Disembark Priority?????

Hi All! I have minimal cruise experience....

I've noticed that the cruise ship's web site mentions that one of the advantages of booking a shore excursion with them is that you get priority for getting off the boat early. What does this mean? We are docked at all of our stops. As soon as the gang plank comes down in Tallinn, for example, can't I just walk off the boat myself?

How about St. Petersburg? If I book a tour myself, can't I just get off the ship as soon as I'm ready?

Thanks!

It means they will tell folks not taking a ship's excursion that they have to wait until the ship excursion folks are gone, but that's a lie. Anyone can get off at any time. There may be a line, but it's the same line for everyone.

It's a way they try to make you buy their own (usually overpriced) tours.

I agree with Nitemare. The additional misleading part of the cruise line's statement is that all excursions don't depart at the same time. Rather, the common procedure is to stagger them. So non-excursion people can easily get off while the excursion folk are departing.

Tender ports it is quite a bit more complicated.

Hi All! I have minimal cruise experience....

 

I've noticed that the cruise ship's web site mentions that one of the advantages of booking a shore excursion with them is that you get priority for getting off the boat early. What does this mean? We are docked at all of our stops. As soon as the gang plank comes down in Tallinn, for example, can't I just walk off the boat myself?

 

How about St. Petersburg? If I book a tour myself, can't I just get off the ship as soon as I'm ready?

 

Thanks!

In most ports where the ship docks at a pier, you can generally walk off as soon as the gang plank comes down and security is ready to process people off the ship. Generally, when they are ready, an announcement will be made and you can exit off the ship. There may or may not be a line of people that has formed by the time they make this announcement, but it will generally move pretty fast once they start processing people. Quite often, the announcement will not be made for several minutes after they actually are letting people off. I like to watch from an open deck above or my balcony cabin and monitor things. When I see they are pretty much ready to let people off, I head down to the gangway. I'm often one of the first people off the ship using this approach.

The excursion people are often led to another gangway for disembarkation if the ship has the ability to have 2 gangways. But not always. If there is just one, a ship excursion group will usually get put to the front of any line that has formed at a common gangway. But once that group exits, the do-it-yourselfers continue exiting.

In Tallinn, I seem to recall just walking down as soon as the gangway was open and I was walking to town within a few minutes.

St. Petersburg is a little bit different from most ports. Here, the Russians stop every exiting passenger (ship excursion or otherwise), and review your paperwork. It is one of the few ports I have been to where the local government slows down the disembarking process. Some cruise lines have tried in the past to make it sound like non-ship-excursion passengers must wait for the ship excursion passengers to exit the ship. They have had mixed success with this tactic. The reality is however, that the Russians could care less who goes first. So just go ahead and head down to the gangway as soon as you can and get in any sort of line you have to.