Recent reports on how strict is Celebrity about early arrivals?

[islabahia]

45 minutes ago, Nashna said:

Thanks to those who gave constructive answers to my simple question.  Yes, we are being dropped off earlier than our designated time.  We did not ask to cut a queue. Standing around for an hour and a half on some old creaky knees is not pleasant.  If it is not possible to board earlier, we are considering being dropped off at a Starbucks to wait for our 11:30am time.  On our January 2022 Apex cruise, we had the 10:30 am slot.   Lots of people showed up earlier than their allotted time and were placed in a separate line.  They were allowed access after the passengers who had the proper time.  The process was orderly and no one "cut in line".  Now that occupancy levels have increased, my question was how Celebrity was handling early arrivals. 

 

I have been a member of Cruise Critic for many years.  While I find that most users are helpful and polite, some could use a session or two with Miss Manners.  

 

 

I do apologize if my post came across as harsh.  In retrospect, it would have been kinder had I left out the word “your”.  I just finished my  session with Ms. Manners LOL!

[JFontaine]

2 hours ago, islabahia said:

No one cares about your Elite status.  Do you have any idea how many Elite pax there are across the Fleet?  Seems pretentious to me to mention CC status.  Those at the highest level (Zenith) rarely mention their status at all, on forums or in the ship.  CC members might want to rethink commenting on their status….JMHO.

Did you miss the part that Elites previously had priority boarding? And I can name most Zeniths on here, and that's not a bad thing. Zenith have spent years on Celebrity ships, and they know what they're talking about.  Just my humble opinion. 

[NutsAboutGolf]

3 hours ago, Southern_Roots said:

This needs to be said more in this forum.

 

It's been said for decades and will most likely continue to be said for decades; the OPs question isn't unique

[Pickels]

There are rude people who are also inconsiderate, 😔

[Homosassa]

OP, you do not state your embarkation port.

 

There are ports (Tampa comes to mind) where the size of the terminal and traffic pattern into and out of the drop off area means those that are arriving before the curbside area is available for incoming passengers will not be given access to drop luggage off or gain access to the terminal building.

[hrhdhd]

12 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

OP, you do not state your embarkation port.

 

There are ports (Tampa comes to mind) where the size of the terminal and traffic pattern into and out of the drop off area means those that are arriving before the curbside area is available for incoming passengers will not be given access to drop luggage off or gain access to the terminal building.

This is good info, but the January cruises in the OP's signature will depart from Port Everglades.

[NutsAboutGolf]

17 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

This is good info, but the January cruises in the OP's signature will depart from Port Everglades.

 

It'll most likely be T25; they'll most likely be no enforcement whether or not people want there to be

[BlerkOne]

Not elite, but I was checked in and on the ship (Reflection - Port Everglades), before my appointment time (noon).

[weregoingcruising]

3 hours ago, islabahia said:

No one cares about your Elite status.  Do you have any idea how many Elite pax there are across the Fleet?  Seems pretentious to me to mention CC status.  Those at the highest level (Zenith) rarely mention their status at all, on forums or in the ship.  CC members might want to rethink commenting on their status….JMHO.

I care about my  status. When I board the ship in makes me feel Entitled.

[Homosassa]

51 minutes ago, hrhdhd said:

This is good info, but the January cruises in the OP's signature will depart from Port Everglades.

Many of us have the signature feature for posters turned off as it makes pages easier to load.

 

 

[the penguins]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

OP, you do not state your embarkation port.

 

There are ports (Tampa comes to mind) where the size of the terminal and traffic pattern into and out of the drop off area means those that are arriving before the curbside area is available for incoming passengers will not be given access to drop luggage off or gain access to the terminal building.

Two points:

1) some ports for example Southampton have no inside space - arrive early and you could well be lining up outside with no cover and no seats.

2) Celebrity doesn't control access to ports or terminals this the responsibility of the Port Authority. Even the check-in staff have no connection with the onboard crew. Arriving early is a risk you choose to take. We are also face with this dilemma as my wife uses a Rollator. 

My advice is to try to arrive as near your alloted time as possible and once there just go with the flow.

Once past security we always select the shortest of the lines which we are entitled to join i.e. balcony, Elite or disabled. Couldn't care less about our status just get us on the ship. 

 

[LGW59]

42 minutes ago, weregoingcruising said:

I care about my  status. When I board the ship in makes me feel Entitled.

(Zenith) rarely mention their status at all, on forums:  define "rarely"

[weregoingcruising]

33 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

(Zenith) rarely mention their status at all, on forums:  define "rarely"

Why should I define rarely I didn't use the word in my post?

[smtcan]

We had 30+ cruises with Celebrity pre pandemic and at that time there was a priority line for Elite and above boarding. This line was often longer than the regular line.  I was aware that this had changed, but I am sure many people were not, hence the mention of status.

 

Most of our cruises are in Europe, so we book a hotel the night before.  Check out time can be 10 or 11 am, so hanging around with our luggage until mid afternoon isn’t an appealing prospect and I am sure it is even less appealing to those who have arrived from an overnight flight.

[D C]

Show up at your usual early time and you will be fine, though you may have to wait for boarding to begin at that point.  You are NOT queue jumping.  It's not a requirement to show up in that requested timeframe, and the wording says as much.  

 

[Kelownadon]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

Many of us have the signature feature for posters turned off as it makes pages easier to load.

