Determine Your Check-in Day

As of May 1st, 2023, these are the number of days before your Disney Cruise start date when you can check in based on your Castaway Club level.

Pearl (26th+ cruise) – 40 days
Platinum (11th-25th cruise) – 38 days
Gold (6th-10th cruise) – 35 days
Silver (2nd-5th cruise) – 33 days
1st Disney Cruise – 30 days

Your window opens at 12:01am ET on the designated day before your sail date. Your reservation listing should show your check-in date, or you can use a date calculator to subtract the number of days from your sail date. Note that the big fun countdown in the DCL app is misleading because they factor in the current day’s hours below the big day number, so that’s actually one day faster if you just go by that big number. You can check in as soon as it crosses past midnight and turns into your day.

Note: You’ll need to finish paying the rest of your cruise balance amount and be marked as paid in full before you can do the check-in. Be sure to make your payment at least a few days beforehand in case it takes time for the computer systems to sync up. If you booked your cruise through a third party, you should pay it even sooner since it could take longer for the third party to send the payment to Disney. You should get an email indicating that you’re paid in full, showing zero balance, from Disney once they have received your payment.

What You Need

To speed up the check-in process, gather the following information for everyone in your sailing party beforehand. You will need to upload these or enter them on the various check-in screens.

• A picture of everyone’s passport info page, clearly showing the photo, signature, and all text legibly (or birth certificate and ID if not using a passport). Saved in jpg or PNG format.
• A passport-style photo for each person but not the same picture used in their passport or ID. Just a selfie headshot against a solid background that clearly shows their face like a passport picture though. Saved in jpg or PNG format.
• The name and phone number of an emergency point of contact who is not sailing with you for each person in your group (could be the same or a different person for everybody).
• If flying immediately before and after the cruise, gather the flight details, including the flight number.
• If staying at a hotel immediately before or after the cruise instead, get the hotel names.
• The credit card you intend to use for charges on the ship. You can add more cards for different people once you’re on the ship. It’s faster just to enter one for everyone for now.

Do the Check-in

Once your check-in window opens, go into your reservation on the Disney Cruise Line website or app. You will see a button/link to check in. If it’s not there yet, keep refreshing until it shows up. The site sometimes lags or hangs since a lot of folks are trying to log in at the same time. Be patient.

There will be several tabs to fill in for the personal info for each passenger, your travel plans before and after the cruise, your method of payment for cruise expenses on the ship, and a few confirmations. If you’re traveling with children, there are some forms you can fill out about who can get off the ship with them and sign them up for the kids clubs. However, I recommend you do those forms afterward instead of taking up time now and just proceed with the check-in process first. Just start from the beginning and click Continue as you complete each section. You’ll see what I mean once you’re in there. It’ll make sense.

Note: The tabs will show a checkmark after you complete each section so that you know you are done with that one. The exception is the Guest Information tab. Don’t worry, that’s normal. Keep going as long as you’ve filled in the screens and uploaded the pics for each person. The button for the next section will become clickable once you do. That means you’re good to continue with the check-in process.

It could take a few weeks for Disney to review the passport and selfie photo pics you uploaded. Once they approve both for everyone, you will receive an email saying your check-in is completed. Or, if they disapprove, the email should say why. Usually, it’s because your picture is not clear enough, so just retake a better one and try uploading again. The review should be completed by a few days before your cruise at the latest, so don’t fret unless it’s getting really close, in which case, call the DCL customer service line to ask about it.

Port Arrival Time

Once all the first few tabs are filled in, you will be taken to the Port Arrival Time selection tab, where you can finally pick your port arrival time! I call this tab out because this is the one that most people are concerned with during check-in.

Everyone tries to get the earliest arrival time because they want to get on the ship as early as possible. Definitely a good thing! After all, the more time on the ship, the better!

However, just know that the port arrival time is just the earliest time you can ARRIVE at the port entrance, whether you’re getting dropped off or parking your car there. That isn’t necessarily the same time you will get on the ship, though, especially if it’s before noon. Still, the time does correlate to the boarding group number, so the earlier, the better. More on that later. This is their way of spreading out the crowds so everyone doesn’t show up at once and cause a traffic jam. You can arrive anytime after it as well, as long as it’s before the final all-aboard time. Try to pick a time when you can realistically get there.

I will also say that you do not have to overly stress over getting a very early time either. The difference between arrival times and corresponding boarding groups is pretty short. Even if you get boarding group 20 instead of 10, the time difference when you can get on board could only be half an hour. They call the groups to board pretty quickly once they start boarding. It’s pretty much like the boarding groups for an airplane. You know how once they start, everyone starts standing up and you all get called in pretty quickly? It’s basically the same thing.

Note: if you’re in a concierge cabin or taking the official Disney transportation from the Orlando Airport or Disney World Resorts to Port Canaveral, you do not have to worry about rushing to check in to get an early time. Don’t bother doing it at midnight. Just do your check-in the next day. Concierge folks automatically board before any other groups. DCL Transportation guests will be assigned a pickup time for the Disney buses, which is usually one of the first few groups anyway, so it doesn’t matter what you pick. In fact, choose a later one on purpose since it’ll be overridden by your concierge or bus time, so you leave the early ones for folks who actually need to pick one. Help them out!

Note 2: As of August 2023, Pearl Castaway Club members do not have to pick a port arrival time either. They will automatically be placed in the first boarding group time.

Finishing Up

After you pick your port arrival time, you will be asked to read the cruise contract. It’s a long doc with all the fine print. Save it off to read more later. You should read it though.

Yay! You’re all checked in!

On the final screen, you’ll see a link to your Port Arrival Form, which shows a QR code for each passenger. Near the top will also be your port arrival time and boarding group number so you don’t forget what they are. This is one of the most important documents to bring with you!

Save this somewhere that you can access easily during the trip, even without internet access, but also print it out if you can so you have it both ways. During the various checkpoints at the port, it’s easier to show them the paper and have them scan all the codes at once than to constantly flip through multiple QR codes on your phone.

Very important: Make sure to bring your Port Arrival Form with you to the port, along with your passports/birth certificates/IDs, whichever ones you used during check-in. Just pack them now, but in the bag that you will carry with you on the ship, NOT in “checked” luggage that you may give to the porters to take on the ship for you.

At the Port

When you get to the port during or after your port arrival time, you will drop off your checked luggage, go through the various security checkpoints, and then go into the cruise terminal waiting area to sit and wait til they start calling the boarding groups. You will need to show the port arrival form at several different points along the way, so keep your group together and have it handy until right before you step onto the gangway.

The boarding group number on your port arrival form determines the order in which you will get on the ship. They generally don’t start calling the boarding groups to board until around 12pm but will go through the groups pretty quickly after that. You can board anytime after your group is called too. It all works pretty much like boarding groups for a flight at the airport. Just make sure to get there before the last call!

NOTE: The All Aboard time, the latest you can get on the ship, for the following sailings has been changed to 3pm instead of previously 4pm local time due to port schedule changes.

• Starting September 2, 2024, Disney Wish from Port Canaveral
• Starting September 2, 2024, Disney Magic from Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale
• Beginning as soon as November 6, 2024, Disney Dream departures from Port Everglades/Fort Lauderdale
• Starting December 14, 2024, Disney Fantasy sailings from Port Canaveral

Guests who arrive after 3pm will be denied boarding. Make sure to account for traffic and other potential delays to allocate enough time to get to the port! If at all possible, do not even try to fly in for your cruise the same day. Always fly in a day or two beforehand to be safe.

Bon voyage!