Hello Zeke, I like to arrive early so we can board as soon as possible. I don't mind the waiting in line one bit. I find boarding the ship to be one of the most exciting parts of the trip. I enjoy the whole experience.
But hubby hates to wait in line. He doesn't mind if almost eveyone else is already onboard when we get there, as long as we don't miss the ship, and he doesn't wait in the line. So we compromise a little bit and arrive at about noon. (Alright, so that really means I win :lol )
Actually what makes the decision for us is usually the fact that we arrive in our embarkation city a day early. Thus we have a hotel check out time to deal with. Usually that is 11 am. We wait till the last minute to vacate the hotel room and can usually be in the shuttle or a cab, and on the way to the pier by 11:30. Which has us getting in line at the pier a bit before noon.
Now to answer your question: what should you do. There is no right answer. Yes, sometimes if you arrive as early as eleven, you may get on the ship immediately. That's if the debarkation of the previous passengers all went very smoothly. But if it didn't, you could find yourself waiting in that line a long, long time. Having the line start to really move by twelve or twelve thirty is common.
So basically it's a crap shoot. You make your choice and you take your chances. Whatever you do, I would not recommend aiming to arrive at the pier any later than that two o'clock time. The newer rules require you to be at the pier a lot earlier than they used to. Used to be you had to arrive at least an hour before sailaway, as they pulled up the lines well before that sailaway time. Now security rules want you there even earlier than that. With the new rules it is possible to have missed the ship, and have it still be at the dock.
-D:thumb