Checking in Early - any advantages/disadvantages?

[rodndonna]

We are 3 weeks from sailing and our checkin is now open.

 

I have never understood the reason to check in so early - am I missing something? Honestly I always leave it to the last minute in case something came up and we could not make it (although not sure if not being checked in makes it any simpler)

 

For this particular cruise case I have 2 questions  

 

1) we are a GTY room (still unassigned) - will checking in expedite assigning our room? If so would that be advantageous?

2) We are still in the fence about adding HIA - is it too late after we checkin or would we still be able to add it next week?

[semibeater]

Checking in and completing everything will probably get your gty cabin faster. I got mine 30 days out recently. Check docs for luggage tags as this will be the 1st place it will appear. good luck

[rodndonna]

32 minutes ago, semibeater said:

Checking in and completing everything will probably get your gty cabin faster. I got mine 30 days out recently. Check docs for luggage tags as this will be the 1st place it will appear. good luck

 

Thanks - we've checked in !

 

Waiting to see what room we are assigned is kind of exciting - although not sure why really.

[kazu]

To answer the second part of your question - yes you can add HIA or any other available amenity / tour on line after you have checked in up to 3 days before you board.

[Florida_gal_50]

I have strong doubts checking in will speed up cabin assignment.  It may be faster if you are doing a b2b.  It seems they offer upsells first then assign.  I’m sure there are cases when that doesn’t happen.

[CruiserBruce]

I agree...absolutely no evidence checking in early gets you your GTY assignment any sooner. We routinely do our check in stuff  many months ahead.

[shack]

7 hours ago, rodndonna said:

We are 3 weeks from sailing and our checkin is now open.

 

I have never understood the reason to check in so early - am I missing something? Honestly I always leave it to the last minute in case something came up and we could not make it (although not sure if not being checked in makes it any simpler)

 

For this particular cruise case I have 2 questions  

 

1) we are a GTY room (still unassigned) - will checking in expedite assigning our room? If so would that be advantageous?

2) We are still in the fence about adding HIA - is it too late after we checkin or would we still be able to add it next week?

 

We registered very early - like 4 months prior to cruise.  Don't know if that affected our getting Vista GTY 16 days before departure, but guessing it didn't hurt...

Our Vista "suite" GTY included HIA for a very good price - a lot less than the $50pp/day currently. 

[semibeater]

20 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

I have strong doubts checking in will speed up cabin assignment.  It may be faster if you are doing a b2b.  It seems they offer upsells first then assign.  I’m sure there are cases when that doesn’t happen.

You are probably right. We are on a B2B GTY SA and it was assigned 30 days out. Just another piece of the HAL puzzle. BTW we are in same cabin!

[CruiserBruce]

3 minutes ago, semibeater said:

You are probably right. We are on a B2B GTY SA and it was assigned 30 days out. Just another piece of the HAL puzzle. BTW we are in same cabin!

And it has been my experience that suites, particularly in B2B situations get assigned earlier....we had one at 28 days. But we have also had the assignment at 8 days in a similar B2B Neptune situation.

[Florida_gal_50]

33 minutes ago, semibeater said:

You are probably right. We are on a B2B GTY SA and it was assigned 30 days out. Just another piece of the HAL puzzle. BTW we are in same cabin!

That’s good news!  I really feel that they try to do that if possible.

[rodndonna]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:49 AM, rodndonna said:

We are 3 weeks from sailing and our checkin is now open.

 

I have never understood the reason to check in so early - am I missing something? Honestly I always leave it to the last minute in case something came up and we could not make it (although not sure if not being checked in makes it any simpler)

 

For this particular cruise case I have 2 questions  

 

1) we are a GTY room (still unassigned) - will checking in expedite assigning our room? If so would that be advantageous?

2) We are still in the fence about adding HIA - is it too late after we checkin or would we still be able to add it next week?

 

just coming back to my original post to update our experience - 

 

we checked in at the 3 weeks before the cruise - and did not appear to expedite getting our room assigned as we received it yesterday evening (Wednesday night) for a Saturday sailing on the Zaandam.

 

We were GTY inside (Casino "free" cabin) and were assigned J2554 (an Accessible stateroom) so I think they were down to the slim pickings of the rooms to assign us (maybe that is a Casino room thing?). Anything would have been deemed and upgrade from the original GTY "N" but this one looks quite large so pretty happy, although I still wouldn't be surprised to be bumped from it before we board since it is an accessible cabin.

[3rdGenCunarder]

I doubt you will be moved because someone needs an accessible cabin. Most people who need them book them early as they are in limited supply. At this late date, an unreserved accessible cabin goes into general inventory. 

[Haljo1935]

14 hours ago, rodndonna said:

...We were GTY inside (Casino "free" cabin) and were assigned J2554 (an Accessible stateroom) so I think they were down to the slim pickings of the rooms to assign us (maybe that is a Casino room thing?). Anything would have been deemed and upgrade from the original GTY "N" but this one looks quite large so pretty happy, although I still wouldn't be surprised to be bumped from it before we board since it is an accessible cabin.

Congrats on securing a large free cabin. Enjoy your cruise!