What are the nine most important embarkation day watch outs,
tips and tricks that you need to know? I'm Gary Bembridge, and this is another of my
tips of travellers. I'm currently in my cabin on a cruise, and when I was
boarding it made me think I should share with you the things that I do to make
embarkation day smooth, stress-free and make the most of the day. I have nine
tips and watch outs, starting with this one.
Make your vacation stress-free by arriving at the cruise port the day before, that
means that if there are any hiccups with travel, flights, trains whatever you're
using to get there, you have plenty of time to resolve it. Flying in on the day
of the cruise can be really risky so I, like many experienced
cruisers, always aim to go the day before. It gives you a chance to settle in, sort
out any issues you've got and, if there are any hiccups with travel, you can resolve
them. One of the most important things to do is to build into your budget and
plans getting to the port the day before. My second big tip is prearrange and
book as much as you possibly can online before the cruise. There's a
couple of things to focus on. First of all, if you're flying into or
joining the cruise in Canada or the United States and you're from outside
there, make sure you've got all the ESTAs. The same if you're traveling to
any countries where you might need visas, make sure that they're all done and
sorted. Secondly, you'll find that most Cruise Lines ask you to check-in online
and input your credit card details so when you arrive at the port, you already have
an e-ticket printed out and can get through the check-in with just that
and your passport, and get through and on the ship really quickly. Also make sure
that you've pre booked things like excursions, drinks packages,
speciality dining or other things that you can pre-book online. Then
you know that everything is sorted so you don't have to when you get on the ship
rush around and madly try and book up excursions before they go, get your
specialty dining times that you want or whatever. Do that
before, so you have time to think about it. You can look at the deals online
and ensure you've got everything locked down. Make sure you've
downloaded the cruise line app, if they have one, because you'll find once you're
on board you might find it more difficult to
download, so downloaded it when you still have good Wi-Fi or data minutes. Apps
are becoming really important on cruise lines to get your daily program,
make reservations, book excursions and chat with friends and family. Make
sure you put it on your phone and ensure it is downloaded and things sorted before you
go so you can actually use embarkation day to start enjoying your vacation
without sorting out a lot of admin. My next tip is around making the most
efficient use of time before you get on the ship. It is important to make sure you
understand what time you're allowed to get there. Depending on the cruise
line they have different approaches , and some will give you a set time and
won't let you start the check-in embarkation process until your
allocated time, so don't pitch up too early at the port or you will
basically be hanging around wasting your time. Of course, if you want to get
on board earlier there's a couple of things you can do. You can book a
cabin which has priority boarding, or through status.
Some cruise lines sell packages which include
priority invocation as part of that. Make sure you understand what
time you can get there. If they're relaxed on time you might want to
get there really early in the hope that you're there before the
crowds arrive and you get on the ship much earlier. Arriving early won't always
work, so do check what the cruise line policy is. The other thing you
might want to consider, if you don't want to spend a lot of time hanging around, is
look at arriving later. The downside of that, of course, is you don't get on
the ship as quick. However, you might find that it is an advantage. For
example, if you're cruising out of Vancouver on an Alaska trip it can be quite a slow
process getting through all the immigration checks, so one thing that I
like to do is go a bit later when the peak has slowed down, and you
get quicker because you don't spend a lot of time
sitting in the terminal waiting to board. What's important is anything
that's valuable, whether it's medicines, electronics, computers or anything that's
of value to you, have in a day bag. Do not put it in your checked in bags, keep all
that stuff with you. When you're packing that day bag and
carry-on bag, think about what you want to do
when you get on the ship. For example, if it's a nice warm cruise you might
want to be able to use the pool, or the hot tub, your bags may only come to
the cabin quite late in the afternoon, so think about what you want to do.
