Port arrival and boarding time changes

Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Hi everyone! Well, as Sweetpee reported on another thread, it does appear Disney is about to enforce port arrival times. I've seen some more information lately to give this rumor credence, so I thought we should discuss!

Unless you are taking Disney transfers, sailing concierge, or are a platinum Castaway Club member, after finishing your online check in you select a port arrival time.

Since this began, for the most part this has not affected your boarding time, and Disney has never enforced the arrival time. There have been some sailings where you were given a higher boarding number based on your selected arrival time, but that was not the norm.

It looks like on August 2nd in Port Canaveral, Disney is going to start enforcing those arrival times. The rumor is they will not even let you in the parking garage or in the drop off zone until your designated time.

This will hopefully cut down on the congestion in the terminal. With the increased capacity of the Dream, it's been a little crazy there sometimes.

It is going to cause some problems though. First thing that comes to mind are the guests who don't complete the online check in. Not to mention how unhappy the people who show up a few hours early are going to be.

It's also going to be interesting to see what happens with hotel shuttles. Are they going to enforce the times at the hotel when you sign up for a shuttle time. The first Disney transfers from the airport also arrive much earlier than 11.

So if your cruise sails out of Port Canaveral in the next couple of months, watch this space! If anyone checks in on August 2nd, definitely update us! We want a second by second update!:lookaroun:lol:

Once we see how everything is working, I'll update the FAQ's and we'll discuss it here. Watch this space!!:)
 
Crush Dude!

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
Disneyfalcon said:
Hi everyone! Well, as Sweetpee reported on another thread, it does appear Disney is about to enforce port arrival times. I've seen some more information lately to give this rumor credence, so I thought we should discuss!

Unless you are taking Disney transfers, sailing concierge, or are a platinum Castaway Club member, after finishing your online check in you select a port arrival time.

Since this began, for the most part this has not affected your boarding time, and Disney has never enforced the arrival time. There have been some sailings where you were given a higher boarding number based on your selected arrival time, but that was not the norm.

It looks like on August 2nd in Port Canaveral, Disney is going to start enforcing those arrival times. The rumor is they will not even let you in the parking garage or in the drop off zone until your designated time.

This will hopefully cut down on the congestion in the terminal. With the increased capacity of the Dream, it's been a little crazy there sometimes.

It is going to cause some problems though. First thing that comes to mind are the guests who don't complete the online check in. Not to mention how unhappy the people who show up a few hours early are going to be.

It's also going to be interesting to see what happens with hotel shuttles. Are they going to enforce the times at the hotel when you sign up for a shuttle time. The first Disney transfers from the airport also arrive much earlier than 11.

So if your cruise sails out of Port Canaveral in the next couple of months, watch this space! If anyone checks in on August 2nd, definitely update us! We want a second by second update!:lookaroun:lol:

Once we see how everything is working, I'll update the FAQ's and we'll discuss it here. Watch this space!!:)
Click to expand...

Fun and Games on the way at Port Canaveral :lol:

Interested to see how the DCL shuttles from WDW will be affected :shrug:
 
sweetpee_1993

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
I was going to wait to see what happens after the 2nd to change our breakfast ADR on our embarkation day. Although the changes will put us on the ship a bit later than what we originally hoped, I think it's worth the sacrifice if embarkation is less chaotic. The last thing I want is to be all stressed-out before we get onboard.

If I'm not mistaken, I've read that the first available port arrival times have been 10:30. Has anyone heard of or received one earlier? We got 11:00 so I'm not feeling so bad about it. It'll make for a fairly relaxing morning to not have to get up super early and feel like we're bound for the biggest of all rope-drop-fastpass-foot-races. Lol! I'd like to think with a streamlined process we'll arrive at 11, board by 12-ish, have a bite to eat, explore a little, and find our stateroom about the time it's ready.
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
sweetpee_1993 said:
I was going to wait to see what happens after the 2nd to change our breakfast ADR on our embarkation day. Although the changes will put us on the ship a bit later than what we originally hoped, I think it's worth the sacrifice if embarkation is less chaotic. The last thing I want is to be all stressed-out before we get onboard.

