Embarkation times?

[TYMZ2973]

Does MSC pay any attention to embarkation times? Asking particularly for Brooklyn!

[dbrown84]

I hope not.  I'm going on my first MSC cruise and I was assigned a boarding time on my booking document.  The booking agent didn't actually ask me about a time.  My plan is to just show up whenever.  I'll show up around noon even though my time says 1:30

[gizfish]

It's a check in time, not embarkation time actually.  In Brooklyn, they do not pay attention to what has been assigned.  Your assigned time will also probably randomly change between now and your cruise.  

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

They didn't appear to check on my last two sailings out of Brooklyn, however, I did notice on my documents for my May 18th sailing out of Southampton that it indicated if we showed up more than 30 min ahead of our assigned time, we would need to wait outside. I am not sure if this is something standard out of Southampton, or if they're rolling it out everywhere.

 

What I will say is that they assign times to make embarkation as easy and seamless as possible. If everyone overlooks their assigned time, you lose the right to complain about the chaos that it might cause.

[lumofny]

We are sailing out of Brooklyn with MSC for the first time in three days. During online check-in we were given a choice as to what time we wanted to check in. 930am was the first available time slot so we took it.

 

Has anyone else gotten a 930 embarkation time? What time did you arrive at the terminal and what time did you step onboard?

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

16 hours ago, lumofny said:

We are sailing out of Brooklyn with MSC for the first time in three days. During online check-in we were given a choice as to what time we wanted to check in. 930am was the first available time slot so we took it.

 

Has anyone else gotten a 930 embarkation time? What time did you arrive at the terminal and what time did you step onboard?

Yes - we had 9:30am for our first sailing and we arrived at about 10am due to terrible traffic and torrential downpours. It was the second sailing out of Brooklyn on April 29, 2023. We were onboard by 11:30am. It is very unlikely anybody will be onboard much before 11am, apart from Yacht Club. 

[reedprincess]

How about overseas, ie Martinique.

My documents currently show a 20:00 check-in time. That's ridiculous - 8pm?  Sailaway is 23:00.

 

So, we can't even check-in, far less board, til after the entire first day is done?

 

That can't be right.... 

[Ottawa_Cruiser]

2 hours ago, reedprincess said:

How about overseas, ie Martinique.

My documents currently show a 20:00 check-in time. That's ridiculous - 8pm?  Sailaway is 23:00.

 

So, we can't even check-in, far less board, til after the entire first day is done?

 

That can't be right.... 

That definitely can't be right.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

This question comes up often and this is my answer: just get there when you get there. No one has ever looked at my paperwork with the time printed on it. Don't ask, don't point it out, just go in the terminal and join the queue. No one is going to inquire.

[lumofny]

1 hour ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

This question comes up often and this is my answer: just get there when you get there. No one has ever looked at my paperwork with the time printed on it. Don't ask, don't point it out, just go in the terminal and join the queue. No one is going to inquire.

Isn't that the point of having scheduled arrival times? It seems like everyone just showing up whenever they want to is the reason they went to assigned times.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

No, they went to assigned times after they reopened post-covid to try to space people out.

 

Look, if you can drive to the port then it's easy to arrive at your assigned time. I live near Port Canaveral and can be there during my assigned window. But next week I'm flying to a cruise in Long Beach. My flight will arrive LAX when it does and then I will take the Carnival bus to the port. I'll get there when I get there, regardless of any appointment time. So i should stand outside the terminal for 2 hours waiting for my time slot? Not going to happen. I'll check in when I get there, a factor out of my control.

[Huntingdon1701]

On 4/16/2024 at 5:28 PM, reedprincess said:

How about overseas, ie Martinique.

My documents currently show a 20:00 check-in time. That's ridiculous - 8pm?  Sailaway is 23:00.

 

So, we can't even check-in, far less board, til after the entire first day is done?

 

That can't be right.... 

 

I had that in Martinique, but showed up around 11.30 and walked straight on. So did everyone else.

[reedprincess]

On 4/18/2024 at 2:06 AM, Huntingdon1701 said:

 

I had that in Martinique, but showed up around 11.30 and walked straight on. So did everyone else.

Great, thanks, that's good to know.. both cabins have Diamond members in them, but we'll still probably aim for 12 or 1..   not fussed about lunch or such, just didn't want to miss the entire first day!! 

Many thanks...

[Jamie7777]

On 4/14/2024 at 6:28 PM, dbrown84 said:

I hope not.  I'm going on my first MSC cruise and I was assigned a boarding time on my booking document.  The booking agent didn't actually ask me about a time.  My plan is to just show up whenever.  I'll show up around noon even though my time says 1:30

 

That's what we did.  The MSC employee at the port told us to ignore the time on our boarding passes and just get in line for embarkation.  Our embarkation time was 2:30.  We showed up at 11:30.

Edited April 19 by Jamie7777

[dbrown84]

1 hour ago, Jamie7777 said:

 

That's what we did.  The MSC employee at the port told us to ignore the time on our boarding passes and just get in line for embarkation.  Our embarkation time was 2:30.  We showed up at 11:30.

and how were the lines?  I'm used to NCL and when I get there at Noon, the check-in area is pretty much a ghost town.

[Jamie7777]

No line, really.  I don't even remember waiting.  We walked right into the spot where we got our passports and body scans.  There were a lot of people in the space but no line because people were constantly walking.  I was called right away to the window at the MSC counter to get my sea pass.  I had a family member who had mobility issues at the time so I only waited around for him to get a port worker to get a wheelchair so that he could get to the counter to get his sea pass.