Top 10 Tips For A Stress-Free Embarkation Day
When done right, and to give credit where it is due, it has always been the case when cruising out of the port of Southampton and more times than not at other ports, you can arrive at the port, go through the check in process and be onboard your ship within 45 minutes.
Sadly, when it goes wrong, as it has done on occasion for us, it can be stressful from the moment you arrive to the moment you get onboard your ship.
Our worst example came in Seattle where we would arrive at a dangerously chaotic terminal, including been forced to walk on a busy main road, and then been forced to queue over an hour for security staff to arrive.
The building was old and incredibly hot which led to some people feeling ill and one elderly gentleman collapsing but our reward for the wait at security was to wait at check-in.
Not much can save you from the stress of such as unorganised and underfunded check-in but there are plenty of things that you can do to make a regular embarkation experience easier and hopefully stress free and that is what we look at in this list.
Our Top 10 Tips For A Stress-Free Embarkation Day
Never Fly In On The Day Of Departure
My wife is not the greatest flyer, so it can be a stressful experience anyway but if we added in the fact that knowing any sort of delay could see us miss our cruise and it the stress would likely ruin the holiday before we even got cruising.
This is also true if you are driving a long distance to a cruise port as any sort of accident or hold up on the roads could see you miss your ship.
We got to see this at first hand when flying up to Reykjavik for a cruise when we were first delayed for 3 hours, before having to wait for a 2nd aircraft to arrive.
We were flying up the day before but many on the plane were setting sail that afternoon and as the delay got longer and longer, their stress and worry got worse and worse.
The majority of issues are out of your control and that just adds to the stress, so take some control and give you a much calmer embarkation by heading to the cruise port location the day before, choose a close by hotel and get to the embarkation port well rested and nice and early.
Pack An Overnight Bag
Although this one may not be directly related to the embarkation process, it does take away some of the stress of it.
At the majority of cruise terminals, you will hand over your luggage and not see it again until it is delivered to your room later that day.
Sometimes however delays occur, and you may not get it until that night, so if you want to get changed for the evening meal and to enjoy your first night onboard, you will not be able to.
Sometimes, you may not get your bags until the next day so to take away the stress of waiting for your bags before relaxing and enjoying yourself or from even been left wearing the same clothes two days running, make sure you back an overnight bag with a full change of clothes at least.
Complete Online Check-In
You can often feel rushed and flustered at a cruise terminal, especially when you first arrived and hundreds of passengers are disembarking and 100’s are embarking, so the last thing that you want to be doing is filling in paperwork.
Most cruise lines allow you to complete the majority of it online and in your own time, so make sure that you take advantage of been able to do that and take away some of the stress of embarking your ship.
Keep Documents And Paperwork To Hand
I am sure that you will all know not to pack your travel documents and paperwork in your checked in luggage, but we do see so many people at a cruise terminal struggle to find things such as booking confirmations and passports when they get to the check-in desk.
With people queueing behind you, that often leads you to get flustered and stressed out.
We use an expanding file to organise our paperwork and keep everything easy to grab from one place.
Keep Relaxed
Whilst we all expect the embarkation to be straightforward, well organised and perhaps most importantly quick, but its not always the case and things can go wrong.
That often leads to frustration, stress and at the extreme level, some anger but, in the end, that only ever impacts your holiday negatively.
The way that we try to look at things at is the only thing we are trying to achieve at embarkation is to board the ship, so long as that happens, we just keep relaxed and try to take anything that happens in our stride.
Pre-Book As Much As Possible
The final part of embarking for many cruisers is to run around the ship as soon as they get onboard to try and book everything from dining to shows and from spa treatments to excursions.
Not only is it very time consuming to do that, but it can often be stressful as the ship is chaotic during this period, you usually don’t know your way around it too well and everything often needs to be booked in a different place.
Sadly, some lines require all passengers to do this for some things, but the majority allow just about everything to be pre-booked either via their website or their app well in advance of embarkation day.
This not only takes away all the stress from trying to do it when you get onboard, but you can do it at your own pace, which can take away from errors.
When it then comes to boarding your ship, you can simply relax and start to enjoy your holiday.
Have a Power Bank On You
In an ever increasingly digital world, the chances are that you will need your phone or tablet at some point during the embarkation process.
From safety videos to scanning yourself into the terminal and from boarding cards to email updates for any on the day changes, it all relies on you been able to access your device.
Normally that isn’t an issue but if there are any delays along the way or you simply forgot to charge your device, it does happen!!!, having a power bank at hand to recharge your device could be a life saver.
Know Your Route and Which Terminal
Cruise ports can be easy to find your way around and can even be just a short stroll from city centre hotels whilst some can be spread out over miles and features numerous terminals.
Nothing can be more stressful that arriving in a city you don’t know and going to the wrong terminal.
It is often chaotic around cruise ports on turnaround days, so make sure you know exactly where you are going before you get there.
Understand the Muster Drill
The final part of embarking your ship is often doing the muster drill once onboard but it is something that can prove to be stressful- especially if you don’t know what you are doing.
Every line does it differently and whilst some, such as Celebrity makes it incredibly easy and allow you to do it when you want during a set time others such as MSC seem to make it as difficult as possible with up to 6000 people all having to move around the ship at the same time.
If you know where you are supposed to be and when, you can get the drill done and then get on with enjoying your holiday.
Know Your Ship Before You Board
This one is more to do with keeping the start of your holiday off stress free, but it does also help with finishing off the embarkation process.
Some lines require you book things once onboard or need you to set up your onboard account on the ship and if you have any last-minute things to sort, you really need to know where to head.
Your ship is often chaotic when you first head onboard as many are walking around without knowing where to go, staff are trying to sort things, and nobody is quite sure where to sit or head to.
This is especially true if the weather isn’t great any everybody is inside the ship but no able to go to their rooms yet.
You can avoid lots of stress by knowing your ship before you board by looking at deck plans and also by having an idea of where to head once onboard.
