assigned boarding time?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

I just received an email that said we have an assigned boarding time, that I will see on my embarkation form.  Is that what we can get 20 days before sailing?  I assume we can show up whenever we want.  Correct?

[wayne_trisha]

I think boarding starts at 11:00 and you are in YC so you can get start boarding around 11. We will likely show up around noon since we have priority boarding.

 

[ray98]

You don't have a boarding time, you have a port arrival time.  You will be issued a boarding number at check-in and that is the group you'll board with.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

53 minutes ago, ray98 said:

You don't have a boarding time, you have a port arrival time.  You will be issued a boarding number at check-in and that is the group you'll board with.

I know that’s what I normally get from cruise lines, but I got this email from them:

 

You have been assigned a specific time to board the ship on embarkation day, and a specific time to disembark the ship when you depart on the last day of your cruise. Arriving to and departing from the ship at the assigned times will help us maintain a smooth and organized operation for all guests.

[4sallypat]

We are a family of 4 and booked 2 rooms and got 2 different embarkation times. 

How do we board together ?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

1 hour ago, 4sallypat said:

We are a family of 4 and booked 2 rooms and got 2 different embarkation times. 

How do we board together ?

Where do you see times?

[4sallypat]

29 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Where do you see times?

On our boarding tickets.

 

2 hours apart. 

[Illbcruzn4life]

4 hours ago, 4sallypat said:

We are a family of 4 and booked 2 rooms and got 2 different embarkation times. 

How do we board together ?

We have 4 cabins and each one has a different. In fact seems about once every 2 weeks the time changes.

[Qazzy]

I don't understand what MSC and their system of assigning embarkation times. Our sailing is 5/21 out of Brooklyn. First we were assigned 1:30 (ship leaves at 3:00).  I was not happy about this and contacted my TA and was told just to arrive around noon regardless of what my documents say. Ok,  I planned on that.  A few days later MSC changed my embarkation time to 11:30.  Perfect! I was happy!  I looked again this morning, now it is 10:00. What?  Why do they keep changing it?

[Georgia_Peaches]

OP, I believe you have booked the YC.  In the YC, you can board whenever you like (when they allow it, of course).  We are usually given an arrival time of 10 AM.  Keep in mind, the arrival time is not the same as the boarding time.  If you arrive before boarding has begun, you chill out in the YC holding area with a refreshment until the all clear to board is given to the butlers.  The butlers will then escort groups of YC passengers on board.  We have boarded as early as 11 AM and on one occasion, when it took longer than expected to clear the ship, we boarded right at noon.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

24 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

OP, I believe you have booked the YC.  In the YC, you can board whenever you like (when they allow it, of course).  We are usually given an arrival time of 10 AM.  Keep in mind, the arrival time is not the same as the boarding time.  If you arrive before boarding has begun, you chill out in the YC holding area with a refreshment until the all clear to board is given to the butlers.  The butlers will then escort groups of YC passengers on board.  We have boarded as early as 11 AM and on one occasion, when it took longer than expected to clear the ship, we boarded right at noon.

I thought this would be the case, just wanted to make sure.  I like to arrive early so we will most likely get there between 10-10:30.  Thanks!

[Brighton Line]

My latest unrequested email of boarding documents (4th time I think) has another new boarding time. My original boarding documents had a boarding time of 1:30p which is past the 2 hours before sailing of 3p.

Now on the latest boarding time that came Today 5/18 for the 5/28 sailing, I have a 10a boarding time.

Go figure...

[NCteacherlovescruising]

39 minutes ago, Brighton Line said:

My latest unrequested email of boarding documents (4th time I think) has another new boarding time. My original boarding documents had a boarding time of 1:30p which is past the 2 hours before sailing of 3p.

Now on the latest boarding time that came Today 5/18 for the 5/28 sailing, I have a 10a boarding time.

Go figure...

They do like to send out a ton of emails!  

[smokeykat]

2 hours ago, Qazzy said:

I don't understand what MSC and their system of assigning embarkation times. Our sailing is 5/21 out of Brooklyn. First we were assigned 1:30 (ship leaves at 3:00).  I was not happy about this and contacted my TA and was told just to arrive around noon regardless of what my documents say. Ok,  I planned on that.  A few days later MSC changed my embarkation time to 11:30.  Perfect! I was happy!  I looked again this morning, now it is 10:00. What?  Why do they keep changing it?

