remember doing online checkin right after i booked the cruise many years ago

[dmdiver]

Yes, it is weird.  This whole booking has been weird, though.  The original booking was made in 2017.  Then one of my daughters got pregnant, so we decided that May 2019 would be the time to go.  Well, at the time, itineraries were not available for that far out.  So, the PVP put the booking out as far as possible so that we wouldn't be making final payment.  Anyway, our ship ended up leaving our home port, so we had to change ships as well.  Makes me wonder if some stuff carried over & some didn't.

[mizLORInj]

I don't remember choosing a check-in time for our last Carnival cruise (horizon from NYC 5/18) but that doesn't mean I didn't.    We're platinum and usually arrive around 11ish so boarding starts shortly after we've checked in.  Kind of stupid that they make platinum (and above) choose a time which takes one slot away from someone else who could be using it.  We are plat on Norwegian too and I remember it saying show up when you want for our past November cruise--I don't recall selecting a time (but again, doesn't mean I'm recalling correctly).  

 

 

[WIFamily]

On 3/1/2019 at 4:51 PM, beachbum53 said:

You can't select a boarding time. You can only select a time to check in at the cruise terminal. People constantly get these two things confused. When you go to "Manage My Cruise" on Carnival's home page, you'll see a blue square on the left side, and at the top of the square, it will say "To Do List". One of the selections will be "On Line Check-In". You won't be able to select a check-in time until 90 days before your cruise. There will be a date that indicates when you can select your check-in time.

 

Perfect.   Do you also need to be paid in full to select an arrival time?  My understanding is that some sections of the on-line check in require to be Paid in Full, which doesn't line up perfectly with the 90 days out.   My Dec 8th cruise shows Paid In Full due date is Sept 23rd and online check in is showing as available Sept 8th.   I've never run into this as I've always had my cruise paid off at least a month before the final due date.

[WIFamily]

On 3/1/2019 at 4:51 PM, beachbum53 said:

You can't select a boarding time. You can only select a time to check in at the cruise terminal. People constantly get these two things confused. When you go to "Manage My Cruise" on Carnival's home page, you'll see a blue square on the left side, and at the top of the square, it will say "To Do List". One of the selections will be "On Line Check-In". You won't be able to select a check-in time until 90 days before your cruise. There will be a date that indicates when you can select your check-in time.

 

Perfect.   Do you also need to be paid in full to select an arrival time?  My understanding is that some sections of the on-line check in require to be Paid in Full, which doesn't line up perfectly with the 90 days out.   My Dec 8th cruise shows Paid In Full due date is Sept 23rd and online check in is showing as available Sept 8th.   I've never run into this as I've always had my cruise paid off at least a month before the final due date.

[ProgRockCruiser]

2 hours ago, WIFamily said:

 

Perfect.   Do you also need to be paid in full to select an arrival time?  My understanding is that some sections of the on-line check in require to be Paid in Full, which doesn't line up perfectly with the 90 days out.   My Dec 8th cruise shows Paid In Full due date is Sept 23rd and online check in is showing as available Sept 8th.   I've never run into this as I've always had my cruise paid off at least a month before the final due date.

 

No, you do not need to be paid in full to select the check-in time.

 

The only thing that being paid in full gets you is the ability to print your boarding pass.  Oh, and get on the ship, I suppose.  

 

I will be paying in full for our May cruise shortly (auto-pay enabled, so I don't need to, um, pay attention, yuk yuk...), but I have already selected our check-in time.

[Lottacruises]

Some ports, Galveston is one, will let you in regardless if you are early or late. They don't turn you away.