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Soured by Arrival Appointment Time


crockea
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54 minutes ago, stellarose said:

here is my question . we are using go port (staying the night before ). go port picks us up and takes us to Port Canaveral. are you saying if they get us to the port at 11:30 and we are 12:30 board, we are going to be turned away? a. we won't have a car (its at the hotel) and b. where would we go?

 

help

You're going to wait in the Early/Late arrivals line until it's your turn. 

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We had an early arrival time for our 7 day cruise and showed up 45 minutes before, as this is a large ship, and we knew we would have to deal with a line. The line was longer than I have ever seen, and it extended into the thousands.  It was a very cold day. and even though we were in winter coats, we were freezing, as we waited outside an additional two hours before boarding. We were told that the ship was experiencing a very slow disembarkation from the incoming cruise. We found ourselves sandwiched in line between a vaper and a smoker.  We learned those around us had various check in times, including times past noon. FTTF and Diamond folks were walked up a separate line. When the doors opened they piled everyone into the large waiting area in numbered sections (except they ran out of numbers and told people to sit anywhere) took the Diamond and FTTF first, but paid no attention to boarding times for the rest. so it really didn't matter what time you had.  We took advantage of the time to chat with fellow cruisers sitting around us, sharing cruise experiences, and make new friends, paying no attention behind us to the complainers,  the confusion, and the disorganization of the Carnival staff. Once on board we easily found seats  at the buffet and had a great lunch. When we were done eating, the cabin was ready. Okay, it started out rough, but we were determined not to let it dampen our cruise. Yeah, there were some unpleasant things about the cruise, like the inordinately large amount of drunk people, lots of brawls, smokers,  more than the normal vomit scenes, and so many low class characters (surprisingly several of them flashing their Diamond and FTTF around )..but hey, this was Galveston. There were  very long lines everywhere during the cruise, and the ship was not that clean. Add to that coming down with a case of the NOROVIRUS midway through it by me and several others on the ship. Then there was the worse disembarkation process that we had seen in our 40 years of cruising. We then understood why we waited so long to get on the ship. We cleared customs before 7 am but, considering we were on an upper deck and carried off our own bags, we could not depart until 11:30 AM. Although it did not affect us, people were complaining about missing their flights.  The ship was designed to be more casual/less fancy, hold more passengers per ton, and... well..it seemed too big for Carnival folks to handle efficiently. The hard working crew deserves a shout out for trying to keep up with it all, plus dealing with more than the normal amount of unsavory passengers. We made the best of it, avoided the unpleasant folks, planned our activities on the ship during off hours, and took a deep breath.  However, we decided to forego future sails on this ship.   

 

Edited by TYinPalmSprings
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2 hours ago, stellarose said:

here is my question . we are using go port (staying the night before ). go port picks us up and takes us to Port Canaveral. are you saying if they get us to the port at 11:30 and we are 12:30 board, we are going to be turned away? a. we won't have a car (its at the hotel) and b. where would we go?

 

help


I recently cruised out of Port Canaveral.  They have an early/late line.  I arrived for my cruise around 10:45 and there was barely anyone in the early/late line.  However, there were a lot of people waiting in the terminal so it's possible the mad rush had already checked in.  I am not sure how busy the early/late line will be at 11:30.  They started boarding zone A1 a little after 11:00 am.

If you have a low boarding zone you might be able to get on the ship before your 12:30 appointment time by arriving early and going through the early/late line.  It's also possible that the early/late line will be crowded. There is no way to know, but the times I have used the early late line I have been on the ship before my appointment time.

Edited by TNcruising02
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I dont have a problem showing up in the arrival window. The problem id have is if the majority of other cruisers didnt follow the arrival window and created a mess. In the past we have showed up between 1030 and 12 and never really had a problem or faced long lines. I presume for the most part things have been going ok since there hasnt been too many posts on this topic.

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18 minutes ago, v3cruiser said:

I dont have a problem showing up in the arrival window. The problem id have is if the majority of other cruisers didnt follow the arrival window and created a mess. In the past we have showed up between 1030 and 12 and never really had a problem or faced long lines. I presume for the most part things have been going ok since there hasnt been too many posts on this topic.


It won't be a problem for you if you show up within your appointment time because the appointment time line is not the same as the early/late line.

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3 minutes ago, AdGuyMG said:

The RCCL Allure and the other Oasis Class ships sail from terminals that were specially constructed to handle that Mega class.

 

Ft Lauderdale = Terminal 18  .. Port Canaveral = Terminal 1  .. Miami = The new Terminal A

 

 

Well maybe Carnival can build a big enough terminal for their ships.  If RCCL can do it Carnival can do it.  It has been 10 years since Terminal 18 was built.

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23 minutes ago, habitatnal said:

If RCCL can do it Carnival can do it.

