Question re: boarding

[tigergrl0204]

So I understand that Royal has suites/pinnacles board first (also including a few other loyalty ranks, of which I can't remember). Since we are first time cruisers, would it take awhile before we'd be allowed to board?  We have the key, but being a family of 5 (had to pay for 4 of us) I'm not sure how much earlier we'd board before most others. The additional time on the ship and carry on drop off are one of the few perks that I'm seeing to be of value.  We are cruising on Symphony in May. Thank you!

[tinkr2]

You will be on by 11 with The Key.

[Retired LEO]

I don't know about Symphony but it Port Canaveral the key boards with the suites and pinnacles. I'm sure it's the same.

[brillohead]

Depending on what time you arrive at the port, you may get on board 10-20 minutes sooner than most everyone else.  

[tigergrl0204]

I totally worded my question wrong.  If we decided to drop The Key, does essentially every loyalty tier board before first time cruisers? Would we be looking at a significant wait to board compared to if we kept The Key?  Sorry about the wording of my original post.

[wishuponasea]

We are low on the loyalty totem pole with only a handful cruises under our belts. We have been able to be onboard in time for lunch and just bring 1 bag/carry-on with us so we can change into swimsuits. We have had a couple times with longer wait times (Alaska and San Juan), but the past couple of cruises we have been on was a breeze to get on the ship in a timely manner.  Good Luck and Hope You Have A Wonderful Time  🙂

Edited April 29, 2019 by wishuponasea
Added a sentence

[Merion_Mom]

47 minutes ago, tigergrl0204 said:

I totally worded my question wrong.  If we decided to drop The Key, does essentially every loyalty tier board before first time cruisers? Would we be looking at a significant wait to board compared to if we kept The Key?  Sorry about the wording of my original post.

If you arrive and are checked in after the initial boarding calls (around 11-11:15), you just walk right on.  The only wait occurs if you arrive before boarding begins.

[Clarea]

6 hours ago, tigergrl0204 said:

So I understand that Royal has suites/pinnacles board first (also including a few other loyalty ranks, of which I can't remember). Since we are first time cruisers, would it take awhile before we'd be allowed to board?  We have the key, but being a family of 5 (had to pay for 4 of us) I'm not sure how much earlier we'd board before most others. The additional time on the ship and carry on drop off are one of the few perks that I'm seeing to be of value.  We are cruising on Symphony in May. Thank you!

 

The difference between boarding with top priority and no priority is maybe 15 minutes,

[cruiseguy1016]

What time do you plan on getting to the pier? If you arrive early, before boarding begins, you'll get checked in and then go to the staging area for your group. Once boarding begins, all of the upper tier and Key members will start to board before you. Depending on how many of those people there are, you might have to wait anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes. If you arrive at the pier any time after boarding has started, you'll be able to check in and walk right on the ship.

[vacationlover_mn]

2 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

The difference between boarding with top priority and no priority is maybe 15 minutes,

But to me that 15 minutes always feels like 2 hours 🙂

Edited April 29, 2019 by vacationlover_mn

[dacsmom]

10 hours ago, tigergrl0204 said:

So I understand that Royal has suites/pinnacles board first (also including a few other loyalty ranks, of which I can't remember). Since we are first time cruisers, would it take awhile before we'd be allowed to board?  We have the key, but being a family of 5 (had to pay for 4 of us) I'm not sure how much earlier we'd board before most others. The additional time on the ship and carry on drop off are one of the few perks that I'm seeing to be of value.  We are cruising on Symphony in May. Thank you!

One of the other perks is on the last day, after you have had the Key breakfast is the individual escort off the ship. No waiting in the usually long lines snaking off the ship and through customs. You are escorted to your bags and then to a separate line. That to me is worth the price of the key. Although having to buy it for four people adds up to quite a bit of money.

[kylaner3]

I'm lost...What is The Key?

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, kylaner3 said:

I'm lost...What is The Key?

 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/what-are-the-benefits-of-the-key-program

[jean-lynd]

13 minutes ago, dacsmom said:

One of the other perks is on the last day, after you have had the Key breakfast is the individual escort off the ship. No waiting in the usually long lines snaking off the ship and through customs. You are escorted to your bags and then to a separate line. That to me is worth the price of the key. Although having to buy it for four people adds up to quite a bit of money.

If you need to get off of the ship early you will have lines but if you don't you will be able to walk off of the ship with no lines. Unless I am mistaken you will be at the new terminal in Miami and our experience boarding and disembarking there was a breeze. We didn't have an early flight so we headed to breakfast at around 8 and by the time we were done eating our luggage number had already been called so we walked off grabbed our bags and walked right through customs. It probably took us 10 minutes for the whole process. Of course, if you have an early flight your experience will be different. I hope this helps!

[wishuponasea]

We also were able to have  nice breakfast and walked out easily, found our bags quickly and customs was not too long .... no problem. Of course,  if you have little kids,  that might make a big difference. You Never Know how their mood/behavior will be. Just saying 😉 If you are really nervous about it, and will worry about it the whole vacation then  just do the Key.  I would rather pay more than need to worry about the ship stuff. We don't normally pay for Anything extra, by the way. I worry about whether or not to book excursions that are not sponsored by the ship or not.....Non ship excursions are a lot less $$. I Do Not Want To Miss The Ship Sailing! By the way, we have been on some non ship excursions and they guaranteed to get us to the ship on time (and they did). Ask your roll call what they are doing in each port and maybe you can go along with them or at least get an idea of what different excursions/costs are. Try not to stress! That is the best advice, I think. Our first cruise in Alaska, we had No Idea what to expect, and fell in love with cruising...but it was just us and not the kids, I am sure it would have been a lot of fun sharing all the experiences (memories in the future)....but....it was nice for just the two of us for the first time w/o kids along! Really hope you have a Great time and experience!

