Boarding Times

[i_luv2go]

Its been 3 yrs since Ive cruised with Carnival and we didn't have assigned boarding times.  How strict are they with boarding times?  I'm disabled & was wondering if they would allow me to board earlier.

 

[bahacca]

What port are you cruising out of? I know Long Beach has a line for on time guests and early guests. My guess is when the on time guests have been helped, they start helping the early arrivals.

[Organized Chaos]

If you're talking about actual boarding time and not your check-in time (Arrival Appointment), they start boarding as soon as they clear the previous cruise. So boarding times vary. When they start, they call wedding parties, Diamond, Platinum, Suite guests, and Faster to the Fun first. Then they start general boarding. They used to call people in wheelchairs early, but they don't do that anymore.

 

If you're not a priority passenger (one of the ones I mentioned above), you'll be boarded according to the zone number you get when you complete your online check-in.

 

Your check-in time, or Arrival Appointment, is different than boarding. You'll choose your Arrival Appointment when you do your online check-in. It's a half-hour window that you pick when you know you'll arrive at the terminal. Typically, you won't be allowed inside the terminal until your Arrival Appointment. If you get their early, you'll be put into the early/late line. How fast that moves depends on how well check-in is going that day. So if the lines are moving and you're in the early/late line, there's a chance you'll get inside before your Arrival Appointment, but no guarantees.

[Gumbo4Life]

We sail out of Galveston and the last few times we basically went from check in to on the boat.  Cruises a few years ago had us waiting in the terminal for our zone to be called for quite a while but nowadays they seem to have that better timed to minimize the time waiting in the terminal.  Be on time and you will be on the boat before it leaves 🙂