If I'm not mistaken, I've read that the first available port arrival times have been 10:30. Has anyone heard of or received one earlier? We got 11:00 so I'm not feeling so bad about it. It'll make for a fairly relaxing morning to not have to get up super early and feel like we're bound for the biggest of all rope-drop-fastpass-foot-races. Lol! I'd like to think with a streamlined process we'll arrive at 11, board by 12-ish, have a bite to eat, explore a little, and find our stateroom about the time it's ready.
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Now I'm hearing that they've changed the first available arrival time to 11. It was definitely 10:30 before, even though the terminal opened up at 10:00. I haven't been able to confirm the 11:00 time being the earliest yet.

It should be a little more relaxing if all this pans out.

That first morning is always a test of patience for me. You know how when you get to the park early and get to a ride and all of your party hasn't caught up yet? You turn around and wait for them and watch people flood past you? Every second you stand there it feels like 100 people got in line in front of you?

That's how I always feel on the morning we board. I can not stand to think of other people flooding on before me.

One time on a girl's cruise I was dropping everyone off and returning the rental car. When we got there at 9:30ish, they were already letting people in!!! I had to drop them off, drive to the car rental place, catch the shuttle, all while they were inside!!! It was so so horrible! :lol:
 
sweetpee_1993

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Disneyfalcon said:
Now I'm hearing that they've changed the first available arrival time to 11. It was definitely 10:30 before, even though the terminal opened up at 10:00. I haven't been able to confirm the 11:00 time being the earliest yet.

It should be a little more relaxing if all this pans out.

That first morning is always a test of patience for me. You know how when you get to the park early and get to a ride and all of your party hasn't caught up yet? You turn around and wait for them and watch people flood past you? Every second you stand there it feels like 100 people got in line in front of you?

That's how I always feel on the morning we board. I can not stand to think of other people flooding on before me.

One time on a girl's cruise I was dropping everyone off and returning the rental car. When we got there at 9:30ish, they were already letting people in!!! I had to drop them off, drive to the car rental place, catch the shuttle, all while they were inside!!! It was so so horrible! :lol:
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LOL! You're soooo funny! I can totally grasp the horror of the 100 people flooding past you after you just put every ounce of effort in your being to be ahead of them. That's just funny!!!! :ROFLOL:

I really do want to make a pointed effort NOT to get caught up in what I might miss or the time thing. I want to relax and take the experience in. I supposed I'll just have to bring my bestest pair of Disney-colored glasses, huh? LOL!

I'll go back and check but I think there was a person or two, previous cruisers I believe, in our cruise meet group that had 10:30 for their arrival time. Maybe not. You know how toasty my memory is with the numbers. :p

Oooooh, I have a few things to email you with, too. Finally got thru the whole VA thing with glowing results, my brother & momma are "in" for leg #3 of our adventure, and naturally Mr. SweetPee (aka 'The Waffling King') has thrown some loops at me. :wave:
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
sweetpee_1993 said:
LOL! You're soooo funny! I can totally grasp the horror of the 100 people flooding past you after you just put every ounce of effort in your being to be ahead of them. That's just funny!!!! :ROFLOL:

I really do want to make a pointed effort NOT to get caught up in what I might miss or the time thing. I want to relax and take the experience in. I supposed I'll just have to bring my bestest pair of Disney-colored glasses, huh? LOL!

I'll go back and check but I think there was a person or two, previous cruisers I believe, in our cruise meet group that had 10:30 for their arrival time. Maybe not. You know how toasty my memory is with the numbers. :p

Oooooh, I have a few things to email you with, too. Finally got thru the whole VA thing with glowing results, my brother & momma are "in" for leg #3 of our adventure, and naturally Mr. SweetPee (aka 'The Waffling King') has thrown some loops at me. :wave:
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I would only admit that on a message board like this where I know people can relate!:D

It's always a little hard to relax and take it all in the first time, but you can do it!

We had 10:30 for our Alaska cruise and I've had a few clients get 10:30 recently, so I'm just not sure when and if they changed that!

So glad the VA thing is worked out! Just email me!:)
 
DVCOwner

DVCOwner

A Long Time DVC Member
I did on line check in just after midnight on Sunday. I was checking in 90 days out due to I have been on a Disney Cruise before. The first time that I could select was 11:00 AM, but that is not to say earlier times could have already been full.
 
