For the cruise lines, boarding policy is a logic puzzle.
The problem is even harder when Royal Caribbean and Carnival are leading an industry trend where most new ships being built are bigger than their predecessors.
Getting 4,000 to 6,000 people on board in a short window presents a lot of challenges. Even with the end of covid protocols, which added multiple steps to the process, the cruise lines still must ensure that a number of things happen.
DON'T MISS: Royal Caribbean, Carnival Clarify a Controversial Onboard Policy
All passengers and their carry-on luggage must pass through a metal detector and everyone has to show their cruise tickets and travel documents (generally a passport, but sometimes a license and birth certificate).
The process is tedious and also involves people signing up for boarding slots that are usually half-hour windows.
To further confuse matters both Royal Caribbean (RCL) and Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) offer priority boarding to certain passengers.
In most cases, that's limited to people in suites and those who purchase the right to priority access. In some cases, guests also get boarding priority based on earning high-tier status with each cruise line's loyalty program.
It's all a bit tricky, especially because both companies changed their boarding policies during the pandemic and neither fully returned to what they were doing before covid.
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Carnival Clears Up a Boarding Issue
Carnival offers priority boarding to passengers who reach Gold or Platinum status with its VIFP loyalty program. It also offers priority boarding to people who pay for it via the cruise line's "Faster to the Fun" offering.
Those passengers can board at any time within the allotted boarding period. Some Carnival passengers at its Galveston port reported, however, that they were told they could board only during their scheduled time even though they had the priority designation on their tickets.
"The rumor expanded with more reports that this was to be the case at all Carnival homeports," Cruisehive reported.
That's not the case and the policy has not changed, according to Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald.
“There seemed to be some confusion on the wording we had online about this,” Heald said on his Facebook page. "The practice is to allow Priority guests to join the Priority queue whenever they arrive, and this will be reworded in our online information and reiterated to the home port embarkation teams."
Carnival details the policy on its website.
“Priority guests may board anytime between the earliest opening hour and at the latest, an hour before departure.”
Royal Caribbean Has a Different Boarding Problem
Royal Caribbean has its own boarding problem and it's largely one of its own doing.
The cruise line has created some confusion around its boarding policies as what it tells passengers is not always the practice it actually follows.
All Royal Caribbean passengers must select a half-hour boarding window as part of the precruise process. Suite passengers get their own access line while Pinnacle members of the company's Crown & Anchor loyalty program (the very top tier) and people who buy "The Key," a program similar to Carnival's "Faster to the Fun," get priority boarding.
Royal Caribbean sends an email before every cruise, asking people to stick to their boarding windows and telling them they won't be allowed to board earlier. The problem is that in many cases that's simply not what happens.
Some cruises have been very strict about holding people to their planned boarding times while others have been allowing people to board whenever they arrive.
On the various Royal Caribbean social-media groups, people have openly stated when the cruise line hasn't enforced boarding times.
That leads to people assuming they can arrive whenever they want, which can lead to disgruntled customers on cruises where the selected times are strictly enforced.
