Why So Late??!!

Sailing on the Carnival Sensation to Nassau in August. The itinerary says we won't be arriving to port until NOON! Why is that? I thought we would get into port early in the morning.

Sailing on the Carnival Sensation to Nassau in August. The itinerary says we won't be arriving to port until NOON! Why is that? I thought we would get into port early in the morning.

...When the Sensation is the first port from Port Canaveral, it arrives in Nassau at Noon. When the Sensation arrives in Nassau from Freeport, it arrives at 8am. Both itineraries port in Nassau for approximately 8-9 hours, regardless of the time you arrive. ...Hope this helps...

Personally, I would much rather arrive later than everyone else. They are all getting back on their ships and you have the port to yourself! We love to sit at Senor Frogs as night falls and watch the lights of the ships leave around the end of the jetty!

Sailing on the Carnival Sensation to Nassau in August. The itinerary says we won't be arriving to port until NOON! Why is that? I thought we would get into port early in the morning.

Why did you book it? Didn't you check alternate dates? Why did you "think" it would get there earlier?

...When the Sensation is the first port from Port Canaveral, it arrives in Nassau at Noon. When the Sensation arrives in Nassau from Freeport, it arrives at 8am. Both itineraries port in Nassau for approximately 8-9 hours, regardless of the time you arrive. ...Hope this helps...

Thank you, Doug. Good information to know :)

Personally, I would much rather arrive later than everyone else. They are all getting back on their ships and you have the port to yourself! We love to sit at Senor Frogs as night falls and watch the lights of the ships leave around the end of the jetty!

Thank you 4bythebeach. Good point, I think my DH and I will do just that! :)

Why did you book it? Didn't you check alternate dates? Why did you "think" it would get there earlier?

RuthlessBoss, to answer your questions. The date that we booked was the only date that worked for my DH and I. This is just a quick weekend getaway for us. On all the other cruises I have been on we've arrived in port very early in the morning. Thought I would ask more experienced cruisers why the ship will be coming in at noon. You answered one of my questions once before about a year ago. I see nothing has changed, still rude and uninformative.

...When the Sensation is the first port from Port Canaveral, it arrives in Nassau at Noon. When the Sensation arrives in Nassau from Freeport, it arrives at 8am. Both itineraries port in Nassau for approximately 8-9 hours, regardless of the time you arrive. ...Hope this helps...

While the ship may be in port for 8-9 hours, almost every store in Nassau closes at around 5:30pm (found this out the hard way). So if you arrive at 12:00, you will have less time in Nassau for shopping and such if that is what you are wanting to do. Not much of a night life in Nassau either.

RuthlessBoss, to answer your questions. The date that we booked was the only date that worked for my DH and I. This is just a quick weekend getaway for us. On all the other cruises I have been on we've arrived in port very early in the morning. Thought I would ask more experienced cruisers why the ship will be coming in at noon. You answered one of my questions once before about a year ago. I see nothing has changed, still rude and uninformative.

Not rude. They were unanswered questions. Sounded like you booked thinking there would be an early arrival and now wondered why not. Had you included info, it would have made more sense to me.

People do interpret things differently.

Thank you, Doug. Good information to know :)

...You're very welcome.

While the ship may be in port for 8-9 hours, almost every store in Nassau closes at around 5:30pm (found this out the hard way). So if you arrive at 12:00, you will have less time in Nassau for shopping and such if that is what you are wanting to do. Not much of a night life in Nassau either.

...While there is certainly less time to shop when your ship docks later in the day, IMHO, there really is no need to shop more than a couple of hours on the island. As I'm sure most are aware, many of the stores have all the same merchandise. T-shirts and trinkets, all made in China. Years ago, you could find a lot of handmade items, such as wood carvings and paintings. Hard to find now.

...Also, years ago you could find great deals on watches, perfume, linen and alcohol. Those days are gone. Much of the electronics sold there is black market (manufacturer waranties not valid in the US). Great island to people watch, but sad to say, it's glory days have passed.

There's usually 5 or 6 ship in port at the same time so I think they have to stagger the docking times.

Also, check out what is happening on the island via Bahamas news....we were able to go to a free concert at night when we were there....:)

Happy Sailing,

We sailed on the Sensation in April on the three nighter and we pulled into Nassau harbor around 11:15 a.m. and we were off the ship before Noon. We came back early from our gambling excursion to Atlantis to get ready for Lobster dinner night!!!! The Sensation did not leave Nassau until the next morning but we did not get off the ship after dinner but plenty of people headed to Senor Frogs. They opened the casino on the ship around 7:00 p.m. even though we were docked overnight. Loved the Sensation and am booked on her again in November, can't wait.

One of the things I loved on the Sensation (food-wise) is the rotisserie chicken, it is soooo good. Make sure you check out this station on the outside Lido deck between the grille and the wok station. This is also where the carving station was and one day they were carving a huge roast turkey and had red skinned mashed potatos, dressing, cranberries, scrumptious mac & cheese, etc. OMG, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Have fun.