Cruise lines using Web sites to ease dockside check-in

Next to taking a plane to catch a cruise, we find check-in at the dock the least pleasant part of the vacation.

After all, when you’re tired from your pre-dawn flight, hungry because you wisely turned away a beastly airline breakfast, and anxious to begin your dream vacation, the last thing you want is an endlessly long line standing between you and your cabin.

We’ve often waited longer than an uncomfortable hour or two before we received our blessed boarding pass and rushed to our cabin for a change of clothes and then a bountiful lunch in a stunning setting.

A number of cruise lines must have had their ears burning, because they’re finding better ways to board – by necessity, since many monster ships carry between 2,000 and 3,500 passengers.

Turning to the Internet appears a favorite remedy. For instance, Holland America collects your personal information – such as credit card data, immigration details, passport numbers and birthdates – on the line’s Web site.

Once you complete the online forms, you’re issued a Signature Preferred Boarding Pass, which allows you to bypass the interminable lines and proceed directly to a special line at the pier.

There your information is verified, identification is checked, and you’re photographed for ship security.

Carnival Cruise Lines, too, has what we call “Web side” check-in. The line’s electronic cruise documents are available to you any time after your final payment is made.

If you prefer, however, you can opt to have traditional paper documents mailed to you or your travel agent approximately 30 days before the cruise.

Once you complete the online forms, you will be able to print your boarding passes and luggage tags by simply entering your booking number, last name, and ship and sailing date.

You also can check your itineraries and explore your shore excursion options. And, if you’ve booked your flight through Carnival, you’ll also have access to your air reservation information.

Many lines utilize their Web sites to facilitate boarding and to reduce the paperwork required dockside, including Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Crystal, Disney Cruise Lines and most luxury lines.

We’ve discovered that some cruise lines – Disney and Princes among them – do an exceptional job of walking you through all aspects of your cruise prior to boarding to reduce the anxiety of travel, and to eliminate the shock of discovering dockside that you’ve forgotten some critical papers.

Pre-boarding documentation takes you step-by-step through the ins-and-outs of your coming cruise, including a “Things to Know Before You Go” section from Carnival that’s jam packed with helpful information on dining, tipping, attire and descriptions of the shore excursions you selected

For our planned trips to Europe last summer, we found the information about inoculations, health tips and required travel documents invaluable. Disney’s excursion booklet advised us what we would see, what we should wear and how strenuous our tours would be.