Carnival “can”, but Carnival hasn’t, at least until now.
 

Carnival took a different path than other cruise lines after the Destiny was conceived. They made a bold statement breaking the 100,000 ton mark with that ship, but then they took a more conservative (and economical) path and they somewhat stalled.  Every class of ship ever since has been a tweaked and gradually enlarged version of the first platform, each one carrying more passengers, but no major or breaking changes were really made to handle the extra passengers either onboard or ashore.

 

In the meantime, other cruise lines took a bigger risk and were busy creating new classes of ships that not only carried more passengers, but that were revolutionary, innovative, and a true departure from previous designs. More importantly, they came up with ways to effectively handle the larger number of passengers.

 

I’m hopeful that with the introduction of Mardi Gras (the first truly new design in 25 years), and with the construction of new terminals that can handle this new class of ship, that we will see new, more effective, and truly innovative ways to handle the crowds besides just staggered embarkation. 

Edited by Tapi
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There  is nothing worse than  hanging around until your cabin is ready, I much  prefer to be able to dump my stuff off in the cabin and then go exploring. We have picked the latest time we could to be honest  we would have preferred  it to be later to make our drive down more relaxed

If you book onto hotels you can rarely check in before 3pm

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1 hour ago, Tapi said:

Carnival “can”, but Carnival hasn’t, at least until now.
 

Carnival took a different path than other cruise lines after the Destiny was conceived. They made a bold statement breaking the 100,000 ton mark with that ship, but then they took a more conservative (and economical) path and they somewhat stalled.  Every class of ship ever since has been a tweaked and gradually enlarged version of the first platform, each one carrying more passengers, but no major or breaking changes were really made to handle the extra passengers either onboard or ashore.

 

In the meantime, other cruise lines took a bigger risk and were busy creating new classes of ships that not only carried more passengers, but that were revolutionary, innovative, and a true departure from previous designs. More importantly, they came up with ways to effectively handle the larger number of passengers.

 

I’m hopeful that with the introduction of Mardi Gras (the first truly new design in 25 years), and with the construction of new terminals that can handle this new class of ship, that we will see new, more effective, and truly innovative ways to handle the crowds besides just staggered embarkation. 

I totally agree with you that Carnival has not been innovative at all since Destiny.  I can’t wait to see what people think of the Mardi Gras. The ship looks very innovative and different from the standard Carnival design.  I’m not brave enough to book the Mardi Gras before it comes out but if people like it, I will probably book it.

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15 hours ago, AdGuyMG said:

The RCCL Allure and the other Oasis Class ships sail from terminals that were specially constructed to handle that Mega class.

 

Ft Lauderdale = Terminal 18  .. Port Canaveral = Terminal 1  .. Miami = The new Terminal A

 

 

 

15 hours ago, habitatnal said:

Well maybe Carnival can build a big enough terminal for their ships.  If RCCL can do it Carnival can do it.  It has been 10 years since Terminal 18 was built.

The 3 terminals handle the mega ships in the 3 cities. The other 22 Royal ships, berthing at regular, standard terminals encounter lines and waits just like any other cruise line.

 

You are correct that Terminal 18 Ft Lauderdale was finished 10 years ago. It was specifically refit for the Oasis, which arrived and 1st sailed 10 yeas ago in 2009. Prior to 2009, it did not look like it does today.

 

A expanded, larger terminal is being done for Port Miami, but rebuilding terminals in ports that Carnival also regularly sail from would involve 13 construction projects...    Ft Lauderdale, Pt Canaveral, Tampa, Jacksonville, Charleston, Baltimore, New York, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Long Beach, Seattle and San Juan.

 

The staggered boarding system is a more cost effective approach and provides a smooth boarding experience vs spending over a Billion+ dollars on 13 new terminals.

 

 

 

 

 

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Going on the Magic in January we have a 12:00 arrival. We will be priority for the first time. Should we go earlier? My daughter and Dad have a different booking then us.  They’re not priority, can they board with us? Also Dad will have assistance getting on the ship.

Thanks in advance!

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On 10/18/2019 at 4:17 PM, K&RCurt said:

 

You absolutely CAN choose your time.  You simply waited too long to go online, check in and get your choice of boarding times.  By the time you got around to checking in, all the earlier time slots were taken.

 

This was not our experience.  I did online check in as soon as it would let me.  Still, 2 of our cabins had 11:30 (it allowed check in at booking), while the other 3 had 12:30 or 1.  It would not let me do online check in at booking for those 3 (no idea why) until after final payment.  Then, the early boarding time was gone.   So, I called Carnival to see if anything could be changed on those 3 cabins.  The lady told me we could board separately, all late, or we could show up early but may have to wait since the other 3 had a later check in time.  

