What do I need to have prepared for online check-in?

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Trying to figure out if my Boarding Group Number IS because of DCL Transportation.

Different sailing, but the very best PAT / BGs that regular folks got on my 11/7 Wish cruise were 11:15, BGs 4, 5, 6.

I believe BGs 1-3 at 11am are reserved for concierge, Disney transport, etc.

 

[Captain Hurricane]

Oh how fun, Captain Hurricane! I remember my first Disney Cruise - with my nieces. Don't do TOO much research because it's kind of fun to be surprised. We didn't do any excursions or bookings - we just had fun being on the ship. Nothing like your first time on a beach! Or on a boat! I am . . . older . . and on one Disney Cruise, that I took by myself, I accidentally happened to be walking near the atrium and there was GOOFY, walking towards me. And he gave me a thumbs up. And I didn't stop grinning the rest of the cruise.

Um, yeah, your User name might get you a 'walk the plank' note under your door! (Just kidding . . timely, though!)

My kids weren't sure at first about what a cruise would be like and then they did a ton of research on their own, watched youtube videos etc, and now they are pretty excited about it! We're bringing my mom and my mother-in-law as well - this may be their last hurrah as they get up in age, but they are really excited about it, too. Hope our weather will be decent, early in December!
We have excursions picked out for all of the ports - want to make sure our kids can finally say they have been to a beach hahaha. Due to the limited mobility of our older relatives, I set up an appointment at the spa for them on the day we are in Jamaica.

 

[Doingitagain]

We took our four 80+year old grandparents on a cruise and it was wonderful. They are all "value oriented" so not having them look at prices on a menu was so nice, and getting to order two lobster entrees at the captains dinner was a highlight. The Rainforest room was a bust -- too many moans and groans as they tried to get in and out of hot tubs and other places -- so we encouraged them out of there ASAP so other guests could enjoy it in peace They got around great on the ship and the cash members were so wonderful for them. They still talk about it!

 

[Tama-chan]

I got 11:15 group 4! Thank you so much for the tips!
Registering private transfer for the transportation definitely saved us time!!
One thing I would like to add…if your citizenship requires ESTA or any US Visa, you will also need those document in photo. I didn’t have that prepared and that hold us back a bit.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Thank you for the instructions post! Completed online check in at midnight and it was a breeze <gasp>. I had everything done in 6 minutes, on a desktop, using chrome! PAT 11:15 BG 5 I honestly don't know what people outside these boards do because I would've never known what to do without the helpful people here. Disney certainly doesn't make it easy. This will be our 11th cruise(all DCL), but our first since 2019, so I was stressing a bit. Also, there was a message at the end stating everyone has to go through Safe Passage to upload cards or test. Really confusing since neither are required after 11/14 and we are on the 12/9 cruise. I'm guessing it just hasn't been updated yet

 

[ehh]

Also checked in for the 12/9 cruise last night and had some problems that I think others have mentioned in this thread (haven't read all of it). Ended up getting PAT of 11:15 and BG 5, completed in 7 minutes.

Issue 1: "Check-in" button never appeared in my browser (Safari) on my Mac. Kept refreshing until around 9:03 when I started looking for other solutions.
Solution 1: Used the app to start the check-in process, which punted me to Safari on my iPhone. It's a non-authenticated experience (meaning I was not signed in to my account) but it worked fine. Document uploads worked. Payment method selection was a blue spinner but I selected Cash initially anyway.

Issue 2: I continued checking on my Mac to see if I was doing something wrong. A few minutes after completing check-in on my iPhone, my Mac started throwing the Dory "Nothing fishy to see here" error message when I'd try to view My Reservations. iPhone did it when logged in, too.
Solution 2: Starting in the app, again, and using the non-authenticated flow continued to work.

Everything's working fine on my Mac this morning, not sure why I had to use the app flow last night.

 

[oam]

Thank you for the instructions post! Completed online check in at midnight and it was a breeze <gasp>. I had everything done in 6 minutes, on a desktop, using chrome! PAT 11:15 BG 5 I honestly don't know what people outside these boards do because I would've never known what to do without the helpful people here. Disney certainly doesn't make it easy. This will be our 11th cruise(all DCL), but our first since 2019, so I was stressing a bit. Also, there was a message at the end stating everyone has to go through Safe Passage to upload cards or test. Really confusing since neither are required after 11/14 and we are on the 12/9 cruise. I'm guessing it just hasn't been updated yet

Did you need to upload a picture of yourself and picture of your passport?

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Did you need to upload a picture of yourself and picture of your passport?

Yes

 

[CindyCaiCaiCai]

what would be the photo size recommendation for uploading? Does it have to be jpeg?

