Late Flight on Embarkation day

[Gaia121]

We will be sailing on Rhapsody of the Seas 7 night caribbean cruise from 29th Jan, 2023. Our package includes flights into Bridgetown. Our flight arrives at 6.25pm and all board time is 8pm. When choosing our check in slot the latest was 5.30pm, when I called Royal Caribbean to tell them our flight gets in after that, they said don't worry just choose the latest one.  First of all, I'm worried we may not even make it to our ship. Secondly I hate being rushed and being late. Our transfers are included.  It's  going to be very stressful and I'm praying for no delays. Finally our dining time is 8pm, and we have to fit it all in on the first day. Its all very last minute and rushed. It feels impossible and a recipie for disaster. Can anyone reassure me, all will be well??  Has anyone arrived into Bridgetown this late before, how was it? HELP!!! I REALLY don't want to start my cruise experience this way.

EDIT

DEPARTURE TIME IS 22:00 not sure if this is ship time or local time…can anyone confirm when would we need to be onboard?

[Censored]

I always book Air2Sea. A guarantee to get you on the ship. The Royal Caribbean Air2Sea program is a seamless, worry-free way to purchase flights in conjunction with a cruise reservation. Book airfare through our Air2Sea program and should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to do everything possible to get you to your cruise.   If you booked this yourself or through an agent and your flight is delayed, then you will have to make arrangements to get yourself to the next port.   I suppose this is why, many people say book the day before your cruise to have more peace of mind.   If Rhapsody of the Seas leaves at 10:pm, you should be fine.  Not sure what time they embark. 

[AshleyDillo]

2 hours ago, Gaia121 said:

DEPARTURE TIME IS 22:00 not sure if this is ship time or local time…can anyone confirm when would we need to be onboard?

All aboard is usually 90 minutes before departure.

[tjcruisers]

Reading your post your arrival is stressing me as well  

[FionaMG]

Who put the package together?

You don't say where you're flying from but your date format makes me think you're not US-based. I know Royal in the UK will put together packages that include flights and transfers and if this is the case you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

[monctonguy]

That's crazy..I wouldn't take that chance..even if the flight was free!!!

 

Arriving at the airport at 6:25pm.....if the flight is on time.....disembark....get luggage......get shuttle/ride to the port...its probably 8pm..then you have to go through security.then check in..then get on board.....

 

I wouldn't try that in a million years..

[morganpink2001]

Agree with others....always fly in the day before (or sooner). Think about what happened a couple of weeks ago where all flights were grounded due to TSA computer issues. Are you able to move your flight a earlier, or at least the first flight out same day of embarkation? If not, I would at least start formulating a backup plan for how you would get to the first port if god forbid you were to miss departure. 

[KJones]

19 hours ago, Censored said:

then you will have to make arrangements to get yourself to the next port.  

RC does not allow this anymore.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/different-departure-port-city

[Censored]

54 minutes ago, KJones said:

RC does not allow this anymore.

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/different-departure-port-city

I never read that before. Interesting, because if you book through Air2Sea, it is allowed. 

[Zacharius]

 

19 hours ago, Censored said:

I always book Air2Sea. A guarantee to get you on the ship. The Royal Caribbean Air2Sea program is a seamless, worry-free way to purchase flights in conjunction with a cruise reservation. Book airfare through our Air2Sea program and should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to do everything possible to get you to your cruise.   

Even that statement contradicts itself - "guarantee to get you to the ship" vs "do everything possible to get you to your cruise". Will they do everything possible? Probably...whatever that really means. But there's no total guarantee they can get you to the ship. They can't add seats, or flights, and often times Air2Sea tickets have special terms and conditions versus "normal" tickets so you may not be a priority to the airlines even if Air2Sea wishes you were. When it's a Caribbean cruise, which often visit islands with fairly limited flights, it starts becoming clearer and clearer that it may not be as easy as they want you to believe. 

[Censored]

13 minutes ago, Zacharius said:

 

Even that statement contradicts itself - "guarantee to get you to the ship" vs "do everything possible to get you to your cruise". Will they do everything possible? Probably...whatever that really means. But there's no total guarantee they can get you to the ship. They can't add seats, or flights, and often times Air2Sea tickets have special terms and conditions versus "normal" tickets so you may not be a priority to the airlines even if Air2Sea wishes you were. When it's a Caribbean cruise, which often visit islands with fairly limited flights, it starts becoming clearer and clearer that it may not be as easy as they want you to believe. 

