Boarding early???

[Steamboat Willy]

Our ship will depart around 1:00pm The Agent said to be there atleast an hour eairly. How eairly will they let you board?

My wife and I will be staying with friends in Orlando and they will drive us to the port. We were thinking about getting there eairly morning (like around 9:00am) and spending the day on the ship getting settled.

Will they let us do that?

[Slowhand]

I would check those timings with your agent.
Normally, the DCL ships sail at 5.00pm and boarding commences at 1.00pm....although on our recent cruise, we started to board at 12.00pm approx.
Guests will not be allowed into the terminal building with you.

[SorcererMickey]

Yeap, Slowhand is right...

The ships sails away at 5:00pm, if you are arriving there with your own transportation (versus DCL shuttle bus from a Disney resort) you won't be allowed inside the building until 10:00am, boarding is scheduled to start at 1:00pm. Mrs SM and I have boarded as early as 11:30am.

I would contact DCL directly and get the information from a DCL reservation agent for your peace of mind.

[wdwgrandma]

Bev, Rick, John and I are being shuttled over from our hotel there in Port Canaveral. Does this make any difference on when we can board?

[Slowhand]

Bev, Rick, John and I are being shuttled over from our hotel there in Port Canaveral. Does this make any difference on when we can board?

When you arrive at the terminal, after checking in, you can either stroll around the place, have a coffee, or go outside to see the ship up close...or you could get in line.
You cannot board until the CM`s at the head of the line tell you to do so. When the time comes to board, you pass through another security check before having a commemorative photo taken, and then it`s "all aboard"!

[wdwgrandma]

So that would be a good opportunity for Bev and me to take photos of the ship?

[Slowhand]

So that would be a good opportunity for Bev and me to take photos of the ship?

Sure thing, although you will have LOADS of other opportunities during your cruise.
There is a large scale model of the ship also in the terminal building which is cut away on the starboard side so you can also see it`s "innerds". [Sp?] The characters usually gather around here from time to time which also makes for a good photo opportunity.

[wdwgrandma]

Wow! Sounds like I'm going to have TONS of opportunites to take photos - even before departing!

[Slowhand]

Wow! Sounds like I'm going to have TONS of opportunites to take photos - even before departing!

You are right Donna.
The terminal building is also very light and airy which makes for some good shots. Be sure to check out the "Mickey" funnels at the boarding entrance also.

[wdwgrandma]

"Funnels"?????

[Slowhand]

"Funnels"?????

They are yellow imitation smoke stacks or air vents. [Like a 3ft. diameter pipe terminating in a 90° bend....get it?]

[wdwgrandma]

Oh, I get it! Thanks, Slowhand! I take it these funnels would also make a good photo op?

[Steamboat Willy]

Thanks all. Wow. I hope I have enough memory for my Digi cam. It holds 590 pics witht he memory card and 68 on the internal memory. Thats 658 pics.

Hope thats enough. I will also be taking a reg camera with about 4 rolls of film.

[uscwest]

Steamboat Willy, you may want to look into buying a digital wallet. I think Donna just purchased a new one from EPSON that holds a ton of photos. Then you just download your memory card daily and reuse it. She'll probably be along shortly to tell you more about it I'm sure.

[wdwgrandma]

Yes, I did - and I love it! It will hold 10 Gigs worth of stuff!

[Steamboat Willy]

I have a camera bag. I saw a wallet thing at wal-mart that went around the waist. I tried it on and it felt un comfortable. I think I'll stick with my camera bag. its small and holds all my stuff, it worked great on our last trip to WDW.

Thanks though.

[wdwgrandma]

Willy, you don't wear it. It is a device that you place your camera's memory card into and download your photos. Then you can clean off your card and start shooting photos again! Then, when you get home, you plug the wallet into the USB port of your PC and upload the photos there!

[SorcererMickey]

Yes, I did - and I love it! It will hold 10 Gigs worth of stuff!

More info please, what's the brand and where did you get it?:D

[JuniorMickey]

That sounds like something I'd like to have, instead of dragging the laptop

[wdwgrandma]

More info please, what's the brand and where did you get it?:D
It's an Epson P1000 and I ordered it online from a place in New York. You can view your photos on it - even do slide shows! You can plug it into a compatible printer and print those photos. It's pretty neat!

[Slowhand]

I bought a FlashTraxXT unit before our recent trip.
It has a 40gb memory and apart from downloading photos, it also accepts MP3 audio so I downloaded some cd`s to listen to on the plane using the earphones provided with the gizmo. Oh and it also tunes into the local radio stations.
A really cool piece of kit for around $400 IMHO

[SorcererMickey]

I bought a FlashTraxXT unit before our recent trip.

Now that's what I've been looking for :hyper:

[wdwgrandma]

I could have gotten a 40 gb Epson P-2000, but my older digital wallet was also 10 gb and I never even came close to using all that space - even when staying 2 weeks at WDW and snapping photos like mad - so I couldn't see paying the extra bucks to buy the Epson P-2000.

Your FlashTraxXT sounds cool, Slowhand! If I listened to music more frequently, that would be a good alternative for the P-1000 (the P-2000 supports MP3 and AAC audio files). But the only time I really listen to music is in the car - and so far John hasn't been able to talk me into XM radio!!!

[Slowhand]

Now that's what I've been looking for :hyper:

Details of the unit can be found at http://www.smartdisk.com/eWeb/smartdiskus/www/

[Steamboat Willy]

Well, just talked to the DCL agent. She said that the parking lot opens at 9:30 the termanal opens at 10:00 and you can start boarding around 12:30-1:00.

There is a "safty" meeting for all guest at 3:00 then the deck party starts at around 4:00 and it's anchors away around 5:00 depending on when imigration says so.

[Slowhand]

Well, just talked to the DCL agent. She said that the parking lot opens at 9:30 the termanal opens at 10:00 and you can start boarding around 12:30-1:00.

There is a "safty" meeting for all guest at 3:00 then the deck party starts at around 4:00 and it's anchors away around 5:00 depending on when imigration says so.

These times must vary from cruise to cruise.:blush:
On all our cruises, the safety drill has been at 4.00pm, and we`ve boarded much earlier than 12.30pm also.

[wdwgrandma]

We will be taking the early shuttle from our hotel. That may get us there a bit early, but I'm told there are some EXCELLENT photo ops!

[uscwest]

Our "early" shuttle doesn't depart the hotel until 10:00.

[wdwgrandma]

Hey, I'll be on vacation! That's EARLY!

[Steamboat Willy]

I'm having a friend drop us off around 9:00-9:30 I would LOVE to get there as the ship docks from the previous cruise.

[SorcererMickey]

Ships dock around 6:00am or earlier. By 9:00am the ship has been cleared by customs and guests have almost all disembarked.

The official time to board the ship again is 1:00pm, but if disembarking of guests has gone smooth and customs clears the ship for boarding, it could start as early as 11:30am.

Except for two occassions, we have always boarded in between 11:30am and 12:00noon.

[Steamboat Willy]

According to the agent the cruise prior to ours wont dock at PC untill around7:35am

I dont know. I am only goign by what DCL officials tell me.

eaither way I dont think I can get my wife and my friend to get up that eairly.