Our entire family availed the fantastic cruise to Bahamas recently during September 2009 in the Carnival Pride Ship. I have made an attempt to cover almost all the aspects that must be viewed during and before the cruise in my series of such articles written recently. As soon as you have thoroughly prepared for your cruise, the final aspect of check in at the cruise terminal will have to be planned. I have covered a brief review of the said check in procedure in the beginning of the cruise for the benefit of all my readers in this article.
The most vital aspect is to get the exact address and the directions to the pier from where the ship is going to sail. There are various shuttle services available that can give you the ride to the pier. Such shuttles services charge around $ 40 for the first passenger and then additional $10 for each passenger. The parking facilities are also available at the pier at the rates of around $15 per day at the pier parking lot for the guests. However, in case, you need such facilities, make sure to book it well in advance. Make sure you have attached the luggage tags supplied by the cruise management on each of your bags prior to your departure for the pier. Make sure to reach the pier, around four hours earlier from the cruise departure time. We had reached the pier at around 1 pm and our cruise departure time was 5.30pm. As soon as you reach the pier, porters will be waiting outside the terminal building for carrying your unaccompanied baggage. Make sure to stop your vehicle just at the luggage truck, pertaining to your floor of the state room.
Your large bags would be taken away and would be delivered to your state room after around three hours of the cruise departure. No alcoholic drinks are allowed to be carried on the ship. Only one wine or champagne bottle is allowed per passenger. In case, you need to open your wine bottle in the main dining room of the ship, the decoking charges of $10 would be levied per bottle. Once your large bags are checked in, proceed towards the terminal entrance building. Please note that no luggage tags are issued for the bags you checked in. This is the normal procedure of the cruise and you should not get worried at all as your checked in bags would be delivered to your stateroom. Your travel and immigration documents and the fun pass would be initially checked in at the entrance of the terminal and you would have to pass through security check thereafter. No liquid or water is allowed to be carried inside the security area. So, if you would like to carry such items, make sure to put them in your unaccompanied bags.
Once you pass through the security check, you have to proceed to the immigration counter. The proof of citizenship would be checked at this counter for the US citizens. If you are not USA citizen, you will have to produce passport issued by your country of origin, suitable visa for USA or the permanent alien card (green card) and your photo identity. The immigration agent takes the Xerox of your passport for the records. You will also have to fix up your credit card through which you are going to incur all your inboard expenses at this time. It may not be necessary to carry large cash with you as there are no cash dealings allowed on the ship. You will only need cash when you are at Bahamas in the excursions or the local shopping market.
Each guest is also required to fill in self declaration form indicating that he or she does not suffer from the swine flu. If some passenger declares that he has some symptoms of the swine flu, thorough medical check up is performed at the terminal. The immigration agent would issue the credit card for the ship expenditure. This card is also to be used as your state room key during your stay at the cruise. Once you have completed this procedure, you have to wait in the waiting lounge till your zone number is announced for the boarding. Once it is announced, your photograph is taken once again and you are allowed to enter the ship through the gangway. This completes your check in procedure and you are now all set to enjoy all the facilities of the ship as soon as you enter it.
As you have now understood that the entire check in procedure is slightly tedious and time consuming, it would be better to reach to the terminal at least four hours in advance. This would really help you as you can pass through all the formalities peacefully and in relaxed fashion. If any of my readers have any questions on this, they all are free to contact me.