If they cant deliver, they eat the costs for refunds. l have had changed flights from day of to day after. They paid for the hotel and any added cost for the flight. Its basically an insurance policy built into the price. Plus they guarantee the lowest price. Always worked for me.  But I am retired and dont give a hoot for changes, and further to that all my cruises are comped through Club Royale.  I can cancel to the day of without any financial obligations.  If you are a gambler, this is the ONLY way to cruise.IMO

[Kim8900]

On 1/19/2023 at 4:55 PM, Censored said:

I always book Air2Sea. A guarantee to get you on the ship. The Royal Caribbean Air2Sea program is a seamless, worry-free way to purchase flights in conjunction with a cruise reservation. Book airfare through our Air2Sea program and should an issue arise, our Emergency Travel Team will work with our airline partners to do everything possible to get you to your cruise.   If you booked this yourself or through an agent and your flight is delayed, then you will have to make arrangements to get yourself to the next port.   I suppose this is why, many people say book the day before your cruise to have more peace of mind.   If Rhapsody of the Seas leaves at 10:pm, you should be fine.  Not sure what time they embark. 

Do you know if you miss your flight and then the ship and have booked on the Air 2 Sea will they allow you to get in at the second port? 

[smokeybandit]

On 1/20/2023 at 12:36 PM, Censored said:

I never read that before. Interesting, because if you book through Air2Sea, it is allowed. 

It's allowed only via Air2Sea. 

[Zacharius]

20 hours ago, Kim8900 said:

Do you know if you miss your flight and then the ship and have booked on the Air 2 Sea will they allow you to get in at the second port? 

It depends. Does the second port have an airport? Some don't. Would getting on at the second port breach regulations? Sometimes it does. And, as always, even if there is an airport and it's allowed, there need to be flights with seats on them...which isn't always the case and Air2Sea can't add seats or bump other passengers. So as with most things, it depends. 

[RCVoyager]

I read of this horror story for a family on NCL a few months ago.  Arrived late to Vancouver.  NCL and Federal Law didn't allow them to board on their 1st Alaska port of call, because the requirement to have at least one out of the US port wasn't met.  To make matters worse, the financial obligation to NCL was only $500 per person which did not pay their way back home.  It was NCL's air to sea, and a family of roughly 14 lost $60,000.  I never read if a better resolution was ever obtained.

My advice, get earlier flights now.

[Austin]

Keep in mind you have to go through Barbados customs with your visa and the airport is a decent drive from the cruise port… plus what if the airline is late. I don’t think I’ve had an on time flight in 2023.

Luckily I think the OP has already sailed.

[Doug_Texas]

45 minutes ago, RCVoyager said:

I read of this horror story for a family on NCL a few months ago.  Arrived late to Vancouver.  NCL and Federal Law didn't allow them to board on their 1st Alaska port of call, because the requirement to have at least one out of the US port wasn't met.  To make matters worse, the financial obligation to NCL was only $500 per person which did not pay their way back home.  It was NCL's air to sea, and a family of roughly 14 lost $60,000.  I never read if a better resolution was ever obtained.

My advice, get earlier flights now.

I agree with everything you said, especially about getting earlier flights now.  I will say as a general point that the RCL Air2Sea program delivers a lot of value to travelers where the NCL program, if you are talking about the 2 for 1 “Free at Sea” is not comparable.  There are more terrible NCL air reviews than you can count. 

[RCVoyager]

9 hours ago, Doug_Texas said:

I agree with everything you said, especially about getting earlier flights now.  I will say as a general point that the RCL Air2Sea program delivers a lot of value to travelers where the NCL program, if you are talking about the 2 for 1 “Free at Sea” is not comparable.  There are more terrible NCL air reviews than you can count. 

I believe there are many negative NCL reviews.  Carnival too.  I think in the post Covid world, the almighty dollar is more important than ever to those companies.  I have not heard a lot of bad RCCL reviews, so maybe it is different.

I personally carried Carnival's water up until our Mardi Gras experience in October.  Unless you want to be packed in like sardines, do not, and I mean DO NOT book Carnival. 

[GatorCruiser]

4 minutes ago, RCVoyager said:

I believe there are many negative NCL reviews.  Carnival too.  I think in the post Covid world, the almighty dollar is more important than ever to those companies.  I have not heard a lot of bad RCCL reviews, so maybe it is different.

I personally carried Carnival's water up until our Mardi Gras experience in October.  Unless you want to be packed in like sardines, do not, and I mean DO NOT book Carnival. 

Please elaborate further on your Mardi Gras experience, I’m curious what you encountered. 

