Times on and off the ship

[Newcruiser1996]

Hello fellow cruisers!

 

I'm a bit confused as to what it means by :

"Early morning"

"morning"

"Early afternoon"

"Afternoon"

And "early evening"

 

If anyone knows roughly what times these mean it would be greatly appreciated :rolleyes:

[jeanlyon]

Early morning usually means the ship is docked by 7 or 8.

Morning means you are in port say between 0700 and 1300.

Earl afternoon, leaving is probably around 2 or 3

Early evening is the ship leaves about 5 or 6

[bee-ess]

From P&O website

 

Each port visit will vary according to the cruise and port. For each cruise we will indicate next to each port the anticipated arrival and departure times as follows:

Early Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midnight and 08.59am

Morning: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00am and 11.59am

Early Afternoon: The ship will usually arrive or depart between midday and 02.59pm

Afternoon: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 03.00pm and 05.59pm

Early Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 06.00pm and 08.59pm

Evening: The ship will usually arrive or depart between 09.00pm and 11.59pm

These timings are guidelines only and the actual times may vary.

Edited December 15, 2014 by bee-ess

[Med 2013]

Please could anyone tell me if we are likely to get more specific timing on board the ship as we are hoping to meet up with some friends in Cartagena and as they live 45mins away it would be useful to let them know. Thank you.

[Mysticalmother]

Yes you will get more information on board - but probably not until the night before. You can always ask at the pursers desk as well when on board - they will give you guidance.

[Med 2013]

Thank you :)

[kruzseeka]

I can't understand this. I've done some fairly extensive research trying to find specific arrival/departure times using a number of websites for ships' schedules/port timetables and almost every other cruise line declares the exact port times for their ships. P&O is a glaring exception.

 

Why? One could speculate that they have reasons for being so obtuse - masking the fact that they have a relatively short port stop to avoid putting punters off booking or making it more difficult to arrange independent shore excursions? I have no idea what's behind their determination to not be open about this since I find them very good providing other information about my cruise. But I do find it annoying and believe it to be deliberate. And cynical?

 

They certainly caused a stir a while back by shortening advertised port times after people had booked cruises. Our friends were very annoyed when that happened to their itinerary. Perhaps being vague is their way of circumventing such complaints in future since they give themselves several hours leeway within their port arrival/departure indications.

 

A 'Morning' arrival could be, say, 09.00 followed by a 'Afternoon' departure of 04.30 or it could be 11.30 arrival followed by an afternoon departure of 03.00 - that makes one very big difference in terms of what you can do in port! And if the latter timings were the case on itineraries we were considering - we wouldn't be booking as we go on a cruise to see as much as possible at the various destinations.

 

There is a site (Google 'cruisett') where you can select ports, month and year and the month's arrivals and departures are clearly displayed for every ship. Click on the ship and its itinerary will come up along with the port times for each destination. Oddly both Ventura and Azura are missing from these schedules for their Caribbean cruises this winter although I did see Oceana listed along with her complete itinerary and timings at one port I investigated!

 

Sometimes the details of ship arrival/departure can be found on individual port authority sites. Med 2013, you may be able to find info on the Cartegena Port Authority site although it sometimes takes some hunting around - try asking for cruise ship timetables etc - it does work sometimes. I've found a few of our port times that way.

 

P. S. Just had a quick look at that site for you - the listings appear very sketchy at the moment for Cartegena this summer with very few ships listed, Windsor, Anthem of the Seas and one Cunard. Doesn't look as though that will help. May be useful another time!

Edited January 13, 2015 by kruzseeka

[dorsetlad]

0430 in the afternoon sounds interesting.Is it before or after 1630?

 

Brian

[CABINET]

It is very annoying but is it possible to get a fair idea by looking at the excursions they offer?

 

Do they, for example, tell you the times and durations of their own excursions or are they equally as vague?

Edited January 13, 2015 by CABINET

[jeanlyon]

They normally tell you the duration of the excursions, so you can work it out from there.

[davecttr]

They do it to discourage you arranging independant excursions. Arrival and departure times are arranged well in advance with the port authorities.

[kruzseeka]

It is very annoying but is it possible to get a fair idea by looking at the excursions they offer?

