Expectation: I arrived at the pier at my designated time.
Exasperation: A lot of cruise lines have adopted the procedure of working with passengers by allowing a dedicated time to board the ship. It is a very practical approach to allow for processing the several thousand guests in a timely manner. Unfortunately, situations beyond the cruise lines, and your control occur. For instance, you have driven to your port, parked your vehicle and have time to spare to board at your designated time. You feel you are right on track. Unfortunately, if there is a shuttle involved from your public parking lot to the ship, it may have no interest in your time line. They just take passengers and their luggage to the ship's pier on a continuous loop. But, you are not alone. Situations like this happen and regardless, you will most likely find yourself in a queue at the pier working your way through the boarding process. There are guides all along the way through the boarding process to help facilitate a smooth boarding experience. Knowing this, you just need to be patient and go with the flow.
Expectation: I thought I was allowed to bring two bottles of wine for free onboard at my port of embarkation.
Exasperation: Over time, this policy has changed. You need to check for the specifics with your cruise line. I once was boarding a ship with two bottles of wine in my carry-on. When my bag was put through the screening device, it picked up my wine. I was taken aside and asked if I wish to bring the wine aboard. I said yes, and I had to pay a corkage fee for each bottle. A sticker was placed on each bottle so that the stateroom attendant would know that the corkage fee had been paid at the dock and added to my onboard account. I admit, it was a surprise to me. So, be sure to ask your cruise line, their policy with regards to bringing alcohol onboard.
Expectation: We arrived at the pier at 11 AM and dropped off our luggage. At 4 PM we were at our stateroom and our luggage had still not been delivered.
Exasperation: Where is my stuff? Going on a cruise is pretty exciting and so you do not see some of the behind the scenes activities. You may have dropped off your luggage at 11 AM at which time you begin the boarding process. But, your luggage takes a little more time. As you know, when you drop off your luggage at the pier, it is put onto dollies which when full, are taken to a staging area and brought upon the ship. Now, imagine that you are one of 2,500 passengers with two pieces of luggage. Loading of 5,000 pieces of luggage is an amazing feat in the time allowed. I have been onboard during this process and it is not for the feint of heart. It is an amazing logistical process. It is also extremely labor intensive. Once onboard, the luggage is sorted, taken by porters to designated elevators and then to the passengers stateroom. It is very impressive and the crew-members doing this work do so as speedily as possible. So, I am curious on how a ship of a passenger capacity of over 5,000 handles the luggage. Although, a rare instance where a piece of luggage is delayed in finding its way to your stateroom, patience and a phone call to Reception will assist in tracking it down. An identification luggage tag could have come off in transit and the crew must use other means of identification.