Boarding a Cruise Ship
Hello my friend. Welcome back. I’m happy you’re here! I’ve had another week of processing from last post’s news and I’m mostly okay. Still anxious per usual, but okay. Now, I remember in my deeply sleep deprived mind that I mentioned at the end of last post that I would touch on some more cruise topics. Cruising is definitely a privilege and I only gained my experience because I wasn’t a guest. I was a worker for 7 months and then I was also an independent contractor for 2 years after that. So I have seen both sides of what it is like to be a crew member and also a guest.
TURN AROUND DAY
So let’s talk logistics about how you get to your cruise and on board. If you aren’t familiar with how cruise operations go, the ship that you will be boarding doesn’t pull into dock until around somewhere between 3 AM and 5 AM. Cruise companies do this to get as much time “at sea” as possible so that they can keep their onboard casinos open for as long as possible to make more money. They usually have the boat cleared by customs and the gangway operational sometime after 6 am. By about 7 am, the debarking of the previous cruise is underway for guests with early flights to catch. Usually debark is completed by 9 or 9:30 AM. It is not a day that you will be able to sleep in at all, unfortunately. The ship cannot board new guests until the previous cruise is completely off board. Even people who are doing back-to-back cruises must leave and board again so the computer can keep track of all guests more easily.
Next in the process is the ship-wide cleaning. All of the staterooms must get flipped and thoroughly cleaned. Any special requests such as honeymoons, weddings, birthdays, or anniversaries are noted by the room attendant, and if the guests included a welcome package in their reservation, that also gets placed. Rooms generally are not ready for the new guests until about 3 PM. But I am getting a little ahead of myself.
TRAVEL
If you are traveling from further away, you will likely be flying to your port and staying overnight in a hotel. On the day you board your cruise, I would recommend waking before 7:45 AM, eating breakfast and leaving for the cruise port no later than 9:45. Traffic around the cruise port tends to be very heavy due to all of the old guests leave, and the new guests coming, on top of all of the supply trucks coming in and out to fill the ship with food, alcohol, merchandise, and anything else for the next cruise. There are also government agents making sure the port is safe and checking for things such as drug trafficking and other illegal activity to keep the port safe. There are also usually emergency medical services nearby should the ship need to call on them. So yeah, traffic is a thing but usually pretty smooth since these ports are designed to flow. Just be open to following lots of directions.
ARRIVAL
When you get out of your vehicle, you will find lots of people everywhere and also luggage porters. They check in your large pieces of luggage to be sent ahead of you. So, if you’re paranoid like I am, lock your luggage. I’ve never had an incident but I’ve always locked my luggage so there’s that. But also you don’t want to be hindered with large bulky luggage pieces from this point on. A carry-on roller is fine and a purse, but the large item needs to go with the porter. So make sure they write your stateroom correctly. Get their name and what time you dropped off your luggage with them just as extra precautions. And yes. You tip them. Keep all of your important documents and medications with you because you will need those to get through security and to check in with the cruise line. It’s basically just like at the airport.
SECURITY
From there, you will be directed to the correct entrance for your reservation. People who paid for high tier suites get their own entrance and if they really paid a lot of money they get a private luggage porter and a personal concierge for their room. However, they also have to go through security too. When you get up to security, you show your passport to the security agent, they check your name on the guest manifest. Every single person on board a cruise ship is listed on a manifest. It’s nearly impossible to have a stowaway in modern times. Even crew have their own manifest. Independent contractors are listed on the guest manifest. All bags get screened before going on board the ship. Even the bag you sent to the porter gets screened before being delivered to your stateroom. If security finds something problematic inside of your bag, they will withhold your bag and notify you to go to a specific location so they have you open it for them and move forward from there. Usually, people bring power strips or too many bottles of alcohol.
