different times ships leave port

[mrswynn]

I have a question. We're going to Mexico via Celebrity's Mercury on 10/31. The ship isn't scheduled to leave the port until 8 pm. It arrives at 8am that morning, however. In looking over various itineraries, I see this same ship, traveling the same itinerary, leaves at 9 pm once, 5 pm once and then 8 pm - so it varies. Is there a reason for this? Does it have anything to do with tides? There's a Carnival ship doing an 8 day Mexico from San Diego also on the same day scheduled to leave port at 4. Is the port so small that only one ship at a time can be serviced? Would appreciate input from anyone - this is driving us crazy and the cruise line doesn't give any explanation. Thank you!

[LishaD]

I am not sure and there may be an insider who can give more info, but I would say that is up to the port authority. They keep a very tight rein on the situation: who is on the ship, what time they come in and out, etc. That is my best guess. On all of my cruises, I don't remember ever leaving with another ship at the same time.

 

 

Hope that helps,

 

LishaD

[kitty9]

There are a lot of reasons for changing times for departure. Tides can be one thing, coordinating airline schedules is another (if the cruise line knows they cannot get all their passengers to the ship by a certain time, they will change the departure to accommodate the passengers), needing more time to stock the ship's pantry-bars-kitchen (they order mass quantities of everything and they know when/how those things will be delivered to the ship and sometimes it takes a little longer to get those supplies), changing crew/bridge officer assignments (if there's a big turnover in crew/staff, they might need a little time to get everyone on board), Coast Guard/Health Department inspections(those take hours and can delay departure). So, you see there's lots of reasons for a ship to change their times.