Mar 5, 2019 - Boarding Process and Day 1 Info

Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2019 21:43
Subject: Boarding Process and Day 1 Info
From: JoCo Cruise Booking
To: booked cruisers

Hi, Sea Monkeys. THIS IS THE WEEK!

SOON™ is now EXTREMELY SOON™! So we wanted to give you a basic walkthrough of the boarding process and important Day 1 events.

Don't Be Late

However you are getting to the cruiseport on Saturday, Mar. 9th—taxi, hotel shuttle, driving, teleporter—HAL requires all passengers to be on board 90 minutes before departure, which means by 3:30 pm. “On board” means “checked in and physically on the ship,” so make sure you leave adequate time. And they’re very serious about this kind of thing. Don’t dawdle.

Boarding Documents and Passports

Make sure you have your passports (or other travel documents) for boarding. You should also print out and bring your HAL Boarding Passes, assuming you've checked in online like we've mentioned repeatedly. Online check-in must be completed no fewer than 72 hours before departure. If you forget your Boarding Passes or don't check-in online, you won't get refused entry; you'll just have to fill out the paperwork manually at the cruiseport.

When Can I Board?

General check-in and boarding should begin on Saturday at approximately 11 am. (Guests arriving before the terminal is open will need to stay in the waiting area outside the terminal.) Cruiseport staff will be on hand outside and inside to help you find where you need to go. But the process is pretty self-explanatory: you'll drop your luggage off with the baggage handlers out front (if you haven't preprinted your luggage tags, they will have tags available), you'll go through the port's security screening, and then proceed to HAL's check-in desks.

NOTE: HAL should have provided you with "boarding times" during your online check-in process. This is to help ensure that everyone doesn't all arrive at once and to avoid soul-crushing lines and wait times. That said, if you are new to JoCo Cruise and your boarding time would have you miss most/all of the Orientation (see below), you may check-in earlier than your "assigned" time. (We ask that only New Monkeys do this, please; see previous note re: soul-crushing lines and wait times.)

Checking In and Getting Your Stuff

When you check in at the pier, you'll receive your stateroom keycard (which you'll also use for all onboard purchases), as well as the JoCo Cruise Handbook (a.k.a. "the blue book") and a printed schedule of the Official Events. Immediately following your HAL check-in, there'll be a secondary set of tables where you'll get your Red Team/Gold Team badges and lanyards. (Club SRO attendees will also get their badges and lanyards here, plus their drink vouchers and a handout overview of Club SRO procedures.) There'll also be tables with Sharpies for adding your name to your badge (and if you like, an "ask me about" topic), as well as badge pronoun stickers and "Friendshipping" social interaction buttons for all who wish them.

NOTE: when you originally booked JoCo Cruise 2019, the primary contact agreed to the JCC2019 Terms and Conditions on your booking's behalf. During the HAL check-in at the pier, all adults will need to sign the JCC2019 Terms and Conditions for themselves and on behalf of any minors under their responsibility. Every passenger MUST sign the Terms and Conditions (or have it signed on their behalf where applicable) in order to board JoCo Cruise.

Pre-purchased merch (where applicable) and swag will be delivered directly to your staterooms on Day 1. How convenient!

Once Aboard

Your stateroom may not be ready immediately upon boarding. (It takes a while to completely turn over an entire floating hotel's worth of rooms). If not, there's plenty of options for biding your time. The Lido Marketplace will be open, as will several of the ship's bars. Feel free to explore, familiarize yourself with the ship's layout, check out the various drink and spa packages available, and generally chill.

Orientation

The original formatted email is archived at Mailchimp.