How to get your Port Arrival Time, a rookie's mistake.

Rabb it

Kings Over Aces
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Mar 21, 2016
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I have never read any threads on this topic before, which I guess means I'm the first person to make this mistake.. But, I had always heard people talking about their 11:30am PATs and such, and I just assumed I would get an e-mail or something in the mail prior to the cruise letting me know when to arrive.. I was wrong. It was getting closer and closer to cruise time so I decided to call customer service to find out when our PAT was..

I was notified that you can't get a port arrival time until you fill out/upload all the online things: flights, ID's, credit card info. Until then the Port Arrival Time would remain grayed out.

As quickly as possible I filled everything out copy and pasting from Southwest and all that, adding my credit card and sure enough the "Port Arrival Time" button was now available! But of course the earliest times were all taken and 1PM is when we will be arriving... I know there are some people that prefer later times because you miss the hustle and bustle, but we are trying to spend every minute possible on that awesome ship! :(

Live and learn, I guess this is just a rookie mistake that I obviously wont make when we go on our 2nd/3rd cruises and so on. But, hopefully me posting about my mistake will help newbies in the future get the earliest times possible.
 
I have never read any threads on this topic before, which I guess means I'm the first person to make this mistake.. But, I had always heard people talking about their 11:30am PATs and such, and I just assumed I would get an e-mail or something in the mail prior to the cruise letting me know when to arrive.. I was wrong. It was getting closer and closer to cruise time so I decided to call customer service to find out when our PAT was..

I was notified that you can't get a port arrival time until you fill out/upload all the online things: flights, ID's, credit card info. Until then the Port Arrival Time would remain grayed out.

As quickly as possible I filled everything out copy and pasting from Southwest and all that, adding my credit card and sure enough the "Port Arrival Time" button was now available! But of course the earliest times were all taken and 1PM is when we will be arriving... I know there are some people that prefer later times because you miss the hustle and bustle, but we are trying to spend every minute possible on that awesome ship! :(

Live and learn, I guess this is just a rookie mistake that I obviously wont make when we go on our 2nd/3rd cruises and so on. But, hopefully me posting about my mistake will help newbies in the future get the earliest times possible.
I've often posted that you must fill out all the blanks on the online check in pages before the Port Arrival Time page will unlock. I'll just point out that the blanks just need something in them (could be gibberish), the system only recognizes that something has been entered. Many people do that to get to the PAT page quicker. You can always go back and correct anything that needs correcting.

I'll suggest to you that you try to arrive around 12:15-12:30. By then (or shortly) the Open Boarding will have been announced, and anyone holding any boarding number may board. Since boarding only begins at 11:30ish, you won't have missed much boarding at 12:30.
 
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I have never read any threads on this topic before, which I guess means I'm the first person to make this mistake.. But, I had always heard people talking about their 11:30am PATs and such, and I just assumed I would get an e-mail or something in the mail prior to the cruise letting me know when to arrive.. I was wrong. It was getting closer and closer to cruise time so I decided to call customer service to find out when our PAT was..

I was notified that you can't get a port arrival time until you fill out/upload all the online things: flights, ID's, credit card info. Until then the Port Arrival Time would remain grayed out.

As quickly as possible I filled everything out copy and pasting from Southwest and all that, adding my credit card and sure enough the "Port Arrival Time" button was now available! But of course the earliest times were all taken and 1PM is when we will be arriving... I know there are some people that prefer later times because you miss the hustle and bustle, but we are trying to spend every minute possible on that awesome ship! :(

Live and learn, I guess this is just a rookie mistake that I obviously wont make when we go on our 2nd/3rd cruises and so on. But, hopefully me posting about my mistake will help newbies in the future get the earliest times possible.
Thanks for sharing & helping others. :flower3:
 

Made the same mistake our first cruise too. Logged in the night before and Got a 12:30 PAT but it wasn't terrible because we arrived and the terminal was empty and by then open boarding was called so we walked on to the ship. As mentioned there are some pros to a later time :)
 
Sure glad I read this thread!! That's for letting us learn from your experiences.
 
Also, I don't know how close your cruise is now, but that is a thing you can keep checking back on. Sometimes earlier PATs open up.
 
Also, remember the rooms aren't usually ready (in my experience) until around 1pm anyway, so unless you plan to lug your carry-on, getting there a bit later has its advantages.
 
Question.
We have another family that is traveling with us and signed up for a later time because the 1130-1200 (our time) was full. They have a 1200-1230. Think we will board together if they arrive with us? Should we all just arrive at 11? Suggestions?

We are going March 8th out of Miami on the Dream, so its a slower time of the year.
 
Does DCL not send everyone an email like "Your check-in date is almost here"? I always get something a little before my window opens telling me about checking in and booking excursions and so forth.

Question.
We have another family that is traveling with us and signed up for a later time because the 1130-1200 (our time) was full. They have a 1200-1230. Think we will board together if they arrive with us? Should we all just arrive at 11? Suggestions?

We are going March 8th out of Miami on the Dream, so its a slower time of the year.

From what I understand, Miami is stricter about the port arrival time because the terminal simply isn't as big. I do know that DCL asks that if parties want to board together they do so at the LATER boarding number - not the earlier one.
 
Does DCL not send everyone an email like "Your check-in date is almost here"? I always get something a little before my window opens telling me about checking in and booking excursions and so forth.



