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What time can we really arrive?


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Question:  leaving March 17th on Harmony.  I just did the online check in and the earliest time slot to board the ship was 1pm.  Out flight lands at 10am and we already have the shuttle transfer scheduled.  I called RCI and they said we can not get an earlier time than 1pm.  So, if we go straight to the ship at 10am will they go ahead and let us on earlier than 1pm?

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We took our first cruise in January.  Our official boarding time was 1230.  I was adamant that we weren't going to get there early...cause...you know...rules and stuff.   

My wife read here that you can show up whenever.  Rather than be left alone, I went with her to the terminal....and we were on the ship before 11:00  ?

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  • Matt changed the title to What time can we really arrive?
2 hours ago, Rene Desmarais said:

@Mattthe boarding time ritual may have changed.   A friend of mine recently came back from A Symphony of the Seas..  RCL has started to re-enforce the boarding times.   No more early boarding....

 

I don't know if they have changed this to all ships, but for sure... Symphony...

This would be news to me. In what way was this enforced? 

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3 hours ago, Rene Desmarais said:

@Mattthe boarding time ritual may have changed.   A friend of mine recently came back from A Symphony of the Seas..  RCL has started to re-enforce the boarding times.   No more early boarding....

 

I don't know if they have changed this to all ships, but for sure... Symphony...

Was this while Symphony was in Europe?  I think it would be all over the message boards (here and elsewhere) if Royal had changed this for US departures.

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I was on Symphony second week in feb. I was at first devastated when I checked in online and was told 1:30pm. It was our first cruise and we were desperate to arrive and board early as we were new to cruising and did not want to be rushed and panicked at the last min.

thanks to the info on this site, I ignored RCI, rocked up to the car park at 10:45, handed my bags to the porters and It the felt like I walked straight on the ship.

Up the escalator, seapass scanned, let through the barrier, carry on scanned and then welcome aboard sir.

We honestly thought it was quite possibly the most seemlessly painless process of any holiday ever. I’m sure it’s not always the case, but not having to queue once was the perfect start to what was a perfect cruise experience.

 

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Well, I can confirm on Allure (5/19/19 sailing), you can still apparently board much earlier... actually you would have to be able to board earlier than 1:00 PM...

The Key program instructs you to arrive at the complimentary lunch at Chops or Giovanni's between 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM... I thought I read somewhere that the cabins will not be ready before 1:00 PM... maybe that's the confusion?

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5 hours ago, teddy said:

We took our first cruise in January.  Our official boarding time was 1230.  I was adamant that we weren't going to get there early...cause...you know...rules and stuff.   

My wife read here that you can show up whenever.  Rather than be left alone, I went with her to the terminal....and we were on the ship before 11:00  ?

 I can relate to this^^^^

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I'm so sorry guys.  wrong ship

@Matt

 

Harmony of the seas on a Eastern trip.    that was my friends 5th trip on Harmony and loves it.   I think he took it 1st week of March  not sure,   But he did say the early boarding was a no go.

He had to wait for his boarding time,.  It did not affect the Key  or any priority boarding options.

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1 hour ago, Rene Desmarais said:

I'm so sorry guys.  wrong ship

@Matt

 

Harmony of the seas on a Eastern trip.    that was my friends 5th trip on Harmony and loves it.   I think he took it 1st week of March  not sure,   But he did say the early boarding was a no go.

He had to wait for his boarding time,.  It did not affect the Key  or any priority boarding options.

Was there a general delay in boarding? Like Coast Guard inspection or something? 

I'm just surprised to hear this because it's literally the first time I've heard of it happening with Royal Caribbean, which leads me to believe there's something else at play.

Thanks for sharing!

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I hope @Matt is right on this one. We are going on the Vision the end of March and got a 2:30 boarding time. We have never gotten such a late time and always ignored it anyway. We are staying overnight in Galveston the night before and plan to be onboard early. We have to be out of the hotel by 11:00. We took the same cruise a year ago and got on around 10:30.  Any recent experience with the Vision?

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On 3/8/2019 at 5:01 PM, JohnK6404 said:

I thought I read somewhere that the cabins will not be ready before 1:00 PM... maybe that's the confusion?

The cabins are not ready till after 1:00pm.

The boarding times are just a suggestion but you can arrive whenever you want. You can arrive to the terminal and have your seapass scanned and board the ship early (if the ship is not strict about what time that you arrive) but you will not have access to your cabin till after 1:00pm. 

 

Edited by Bakerette
Changed struck to strict
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20 hours ago, souledgar said:

Does the board early or whenever thing apply if you don't have The Key or Suite? I thought priority early boarding was one of the advantages of buying into those.

Priority early boarding sounds better than it really is.  If you show up and check in BEFORE boarding has actually started, then you are directed to sit and wait in various priority groups (such as the Key, suites, pinnacle members, diamond members, etc all the way down to no level of priority).  Then when they actually start boarding, the priority groups are released to board.  Depending on how many people are checked in, priority boarding may save you a few minutes, or none at all.

If you arrive and check in AFTER boarding has started, you just board the ship so priority gets you nothing.

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1 minute ago, Atlantix2000 said:

Priority early boarding sounds better than it really is.  If you show up and check in BEFORE boarding has actually started, then you are directed to sit and wait in various priority groups (such as the Key, suites, pinnacle members, diamond members, etc all the way down to no level of priority).  Then when they actually start boarding, the priority groups are released to board.  Depending on how many people are checked in, priority boarding may save you a few minutes, or none at all.

If you arrive and check in AFTER boarding has started, you just board the ship so priority gets you nothing.

Right, so once the people higher up on the priority line is done boarding, they'll just do first-come-first-serve for everyone else? No deck, groupings or anything?
I'm going on Spectrum this coming May. It'll be my first cruise in more than a decade and my first on RCI. Just a lowly pre-gold with a balcony, so no priority whatsoever.

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Pretty much.  As an example, let's say they start allowing check-in at 10:30AM and they start boarding at 11AM.  Everyone that checked in before 11 would board in their priority order and that will probably only take a few minutes, let's say 15.  Thus anyone checking in after 11:15AM would just go straight to the ship.  Of course, the line to check in will also be growing through all of this.  There are dedicated check in lines for suites and for the different levels of Crown and Anchor (depending on the size of the port).  Ironically, sometimes the pre-gold line will be shorter than the Diamond and up lines!

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RCL do not have any reason to force you to board on the time they suggest, they want people board as soon as they can , what they want is not to create huge lines , so if everyone will come on 10:30 lines going to be very bad.  (unless they want to make the key pre board very special) 

For me the best time to come to the port is  when they start the boarding. I guess most of the times is around 10:45-11 AM ,  usually no lines in the check in and you can go and board without waiting in the waiting area thinking when they will start to call. 

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