PAT Conundrum

[Marthasor]

We will be on a Dream sailing in late December and we typically use a private car service when traveling around Orlando. I would like to book the car service now because they are very busy and, like other transportation companies currently, are short-staffed. My conundrum - I won't have our PAT until 30 days prior to check-in. If I schedule the car to have us dropped off around noon at the port, do you think I will have a decent shot of getting a noon PAT? Or should I ask the car service to pick us up later? I'm just curious what others' PAT experiences at PC have been lately. I really do not want to book the DCL transportation as the last time we did that, they did so many resort pick-ups and we got to the port very late in the day. Thank you for any advice!

 

[cvjw]

If you stay up and check in at midnight eastern on the day your countdown turns to 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, you should get one of the earliest PATs. I have waited until the next morning to do online checkin twice so far and got the 3rd PAT both times. The PAT times are in 15 minute increments, so 11:30 or 1:30 in august when PATs started at 1:00.

 

[Kwami]

For what it's worth, the DCL buses are picking up from the resorts much earlier than before. Many folks here are reporting pickup times of 8:00-8:30am and I haven't heard of one later than that. It's not like it used to be!

 

[Marthasor]

If you stay up and check in at midnight eastern on the day your countdown turns to 29 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, you should get one of the earliest PATs. I have waited until the next morning to do online checkin twice so far and got the 3rd PAT both times. The PAT times are in 15 minute increments, so 11:30 or 1:30 in august when PATs started at 1:00.

This is great info - thank you! So it sounds like, if I want to aim for a PAT around noon, it shouldn't be hard to snag if I'm online as soon as our window opens. I'm curious - when you arrived at 11:30 am, do you remember what time your stateroom was ready? Are the rooms still ready around 1:00 pm?

For what it's worth, the DCL buses are picking up from the resorts much earlier than before. Many folks here are reporting pickup times of 8:00-8:30am and I haven't heard of one later than that. It's not like it used to be!

Wowzers! That is early! Thank you for this info.

 

[Kwami]

This is great info - thank you! So it sounds like, if I want to aim for a PAT around noon, it shouldn't be hard to snag if I'm online as soon as our window opens. I'm curious - when you arrived at 11:30 am, do you remember what time your stateroom was ready? Are the rooms still ready around 1:00 pm?

That seems to vary quite a bit. I've seen reports here of staterooms being ready right away and reports of rooms being ready at 1pm and 2pm. When I was on the Dream (9/20), the rooms weren't ready until 4pm and they kept the hallway ropes up until exactly that time.

 

[cvjw]

This is great info - thank you! So it sounds like, if I want to aim for a PAT around noon, it shouldn't be hard to snag if I'm online as soon as our window opens. I'm curious - when you arrived at 11:30 am, do you remember what time your stateroom was ready? Are the rooms still ready around 1:00 pm?

Our PAT was 11:30 for the fantasy on 10/16. We arrived at the port around 11:25. Quickly dropped off luggage, paid for parking and submitted our covid tests. It took about 40 minutes for the results. When we were cleared by safe passage, we went to the terminal, checked in, went thru security and straight onto the ship. They were already boarding groups 1-8. We were on the ship by 12:30.

They told us cabins would be ready at 2:00, but they were actually ready at 1:30 - right after we had lunch at cabanas.

 

[MomOTwins]

This is great info - thank you! So it sounds like, if I want to aim for a PAT around noon, it shouldn't be hard to snag if I'm online as soon as our window opens. I'm curious - when you arrived at 11:30 am, do you remember what time your stateroom was ready? Are the rooms still ready around 1:00 pm?

We were told rooms ready at 2pm on the Dream and they actually did open at 2pm.

 

[Marthasor]

Thanks so much everyone! This is great info! I appreciate your help.