[Geezer Of The Seas]

7 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

Please elaborate further on your Mardi Gras experience, I’m curious what you encountered. 

An educated guess. Passenger load (double occupancy) on Mardi Gras is 5200, 6500 max. That's Oasis Class number on a ship that's 50K gross tons/ 60 ft. or so shorter. The ship must have been packed to the rafters on the sailing. 

[GatorCruiser]

1 minute ago, Geezer Of The Seas said:

An educated guess. Passenger load (double occupancy) on Mardi Gras is 5200, 6500 max. That's Oasis Class number on a ship that's 50K gross tons/ 60 ft. or so shorter. The ship must have been packed to the rafters on the sailing. 

So I’m assuming crowds everywhere including gumming all the food places ,bars etc ? I wonder if that ships crowd dispersement design is poor compared to quantum class which is of similar size or certainly oasis class. I know people who have been on Mardi Gras and they didn’t comment on it being overly crowded. This really is just an intellectual exercise as I doubt I’d ever sail carnival anyway. 

[RCVoyager]

4 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

Please elaborate further on your Mardi Gras experience, I’m curious what you encountered. 

We were on the 2nd week of October, and although it wasn't announced, the ship had to be at capacity (6500).  Oasis Class full capacity is 6700, and it is 25% larger.

There were people everywhere all the time.  Elevators were a nightmare (my mother-in-law was with us so had to use them).  The Carnival App is a joke.  Even with it, there were lines down the hall for every restaurant at every meal.  The service people were doing the best they could, but there was no way to manage that crowd.    Three times during the week, our entrees arrived before our appetizers.  Oftentimes the food was cold, and again we did not believe the problem was from poor service, it was from an overwhelming crowd.

If you weren't waiting in line for a show or comedy show at least 30 minutes prior, you would not get a seat.  There were people sitting on the floor for every comedy show we attended.

To make the crowd matter worse, there is a big theater in the front of the ship that is hardly used, and there is an inadequate stage that carves a bunch of space mid-ship that takes 3 or 4 decks.  The seating is poor, and the flow of the ship is badly interupted.  And the main theater sits empty.

The roller coaster can't be used for 4 hours after the slightest rain.  Needless to say, in the Caribbean, there is not much use for it.  It does however interfere with important deck space, namely the walking track with is totally inadequate to begin with.  People didn't even bother to try on that track.

When you get that many people, the worst comes out in some of them.  My m-i-l was pushed by a guy who didn't want to wait his turn.  When confronted, he claimed it was accidental.  I saw it, it was purposeful.

What Carnival is doing is cruise malpractice, and that was the first vacation I've been on, out of many, that was a waste of money, and I felt cheated.

I sent a negative review and never heard back from them, so I followed-up.  Got corporate run around.  Carnival does not care.

I say again, do not sail carnival.

[RCVoyager]

6 minutes ago, Geezer Of The Seas said:

An educated guess. Passenger load (double occupancy) on Mardi Gras is 5200, 6500 max. That's Oasis Class number on a ship that's 50K gross tons/ 60 ft. or so shorter. The ship must have been packed to the rafters on the sailing. 

Absolutely.  100% way too crowded.  I'm surprised whoever from a government standpoint allows that many.  It was like being in a packed high school gym 100% of the time.

[GatorCruiser]

54 minutes ago, RCVoyager said:

We were on the 2nd week of October, and although it wasn't announced, the ship had to be at capacity (6500).  Oasis Class full capacity is 6700, and it is 25% larger.

There were people everywhere all the time.  Elevators were a nightmare (my mother-in-law was with us so had to use them).  The Carnival App is a joke.  Even with it, there were lines down the hall for every restaurant at every meal.  The service people were doing the best they could, but there was no way to manage that crowd.    Three times during the week, our entrees arrived before our appetizers.  Oftentimes the food was cold, and again we did not believe the problem was from poor service, it was from an overwhelming crowd.

If you weren't waiting in line for a show or comedy show at least 30 minutes prior, you would not get a seat.  There were people sitting on the floor for every comedy show we attended.

To make the crowd matter worse, there is a big theater in the front of the ship that is hardly used, and there is an inadequate stage that carves a bunch of space mid-ship that takes 3 or 4 decks.  The seating is poor, and the flow of the ship is badly interupted.  And the main theater sits empty.

The roller coaster can't be used for 4 hours after the slightest rain.  Needless to say, in the Caribbean, there is not much use for it.  It does however interfere with important deck space, namely the walking track with is totally inadequate to begin with.  People didn't even bother to try on that track.