CHECK IN
After you get through security, you are directed to where you can check in with the cruise line. It’s usually a pretty big operation and there are lots of desks helping people so the line moves very quickly. You will need your reservation documents, your passport, and any other documentation the cruise may ask for. I’ve has some places only need my ID and everything popped up right away. It just depends on the port and how modern their systems are. They will create a Seapass card for you and take your photo. The Seapass card acts as a room key, onboard credit card, and identifier while you are on board. When you go out in port, you will not be able to board the ship without your Seapass card (I mean you will but with a lot more trouble than you probably intended.) The Seapass card is the most important thing in your wallet once you step on board that ship. Your seapass also has your stateroom information and your muster station location printed on it too. This is for emergencies. You will learn where your muster station is before the ship leaves port.
HURRY UP AND WAIT
Once you’ve checked in, usually you will head to a waiting area. There are restrooms available and sometimes water or orange juice. Some waiting areas have vending machines as well. You are waiting here because the ship hasn’t finished off-boarding the previous guests yet or they are running safety drills or a super deep clean which happens about once a month. Between super deep cleans they usually do their standard cleaning which to be fair both look a little bit the same to me but I cannot vouch for post-covid procedures. This is generally the reason why you are waiting. But By 11 AM they are usually letting people on board.
GETTING ON BOARD
Once they start letting people in, they start with the high-paying guests first as we mentioned before. Then they will move on with everyone else. You will scan your seapass card with the ship security agent and they double check to make sure the photo you took is coming up on their system. If it doesn’t they just take another quick photo of you and you head up the gangway. The gangway can by long and steep in some places which is the first of many reasons why it is better to leave the big heavy luggage with the porters. I’ve seen people struggle pretty badly up these ramps in the past. At the top, the cruise staff will be waiting with large smiles on their faces to greet you onto the ship.
WHAT TO DO BEFORE ROOMS OPEN
So you’ve finally gotten on board and your room isn’t ready yet. In fact they’ve even closed them off completely! They do this so the room attendants can work as quickly as possible without a bunch of guests interrupting them and causing a massive slowdown to flip rooms. They can’t tell you to buzz off and let them finish so the ship does them a favor by cutting off guests from those areas temporarily. Instead, once you’ve taken in the splendor, my advice to you is to get to the buffet for lunch ASAP. It is the only place on board open for lunch and the ENTIRE ship is flooding in and will eventually end up there. I recommend getting your meal first, before all of the food gets picked over and seating becomes very limited. You can explore the ship after you have eaten and taken a moment to tend to your human needs. The buffet is free and you can have as much as you want and even go back for seconds or thirds.
After eating, explore the ship. Find the pool deck, get a drink if that’s how you like to relax, and take your photos. If you want to book any entertainment reservations you can head over to the box office at this time and get those things booked too. Each ship has its own kinds of entertainment and performances available so demand for the shows varies. It’s also likely there’s an app that works on the ship wifi and you can make reservations there too.
MUSTER AND SAIL AWAY
Generally, by 2 pm there will be announcements for everyone to go to their muster station. Everything on the ship will close down and all staff will be directing people to their muster stations and helping people find them. The emergency muster drill is required by international law and the ship cannot leave port until it is completed. The crew at the muster stations will have scanners and will scan your seapass card to check you in at your muster station. This tells the ship that you completed for emergency drill. There will be a short presentation about what to do in an emergency and a demonstration of how to put on your life jacket as well as where they are located. The ship will sound its emergency alarm. (which is louder than a screaming god, btw.) It will sound like 7 short blasts followed by one long blast. Cover your ears. It’s really loud. After that, there will likely be a message from the captain wishing you a wonderful cruise and then everyone is dismissed. Staterooms will be open and your luggage will be waiting outside of your door. (Another good reason to have it locked in case you have anyone who likes to snoop.)
This is usually when sail away starts to happen too. I highly recommend going to an outer deck and watching it happen. Any location is a good location in my opinion so if you want to have your movie moment and wave everyone on shore goodbye, go for it. It’s fun.
And that’s generally how you will begin your cruise!
If you’re wondering what there is to do on a cruise please read this post and it’s part 2 and if you want to know something about cruising, please ask! I forget sometimes that what I know isn’t common knowledge and get stuck on what to tell you about!
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you here next week!
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My sail away selfie from my first ever cruise.
Disclaimer: All photos (except the selfie) were borrowed this week. I do not claim any of them to be my own.
