Port question

[Frank P.]

Being a first time cruiser on the Mariner, Apr 17th, i hoe the questions I've been asking are not stupid. I am wondering if you did not book shore excursions with the cruise line, but you want to go out on your own, are you compelled to get off the ship at a certain time or can you come and go as you please?

[TAG2424]

Frank

 

I will be on the same cruise 38 more days to go....and to answer your question you can come and go as you please........ Hope this helps, Did you sign up the Meet and Mingle party?

 

Terry

RI CLAN

 

Going to be Marinated in 38 days on the mariner

[pandabebe]

From my experience you can come and go as you please. The only exceptions are those excursions booked through the cruise line that start exceptionally early - usually they allow those people get off the boat first. However, if you book an excursion through a local company they're usually aware of when the ship arrives, when you can get get off, etc. and work with you around that. But other than that you're free to come and go as you please!

[skiiergirl]

Frank....ask all of the questions you want whether you think they are dumb or not. That is the great thing about these boards. I am an experienced cruiser but have learned lots of great things here. Just keep asking.

 

I'm not sure if you are doing easter or western. If it is port that you actually dock in, then typically you can come and go as you please. If it is a port that you must tender at, then typically shore excursions get priority on the tenders. Other passengers are allowed off early too but you must get a tender ticket and go off when your tender ticket # is called (or later). They limit the number of non-shore-ex pax on each tender until all of the shore ex have gone off. Hope this helps.

[ArcticZ]

Being a first time cruiser on the Mariner, Apr 17th, i hoe the questions I've been asking are not stupid. I am wondering if you did not book shore excursions with the cruise line, but you want to go out on your own, are you compelled to get off the ship at a certain time or can you come and go as you please?

 

I was just on her last week, and our group only booked one thing with the crusie line, the other ports we did our own stuff. once the ships is cleared to let people off, you can come and as much as you want when in port. you can sleep in leave the ship later, come back for lunch and leave again if you want. As long as your back 30min before the ship leaves.

[dc-snoopy]

There are no stupid questions here (and just ignore anyone that tries to insinuate otherwise).

 

When a ship docks in port (at a pier), once the gangway goes down, you can come and go as you please. However, for planning purposes, keep in mind that deboarded always includes the line where you have to put your Seapass into the identification machine. This helps the cruise line keep track of who is on and off the ship. When you return, you will need to show identification the port authorities to be admitted back onto the pier. For most stops, this is just your Seapass. An occasional stop may require photo ID (DL or PP) and unless the cruise warns you ahead of time, there are very few places now that require proof of citizenship (BC+DL or PP) but that could happen if an international or terrorist activity occurs. You'll also need to wait in line again to board the ship, put your Seapass back into the machine to confirm that you have reboarded and have any items that you carry go through an x-ray machine. So although you can come and go as you please, it takes about 5 extra minutes to debark and about 5-20 minutes to reboard depending on how many people are doing it at a given time. Plan around those times (especially if you are scurrying to get back for sail-time).

 

If you are in a port that requires anchoring the ship off-shore and tendering in, it gets harder. The tenders are typically the lifecraft that you see at the mustering drill and they are used to convey pax back and forth between the ship and mainland. This is mostly in ports where it is too shallow for the ships or the port facilities are not equipped to handle the large cruise ships. Grand Cayman is a good example of that. The tendering is the process to get people on shore. If you are going through a shore excursion arranged by the cruise Excursions desk (or in advance), tender tickets are arranged for you and you just have to show up at the meeting place and wait for your tour to be called. If you are going independantly or not on a tour, then you will need to get tender tickets. These are free passes that give you a boarding number. The tender tickets are first come, first served. Typically they will only be available the day of the port and some people will get up several hours early to get the early tender tickets. I would guess that if you show up 2-3 hours in advance of port call, then you will get on the first one or two tenders. If you go later, then you'll get later numbers. Check with the Guest Relations staff how early they expect you'll need to show up; they can often tell you. If you are in a GS or higher suite then you'll have Concierge service and the Concierge service will get you early tender tickets. The tendering takes 20-30 minutes to board, cruise over to the pier, dock, then unload. And the reverse process probably takes about 30-45 min where you report back to the pier, wait for the next tender, board and reverse the process. So take that into account when going back and forth. Since we usually don't like to spend our port time waiting and tendering, we usually try to go out early (either through a shore excursion or getting an early tender ticket) and just spend the day in port and arrange to be at the pier about 30 minutes before departure. The last tender usually leaves about 10-15 minutes before sail time.

 

Have fun!