Hello jnojr, I've never sailed out of Cabo San Lucas so this is just a general cruising answer. I don't know if they have any special considerations.
What is the best way to get on the ship?
Not exactly sure what you mean by that. I think you mean, when should I arrive?
First, I'm curious as to whether you are arriving in you embarkation city on the day of the cruise, or sooner.
If you are already in the port of embarkation on sailing day, there isn't a really good answer for you. The cruise lines usually say boarding starts about one o'clock, but many times they start boarding much earlier, maybe as early as 11:30. There will be some people in line even earlier, so there's no avoiding the line entirely. It's a gamble they take, if they are there and boarding starts early, they win. If it starts on time or late, they have a very long wait in line.
So should you wait until the time the ship says boarding will start? Unfortunately, in my experiences the lines have been the longest in the hour or so, right after the cruise line says boarding should start. So that doesn't seem to be the answer either.
Now the only time we had no line at all, was the time we sailed out of San Juan, and didn't arrive until ten minutes before six pm. (Cruise line air, and everyone was late. They held the ship four hours, so we could have arrived much later, but didn't know that when we were waiting on the plane, the very late plane. Well, needless to say, you certainly don't want that experience.
So there it is. I've been no help at all. You make a choice and take your chances.
NOW, if you are just arriving at the city of embarkation on sailing day, and you are choosing your airfare, then here's some advice I got from another poster. This is not my words, but is good advice for deciding whether or not to fly on the same day as boarding the ship.
Rules for booking air for flying the day of boarding:
I will always advise people to fly in the day prior to your cruise, because it does make things both safer and stress-free to do it that way if you can. But, I have flown in the same day in the past and been fine. Here are some "rules of thumb" that I tell people to use, should you decide to fly down on embarkation day:
1. Schedule the very first flight out, no matter how early.
2. Only do it if there is at least one later flight on the same airline that will safely get you there (on time) in the event something happens to your flight.
3. Only do it on direct flights.
4. Never ever do it on international flights.
5. Never cut it closer than 5 hours ( ie: Ship sails at five pm, means your flight had better be arriving by noon.).
6. Think very seriously about it if you live in the North and the cruise is in winter. Now re-think it.
If you cannot pass the rules of thumb, I wouldn't consider flying in that day. If you can, go for it, but be realistic about the risk you are taking.
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Another poster put it this way: When booking your airfare, the goal is to arrive at the pier in time for the ship to start boarding, not in time for the ship to start sailing.
how does embarkation / debarkation usually go at ports of call? Does it take a long time there, too, or do they do it a different way?
When the ship is docked at a pier:
At the ports of call there is often a line for the very early birds, but mostly you just head to the gang way and exit the ship. You must take your sign-n-sail card/boarding pass and have it read as you leave.
Reboarding is easy, just have your sign-n-sail card/boarding pass in hand, (and picture ID too at some ports) and get in the line, if there is one. Usually it's only a few people. Unless it's the last hour of day. You are usually told to be back on the ship 30 minutes before sailing. In the last hour before that the line gets longer, and you may have to wait.
Now if you have to tender, disembarkation at the ports is a little more complicated. There will be a line, for that especially when tendering. Always the people who are booked with the cruise line's excursions are allowed to board the tenders first.
Usually the you need to pick up tender tickets to catch the early tenders, (they will announce where and when to get tickets). The tickets will tell you when you can take a tender. This is to avoid the huge mass of people all trying to get at tender at the same time. Usually about mid morning, the lines are gone and you no longer need the tickets.
As for returning to the ship, again, the later in the day, the longer the wait. Sometime the wait for the endof the day tenders is quite a long one.
