First Time Cruiser - PAT Question

[Punjabi]

Looked all over but couldn’t find a clear answer for a post-COVID boarding process. We are sailing next week from Port Canaveral and have a 11:30a PAT. We’ll be driving in and intend to park at the terminal. Should we be reaching there say 11am to drop the bags with the porters, go park and be in the terminal by 11:30a? Or is 11:30a the earliest we will be allowed to drop the bags off (prior to parking)? Want to be sure we don’t miss our boarding group. Thanks in advance!

[Shmoo here]

31 minutes ago, Punjabi said:

Looked all over but couldn’t find a clear answer for a post-COVID boarding process. We are sailing next week from Port Canaveral and have a 11:30a PAT. We’ll be driving in and intend to park at the terminal. Should we be reaching there say 11am to drop the bags with the porters, go park and be in the terminal by 11:30a? Or is 11:30a the earliest we will be allowed to drop the bags off (prior to parking)? Want to be sure we don’t miss our boarding group. Thanks in advance!

I'm not real sure of the process there now.  But while you can probably (maybe) enter the parking structure early, I know you won't be allowed to enter the terminal until your PAT.  

[Punjabi]

Thank you for the quick reply! Will the porters accept the luggage prior to the PAT? I’d rather get there a bit early, park the car and spend some time outside taking pictures. But if the porters won’t even take the bags then we are stuck in the car!

[jalves]

Your PAT is the time you are supposed to arrive at the terminal.  Not necessarily the time you are supposed to be inside.  

 

However, these days they are being a bit more liberal about it.  You'll probably be able to leave your bags with the porters and drive into the garage at 11:00.  You can then walk across the bridge to the terminal.  At that point they may have you separated by PAT.  

[Ken the cruiser]

We’re currently on the Wish on a 4-day cruise heading back to Port Canaveral. When we arrived at the terminal this past Monday to drop off our bags prior to parking the car, the porters really didn’t care about our PAT. They simply helped us take the bags out of the car and put them with the other dropped off bags. We paid them a small tip and headed off to park the car.

[hackif]

We sailed on the Wish on Jan 30 with friends arriving around 11 or about 10 minutes after once we parked. Porters did not ask about PAT, just took the bags. We had a PAT of 12:45 (boarding group 17), and our friends had an 11:15 PAT (boarding group 5). Because we had our reservations linked and we were arriving together, we initially asked as we got to the entrance about getting into the terminal together, and they said they weren't even looking at PATs, and everyone was to get into the same line (instead of splitting into different lines outside based on PATs which I know they had been doing the week before). When we got into the building, they split into separate lines for Platinum (which we all were), Gold/Silver and first-time cruisers. As we checked in, we asked about aligning our PAT, which they did for us (after first checking something on the computer) so all of us had boarding group 5. We boarded about 12:05 pm. After going through check-in, security, 

On 2/14/2023 at 9:51 PM, Punjabi said:

Want to be sure we don’t miss our boarding group.

You won't "miss" your boarding group. If your boarding group has already been called, you can board any time afterwards. In fact, they announce boarding group 1, then boarding groups 1 and 2, then boarding groups 1-3, etc. until they reach open boarding.