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35 minutes ago, sweetsixteencruisers said:

Going on the Magic in January we have a 12:00 arrival. We will be priority for the first time. Should we go earlier? My daughter and Dad have a different booking then us.  They’re not priority, can they board with us? Also Dad will have assistance getting on the ship.

Thanks in advance!

 

Those without priority do not get to board with those that do.

 

Early boarding privileges are no longer afforded to those that need boarding assistance.  They board according to their arrival/zone assignment.

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43 minutes ago, sweetsixteencruisers said:

Going on the Magic in January we have a 12:00 arrival. We will be priority for the first time. Should we go earlier? My daughter and Dad have a different booking then us.  They’re not priority, can they board with us? Also Dad will have assistance getting on the ship.

Thanks in advance!

 

If you decide to arrive earlier than noon, you will be allowed in the terminal as priority and there's a good chance you'll board the ship earlier, too. As for your family members, Carnival does allow non-priority passengers to board with priority passengers IF they're staying in the same cabin, but since you have different bookings, they won't be able to board early with you. If you want to board together, you're only option is to board later when they do. They stopped giving handicapped passengers early boarding privileges a couple years ago.

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30 minutes ago, StolidCruiser said:

 

Those without priority do not get to board with those that do.

 

Early boarding privileges are no longer afforded to those that need boarding assistance.  They board according to their arrival/zone assignment.

 

17 minutes ago, Organized Chaos said:

 

If you decide to arrive earlier than noon, you will be allowed in the terminal as priority and there's a good chance you'll board the ship earlier, too. As for your family members, Carnival does allow non-priority passengers to board with priority passengers IF they're staying in the same cabin, but since you have different bookings, they won't be able to board early with you. If you want to board together, you're only option is to board later when they do. They stopped giving handicapped passengers early boarding privileges a couple years ago.

Thank you, we’ll arrive at our scheduled 12:00 time.  

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On 10/18/2019 at 6:27 PM, crockea said:

Thank you.  I really didn't mean to bring out the hate in people. I was voicing frustration and something that makes me feel negative.  I appreciate the feedback and all the great ideas and reminders that I AM GOING ON VACATION!!! YAHOOOO!!!  I don't completely understand the haters but I guess that's what I get for voicing my opinion on social media.  LOL

 

 

I totally understand wanting to be on the ship as soon as you can. Me, too!  I hope you get on the ship quickly and the joy of being on a cruise will replace any frustration!

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On 10/20/2019 at 8:13 AM, TYinPalmSprings said:

We had an early arrival time for our 7 day cruise and showed up 45 minutes before, as this is a large ship, and we knew we would have to deal with a line. The line was longer than I have ever seen, and it extended into the thousands.  It was a very cold day. and even though we were in winter coats, we were freezing, as we waited outside an additional two hours before boarding. We were told that the ship was experiencing a very slow disembarkation from the incoming cruise. We found ourselves sandwiched in line between a vaper and a smoker.  We learned those around us had various check in times, including times past noon. FTTF and Diamond folks were walked up a separate line. When the doors opened they piled everyone into the large waiting area in numbered sections (except they ran out of numbers and told people to sit anywhere) took the Diamond and FTTF first, but paid no attention to boarding times for the rest. so it really didn't matter what time you had.  We took advantage of the time to chat with fellow cruisers sitting around us, sharing cruise experiences, and make new friends, paying no attention behind us to the complainers,  the confusion, and the disorganization of the Carnival staff. Once on board we easily found seats  at the buffet and had a great lunch. When we were done eating, the cabin was ready. Okay, it started out rough, but we were determined not to let it dampen our cruise. Yeah, there were some unpleasant things about the cruise, like the inordinately large amount of drunk people, lots of brawls, smokers,  more than the normal vomit scenes, and so many low class characters (surprisingly several of them flashing their Diamond and FTTF around )..but hey, this was Galveston. There were  very long lines everywhere during the cruise, and the ship was not that clean. Add to that coming down with a case of the NOROVIRUS midway through it by me and several others on the ship. Then there was the worse disembarkation process that we had seen in our 40 years of cruising. We then understood why we waited so long to get on the ship. We cleared customs before 7 am but, considering we were on an upper deck and carried off our own bags, we could not depart until 11:30 AM. Although it did not affect us, people were complaining about missing their flights.  The ship was designed to be more casual/less fancy, hold more passengers per ton, and... well..it seemed too big for Carnival folks to handle efficiently. The hard working crew deserves a shout out for trying to keep up with it all, plus dealing with more than the normal amount of unsavory passengers. We made the best of it, avoided the unpleasant folks, planned our activities on the ship during off hours, and took a deep breath.  However, we decided to forego future sails on this ship.   

 

This was in Galveston?  Recently? Vista?

 

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2 hours ago, cathyz said:

They have recently improved the Long Beach terminal, just need some work on a bigger parking garage.