 

 

How do I turn this boasting crap off?

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, LGW59 said:

(Zenith) rarely mention their status at all, on forums:  define "rarely"

It's much less than seldom but more than never.

[dlh015]

10 minutes ago, Kelownadon said:

How do I turn this boasting crap off?

Click on the icon towards the top of the page (or on one of your posts) in your case the letter K, then account settings, then Signatures...there is a slider to turn them off. Then click on Save...

[Kelownadon]

6 minutes ago, dlh015 said:

Click on the icon towards the top of the page (or on one of your posts) in your case the letter K, then account settings, then Signatures...there is a slider to turn them off. Then click on Save...

Thanks

[gardengalaz]

We recently (yesterday) completed a voyage on the Solstice.  Our check-in time was 12:30PM.  With no where else to go after checking out of our hotel, we arrived at 11:00AM expecting to hang around outside until our appointed time.  Perhaps it's because the ship was just slightly more than half-full, but there was no one in line ... NO ONE.  So the staff running the whole embarkation process were calling out "If you'd like to board now ..." From that moment, we barely stopped moving to complete a step of the routine and were onboard in, quite literally, less than 10 minutes. WAY more staff than needed to embark the passengers on our trip ... so the staff was just sorta standing around waiting to actually DO something.  That experience aside, our cruise three weeks ago on the Beyond was run with Swiss precision and a strict adherence to the timeline .. but the ship was packed.   Bottom line, we've experienced both extremes.  So, if you show up early and there's a line, no one deserves to jump the line ... so ya just gotta wait your turn (unless you're one of those horrible people who decide to put the crew members and staff in an impossible situation where they have no choice but to accommodate you with a smile on their face or become the target of the entitled).  But if there's no one in line, the shore-side staff does like to "get ahead" of the rush and will eagerly invite you to board early.  

Edited December 20, 2022 by gardengalaz
Typo

[marieps]

3 hours ago, the penguins said:

Two points:

1) some ports for example Southampton have no inside space - arrive early and you could well be lining up outside with no cover and no seats.

 

 

Geoff,

 

Thank you for this valuable piece of info.  We'll be on Sillie's TA in October training in from Waterloo.  We are in the Retreat so will get on in the first wave, but certainly don't want to stand around in an October rain.  Much appreciated.

 

As an aside, we were on Connie's first cruise back in November '21 and times were strictly enforced.  Many folks were waiting outside in Tampa until their times.  By the time we cruised three weeks later on Reflection out of PEV 29, the times seemed an afterthought.  YMMV.

Edited December 20, 2022 by marieps

[the penguins]

1 minute ago, marieps said:

Geoff,

 

Thank you for this valuable piece of info.  We'll be on Sillie's TA in October training in from Waterloo.  We are in the Retreat so will get on in the first wave, but certainly don't want to stand around in an October rain.  Much appreciated.

A pleasure. We thought about Sillie's TA ( we did it in 2019) but have opted for Reflection out of Barcelona as it had more interesting ports of call. 

Geoff and the boss (Anita).

[C4HCG]

3 hours ago, D C said:

Show up at your usual early time and you will be fine, though you may have to wait for boarding to begin at that point.  You are NOT queue jumping.  It's not a requirement to show up in that requested timeframe, and the wording says as much.  

 

Why are they not queue jumping and if they’re not, what’s the point of selecting times? There isn’t one and they should therefore scrap the rule and make it mayhem first come first served. And even it isn’t a hard and fast rule it’s good manners. There’s loads to do in FL to pass time before it’s your turn.

 

We suffered from queue jumpers (you can call them what you want but my description is accurate) who were boarding the ship before us in September at FL and showing off that they’d got far later times. We had to sit and wait at the last of the seated areas at T25. But if people think this is ok, hey ho, we all have different standards for how we behave and show respect to others. We would rather stick to the rules and show due respect (apart from wearing shorts in the MDR 😂😂😂).

[jagoffee]

5 hours ago, Homosassa said:

OP, you do not state your embarkation port.

 

There are ports (Tampa comes to mind) where the size of the terminal and traffic pattern into and out of the drop off area means those that are arriving before the curbside area is available for incoming passengers will not be given access to drop luggage off or gain access to the terminal building.

I understand the potential on the terminal part.  What is unique about the Tampa port that separates the taxi drop off area from the Porters to take your luggage.  Do you have to luggage your own luggage somewhere?

3 hours ago, D C said:

Show up at your usual early time and you will be fine, though you may have to wait for boarding to begin at that point.  You are NOT queue jumping.  It's not a requirement to show up in that requested timeframe, and the wording says as much.  

 

Might be fine, but as late as October there were separate lines depending on your boarding time in Miami.  Prevents Queen jumping unless there is no one waiting in the earlier time lines.

 

which ports have you cruised from rentals and when was it?

[lexmiller]

22 hours ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Like it or not, they only enforced embarkation windows for a few months after the restart.  It's been nearly two years since they've enforced them.  Since the restart I've sailed 9 times on X, out of FLL, Miami, San Diego and L.A./San Pedro

Agree with this absolutely - we've sailed 7 times this year, out of several different embarkation ports, and never ever once did anyone at the port care about assigned arrival times.  You arrive, you enter the terminal.  The arrival times are "suggestions", assigned with the thought that congestion might be alleviated if enough people follow the suggestion.