Carnival Breeze Arrival Appointment-Port Canaveral?

[Gatordad815]

Hi all-just booked our first family Carnival Cruise-Breeze Eastern itinerary for Spring Break from Port Canaveral. I logged on to check out the cruise planner and I see that “Faster to the Fun” is not available. Assuming we do not (or cannot) get it, here’s my question:

 

We like to start vacation as early as possible. What is the earliest Arrival appointment available at Port Canaveral? Is there a way to increase odds of getting an earlier time or is it based on status with the cruise line or something else that I have no control over? How does this process work on Carnival? (We are used to just showing up early with Royal Caribbean).

 

Any input on this appreciated! Thanks!

[hotsauce126]

Earliest arrival appointment is usually 11:30 or 12. You'll get an early one if you check in as soon as online check in is available. 

 

There's a separate line for people who arrive outside of their window. If you want you can get there early and stand in line forever, or just arrive in your window and stroll all the way through. 

[grandmarnnurse]

Actually, I think the earliest arrival time is 10-10:30, but I try to get FTTF, so I don’t pay attention to my arrival time. I do not have it for my February cruise out of NOLA, so I will need to grab a time when the check in opens up for my cruise. We are cruising with family, and they chose not to get it, so we didn’t. I may live to regret that move. We LOVE FTTF! My advice is to check every single day about 20x a day until you grab it. You will be so glad you did. We had it for our Breeze cruise out of Port Canaveral in March, and it took us all of 10 minutes to get off the shuttle, drop our luggage, and make it through the check in to our waiting area, and then we boarded right after the Platinum and Diamond passengers. Then we dropped our bags in our cabin as we had immediate access to it.  Worth every single penny! I know I’m going to hate not having it in February! I already grabbed it for my April B2B Cruise! 

[Sean_B]

1 hour ago, grandmarnnurse said:

 I already grabbed it for my April B2B Cruise! 

 

April 2020 already had FTTF posted? We're sailing on the 8-day itinerary in Oct 2020, so I keep looking for it.

[PhillyFan33579]

As Hotsauce mentioned, the earliest available appointment for Breeze is usually 11:30 AM or 12:00 PM.  I have never seen a check-in time appointment of 10:00 AM or 10:30 AM like the last poster mentioned for any Carnival ship at a port in Florida.  You can select your check-in window 90 days prior to your cruise date.  If you want the earliest check-in window, I recommend checking for it as soon as you hit the 90 day mark.  I would also continue to check for FTTF availability frequently as the last poster mentioned. 

 

We live in Florida and Port Canaveral consistently turns ships around as fast as any port. We have cruised out of there 5 times since last Summer and have been on the ship as early as 10:30 AM on Magic last July while the latest we have been on the ship was a little after 11 AM on Sunshine this past February. We are both Platinums so we get priority boarding, but FTTF boarding and then zone boarding starts immediately afterwards. 

[grandmarnnurse]

1 hour ago, Sean_B said:

 

April 2020 already had FTTF posted? We're sailing on the 8-day itinerary in Oct 2020, so I keep looking for it.

Yes! I grabbed it a couple months ago. I was so surprised that it popped up so early. I was even tempted to get it for my second leg of B2B (for the other perks) but thought it not worth it, since I’m already on the ship. The most important aspect of it to me is early check in, boarding, and cabin availability. 

[Sean_B]

Just now, grandmarnnurse said:

The most important aspect of it to me is early check in, boarding, and cabin availability. 

 

This will probably be our one and only cruise so we're looking to do it right and getting FTTF for essentially the same reason you get it (early boarding, cabin avail, etc). With any luck, it'll become avail and we'll be able to get it.

[stellarose]

I check morning / afternoon and evening for FTTF

[grandmarnnurse]

44 minutes ago, Sean_B said:

 

This will probably be our one and only cruise so we're looking to do it right and getting FTTF for essentially the same reason you get it (early boarding, cabin avail, etc). With any luck, it'll become avail and we'll be able to get it.

If you do see it, grab it at that moment, don’t delay. It can disappear in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes. And don’t give up hope if you see it sold out, as it may pop up again. Just keep checking. But check MANY times a day. It’s sneaky elusive! Lol! 

[Carolina Girl 99]

6 hours ago, Gatordad815 said:

Hi all-just booked our first family Carnival Cruise-Breeze Eastern itinerary for Spring Break from Port Canaveral. 

 

 

Ah, I see you finally made your choice of Breeze over Breakaway! We are going on Breeze for the first time this Sept. FTTF has been sold out since I booked, but no worries as I had not planned on purchasing it. We hit our 90 day mark a couple of days ago, and I hit online check-in about 12:03 am EST when it opened. We chose 12:30-1:00 pm boarding slot as we drive down the morning of departure and that's about the time we arrived when we sailed on Oasis last year out of PC. I can confirm that the earliest available time was 11:30-12:00 as others have mentioned

[Gatordad815]

1 hour ago, Carolina Girl 99 said:

Ah, I see you finally made your choice of Breeze over Breakaway!

 

Yes. Initially was leaning towards Breakaway, but when I put them side by side, chose Breeze. We really want the Eastern ports this time around and with our daughter’s dining needs, I really like having a set dinner time and the same dining team nightly.  Plus we got a spa balcony on deck 11, so I’m excited my wife can have spa access we can all be close to all the action on the Lido deck! For our family I’m certain this works better all around.

 

Thanks for the info on Arrival Appointment-much appreciated! Have a great trip!