If my cruise ship leaves at 4, how early can I check in and get on the cruise ship?

Question

This is a carnival cruise ship.

Answer 1

You can usually start boarding around noon. Do all your cruise registration on line before you leave home, it makes boarding so much simpler, remember to take your passports and you should be lounging around the pool sipping your first cocktail by 1:30pm, if you remembered to put your swim ware in your carry on, if not, you could be exploring the ship and booking your table in the speciality restaurants and getting ready to have a great time.

Answer 2

Cruise ship will normally let you board about noon.  The time varies because it depends in part on whether the ship arrived back in port on time and whether it cleared US Customs as planned, and finally whether the ships is cleaned on schedule.  If all of that goes well, as planned you can probably board at noon.  Usually checkin will start before boarding time and they have passengers who have cleared checkin wait in a lounge or waiting room until boarding is announced.  What you don't want to do is try to get there too early and get caught in the rush of people getting off the ship.  Cruise lines generally try to have the ships cleared of all passengers by 10:00 AM.

You should also be aware of the requirement not to be too late arriving at the port.   Here's what Carnival has on it's web site:

"Government regulations for U.S. departure ports require that a final departure manifest is submitted 60 minutes prior to departure. Guests must provide us with the required information prior to embarkation. The easiest and most convenient way is to complete our FunPass on line registration process (www.carnival.com/mycruise) at least (3) three days prior to departure. Guests that do not complete the registration process prior to embarkation are required to check-in at least 90 minutes prior to the published sailing time."

Once you board you can for sure go get food and relax in a deck chair, or even go swimming or hot tubbing if you bring swim wear on board in your carry-on bag.

So if you complete your pre-registration information you can arrive at the port and start boarding any time between about noon and an hour before sailing. I have been on about 20 cruises with 4 different cruise lines and this is how its been for me/us.

Answer 3

They will start loading around 11am. Get there early.

Answer 4

If you read through the paper you got from the cl I think its stated there. But expect it to be early. I checked in and theyre recomended me to be at the port 3 to 4 hours before departure. I think in most cases minimum time at check in is one hour before so. Expect some quening to. Its alot of people getting aboard at the same time.

Ill guess if youre expect to be there by noon youll be fine. Johan