Boarding time

[Mykewow]

Question if I may. How strict are they with boarding times? We have a group of 3 going 2 in one room 1 in the other. We got a early appointment for ours but our friend who is traveling with us is not that tech savvy and didn’t know how to do the check in and we were already on a cruise. We got home and helped her check in but she has a 1PM arrival when outs is 10:30 What are the chances they will let her in with us when we are checking in?

[sparks1093]

Probably none since they pay attention to the time on the boarding pass. Do note though that this is your check in time, you won't be boarding until much later.

[mondello]

Some ports are stricter than others. You still will have an actual boarding group assigned, A1,A2,A3, B1, etc. Most ports are firm with the boarding groups.

[csm5986142]

It depends on the port.  I have been on 6 cruises since July and each port has been different.  2 weeks ago in Long Beach, they were very strict (standing in the doorway, checking boarding passes, directing people to specific lines).  We were in your exact same situation (2 platinum w/early boarding time, and 1 gold, slightly later time).  If we wanted to stay together, we all had to go with the gold/later person to the long line (which we did).  But I will say, I did see at least one group complaining and arguing until they let the extra person in the priority line.  I wouldn't do that, but I guess it never hurts to ask politely.  

In addition, as already mentioned, you are assigned an "arrival appointment" time and also a boarding group.  In our case, it didn't matter - it took us so long to get through the initial check-in line, that they'd already called both boarding groups and all 3 of us just walked directly from check-in onto the ship.

Also, tell your friend to keep checking back, occasionally new arrival appointments open up and she might be able to change it to an earlier one.

[tytanbri]

Keep checking. An earlier time may open open between now and cruise date. 

[DB2VA]

They did check times on my last two recent cruises and turned away people who came too early. 

[day-day]

For my January cruise on the Glory out of New Orleans, guests that arrived too early were allowed through the check-in process but were held up in a large waiting lobby until their boarding group was called.  There was not a large number of guests for this cruise and there was not a long wait to get to through security and the check-in counters.  The waiting area was fairly crowded; I don't know if this would be allowed if the number of guests was higher.

[groundloop]

As previously mentioned, once you get into the terminal you have to wait for your boarding group to be called before getting on the ship.  For all of my recent cruises (out of Port Canaveral, Tampa, and New Orleans) nobody seemed to care about checking arrival times as there were always a lot of people arriving way before their assigned time window clogging up the terminal.  HOWEVER, they most definitely check your boarding group and you won't be getting on the ship before you're supposed to.

 

My suggestion is for all of you to go together at the later arrival time.  By then the crowds will have died down and you should be able to walk right through the check-in process with no waiting and waltz right onto the ship.  The other upside of doing this is that you won't have to sit around on the ship with all of your carry-ons waiting for when you're allowed to go to your cabins.

[jsglow]

As others have said, boarding itself actually goes in exact order.  I suspect they were very lax at the front door when passenger counts were quite low.  As they increase, they certainly won't want to overwhelm their waiting room. 

 

Those first cruises in August/September were amazing.  The entire ship was fully boarded in less than an hour. By 1pm, the shore side port area was a ghost town with a cab showing up every 15 minutes or so with a late boarder.