It's frustrating to people who play by the rules when others don't or at least appear to not be doing so.
Cruise ships have a lot of rules and some are only loosely enforced. In the case of some rules, while it may be frustrating to see other passengers break the cruise line's official policies, it does not actually impact you.
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Someone wearing a bathing suit in the buffet or a T-shirt in the main dining room may break the rules, but it does not actually change your experience. In other cases, however, people ignoring the rules can directly impact you.
That's something one passengers complained about to Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald on his Facebook page.
"Good morning, I would like to know why we have to select a embarkation time for boarding when no one at the port ever checks that time. The last cruise I took there were people ahead of me in line that had time up to 2 hours ago ahead of my time and yes, we were at the port at the scheduled time," shared Greg Burgess.
Judging by his tone, Burgess almost certainly means the people in line ahead of him had a later boarding time. He said that the times were not checked.
"The workers were more worried about you having your documents in your hand physically other than ensuring you were there at the correct time. I understand why you want to have people choose a boarding time, but if no one enforces it then it's just basically a first come, first served situation," he added.
Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival shares its boarding policy
Carnival passengers have to select a boarding time when they check in for their cruise. There are some groups, suite passengers and people who pay for "Faster to the Fun" (FFTTF,) who do get priority boarding.
Heald made the cruise line's official policy very clear.
"Thank you, well with the greatest respect saying that no one ever checks is completely utterly wrong. They check 99.9% of the time however, if this particular instance that you mentioned they didn’t then that was a mistake. And we are very strict with boarding times and we have to be of course," he wrote.
That may be the policy, but it's not always the reality, according to Oasisg Grovessixtyfive.
"Greg Burgess sometimes if they are not crazy busy they let people board from different times. Or if they have FFTTF or priority then it doesn’t matter what the boarding time is," he wrote. "The main reason they have you pick is then the majority of people follow that time and show up when they are supposed to. There are some people that will just do what they want no matter what a time says or the right thing is."
Michele Klahre Turner had a different view of things.
"Boarding times are like locks on windows. They were created to keep honest people OUT. Out of line before their time, and in the case of the window locks, out of your home. Dishonest people are getting in whenever they want to in both cases," she wrote.
