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When you arrive at a hotel before the designated check-in time, your room may not be ready if it is before the designated check-in time. When this happens, you can often check your bags, go get coffee or something to eat, and then come back at the appointed time.
Sometimes, of course, you get lucky and a room is available (or you can pay for early check-in). On a cruise ship, people can often board the ship before their rooms are ready.
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In most cases, boarding for the Carnival and Royal Caribbean brands begins between 10:30 and 11 a.m., with the last time around 2 p.m., or a little later. However, cabins on cruise ships are generally not available until 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m.
Most cruise ship passengers, even those who check their luggage, usually have a carry-on bag. Many people pack a swimsuit, a change of clothes, any medication they may be taking, and other essentials in a bag they carry with them on the ship.
On Royal Caribbean (kick) On board, passengers are generally required to keep their bags with them until the rooms open. There are some exceptions, where people who purchase an early boarding package, the ‘Key’, can check their bags on board to be quickly delivered to their rooms while higher level suites have immediate access to their cabins.
Celebrity Cruises, owned by Royal Caribbean Group, invites all passengers to leave their carry-on luggage in their cabin when boarding. However, once they do, they are expected to quickly leave the room so the final cleaning touches can be made.
The cruise line actually posts signs on cabin doors reminding passengers to drop their bags and leave.
Carnival has a similar policy, but only for specific passengers and enough people don’t follow the rules that brand ambassador John Heald regularly posts about it on his Facebook page.
Carnival Cruise Line has a clear boarding rule
While Royal Caribbean does not allow most passengers to leave their bags before the rooms open, and Celebrity allows all passengers to leave their bags, Carnival has a more differentiated policy. The cruise line allows higher-tier Diamond and Platinum loyalty program members, suite guests, and people who pay for “Faster to the Fun” early boarding to drop off their carry-on baggage before cabins open.
However, some passengers take advantage of this policy and simply drop their bags and leave. Heald addressed this in a recent post.
“Again, I must say that when a housekeeping crew member D says please leave the cabin, he is not being rude. He is saying I still need time to clean your cabin,” Heald wrote. “Yes, you can put your carry-on bags in the locker, but please leave immediately. I need to clean the cabin. He wasn’t being rude. He just needed time to get this done.”
The brand ambassador basically appealed to his followers to follow the rule.
He added: “Thank you to everyone who has priority boarding and is able to do so in order to kindly remember to leave the cabin so they can clean. They just want to do what is best for you. That’s all.”
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Carnival customers support Held and the cabin attendants
The more than 300 comments on Held’s posts were generally supportive of the work the cabin attendants do and go out of their way.
“Yes. Respect the cabin stewards, who are working hard to let us have a great cruise. They have a job to do. The last thing they need is someone taking over the middle of their work. No one needs to be sitting in their cabin the minute they’re walking on board, give them Time to take good care of you,” said Raymond Owens.
Some expressed anger at people’s inability to follow what seems like a simple rule.
“It’s really not that hard to understand that the cabins aren’t ready until a certain time. That means don’t go there until then. Some people should have the right and expectation that the rules don’t apply to them. It’s really sad,” Mike Scotti wrote.
Other posters were concerned that people who abuse this feature might cause the cruise line to take it away.
“People, please get down and go so we don’t lose this great feature! Why do people always have to push the boundaries?…Just because no one contacts you doesn’t make it right. Play nice and have a great time,” Diana Derla added.
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