 

Do they, for example, tell you the times and durations of their own excursions or are they equally as vague?

 

They normally tell you the duration of the excursions, so you can work it out from there.

 

Yes that is one route to follow but am I wrong in thinking that you don't get access to exact tour timings until you can access your Cruise Personaliser i.e. post booking? If that's the case it doesn't give you the information about time in port to determine the suitability of the cruise before you commit.

 

And not everyone is aware of alternative sources of this information and how you might ferret out this information - it takes some prior knowledge, determination and time to unearth what is clearly known to both P&O and the ports they are visiting.

 

It still doesn't explain why P&O are so cagey about this information. It's not the case with other cruise lines!

[kruzseeka]

0430 in the afternoon sounds interesting.Is it before or after 1630?

 

Brian

 

 

Oops! Clearly an error. I guess I don't need to tell you I meant 16.30!

[davecttr]

Thanks Kuzseeka, i checked that site and now have the port timings for my upcoming Oceana cruise.

[kruzseeka]

Thanks Kuzseeka, i checked that site and now have the port timings for my upcoming Oceana cruise.

 

Pleasure - just can't fathom why Azura and Ventura aren't on there! Conspiracy theories abound!!!!!

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[CABINET]

Another thanks to Kruzseeka

 

Now I too know our Oceana times.

 

It is really disappointing that if the information is to hand (which, of course, I now realise it has to be :o) that P & O see fit to withhold it.

Edited January 13, 2015 by CABINET

[kruzseeka]

Another thanks to Kruzseeka

 

Now I too know our Oceana times.

 

It is really disappointing that if the information is to hand (which, of course, I now realise it has to be :o) that P & O see fit to withhold it.

 

 

Pleased to be of help. That site is also useful as it will identify other ships in port each day (except for the ghost ones like Azura!!) which can also be helpful for planning. If there are a lot of ships in port it will give you a heads up on pressure on the taxis/local tours/beaches etc. It's always good if you can see your ship arrives before others too - you can get a head start then!!!!!! Bit of a downer if you're the last one in though.

 

 

Funnily enough I had a P&O survey come through a few days ago - and filled it in. At the end there was an opportunity to make any other comment - I mentioned this issue of not having precise port times and also said I thought they were being cynical by not disclosing the info. As I said previously, it could well affect our willingness to book with P&O.

Edited January 13, 2015 by kruzseeka

[Med 2013]

Thank you Kuzseeka. It looks I will be doing some research with port authorities although I don't feel we should have to do this ourselves. We have been on two previous cruises with RCI and knew arrival and departure times way in advance and we do like to plan some days out on our own but not having this information to hand makes that very difficult to organise.

[dreadnought101]

FAO kruzseeker and the OP. We've had the same problem while trying to plan both p&o and independent excursions for Ventura trip in February (e.g in Tortola we'd like to do excursion in the AM and then find a beach in the PM but difficult to organise if you don't know the departure time of P&O excursion and what time ship docks and departs!).

 

I've tried loads of websites and Ventura just doesn't feature on some of them as you say. However I did find the exact timings on the iglu cruise website instead of the vague timings you get from p&o and bolsover. So you may find it on there. It does seem a bit fishy that P&O don't release the times.

[Med 2013]

Thank you dreadnought101 I will look at that today.

[Glenndale]

.........

It still doesn't explain why P&O are so cagey about this information. It's not the case with other cruise lines!

Unfortunately, Cunard play the same guessing game :rolleyes:

[daiB]

Thanks Kuzseeka, i checked that site and now have the port timings for my upcoming Oceana cruise.

 

 

Oceana, can you ask about Metz beer I have heard it is very good. :) :)

 

 

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[chigley]

Hi dreadnought101, are you aware that you will be tendering in Tortola?

 

 

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[davecttr]

Oceana, can you ask about Metz beer I have heard it is very good. :) :)

 

 

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Moritz Dai, Moritz

[NauticalMiss]

Hi dreadnought101, are you aware that you will be tendering in Tortola?

 

 

........... or even not visiting the island at all? We were on Azura last week and the weather denied us the opportunity to drop anchor; tendering in would have been far too dangerous; so we had an extra day at sea. P&O made a full refund for the excursion within hours.