Getting off ship if doing your own excursions

[ginny123]

How does Celebrity handle disembarkation at each port? If we are doing excursions privately, do we wait until the Ships Tours have left? Just need to have an idea of what time to schedule private tours. Is an hour after the stated docking time enough?

[squidward]

You can leave the ship as soon as it is cleared by the port. This normally occurs shortly after the ship's arrival. They will make an announcement when you can leave.

 

You do not need to wait for the ship's tours to leave.

 

Tour operators normally schedule private excursions based on the time that the ship arrives. They can tell you the earliest that you can get to them.

 

If the ship tenders (meaning you have to take a small boat to get to land from the ship), you will need to get a ticket and will be called based on when you picked up the ticket. This is the only time that you need to be concerned about getting to land on time, because if you are late in picking up a ticket you might have to wait a while (maybe 30 minutes).

 

In any case, it's best to have a cell phone and the tour operator's number in case you do run into a delay.

 

Hope this helps!

[RooBeeDoo]

I would certainly allow yourself some time after the published time of arrival and before meeting your tour if possible. I've just come off Eclipse and we were a little late in docking and being cleared by the authorities to disembark at St Maarten. Some people who had arranged independent tours missed the departure of their tour groups as a result.