Boston Sail Away

With all the changes in check-in protocols and our notice about a Coast Guard Inspection that would delay boarding, we weren’t quite sure what to expect today.  Our original boarding time was 11:40 am, but due to the inspection, everyone was lumped into 3 groups by Deck.  We would be in the 1:30 – 2 pm group.  

The hotel is about ¼ mile from the cruise terminal, but there are two terminals, and the Nieuw Statendam was moored at the furthest one, meaning our walk would be about ½ mile.  

The Hampton Inn is Point A – The entrance to the terminal is Point B, about 5/10 of a mile.

We had 4 bags to check and I decided to get some exercise so I made 2 trips at around 11:15 am to drop off our bags.  The line was long at 11:15 am and would grow and shrink as each wave of transfer buses arrived.

We heard that if you got in line around 11:15, it took about 45 minutes to get through the check-in process.  Due to the Coast Guard inspection, no one was allowed to board and everyone was sent to a holding pen segregated by Mariner status.  As the day went on, they had to hold people outside for a bit when all the holding pens filled up inside.  The inspection was over around 1:15 pm and people began to board the ship.

To avoid standing in line we stayed in our hotel lobby until 2:30 pm before walking over with our rolling carry-on bags.  We arrived at the entrance around 2:45 pm and we were in our cabin at 3:10 pm.

They wanted to see a hard copy boarding pass with our bar code.  I didn’t have one so they asked for my cabin number and printed one out instantly with a small portable printer.  I think they had delays when people can’t get their phones open to the right screen etc, so they must think it’s easier for everyone to carry around a 3-inch paper square.

Security screening was the longest line.  Once that was clear, the line was divided into the people with a good READY TO SAIL check on Verifly and those without.  This was a HUGE timesaver as the line for those without Verifly was long and moved slowly since they had to manually inspect all the COVID testing and Vaccine paperwork – checking the dates, etc.  With VERIFLY on our phone, we went to a counter where they made sure we were the ‘guy’ in the picture, and checked our ARRIVE CAN bar code (they didn’t scan it – just made sure we had one) – DONE!  We barely stopped walking.

At this point suite people and 4/5 stars went to the left, everyone else to the right.  There wasn’t much of a difference in the line at this point.  We went to an open check-in terminal which is an IPAD type of device on a stand.  They press start, you stare at the screen to take your picture – it matches your check in documents using facial recognition – hit confirm – then scan your passport – DONE!  Less than 1 minute.

The last thing to do was to get our embarkation photo taken or keep walking.   Then it was off to the gangway and onto the ship.  Our bags were already in our cabin.

Once on the ship, we headed back to the SeaView pool for the sail-away party.  No live music, but they had a waiter passing hors d’oeuvres.  We found some friends from past and future world cruisers:  Sharon and John, Mary Ellen and Karl, Patrice, Susan and Bill, and Maggie and had a nice time catching up.   Check out Sharon and John’s blog HERE

We didn’t depart until almost 7 PM.