Christmas 2018 Planning – Cruise Checkin

Unlike with airlines, we could check in online to the cruise after we had paid the balance on the trip, fully 4 months before our sail date. The checkin process is actually more about gathering passport information, setting up accounts, and an attempt to upsell services and activities.

Passports

During this process we realized our kids passports would expire in May of 2019. For entry into most countries, passports need to be valid for at least 6 months beyond when you ENTER the country. We would need to get new passports so we filled out the paperwork online, printed it out, went to the post office to get photos and submitted the application. We opted for the expedited service even though it was a few months before our travel. With family in other countries we never know when we might need to make a last minute trip so the extra cost was worth it to us. We had the new passports back within a couple weeks.

Choosing Arrival Time

With the new passports in hand, I finished entering all the information online on the Norwegian website. One of the questions it asked for each person was a checkin time. It was a half hour window on departure day for us to arrive at the terminal to checkin. We wanted to get there early to get on the ship first thing and get our bearings, though the earliest time available for myself and my wife was 11:00am. Later on in the checkin workflow when I was checking in the kids, I saw they had the option of arriving at 9:30. I figured something must have opened up so I went back and was able to change my wife and myself to 9:30, but by then I could only select 11:00am for the kids.

After a quick call to Norwegian customer support the agent said the kids could board with us at 9:30 and wouldn’t have to wait by themselves until 11 which I guess was reassuring. It’s definitely confusing that you would select arrival times differently per guest, especially for minors.

Gratuity

Once the checkin workflow was complete and we had our eDocuments (equivalent of an airline boarding pass), we had the option to pre-pay our gratuity. This is explained as a standard rate for tips which get distributed among the service staff. You could add more or pay less than the suggested amount which was 14.50 per person per day.

It’s billed as a way to streamline your last day so you don’t have to wait in lines to settle up your final bill. I ended up paying the suggested rate, though I could adjust that amount on the final day if I chose.

With us all checked in and our boarding eDocuments downloaded and printed, the countdown was on!