Same here. We are traveling together with friends and we had our time at 1:30 also which is impossible because the ship leaves at 3pm. Called MSC and we were all switched to 11am. Then the other day I see I am now 9:30am and our friends were still 11am so our friends called and got switched now to 9:30am

What I find strange is that our cabins are linked in the reservations. Should be common sense to keep everyone together but I guess that is not how the MSC world works!

Update:

BTW just checked my email and a new ticket is there now! Now it says 10am OMG this cruise line is insane.

Edited May 18, 2023 by smokeykat

[4sallypat]

7 minutes ago, smokeykat said:

......

What I find strange is that our cabins are linked in the reservations. Should be common sense to keep everyone together but I guess that is not how the MSC world works!

Right ?

 

I linked our 2 rooms and MSC still assigned different boarding times.

 

Strange but will show up next week in Piraeus Greece with all of us at one time - why make the others wait ???

Edited May 18, 2023 by 4sallypat

[wayne_trisha]

In all my years of cruising and reading this forum I do not ever remember anyone saying they were told to stand outside the terminal and wait for their time. Go when you want and possibly encounter a delay in the terminal due to the number of people checking in. There is no large place for people to wait outside and as our afternoon storms are starting they certainly do not want people standing outside during thunderstorms. 

[sverigecruiser]

12 hours ago, wayne_trisha said:

In all my years of cruising and reading this forum I do not ever remember anyone saying they were told to stand outside the terminal and wait for their time. 

 

I have seen it but it's very rare.

[kelleherdl]

On 5/18/2023 at 1:49 PM, wayne_trisha said:

In all my years of cruising and reading this forum I do not ever remember anyone saying they were told to stand outside the terminal and wait for their time. Go when you want and possibly encounter a delay in the terminal due to the number of people checking in. There is no large place for people to wait outside and as our afternoon storms are starting they certainly do not want people standing outside during thunderstorms. 

I have personally worked check-in for a Disney Cruise Line cruise (not Port Canaveral). It was actually my assignment to visually check port arrival times and ask cruisers to wait outside for their assigned port arrival times. And yes they were asked to remain outside in the heat and humidity. So even DCL does do this as needed. 
 

Each cruise terminal has a ‘capacity.’ If that capacity is exceeded for whatever reason, like boarding is delayed, entry into the terminal can and will be restricted. Now have I ever seen it at Port Canaveral for any of my MSC cruises. It only happened once that I experienced, but we were YC so it didn’t impact us. I did see that only the first hour of arrivals were permitted to enter the terminal. As the crush lessened there was no longer any looking at check-in times. From what I have seen recently from sailing at Port Canaveral people are arriving more spread out.

[skipsaur]

5 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

I have personally worked check-in for a Disney Cruise Line cruise (not Port Canaveral). It was actually my assignment to visually check port arrival times and ask cruisers to wait outside for their assigned port arrival times. And yes they were asked to remain outside in the heat and humidity. So even DCL does do this as needed. 
 

Each cruise terminal has a ‘capacity.’ If that capacity is exceeded for whatever reason, like boarding is delayed, entry into the terminal can and will be restricted. Now have I ever seen it at Port Canaveral for any of my MSC cruises. It only happened once that I experienced, but we were YC so it didn’t impact us. I did see that only the first hour of arrivals were permitted to enter the terminal. As the crush lessened there was no longer any looking at check-in times. From what I have seen recently from sailing at Port Canaveral people are arriving more spread out.

 

Thanks for the perspective! This definitely makes sense that the times would be more strictly enforced only when there was a need.

[jules815]

On 5/18/2023 at 8:26 AM, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I thought this would be the case, just wanted to make sure.  I like to arrive early so we will most likely get there between 10-10:30.  Thanks!

I don't recall which ship you were sailing on. Our last YC cruise we were on Meraviglia out of Miami. If you're at a hotel near the port, our rule of thumb has always been to be getting into our Uber or Taxi around 10:30.  If you're in the YC you really don't have to pay attention to those assigned boarding times.

 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

43 minutes ago, jules815 said:

I don't recall which ship you were sailing on. Our last YC cruise we were on Meraviglia out of Miami. If you're at a hotel near the port, our rule of thumb has always been to be getting into our Uber or Taxi around 10:30.  If you're in the YC you really don't have to pay attention to those assigned boarding times.

 

We will be on the Seaside. We will be driving to the port. 

[Fissues]

Morning laugh from MSC:

Please make sure to respect the assigned check-in time indicated in the last e-ticket, otherwise you may be requested to wait outside the terminal until your scheduled time. In order to speed up the embarkation process please remember to label each piece of luggage with the tags received. 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Fissues