When you get that many people, the worst comes out in some of them.  My m-i-l was pushed by a guy who didn't want to wait his turn.  When confronted, he claimed it was accidental.  I saw it, it was purposeful.

What Carnival is doing is cruise malpractice, and that was the first vacation I've been on, out of many, that was a waste of money, and I felt cheated.

I sent a negative review and never heard back from them, so I followed-up.  Got corporate run around.  Carnival does not care.

I say again, do not sail carnival.

Thank you for your thoughtful and thorough response. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. 

[RCVoyager]

1 hour ago, GatorCruiser said:

Thank you for your thoughtful and thorough response. I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. 

One more thing to add, we barely saw our room steward.   When we did, I asked him how many cabins he had?  35.  I don't know what that number should be, but there is no way to offer good service when you have 35 of them.  If working a 10 hour day, that is less than 20 minutes per room per day.  If working a 12 hour day, he would have had 20 minutes per room.

I'll not even bother to write about the customer service response we received upon my follow-up, but it was BAD.

[Doug_Texas]

21 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

One more thing to add, we barely saw our room steward.   When we did, I asked him how many cabins he had?  35.  I don't know what that number should be, but there is no way to offer good service when you have 35 of them.  If working a 10 hour day, that is less than 20 minutes per room per day.  If working a 12 hour day, he would have had 20 minutes per room.

I'll not even bother to write about the customer service response we received upon my follow-up, but it was BAD.

That would have been a cruise you would want to go to guest services and say you did not want to not do auto-gratuity, decide for yourself.

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

23 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

One more thing to add, we barely saw our room steward.   When we did, I asked him how many cabins he had?  35.  I don't know what that number should be, but there is no way to offer good service when you have 35 of them.  If working a 10 hour day, that is less than 20 minutes per room per day.  If working a 12 hour day, he would have had 20 minutes per room.

I'll not even bother to write about the customer service response we received upon my follow-up, but it was BAD.

Oh I’m now getting a bit nervous about my September Mardi Gras cruise after Utopia!  Our friends talked us into booking this…they had been on Mardi Gras last August and loved it.  We are booked in Cabana Havana rooms which have their own little area on the ship.  We'll see how it goes as we don’t plan to cancel.  It’s an expensive cruise…paying more than just about any cruise I’ve been on with Royal!  All I know is our friends raved about their cruise experience so time will tell!

I will say I am not impressed with any pre cruise things.  Seems they charge for just about everything and doesn’t look like discount sales ever occur!  Nothing about the website is easy!  I am so used to Royal!  

[RCVoyager]

5 hours ago, Doug_Texas said:

That would have been a cruise you would want to go to guest services and say you did not want to not do auto-gratuity, decide for yourself.

I was not going to do anything negative toward the staff on board.  They were working themselves to death.  It's not their fault.  This is a problem from above.  Why design a ship to be that crowded to begin with?

[RCVoyager]

2 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Oh I’m now getting a bit nervous about my September Mardi Gras cruise after Utopia!  Our friends talked us into booking this…they had been on Mardi Gras last August and loved it.  We are booked in Cabana Havana rooms which have their own little area on the ship.  We'll see how it goes as we don’t plan to cancel.  It’s an expensive cruise…paying more than just about any cruise I’ve been on with Royal!  All I know is our friends raved about their cruise experience so time will tell!

I will say I am not impressed with any pre cruise things.  Seems they charge for just about everything and doesn’t look like discount sales ever occur!  Nothing about the website is easy!  I am so used to Royal!  

We met a woman who was staying in the upgraded area of the ship.  They even have their own elevator and she didn't have most of the problems we had.  She did say it seemed crowded in the common areas, but it didn't affect them much.  She said they paid for the most expensive restaurant daily (I think she said $110 per day), and there were no issues there.  They didn't attend any shows and had priority on and off the ship.

[GatorCruiser]

Yeah I’ll stick to Royal and celebrity 

[jjcj]

We are taking a cruise from Hong Kong on the 27th of March.

The latest boarding time is 3:30 and our flight from Singapore arrives 1:55.

The catch is the ship stays in HK for 2 days and leaves the following evening.

They told me I need to call emergency services when we arrive in HK if going to be late for the 3:30 boarding and they will see if they can get us on the ship.

The ship is going to be there an additional 30 hours so I cannot even imagine them denying us boarding.

The flight was a mistake on my part because I thought the boarding times were later, but should I be stressed about this?