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I saw a video of the boarding of Harmony of the Seas


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I recently saw a video someone posted of the boarding of Harmony of the Seas.  The line outside the terminal looked insane! They waited 1 5 hours just to get in the terminal in the heat! Has anyone experienced this?  How early should someone arrive?  

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10 minutes ago, Raven said:

I recently saw a video someone posted of the boarding of Harmony of the Seas.  The line outside the terminal looked insane! They waited 1 5 hours just to get in the terminal in the heat! Has anyone experienced this?  How early should someone arrive?  

You should arrive at your assigned check-in time. Arriving early and ports not enforcing the times is what causes lines.

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Unknown what may have caused this delay…if it was just passengers arriving outside their assigned time, or a combination of issues.
I have seen huge backups at boarding due to the ship having to leave the pier for awhile to allow a late-arriving container ship to pass; or embarkation being delayed due to a surprise onboard inspection by US Health authorities; or a surprise safety inspection by the Coast Guard; or port computer malfunctions preventing check ins. Each of the things resulted in a domino effect causing long lines and delays. 
Maybe someone who was there can elaborate…

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11 minutes ago, BrianB said:

Unknown what may have caused this delay…if it was just passengers arriving outside their assigned time, or a combination of issues.
I have seen huge backups at boarding due to the ship having to leave the pier for awhile to allow a late-arriving container ship to pass; or embarkation being delayed due to a surprise onboard inspection by US Health authorities; or a surprise safety inspection by the Coast Guard; or port computer malfunctions preventing check ins. Each of the things resulted in a domino effect causing long lines and delays. 
Maybe someone who was there can elaborate…

From my personal experience, and I admit it is only one personal experience a little over a week ago, and from reading posts here and on my wife's Facebook Roll Call pages, it seem that the vast majority of hang ups are those that come to the terminal unprepared.  It can also be attributed to trying to keep the inside of the terminal from being to "unsocial distanced".  Yet, the line up, even though outside, to get into the terminal stretching for 10s to a hundred + yards long are anything but "social distancing".   Pre COVID, I don't remember an long lines, at least not like we see today, even with people showing up early (me included).  We processed into the terminal and then sat in the large waiting room with chairs right next to each other and in some cases facing each other with only about a 2 or 3 foot hall type space between them.  I don't remember there being any problems with long lines outside.

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17 minutes ago, RDU said:

We went on the Harmony May 15th.  There were lines already formed when we got there but we were on the boat in less than an hour.

What time did you arrive at the port? How long did you wait outside? 

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Which terminal were you at?  I'm speaking only of Harmony of the Seas.  That ship is taking 5000 passengers min. and everyone has to show multiple docs before they can enter the building.  I went on two RCL cruises in the past few months on Navigator..much smaller ship way fewer people,  same docs required.   Zero lines outside, practically walked right through and onto the ship both times.   The lines at Harmony were because there were only 4 people standing at the door checking thousands of passengers documents.  That's not OK. 

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1 hour ago, BrianB said:

Unknown what may have caused this delay…if it was just passengers arriving outside their assigned time, or a combination of issues.
I have seen huge backups at boarding due to the ship having to leave the pier for awhile to allow a late-arriving container ship to pass; or embarkation being delayed due to a surprise onboard inspection by US Health authorities; or a surprise safety inspection by the Coast Guard; or port computer malfunctions preventing check ins. Each of the things resulted in a domino effect causing long lines and delays. 
Maybe someone who was there can elaborate…

The video I saw was pretty clear.  The problem was thousands of passengers waiting extensively in the heat to have docs checked at the door.  Only 4 employees to check thousands of passengers docs.   Having gone through this there's a lot you have to show even if you have it out..Passports,  negative tests, and vaccine cards.  That's a lot to check for each passenger. 

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1 hour ago, Raven said:

What time did you arrive at the port? How long did you wait outside? 

We got there about 1030am, our checkin time was 11am.  But the lines weren't too crazy and once they opened the doors it went really quick.  Wait time outside was maybe 15-20 minutes

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At Port Liberty, the only thing I had to show outside was my boarding pass with the arrival time. That’s all. Then we went inside the terminal, through security, and then we were directed to an available port agent. Only then did we have to show our passport, vaccine card and negative Covid test…along with the boarding pass.

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We parked the car at 10:45, walked to the outside security line, one family ahead of us, we all had our documents open and in our hands, no fumbling with our phones or in bags or pockets, out and ready to be verified, walked right in to the next check point, same result, no line, documents checked quickly.  “Thank you, the waiting area is to the right, enjoy your cruise.  Boarding started about 15 minutes later.  
IMHO those lines are more often than not caused by clueless or thoughtless passengers who can’t be bothered to know what they need to be processed quickly.

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Huge waiting times at the end of Adventure boarding at Cape Liberty on May 26th. Rumor is port computer system went down for an hour or so so everything came to a standstill.  No problem boarding at 11 but ship ended up leaving a couple hours late.  

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11 hours ago, Raven said:

Did they check your check in time or just your documents at the door before they let you in the building? 

They briefly looked at the docs while we were in line before the terminal building opened.  They were really just letting you know to have them out and ready.  As @Pooch said, it was really pretty seamless with the exception of the people that can't read or get in the right line.  Obviously, Suite guests and Key guests do get to go through first but still the wait wasn't bad at all.  Same with debarkation, a little bit of a wait in line but we were off the ship and on our shuttle bus in less than an hour once they let us through.  

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We just got off Symphony in Miami. Last week we walked up at 10:20 for a 10:30 boarding. The people in front of us had a 1:30 boarding. As far as I can tell they didn't check boarding times or hold anybody back. And the security and boarding process was efficient. We were on pretty quick and had restaurant reservations by 11:00.

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