From what I understand, Miami is stricter about the port arrival time because the terminal simply isn't as big. I do know that DCL asks that if parties want to board together they do so at the LATER boarding number - not the earlier one.
Thanks Dug720 and rats!
 
Thanks Dug720 and rats!

They may allow everyone into the terminal at the same time - it just depends on how crowded it is. I've only been on fathom out of Miami so far, and it is a tiny ship but was at the largest Carnival terminal as no other ships were in port Christmas or New Year's so they really were not stressed about a max of 700 passengers in there. LOL.

And there is a possibility you might get lucky and get the same boarding group, but even if not odds are you would only be a couple behind - and they could even be at open boarding by then.
 
What typically happens if you just show up earlier than your arrival time?

It depends on a lot of factors. What port are you sailing from? What time is your PAT? How crowded is the ship?

At Port Canaveral, they most likely (but not always) will let you enter the terminal (unless it is very full: fire code), you can go through security, even get in line and register, but your boarding number is linked to your PAT time, not the time you arrive, so if you have a really late PAT, you won't be getting on the boat until later, no matter how early you get there. Having said that, it still MIGHT be to your advantage to arrive early. If your PAT is really late, going early may help. By 1:00 or so (Shmoo, is that the correct time?) they will go to open boarding, thus, even with a late PAT, you will be able to board by about then. Some days they are running behind of course, so this isn't always true. But if you have a 12:00 PAT, then arriving at 10:30 probably won't get you on the ship any sooner.
 
It depends on a lot of factors. What port are you sailing from? What time is your PAT? How crowded is the ship?

At Port Canaveral, they most likely (but not always) will let you enter the terminal (unless it is very full: fire code), you can go through security, even get in line and register, but your boarding number is linked to your PAT time, not the time you arrive, so if you have a really late PAT, you won't be getting on the boat until later, no matter how early you get there. Having said that, it still MIGHT be to your advantage to arrive early. If your PAT is really late, going early may help. By 1:00 or so (Shmoo, is that the correct time?) they will go to open boarding, thus, even with a late PAT, you will be able to board by about then. Some days they are running behind of course, so this isn't always true. But if you have a 12:00 PAT, then arriving at 10:30 probably won't get you on the ship any sooner.

Miami, 1130-1200, looks like I can still book about 20% of the rooms.

Maybe we should just all arrive together.

To throw a wildcard in the system I'll have a rental car to return at the local Thrifty office a few blocks away. So right now my plan is to drop everyone off and return the car myself. Then take the shuttle back to the port.

So that made me think of another question. Lets assume it take 30 minutes roundtrip to return the car. Should my wife and kids start the boarding process or wait for me? Do we will need to be together?
 
I can only say for sure for Port Canaveral, but it is probably about the same. I was in that situation. Drop the family off. It will take you a half hour, maybe a little more. In my experience, my family was allowed to check in without me, and I just waited in the line and got my picture taken when I got there. We still all boarded at the same time, as I wasn't that much behind them, but they could have gotten on the ship without me if they had wanted to. At the very worst, they can be inside the port, done with security and hanging out at the port, instead of couped up in the car with you. Also, it will make it easier for you to get on the Thrifty shuttle bus if you are one person with no luggage, instead of 4 people and all of your bags. Of course, if there happens to be a big line to get into the port that day, you will be waiting in it twice. Luck of the draw. At Port Canaveral, the shuttle buses had a back entrance, so they didn't have to wait in line with the rest of the drop-offs. I not sure about Miami.
 
here's an interesting story to add to the mix....

when my/our online check-in became available, due to family goings-on, I completely forgot about it until about 7 pm.

We are sailing during Presidents' Week....typically a full-house situation

I had my choice of PATs for 3 different families/reservations. I chose 11:30.
I had assumed that we would be boxed out, but .....well, that didn't happen

I've read for years how people stay up til midnight for the PAT choices.

IDK.

I'm a stranger here...
and I'm just plain strange everywhere lese
 
here's an interesting story to add to the mix....

when my/our online check-in became available, due to family goings-on, I completely forgot about it until about 7 pm.

We are sailing during Presidents' Week....typically a full-house situation

I had my choice of PATs for 3 different families/reservations. I chose 11:30.
I had assumed that we would be boxed out, but .....well, that didn't happen

I've read for years how people stay up til midnight for the PAT choices.

IDK.

I'm a stranger here...
and I'm just plain strange everywhere lese

There are a lot of factors at work with it.
*Is this your first DCL cruise or have you cruised before? *
What about all the others who will be on the ship? If there are a lot of Platinum and Gold members on a cruise then the earlier times may be snatched up by them and even Silvers have a hard time getting earlier times.
*If there are a lot of first-timers on the cruise, those early times will/could stay open longer. (Seems especially likely on shorter cruises as most gold and platinum seem to like the longer ones.)
*If people who know they are going to be later getting there actually pick a PAT coinciding with those later times rather than grabbing an earlier one just because they can, there will be more early times open.
*If people miss the emails I've always gotten from DCL reminding me about checking in and such and are first timers, they may not know.
*If people are used to making ADRs at Disney (and maybe their online check-in but it's been a while since I've done that), they are used to a 6am start time and may not realize the cruiseline stuff generally opens up at midnight.
*And even more...we just don't know. But there are lots of reasons there could be availability for other times.
 

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