sweetpee_1993

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
DVCOwner said:
I did on line check in just after midnight on Sunday. I was checking in 90 days out due to I have been on a Disney Cruise before. The first time that I could select was 11:00 AM, but that is not to say earlier times could have already been full.
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I've heard different things as far as what the first time slots were/are. My best guess is that prior to DCL making a Disney-firm (notice I didn't say "firm"...LOL) decision on adjusting the port opening time and enforcing arrival times is when a time slot earlier than 11 was offered. It doesn't make sense for a time prior to port opening to be available. Ya know? I think once Disney made their decision they shifted the first available time slot. I did my online check-in on 7/2 and got 11:00. There's many repeat DCL cruisers in my cruise group on another forum and maybe 1 or 2 people got anything earlier than 11. Those folks got 10:30 so it's not that much difference. Also, I think I may have read somewhere that some people who had times earlier than 11 had been contacted via email notifying them that their port arrival time was changed to 11 from 10:30. There's also been talk of Disney changing the time on their cruise documents without prior notification which obviously caused a fluff.

Everyone is sort if waiting to see what happens come 8/2. Personally, as a first time cruiser, if I wasn't a WDW vet I think I may have found the boarding cluster as it was to be enough to make me want to cruise only DCL's smaller ships if at all. Ask Tammy & Holly! After I started reading about the insanity of the boarding process I really did get freaked out. I couldn't dig up enough info about it to formulate an effective boarding strategy. I approached the whole thing like the TSMM rope drop foot race. Lol! I loathe the foot race. I'm really hoping the changes DCL are trying to bring forth will streamline the boarding process, minimize waiting, and make things better overall. It'll mostly depend on if DCL actually enforces their rules with some amount of consistency (hahaha) and if passengers will cooperate.
 
J

Jeegyar

New Member
I have spoken with two separate reservations specialists about this new port arrival time, and both independently confirmed for me that this is really more of a "guideline" they are trying to put into place, rather than a strictly enforced rule. I was told that "if you arrive early, then you arrive early" - no one is going to forbid you to enter or try to check in. It is merely the hope that people will try to follow the guidelines as best as their travel and arrival arrangements allow, to help minimize the chaos in the terminal.
 
sweetpee_1993

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Jeegyar said:
I have spoken with two separate reservations specialists about this new port arrival time, and both independently confirmed for me that this is really more of a "guideline" they are trying to put into place, rather than a strictly enforced rule. I was told that "if you arrive early, then you arrive early" - no one is going to forbid you to enter or try to check in. It is merely the hope that people will try to follow the guidelines as best as their travel and arrival arrangements allow, to help minimize the chaos in the terminal.
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Interesting. Other people in our cruise group have been told that if they pull up at the gate (I guess a guard-check thing) early they'll be directed to nice places nearby to go wait for their appointed time. :shrug: Some were told in the past day or so that if they previously were given a time of 10:30 that their time has automatically shifted to 11. I'm on the edge of my seat itching to see what happens tomorrow. I decided I was gonna just wait & see what happens..which I think is going to kill me at this point. The reports will roll in and we'll have a better idea of what's happening, if DCL only sorta meant what they said or if they really-really meant what they said. :lol: Gosh, I feel like a kid watching my siblings to see how far they can get over on the folks with something. :lol::lol:
 
mickeysshoes

mickeysshoes

Well-Known Member
We board on the 25th OF THIS MONTH!!!! :sohappy: We are using Quicksilver and our time is 11:30-12:00. We are not getting pick up til 10:30 so we should be right on time. Have never done this before so hoping it all goes smooth. I will sure report back when we return!!! Thanks for all the info and insight!
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Jeegyar said:
I have spoken with two separate reservations specialists about this new port arrival time, and both independently confirmed for me that this is really more of a "guideline" they are trying to put into place, rather than a strictly enforced rule. I was told that "if you arrive early, then you arrive early" - no one is going to forbid you to enter or try to check in. It is merely the hope that people will try to follow the guidelines as best as their travel and arrival arrangements allow, to help minimize the chaos in the terminal.
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That is interesting. Definitely not what some people are being told. That has definitely been the case in the past, but it is "supposed" to change tomorrow.

So be careful! We'll know more tomorrow about what's really going to happen. :)
 
E

ectomaster

Member
Well, if I can access the site I may give an update but don't want to kill the battery on my iPhone too quick. Heading out in about an hour or so to get to the port!
 
J

Jeegyar

New Member
ectomaster said:
Well we arrived at 10:20 and they are sticking to no in until 11 thus far.
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Well I was told on the phone also that even though they used to open the terminal for entry at 10:30, it is not beginning until 11am now. I'm more curious to know what they do for people with later port arrival times (such as a 12-12:30, like I have, even though I'm set to arrive by 11am).
 

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