Cruise day time line
 

I will be going on a cruise with celebrity out of Ft. Lauderdale here is a few weeks. We are getting in the day before and staying at a hotel. The following day the cruise leaves at 4:30pm, but was told that we should be at port everglades at 1:30pm. Check out for the hotel is 11am. Since i have a few hours in between, does the port have some sort of waiting area that we can hang out at? I have never been on a cruise so am not sure. Also would a taxi be the best bet to get from my hotel to the port?

You can go straight to the port to get on the ship. I think we got on the ship by 12:00 noon and went to the Lido deck to eat and explore the ship.

Typically, you can get on board around noon, and we have been on board msot time before that and one time as early as 9:30 a.m. (it was with a special request)

We took the shuttle from the hotel and would arrive the dock around 10:30 or 11. Get through the registration and get on board (Usually within 1/2 hour). We have lunch, explore the ship, and wait for sail away party.

ESCHEW,
Thank you. You have given me some good advice on some other threads. Now can you help me with a real problem i am having. This whole norovirus thing is really freaking me out, so much that it has been hard for me to enjoy looking forward to my trip. (3 weeks before sailing and I SHOULD be on cloud nine, but i am not) It will be my birthday 2 days into sailing so my family wants to throw me a B-day party before I set sail, and I almost said no, because i am afraid one of my nieces or nephews will give me strep throat or something (how horrible is that!) I should WANT to be around my family before a big trip like this. Although i have traveled many times before, this is my first cruise, any advice or words of wisdom to make it so I can enjoy the time before my cruise? HELP!

Lots of cruise ship negativity in the news anxiety before acruise is normal usually for me.Might relax arm yourself with the facts.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/.../norovirus.htm

Do what you can odds of having a major problem quite small.Norovirus is very common in health care settings far more common than cruise ships you never hear about all those outbreaks.

quotewright.com trip cover independent
always wise for me after that I just relax.
Sort of pretend I am going to a luxury hotel
that moves around.

stay123.com at FLL has free park stay fly hotels with free xport to the port always choose one of those save hundreds
on parking because I drive down.

Travel, if I might say - gently - in your several posts about this upcoming cruise you are exhibiting a most startling array of anxieties - you are anxious about getting sick before the trip, anxious now about coming in contact with your relatives, anxious about norovirus during the trip; anxious about getting from your hotel to the port, anxious about what to do at the port before you embark - anxious about <i>being</i> anxious.

All these anxieties are unnecessary. Period. A travel forum is not going to help you. No amount of soothing talk from strangers is going to stop what is clearly a problem <i>you</i> have. Try and stop - if you can't, get some help. Go to your doctor, go to some counselling, get some sedatives - <i>anything</i> to stop this completely useless grief you're putting yourself through.

You'll find this post harsh. Actually, this advice is as valid as any you'll find on this forum, even though you'll doubtless be offended. Think of it as 'tough love'.

Dogster,
I'll consider that like an ice cold glass of water to the face, something i probably need!

Bless you travel for taking my words the way they were intended. You are in the Dogster Zone of Safety now.

Let me just say that I've met a number of women travelers in exactly the same state as you are now. We meet at the Tragic Singles lunches early in the cruise. My greatest pleasure is to watch their anxieties melt away as the days go by. They unfold like a lotus at dawn, just as you will.

Great, thanks dogster, much apperciated!