Perhaps pack some shorts, swimming trunks, workout gear or
whatever it is that you're going to want to do on the ship before
getting your bags. Always assume you're only going to get your bags
later in the afternoon, that way you also know that you've got your
valuables and the important things with you, and also you're able to enjoy the
ship and do whatever you want to do before your bags arrive. Pack that day
bag and really think it through. The other thing that I do on embarkation
day is avoid the buffet restaurant. Most people when they embark
want to go somewhere simple and easy, so they head up to the buffet. It gets
pretty crowded and crazy up in the buffet on embarkation day. Most cruise
lines actually open one or more of their normal restaurants, and that's a much
better place to go because you can sit down and enjoy yourself and it's not
crazy madness with people rushing around in the buffet restaurant. For me
that's a big way of making embarkation day feel a little bit
more special, a little more relaxed and less stressful. My next tip is a
really important one. This is something that I always make sure I do as early as
possible when I embark a ship, and there's four things that you want to
check all are okay. These are as follows: first of all go to your cabin as
soon as you can and check it really carefully. Make sure that
everything works, nothing's broken, try the bed and make sure you're happy with everything
in the cabin. Your cabin steward
will normally come along quite quickly once they know
you're there, and if there's anything you don't like in your cabin or anything
you're unhappy with tell your cabin steward there and then. Very
important then it's registered with the cabin steward and they will probably
also talk to their supervisor. This becomes important if you have any
issues with your cabin and you want to escalate the problem. Within
the first hour or two of getting into a cabin, check everything to make sure that it
is absolutely how you want it to be so there's time for it to get fixed.
Secondly, go and check what the situation is with upgrades. If the ship is not
sailing full there may be a chance to get upgrades.
If you have a problem with your cabin, you might end up negotiating a
free upgrade or there may be special offers going for upgrades.
Always check out what the situation is. The third thing is check your dining. It
depends a bit on the cruise ship you're with, but if you
have a table allocated in the main dining room and on one of those
cruises which has fixed dining, go and check
the table and make sure you're happy with it, because that's going to be your
table for the whole cruise. Increasingly what's happening, of course,
is it's moved to more open seated dining and freedom dining when you want
approach and so that's less applicable. If you have allocated
seating, make sure that you're happy with it, where it's
located and the time of that and talk to the maitre d when they still have time to
influence it. When it comes to dining, if you haven't pre-booked
specialty dining sort that out as soon as you can
when you get on board on the embarkation day, so you can get the dates and times
and restaurants that you want. The fourth thing to check is if you're traveling
with kids, make sure you get them to the kids club as early as possible and
register them. Most kids clubs have capacity to take all of the kids, but get
there early and make sure that you get your kids signed in and you understand
what times they are open, and get that all sorted.
These are the four important things to sort out as soon as you can once you
embark the ship. The next thing I always do on an embarkation day is see
what offers and deals are going. If you've been really organised, you've
probably booked many of the things and seen what's available in terms of deals
and offers before you get on the ship. Some cruise lines will let you book
Wi-Fi packages with a discount or drinks packages a the discount or
excursions with a discount and you might have done that in advance,
but find out what discounts are going on the day because on an
embarkation day most departments will have offers going. That is particularly
true of places like the spa, so go and find out what offers are available.
Check out places like the spa, or even some of the shops, and find out if
there's any lucky draws or raffles going on, because you'll find
that many of those departments are trying to encourage people to go
there so have a draw, which normally takes place
just before the ship sets sail and you have to be there to win the
prize. On a couple of cruises I have won spa packages through those
lucky draws. Find out what offers are going and if
any raffles going, and take part in those. Another important thing to
do, particularly early, is explore the ship and take photographs.
If you want to take lots of photographs of public rooms, or you
actual want to take pictures of yourself on the ship, do it early on
because most people are going to get on the ship go to the buffet
and then go to their cabin ,so explore the ship when it's pretty empty and you're
likely to have lots of good open spaces to take pictures. Once the cruise
is in full swing and everybody's on board, you're going to find it
difficult to get great pictures of empty spaces to show people, around the pools and
the bars are always going to be busy,
so taking photographs early on an embarkation day is a really
great idea. It also means you can start sharing those with all your friends and
family and make them jealous as well! Another key thing to do on
embarkation day is, of course, go to the muster drill. This is mandatory and most
cruise lines will take a roll call, and if you don't go to the muster drill you
are likely to be refused to sail. Although, normally what they do is make
you go through a muster drill separately, but you must go to the muster
drill because you if you don't do it you're not going to be able to sail.
These are the ways that I make my embarkation day run smoothly and be
much less stressful. It means I can enjoy my cruise vacation straight away. I
have many more videos of cruise tips and advice, so why don't you watch another
one of those videos right now?