 

[MommyCMickey]

Checked in last night (12:01am) and thanks to all the tips and help we got an 11:15a PAT with group 6 boarding

 

[MommyCMickey]

what would be the photo size recommendation for uploading? Does it have to be jpeg?

I did my check in from my phone and whatever the format was on my phone it accepted

 

[ehh]

Also checked in for the 12/9 cruise last night and had some problems that I think others have mentioned in this thread (haven't read all of it). Ended up getting PAT of 11:15 and BG 5, completed in 7 minutes.

Issue 1: "Check-in" button never appeared in my browser (Safari) on my Mac. Kept refreshing until around 9:03 when I started looking for other solutions.
Solution 1: Used the app to start the check-in process, which punted me to Safari on my iPhone. It's a non-authenticated experience (meaning I was not signed in to my account) but it worked fine. Document uploads worked. Payment method selection was a blue spinner but I selected Cash initially anyway.

Issue 2: I continued checking on my Mac to see if I was doing something wrong. A few minutes after completing check-in on my iPhone, my Mac started throwing the Dory "Nothing fishy to see here" error message when I'd try to view My Reservations. iPhone did it when logged in, too.
Solution 2: Starting in the app, again, and using the non-authenticated flow continued to work.

Everything's working fine on my Mac this morning, not sure why I had to use the app flow last night.

An update on some of the challenges I had.

I checked in for the 2nd cruise of our B2B and while we didn't need to grab an early boarding group for the 2nd cruise, having a 2nd check-in process let me test whether computer clock matters--it definitely does! I changed my Mac's timezone from PT to ET a few minutes prior to check-in and was able to check in on my computer (got BG5 and 11:15, done by 9:02PM PT).

I then changed by Mac's timezone back to PT, still before midnight, and the "Pending Review" link went away.

So for anyone not in Eastern Timezone, I'd suggest changing your device's timezone to ET for this process to go as smoothly as possible. At least until this bug is fixed.

 

[ichoose2believe]

Checked in last night for the 12/15 Wonder and I got it done in less than 10 min so thanks for all of the tips.
I am in Cali (PST) and my cruise is leaving out of San Diego and I was able to check in on my phone at 9pm PST (11/14). The link on the website (PC) did not appear until after 12:30am PST (11/15). I was able to get a port arrival time of 12pm with boarding group 2 not sure if San Diego boards later than other ships.

ETA: Confirmed the earliest PAT for this sailing is 12pm.

To make things easier I scanned our passports on the printer and then used Snip It tool to create a JPEG of the photo & signature page then added them to my phone. None of our information pulled through so I had to enter the information (Passport #, Issue Date, Expiration Date, Name, DOB).

I also put the emergency contact was the same for all people and just went back to change it after I got the PAT. Thanks again to everyone for all of the tips.

 

[ldo]

If I have a departure Jan 7, is check in at 12:00AM Dec 8 or midnight (late that night). Dec 8

 

[PattiPB]

Appreciate this thread very much! Checked in last night for 12/18 Merrytime. FYI---checkin button never showed up on desktop or ipad. Got it on my phone around 9:05 (Pacific time). Followed tips in Post #2, and was done by 9:15. Went back in and changed payment method after that.

Got PAT 11:30, BG 6. Happy with that.

Question for San Diego specifically: What time should we be driving into the parking structure we reserved to be walking to the dock by 11:15?

 

[ehh]

If I have a departure Jan 7, is check in at 12:00AM Dec 8 or midnight (late that night). Dec 8

Check-in is 1 minute before 12:01am Dec 8. That is, the second the calendar switches to Dec 8.

 

[MinnieSueB]

Thanks for all the pointers in this thread. Wanted to add that if you have sailed with DCL in the past with passports, as soon as I uploaded a passport it automatically filled in all the info for the passport so that saved a lot of time.

Also it now allows you to turn your photos and adjust the sizing.

 

[ehh]

Wanted to add that if you have sailed with DCL in the past with passports, as soon as I uploaded a passport it automatically filled in all the info for the passport so that saved a lot of time.

I think you mean to call out how much better this is than the old system, and it is!

But also for first-timers who are wonder if it will work for them, this OCR (optical character recognition) also worked for our friends who were first time cruisers.

 

[julierocks]

The steps on this thread saved me this evening! Thank you to all who shared!

I got PAT for 11am group 2.

Desktop still never loaded and it's 55 minutes past midnight EST. The phone is the only way it worked for me. The desktop version still doesn't show availability to check in for me or that my online check-in is pending review. So weird! So the suggestion of being prepared on both your iphone and desktop is very true. I had a good connection, refreshed as instructed, high bandwidth, all the good stuff you would think of - but no dice on the desktop.

 

[KSL]

I will be checking in online tonight for 3 cabins.
Where is this elusive "Check In" button supposed to be (so that I will know where to look for it and also will know if it isn't showing up)?