Actual arrival and disembarking times in the Med

[Cassicruiser]

Hi there - If it says on our itinerary that our ship docks in a port at 8am, what time should we be able to disembark? This is for NCL Spirit Med cruise.

 

Also, if we want to watch sail in to a port, is the indicated docking time pretty accurate (i.e. we need to be on deck around 7 - 7.30 for an 8am docking time), or does the ship actually arrive much earlier than noted on our itinerary? I don't want to get up at the crack of dawn to watch sail in only to find we're already docked at 5.30am (as happened on a previous cruise). Thanks

[BirdTravels]

Double check with the cruise staff on board. The ship usually arrives [much] earlier than the posted time so they can start their turn around. Most of the time, the 8:00 arrival is when they most likely will have clearance from local officials to disembark. There is no real immigrations or customs check in Barcelona.

[MeHeartCruising]

On the European cruises that I have been on, the ship has always been quite punctual to the stated arrival time on a regular port day. I almost always try to be up and watching for the final hour prior to the scheduled time so that I can watch the arrival at the pier and the process of putting out the ropes and all the hustle and bustle of the shore activities greeting the ship. So, in my experience, for an 8:00 am "arrival" I watch over the process from about 7:00 am onward. This has been true more times than not. Also, I tend to watch them put down the exit ramp. When I see that happening, I head down to get my day underway in the port. Most of the time, by the time I get down to the gangway, they are letting people off the ship -- often before I have heard a notification on the speaker system. I like to get a jump on the crowds.

 

For your final debarkation port, it is more common for the ship to arrive significantly prior to the stated arrival time.

[hawkeyetlse]

For most ports of call during the cruise, there is no advantage to them burning more fuel to get there faster, so the scheduled arrival time tends to be pretty accurate. But you really never know. There could be a medical emergency, for example, and they need to get someone to land ASAP. They won't necessarily announce this if it doesn't significantly impact everyone else's schedule.

 

If you want to watch the sail in, my advice is to set your alarm, and when it goes off, switch on the TV and check the "View from the Bridge" channel and use that to decide if it's worth getting out of bed, or if it's already too late.

[SquishTheWhale]

On the Epic for our Med cruise we had an aft cabin and the anchor dropping woke us up every day vibrating the cabin so I got a 'docking alarm' every morning! It was usually quite a bit earlier than the published docking time, 1 or 2 hours and we went back to sleep before disembarking around the time we were supposed to dock.