Getting on a cruise can be a challenging experience. Embarkation day (the day the cruise departs) has many parts to it.
If you're flying the same day as your cruise, which isn't recommended, you may have to deal with the fear that your flight will be cancelled. You also have to pack based on what's allowed on a plane, which may require a stop to pick up full-size toiletries, bottles of wine, water, soda, or whatever else is allowed onboard your particular cruise.
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People who are staying at a hotel or can get to the port by car have a little less stress, but they still have to get to the cruise terminal. If they drive, finding a parking spot and getting up and down elevators or stairs with luggage can be a challenge.
Once at the terminal, passengers must check their luggage or carry it with them. Most people carry a carry-on bag to carry a few essential items and store their travel documents. If you check your luggage, you will need to label it with the luggage tags provided by the cruise line.
Passengers go through a metal detector, have their passport (or birth certificate in some cases) checked, and show their boarding pass at least twice. Technically, you can use a boarding pass on your phone and ask the baggage handlers to create luggage tags for you.
In practice, it is often faster to print these elements in advance, which creates a real problem.
Image source: Carnival Cruise Line.
Carnival passengers have a problem with the printer
Since many cruise passengers travel with children who may not be old enough to have a smartphone, printing boarding passes is quicker. Baggage tags and boarding passes can be printed as soon as the reservation has been paid in full and check-in is complete.
“On the day of embarkation, a boarding pass will be emailed to your email address linked to your booking profile, regardless of whether you have checked in online or not. At the time of embarkation, you will be able to show your printed boarding pass or the boarding pass you have on your mobile phone,” the cruise company said.
Royal Caribbean, Carnival's main rival, offers passengers boarding passes in its app that can also be stored in their Apple wallets.
Many passengers on both cruise lines feel better about having paper boarding passes. This is a problem because many people no longer have printers at home, and it's worse for Carnival customers, since the cruise line encourages the use of paper boarding passes without technically requiring them.
Carnival brand ambassador John Heald recently asked his facebook followers if they had a printer, and the responses revealed a problem for the cruise line.
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Many passengers lack a printer
More than 7,100 people commented on Heald's post, with many saying that not having easy access to a printer is a problem.
“Yes, but I work from home a lot. A LARGE percentage of my clients DO NOT and are not sure how to print their documents elsewhere, so I end up having to print them out and mail them to them, which adds a whole new set of challenges (both financial and logistical),” shared travel agent Andrea Leigh Arnold Miller.
Several participants shared that they got rid of their printers because they have a limited need to print anything other than cruise documents, which for most people only happens once or twice a year.
“Yes, but I work in the IT industry. With the cost of ink and the poor quality of home printers, we recommend people not get them unless they work from home,” wrote Sarah Beth-Gregoire. “If you have to print something, go to Kinkos. Otherwise, you're spending too much money on service calls for us to fix printer issues because they won't stay on the network or whatever the problem is.”
Carnival does not require passengers to print anything, but it does not provide a boarding pass on its app like other cruise lines. The emailed boarding pass can be used, and baggage handlers can create luggage tags. However, many passengers feel better about printed documents, and it is widely believed that the cruise line “prefers” passengers to have a printed pass.
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“I'm not very good at using electronic devices. I always use paper. I feel better if I have it printed out,” Patricia Perry added.
Some passengers like to have a printed version if they can't open the email saved on their phone.
“I like having that paper in my hand, knowing I don't have to rely on my phone,” Katrina Cartner Williams shared.
Related: Get the best cruise tips, deals and news from our cruise experts.
