A question about Epic's port times.

[MizLizzie]

I hope some of you regulars can help me clear my head. We will be doing a Med cruise on the Epic in June and I am trying to be adventurous and schedule some private excursions.

 

For Marseilles, NCL shows us there from 7 AM until 4 PM. But many of their shore excursions offered on the NCL website run 8 hours. For a non-tendered port, what time might we expect to get off, and what time would NCL require us to reboard? I always thought you got off an hour after, and needed to be back on an hour before. So that's 8 AM until 3 PM, 7 hours at best.

 

Our private tour guide says we will have 8 hours. We will have the benefit of priority debarkation, so that helps a bit. Can we expect to be off by, say, 7:30 AM? Then run up the gangway at 3:45? ;-)

 

Thanks for any advice!

[Cubechick]

I believe the goal is to begin disembarkation at the time they say they dock (they're usually there earlier than the scheduled time). Of course that can change. I do know for certain that passengers are to be back on board 30 minutes prior to sailaway.

 

For myself any excursion that is cutting time that close, I would book through the ship. That way you know for a fact they will wait for you.

[MizLizzie]

Thanks, Cubechick. I tend to think like you on timing, and I'm one of those cowards who usually books ship excursions only. We will be visiting Rome, Naples, and Florence, and I have seen those long drives. I'm too chicken to book anything other than an NCL excursion there. In Nice, I'm not too worried. Marseilles falls somewhere in the middle for me.

 

In any case, the times posted are more about "get off the ship" times rather than docking times, you think? I have actually done this cruise before -- and I cannot remember . . .

[rvsullivan]

If it is tendered, you can get off on the first tender if your in a suite. If it docked, there is no priority and you will get off with the rest of the passengers whether your in a suite or not. Reboarding is always 30 minutes before departure. Don't be late, they don't wait!!

[MeHeartCruising]

I hope some of you regulars can help me clear my head. We will be doing a Med cruise on the Epic in June and I am trying to be adventurous and schedule some private excursions.

 

For Marseilles, NCL shows us there from 7 AM until 4 PM. But many of their shore excursions offered on the NCL website run 8 hours. For a non-tendered port, what time might we expect to get off, and what time would NCL require us to reboard? I always thought you got off an hour after, and needed to be back on an hour before. So that's 8 AM until 3 PM, 7 hours at best.

 

Our private tour guide says we will have 8 hours. We will have the benefit of priority debarkation, so that helps a bit. Can we expect to be off by, say, 7:30 AM? Then run up the gangway at 3:45? ;-)

 

Thanks for any advice!

 

For a port designated as 7am - 4pm in the itinerary, you can probably bet that 8 hour excursions will be meeting at either 7:00 or 7:15 in the gathering place. The ship may or may not be quite fully docked by 7:00, but the staff coordinating the excursion groups will be in radio contact waiting for the "all clear" to start the groups toward the gangway. In all likelihood, you'll be headed off the ship by 7:30 or shortly after. You can just about bet your life that with a 4:00 departure, the excursions have orders to have the passengers back by 3:30. So they may slightly shorten an 8 hour excursion by a few minutes to make that deadline if they need to. Now, if the ship is way late in getting docked in the AM, they MIGHT work with the captain to plan a later departure in order to give the excursions closer to the full 8 hours. But that approval would depend on where the ship needed to get to next and what side affects a delayed departure may have (costs, port rules, etc.). Most excursions seem to have a little wiggle room for these type of things. And, in my experience, for an 8 hour excursion, most passengers seem quite happy to be back on the ship after 7.5 hours if they've seen everything they paid for. That's a long day.

[ansmom]

We were on the epic last year in the med and we were getting off a little bit after the posted times and we were not the first ones getting off. Like others have said you have to be back on board 30mins before departure.

[BadKitteh]

If you book a tour through the ship that cuts it that close, then it is fine. If you are booking privately as it seems, then you might be setting yourself up for problems.

[rvsullivan]

For a port designated as 7am - 4pm in the itinerary, you can probably bet that 8 hour excursions will be meeting at either 7:00 or 7:15 in the gathering place. The ship may or may not be quite fully docked by 7:00, but the staff coordinating the excursion groups will be in radio contact waiting for the "all clear" to start the groups toward the gangway. In all likelihood, you'll be headed off the ship by 7:30 or shortly after. You can just about bet your life that with a 4:00 departure, the excursions have orders to have the passengers back by 3:30. So they may slightly shorten an 8 hour excursion by a few minutes to make that deadline if they need to. Now, if the ship is way late in getting docked in the AM, they MIGHT work with the captain to plan a later departure in order to give the excursions closer to the full 8 hours. But that approval would depend on where the ship needed to get to next and what side affects a delayed departure may have (costs, port rules, etc.). Most excursions seem to have a little wiggle room for these type of things. And, in my experience, for an 8 hour excursion, most passengers seem quite happy to be back on the ship after 7.5 hours if they've seen everything they paid for. That's a long day.

 

Please note: they are taking a private excursion, not a ship sponsored one!! Big difference in this case.

[MeHeartCruising]

Please note: they are taking a private excursion, not a ship sponsored one!! Big difference in this case.

 

Oops! You are correct. My lengthy explanation does not really apply here. Sorry about that. I missed that part of the original posting.