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Earliest disembarking for port trips


waterski12001

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Hi to all,

 

Planning our first cruise - we are booked on the Ruby for the Mediterranean July 16 2010 from Barcelona.

 

My question is regarding what is the earliest time we can get off the ship when at port.

 

the times on the itinerary that indicate when we arrive:

 

Livorno - 6:00 a.m.

 

Civitaveccia - 7:00 a.m.

 

Naples - 7:00 a.m.

 

I assume the ship actually arrives earlier - early morning considering we are departing from the previous ports around 6:00 p.m. and the distance between Monte Carlo and Livorno, Livorno and Civataveccia and Civataveccia to Naples is so short.

 

It should not take 12 hours to actually travel that far.

 

So my question is: If it arrives at 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. can we disembark?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Jar

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:confused::confused:Usually the Port arrival times given on a cruise itinerary is the actual time the ship is tied up at the dock - often there is then a delay for Port clearance ie. Immigration, payment of docking fees etc. It is usually 20 or 30 minutes before all is ready for disembarkation - if it is a port which requires tendering, those passengers on organized ship tours are normally the 1st to be disembarked. Don't forget also there is sometimes a mechanical issue which will delay disembarkation. All in all, usually Princess is pretty efficient with Port disembarkations but then don't be too anxious - quite often there will be a long lineup of passengers all wanting to be 1st off. Enjoy your 1st cruise and always remember patience is the best policy

Hi to all,

 

Planning our first cruise - we are booked on the Ruby for the Mediterranean July 16 2010 from Barcelona.

 

My question is regarding what is the earliest time we can get off the ship when at port.

 

the times on the itinerary that indicate when we arrive:

 

Livorno - 6:00 a.m.

 

Civitaveccia - 7:00 a.m.

 

Naples - 7:00 a.m.

 

I assume the ship actually arrives earlier - early morning considering we are departing from the previous ports around 6:00 p.m. and the distance between Monte Carlo and Livorno, Livorno and Civataveccia and Civataveccia to Naples is so short.

 

It should not take 12 hours to actually travel that far.

 

So my question is: If it arrives at 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. can we disembark?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Jar

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So my question is: If it arrives at 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. can we disembark?

As stated above, the ship will most likely not arrive at that hour of the morning. If there are no complications, you'll be permitted to leave the ship pretty close to the time stated in your itinerary.

 

In case you are not aware, in the ports of Livorno and Civitavecchia you will not be permitted to walk from the ship out of the port area. In Livorno you'll need to take a taxi or transportation provided by an excursion. In Civitavecchia there is a free shuttle to take you out of the port area.

 

Lew

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The ship will not necessairly arrive earlier than the scheduled time, no matter how close the ports are. It will all depend on the port schedule. ;)
The ship might arrive a few minutes earlier but not by much. The arrival times are usually dictated by the harbormaster who assigns docks and schedules for all of the ships in the port. The ship will need to board a pilot and he is scheduled for a specific time as well. No pilot, no docking. Also, you cannot disembark the ship until it is cleared by the port authorities and they are scheduled to board at a specific time. Thus, your ship will not arrive much before schedule, if at all. What actually happens is that the ship will sail out to sea and cruise at a slow speed until it's time to head for the harbor. This means less engine noise and less wave slapping for the passengers trying to sleep.
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Great Insight Pam,

 

That's interesting how the port arrivals work. I was reading how you could get early disembarkation at the end of the cruise to catch flights - Venice and Rome I had read that for. I was just wondering if the same would apply for day trips but I guess not. Thanks

 

Jar

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The distance between ports is not relevant to arrival time. On the Crown Princess we had a port call in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands with a port call the following day in St Thomas in the USVI, a distance of maybe 25 km, an hour or less away. We cruised all night, sailing south of St Croix USVI and arrived in St Thomas early the next morning having covered several hundred km.

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Great Insight Pam,

 

That's interesting how the port arrivals work. I was reading how you could get early disembarkation at the end of the cruise to catch flights - Venice and Rome I had read that for. I was just wondering if the same would apply for day trips but I guess not. Thanks

 

Jar

 

And as Dustyone stated above, if it's a tender port (where the ship drops anchor away from the pier and you take a "tender" to get to the pier), those with ship-sponsored excursions for that morning, along with certain status passengers (probably those booked in suites, and perhaps "elite" status) will get taken to the front of the line. On our last cruise, we were told to be in the Princess Theater at a certain time for our snorkeling excursion. Then we were escorted to the tender line.

 

If you're not on a ship-sponsored excursion and it's a tender port, there will be info in the Patters about where to get the tender tickets (these are free, basically like tickets in a bakery giving you a number). After a while, when the line thins out, you can just show up at the gangway and immediately get onto a waiting tender.

 

For ports that you dock, there will be info in the Patters about which deck to go to. If it's soon after docking, there will be a line. So if you wait awhile, you can just walk off the ship without standing in land.

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For ports that you dock' date=' there will be info in the Patters about which deck to go to.[/quote']I don't remember ever seeing that information in the Patters.

 

After clearance, the Purser will announce where the gangway is located.

 

Lew

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I was reading how you could get early disembarkation at the end of the cruise to catch flights - Venice and Rome I had read that for.

 

 

 

That "early disembarkation" is still after the ship's scheduled arrival occurs and the ship has been cleared by the authorities. It just means you will be among the first to get off once all that occurs.

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That's interesting how the port arrivals work. I was reading how you could get early disembarkation at the end of the cruise to catch flights - Venice and Rome I had read that for. I was just wondering if the same would apply for day trips but I guess not. Thanks
I've been on cruises where because of delays, we lost our pilot and sailing slot, i.e., we were leaving the port and had to wait for another pilot to become available. That was the first I was aware of the "schedule" of arrivals and departures, and the importance of being ready to enter or leave the harbor within a specific time period. I've been on other cruises in tender ports where tendering back to the ship in time for departure was suspended by the harbormaster because he gave priority to commercial fishing boats arriving that needed the dock. I've seen that happen several times (Lahaina, Puerto Montt (Chile), and Sardinia come quickly to mind) so it's probably not as unusual as it seems.

 

That "early disembarkation" is still after the ship's scheduled arrival occurs and the ship has been cleared by the authorities. It just means you will be among the first to get off once all that occurs.
I've been able to disembark super early on a few cruises. Last year, we were on a Crown Princess cruise disembarking in Copenhagen. The ship arrived in Copenhagen the afternoon before disembarkation and we left the ship at 4:30am for the airport, only to find out that even for a 7:30am flight, the check-in desks open for all airlines at 6am -- it was a freaking ZOO with no where to go, no place to sit, everyone in lines and pissed off if they thought you were jumping the line. We were flying First/Biz Class and went directly to the special check-in line, and were verbally harrassed by the hundreds who thought we were going ahead of them. It got ugly. I asked the loudest if they were flying First Class and if so, they were more than welcome to get into the Priority line. They shut up after they realized what the special line was for.
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I seem to remember seeing this info' date=' but maybe someone who has their Patters handy can check.[/quote']I checked our Patters from our last European cruise in September prior to posting. None listed that information.

 

Lew

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