Yep, and it is great. We sailed twice from the old set up (outside sign-in) and last November in the new terminal. The new terminal was great. We are down there again in December for the Panorama. However, this post was discussing the staggered check in, count me as one who thinks it works well. (NOTE, I'm not a regular cruiser on another line).

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On 10/18/2019 at 1:49 PM, crockea said:

So, we leave for our cruise on Sunday.  I haven't sailed Carnival in over 5 years but have been on over 35 cruises.   So you've done a good deal of waiting in long lines to get onto boats.  For the first time I am experiencing this annoying arrival appointment system. It's actually not annoying at all. It's great not having to stand in endless lines to then sit around and wait until you can board, and then in more lines just waiting to get on. I called as the soonest I could get it online was 1pm.  Quite entitled are we? I have NEVER gotten on a ship that late. Waiting in lines suck, but you can't even get to the rooms until 1:30 so who cares?  Usually we arrive between 11/11:30 and are on board shortly after. I've done nearly as many cruises as you have, across all brands, and have never been on board a ship before 12 noon--even when traveling in a top suite.  Is Carnival really so disorganized that they can't handle cruisers arriving whenever? It's remarkably more civilized and organized.  I am not typically a grumpy cruiser (other than laughable bad burgers on another line)  but this new system sucks.This really isn't something that should ruin a vacation--and if your cruise is this sunday, you could have checked in much earlier; I checked in when my check in opened and got the first time slot.  I'm also in a suite, so it doesn't matter.  I called and was told if I arrive earlier than the 1pm slot we could be turned away. You may end up waiting but you won't be turned away.  Has anyone experienced being turned away because you were early? Why arrive early and up and waiting in crazy lines with everyone else who arrives early?  Makes me feel like I shouldn't known better than to jump back to Carnival again. If that turns you off Carnival, I don't know how you handle getting onboard with other cruiselines where waiting for 90-120 minutes isn't super uncommon.  I hope this isn't a precursor on how the rest of the cruise will be. You'll be on vacation, it'll be what you make it. Trying to get over it but booooo Carnival for starting with a negative. I'd argue waiting in long freaking lines is a bigger negative than walking through security, not having to wait to get the account signed up, not having to wait for boarding numbers, and not having to wait for photos, and then boarding.   Yes, I know I'll be picked on for complaining about this but, really? There are much bigger things to worry about.  This shouldn't be one of them.

 

 

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3 hours ago, marci4tony said:

This was in Galveston?  Recently? Vista?

 

Yes, early this year, and yes. Since then, I discovered that, along with the Horizon, the only other ship in the two ship Vista class,  that the passenger space ratio of 28%-34% (based on fullness rate,) is the lowest (poorest) of all the Carnival class ships and one of the very lowest in the industry. Carnival's Spirit class, their Destiny class, their Conquest class, and their Fantasy class ships were better. What this means is there are more people crammed together, so if someone comes on with a virus, or picks it up on the ship from contaminated food, then it all can be passed around much easier. as you encounter people in crowds and touch things (like railings). If you travel on it, please, please, constantly wash your hands, use sanitizer generously, and do your best to avoid huge mobs. For a while after my cruise on this ship, I followed comments from later cruises on it, and my situation was encountered again and again by others. You may think that a bigger ship will offer more space and provide more toys and amenities, but they will be crowded and often out of commission. You will also find that the bulk of passengers out of Galveston, are Texans, and you need to be prepared for the Texas culture.

Edited by TYinPalmSprings
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19 hours ago, TYinPalmSprings said:

Yes, early this year, and yes. Since then, I discovered that, along with the Horizon, the only other ship in the two ship Vista class,  that the passenger space ratio of 28%-34% (based on fullness rate,) is the lowest (poorest) of all the Carnival class ships and one of the very lowest in the industry. Carnival's Spirit class, their Destiny class, their Conquest class, and their Fantasy class ships were better. What this means is there are more people crammed together, so if someone comes on with a virus, or picks it up on the ship from contaminated food, then it all can be passed around much easier. as you encounter people in crowds and touch things (like railings). If you travel on it, please, please, constantly wash your hands, use sanitizer generously, and do your best to avoid huge mobs. For a while after my cruise on this ship, I followed comments from later cruises on it, and my situation was encountered again and again by others. You may think that a bigger ship will offer more space and provide more toys and amenities, but they will be crowded and often out of commission. You will also find that the bulk of passengers out of Galveston, are Texans, and you need to be prepared for the Texas culture.

 

Prepared for the Texas culture?  Please explain. 

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I consider the majority of passengers on Galveston cruises being from Texas as a huge plus.  The best thing about cruising out of that port to me is the general friendliness of the majority of passengers.  If they had a wider variety of itineraries, we would cruise from Galveston every time.

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