New Procedure for Carnival Cruise Lines - Staggered Check- In Times at Embarkation

To expedite the embarkation process, Carnival has recently instituted staggered check-in times for all their ships at 8 embarkation ports and will add three more ports in Oct-Nov. Passengers sailing on ships leaving from these ports will need to pre-select online check-in times for their arrival at the terminals. They will have a one-hour window to arrive at the terminal. Passengers will not be permitted to enter terminal ahead of this window. Certain categories of passengers are exempt from the one-hour window but still must choose an online time of arrival at the terminal. These include Priority Program guests, those with ship-sponsored airport transfers & those utilizing Faster To The Fun. Do you think that this is a good or bad thing? Here's a link to answers you may have about the new procedure.

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3180/~/staggered-check-in

Tags: Carnival Cruise Lines New Carnival Staggered Check-in Arrival Times for Embarkation New Carnival Embarkation Procedure New for Carnival Cruise Lines

26 Answers

We cruise out of Port Canaveral in October and cannot select a check in time. It is not showing up for me to select. Anyone here know why I can't. Thanks

Here in Florida it is hard to enforce the staggered times if they run out of seating in the terminal. It is too hot to tell passengers to line up outside in the heat without any shade. I have friends who work for the cruise lines & I'll ask them how the procedure is working.

In theory, it is a good idea. Instead of 3000 people trying to check in at 10:30, thereby necessitating standing in a long line (and the safety problems inherent with this), they try to spread out the check-in windows throughout the day. This results in less crowded waiting areas and much shorter lines.

In practice, though, everyone wants to be first in line. If the port doesn't enforce the windows, then they have the same problem with crowds, lines and safety as before. If they do enforce the windows, then they have upset passengers that "didn't know" they couldn't check in before their time.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I want to see reviews on the process.

On Princess we had no issues as we were escorted as a group. Once from the airport and the other from the hotel. NCL had a bit of confusion, but we worked around that in Boston.

Yup, just like Priority as well.

With the FTTF, the process does not apply to you -- you can check in any time you want.

Let us know how embarkation goes for you. I'm sure that you will not experience any problems unless the ship has some unforeseen problem with boarding passengers like a health inspection or mechanical issues.

My first experience with staggered check-in will be in November. We purchased Faster To The Fun, so we'll see how it all works out.

I have these same concerns as you have. We will have to see how it all pans out.

You will get there... Many people are tickled when they get to gold...

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