Port Arrival/Embarkation

[rere101399]

I’ve been reading and watching vlogs like crazy trying to absorb as much as possible. I’m still having a bit of a hard time envisioning how our embarkation day is going to go. We’re doing a 4 night on the Dream out of Port Canaveral.

We only live about an hour from Port Canaveral so we’re pretty flexible and able to show up whenever we want. We don’t have an assigned time yet, but that aside, is there any reason to show up super early at the port, possibly long before our assigned time? Or will we just be wasting hours away for no reason if we get there pretty early?

Once we finally get to board (yay!) I’m trying to decide the order in which to do things. We have a DS7 and DS6 who will likely be hungry. They will also be looking to check out/get registered for the oceaneer club and they’re going to want to hop on the AquaDuck asap (we’re planning to travel in swimwear and coverups). Is there a method to the madness or is everything super busy upon embarkation? Does everyone rush to Cabanas to eat? Should we try to hit the Aqua Duck first and go against the crowd? Or is there no such as that lol?!

 

[lady9]

We have had different experiences on embarkation day. We have arrived early like 9:30 due to a super early flight and waited until our 12:15 boarding time. We have arrived well past our boarding time and walked on. We have arrived around 10:30 and they were in open boarding already so any boarding time was welcome to embark. The cast members have always tried to steer us toward cabanas for lunch but we prefer the inside restaurant. They have told us it's full and we say that's OK we'll wait. We go anyway and it's seldom full. We have always gotten a table quickly. We eat and DH takes the kids to the pool/aquaduck. There is usually a short wait but not bad at all. Cabins are ready about 1-1:30, and I go and unpack and get settled. There is an open house in the kids' clubs in the evening we attend. Have a great time!

 

[dcassetta]

I’ve been reading and watching vlogs like crazy trying to absorb as much as possible. I’m still having a bit of a hard time envisioning how our embarkation day is going to go. We’re doing a 4 night on the Dream out of Port Canaveral.

We only live about an hour from Port Canaveral so we’re pretty flexible and able to show up whenever we want. We don’t have an assigned time yet, but that aside, is there any reason to show up super early at the port, possibly long before our assigned time? Or will we just be wasting hours away for no reason if we get there pretty early?

Once we finally get to board (yay!) I’m trying to decide the order in which to do things. We have a DS7 and DS6 who will likely be hungry. They will also be looking to check out/get registered for the oceaneer club and they’re going to want to hop on the AquaDuck asap (we’re planning to travel in swimwear and coverups). Is there a method to the madness or is everything super busy upon embarkation? Does everyone rush to Cabanas to eat? Should we try to hit the Aqua Duck first and go against the crowd? Or is there no such as that lol?!

Do you not arrive at the port any earlier than 10 AM. You might just end up having to wait in your car or in a line before security as the terminal may not be open except those who arrived at Disney bus. There isn't too much to do in the terminal, although one thing you might want to do is get your kids registered for the kids club before you get on board. You can take care of that while you're waiting. There's a ships model to look at, and character greetings. You can also look over the first day navigator to get a sense of what activities you might want to do.

Once on board, there are three options for lunch. You can go to the Cabanas buffet, the sitdown restaurant, probably Enchanted Garden, or eat on the pool deck at the quick service places that have sandwiches, burgers and pizza. If your priority is the Aqua Duck, then I would head to the pool deck. If it's not open upon boarding, it probably will be soon after.

 

[Weedy]

Port Canaveral
Typically on the first day
9:30-9:45 Parking garage opens
10:30 Terminal opens
When you arrive and check in you will be given a boarding number. The earlier your PAT the lower your boarding number. Platinum and concierge get #1
11:15-11:30 boarding begins
Once boarding starts it goes quickly with the new number being called about every 5 minuets
12:00 Pools, slides, restaurants and bars are open.
1:30 cabins are ready
3:30 pools and restaurants close to get ready for the lifeboat drill
4:00 lifeboat drill
4:30 quick service restaurants reopen
4:30 sail away party

 

[OKW Lover]

We only live about an hour from Port Canaveral so we’re pretty flexible and able to show up whenever we want. We don’t have an assigned time yet, but that aside, is there any reason to show up super early at the port, possibly long before our assigned time? Or will we just be wasting hours away for no reason if we get there pretty early?

We also live about an hour away from the port. Our plan is to get to the garage about 11:30. That puts us through security and checked in by 12:00 (usually earlier) and they have often started open boarding at that point. This strategy limits the amount of time you spend waiting around in the terminal for you boarding group to be called.

 

[Shanti]

I’ve been reading and watching vlogs like crazy trying to absorb as much as possible. I’m still having a bit of a hard time envisioning how our embarkation day is going to go. We’re doing a 4 night on the Dream out of Port Canaveral.

We only live about an hour from Port Canaveral so we’re pretty flexible and able to show up whenever we want. We don’t have an assigned time yet, but that aside, is there any reason to show up super early at the port, possibly long before our assigned time? Or will we just be wasting hours away for no reason if we get there pretty early?

Once we finally get to board (yay!) I’m trying to decide the order in which to do things. We have a DS7 and DS6 who will likely be hungry. They will also be looking to check out/get registered for the oceaneer club and they’re going to want to hop on the AquaDuck asap (we’re planning to travel in swimwear and coverups). Is there a method to the madness or is everything super busy upon embarkation? Does everyone rush to Cabanas to eat? Should we try to hit the Aqua Duck first and go against the crowd? Or is there no such as that lol?!

Aqua Duck first. No question.

 

[apathetic]

Disney buses start getting to the port from WDW about 1230 and usually, from our experience, it is open boarding by then. If you get a really late PAT, I would shoot to arrive about noon then by the time you sail through checkin you should be walking on the ship.

 

[mousefan73]

We have arrived around 10:30 and they were in open boarding already so any boarding time was welcome to embark. !

wow this is the first I have read about open boarding so early.. I usually read around 1230 or so. was this cruise maybe not so booked? curious if not booked out cruises get an earlier open boarding.

 

[lady9]

It was a June cruise and we've only cruised in the summer. It seemed less crowded than the July cruises we've been on. We were traveling with friends who had a boarding time of 12:00 while we had 11:00. Disney just treats everyone, in my experience, truly like guests. It was our friend's first time to cruise ever. Rather than separate us, they allowed our friends to get in the Castaway Club line with us and the cast member next to us checked them in at the same time. Then they said it was open boarding so go ahead. The terminal was fairly empty and very few people were waiting to check in so I think that's why they let our friends stay with us.