 

 

[tigergrl0204]

Thank you all for the input! Our flight isn't until late in the evening, so I don't know that the debarkation aspect of The Key would be too helpful.  I really go back and forth on keeping it. The timing of The Key activities that my girls would want to do don't seem to be feasible for us (Rockwall from 4-5, we have early dinner and my girls will want to dress up), ice skating late at night...I can't guarantee i'll be awake! We have 4 devices we can use, which would be nice maybe at dinner to keep our 3 yr old occupied for those times we just want to relax or catch up, but I feel like we'll be too busy most of the other time to care about the internet. Since I booked over a year before the cruise, i'm over the planning of it. We have a non-RCI tour in St. Kitts and I think we're just winging it in St. Thomas. Our Roll Call has been fairly slow and I believe i'm the only one with younger kids.  We are a one income family, so The Key was a splurge for us, but with 3 kids, there were some nice sounding aspects to it.  I just feel as though the reviews for The Key on Symphony haven't been great, it doesn't seem as though many staff know about it/understand it.  

[LilBlackDress]

16 minutes ago, tigergrl0204 said:

Thank you all for the input! Our flight isn't until late in the evening, so I don't know that the debarkation aspect of The Key would be too helpful.  I really go back and forth on keeping it. The timing of The Key activities that my girls would want to do don't seem to be feasible for us (Rockwall from 4-5, we have early dinner and my girls will want to dress up), ice skating late at night...I can't guarantee i'll be awake! We have 4 devices we can use, which would be nice maybe at dinner to keep our 3 yr old occupied for those times we just want to relax or catch up, but I feel like we'll be too busy most of the other time to care about the internet. Since I booked over a year before the cruise, i'm over the planning of it. We have a non-RCI tour in St. Kitts and I think we're just winging it in St. Thomas. Our Roll Call has been fairly slow and I believe i'm the only one with younger kids.  We are a one income family, so The Key was a splurge for us, but with 3 kids, there were some nice sounding aspects to it.  I just feel as though the reviews for The Key on Symphony haven't been great, it doesn't seem as though many staff know about it/understand it.  

I can be a bit of an over-planner too... 
We have not been on Symphony yet but I can tell you about our experience getting on board of Harmony. We were in a suite and my stepson and guest were in a CP Balcony. We both arrived at the port within 10 mins of each at about 10:30 am.  We had planned on a location to meet up once on board. We got onboard and grabbed a seat in the lounge. They arrived 10-15 mins later. very quick and easy...

 

If you aren't going to really use a majority of the perks that come with the Key, I am not sure I would want to pay the extra $$$ for 15-30 mins worth of boarding. 

On the flipside, I would not cancel it just yet. My understanding is it jumped another $10 - $20 per person. So make sure you really want to give it up and look over the perks again before you cancel 

 

Just my 2 cents 🙂

[steveru621]

The one or two times we checked in before boarding had started we waited maybe 15 minutes.  Early boarding is totally overrated.

[OneWord]

37 minutes ago, steveru621 said:

The one or two times we checked in before boarding had started we waited maybe 15 minutes.  Early boarding is totally overrated.

Agreed 

[OneWord]

3 hours ago, kylaner3 said:

I'm lost...What is The Key?

Aripoff

[We be tripping 1]

12 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

If you arrive and are checked in after the initial boarding calls (around 11-11:15), you just walk right on.  The only wait occurs if you arrive before boarding begins.

I just got off the Allure of the Seas yesterday.  Embarkation and embarkation could not be easier.  We arrived at the Miami  terminal around 10 AM, dropped off our luggage, walked to the entrance, went up escalator, went to one of the many check in points, waited behind one couple for less than one minute, then stood behind maybe 3 people when boarding the ship which again took less than one minute.   We were not Key Guests. Leaving was even easier.  There may be other perks that make it worth it, but not for embarkation/debarkation

[tigergrl0204]

Thanks all!

[fdthird]

That’s a lot of money for 4!

[fredflint]

I plan to board closer to 2PM and have found you can usually just walk on with no wait at all.  Some people might be flying in early or just want to get onboard as soon as possible  for me I have no problems boarding a little later since I fly in the day before.  My last cruise was full of D+ so that line was longer than the regular line!!

[tigergrl0204]

8 minutes ago, fdthird said:

That’s a lot of money for 4!

Yes it is, which is why I'm trying to pro-con it all. It makes it difficult being a first time RCL cruiser and not really knowing how things work in general.  I'm leaning towards cancelling it, but I haven't completed my pro-con list and discussed with the hubby (who quite frankly is not involved in any aspect of our vacations so hard to really discuss with him).  My 2 other questions are: 1) is every other place aside from MDR open for breakfast on debarkation day?  2) If I have me by myself or possibly one other kid with me to wait in line for the seats to a show, does it upset everyone in line if the rest of my family were to show up right before they open the doors for seating?  A pro to The Key was having the ability to not have to wait in line for 30-40 min to get decent seats, but that seems to be one of the few reasons to keep it.