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Carnival excursion scheduled to return 15 min before back on board time okay?


Cruisinmsk
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Yes it is one of the benefits of booking through the cruise line. The providers will keep in touch with the ship and advise of any late arrivals so you're not left at the dock. Fifteen minutes is kind of close but as long as the provider's clock is in sync with ship's time, you should be OK.

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If it is a Carnival excursion they wait. I was half hour late once in St Thomas (snorkeling boat engine broke), over an hour in Rome (road construction) and once again in Sicily by about half hour (can’t recall why). They held the ship each time.

 

 

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That's why we always book through Carnival for our excursions...just in case something goes wrong.

 

If it gives you piece of mind that is great for you but after about 50 or so private excursions we have never gotten back anywhere close to being late not a worry on my part. We do choose our tour providers carefully though

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If it gives you piece of mind that is great for you but after about 50 or so private excursions we have never gotten back anywhere close to being late not a worry on my part. We do choose our tour providers carefully though

 

Ditto.

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If you believe that booking thru the cruise line is a guarantee that you will not be left behind if your tour is late, you have not cruised enough.

 

I don't think there's a guarantee that they won't leave without you, but, if they do, they will make sure you catch up with the ship at your next port, on their dime.

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If you believe that booking thru the cruise line is a guarantee that you will not be left behind if your tour is late, you have not cruised enough.

 

 

 

While I completely agree with this, as far as excursion scheduling - there’s no need to be concerned about a cruise line excursion. They won’t schedule one that isn’t going to be back on time, and will wait a reasonable amount in case it runs late. Now if there’s a catastrophic delay, they may leave. But that’s rare.

 

 

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If you believe that booking thru the cruise line is a guarantee that you will not be left behind if your tour is late, you have not cruised enough.

 

So you have seen this happen? I guess in that situation the captain feels it's better to leave the people and have to pay for them to get to the next port than to stay and incur whatever negative consequences there would be to staying? And yes, you are right. I'm very new to cruising.

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So you have seen this happen? I guess in that situation the captain feels it's better to leave the people and have to pay for them to get to the next port than to stay and incur whatever negative consequences there would be to staying? And yes, you are right. I'm very new to cruising.

 

Some years ago this happened to a few hundred people on a RCCL ship

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If it gives you piece of mind that is great for you but after about 50 or so private excursions we have never gotten back anywhere close to being late not a worry on my part. We do choose our tour providers carefully though

 

 

 

I’ve never been late with a private excursion...well once in Istanbul because 4 of us went to the spice market at the end of our tour. Everyone else went back to the ship with the van. Taxis didn’t want to drive the 3km to the ship (we had 2 elderly ladies with us)' date=' however we offered one 10 euros...made it with an hour to spare. Not the guides fault, one of the group couldn’t stop shopping!

 

 

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So you have seen this happen? I guess in that situation the captain feels it's better to leave the people and have to pay for them to get to the next port than to stay and incur whatever negative consequences there would be to staying? And yes, you are right. I'm very new to cruising.

 

If you're island hopping in the Caribbean the chances of being left are small, but if it is a long haul to the next port and the Captain is under the gun to be on time....he is the one to make the call.

 

There have been a (very) few times that the port authorities have decided to close the port...basically forcing any ship to sail immediately or stay overnight. Most of these situations are due to a storm approaching. A Captain will always want to be 'at sea' to avoid a storm rather than tied up to a dock with no way to get out of the way.

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So you have seen this happen? I guess in that situation the captain feels it's better to leave the people and have to pay for them to get to the next port than to stay and incur whatever negative consequences there would be to staying? And yes, you are right. I'm very new to cruising.

 

 

 

I’ve read reports of it happening. One specifically on a princess excursion. I believe it would only happen when there’s really no other choice. In the princess excursion there was a major delay of many hours. Logistically there is a time cutoff where if the ship doesn’t leave port by X time, they won’t make it to the next port and will have to completely alter the itinerary.

 

The other example someone gave of the port closing due to bad weather makes sense too. We were in Hilo on a cruise when that 6.9 earthquake hit. We found out after that that a tsunami alert had been issued. We did return to the ship early ( we were on a private excursion) out of concern that the ship might pull out of the dock early due to that alert. It didn’t happen but in that case we didn’t want to take the risk.

 

 

 

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That's why we always book through Carnival for our excursions...just in case something goes wrong.

 

I agree and I am doing the same on another cruise line for my trip to St Petersburg Russia. I know many folks do private but I believe in the ship's tours. I will be angry if a tour doesn't go because so many folks do private and not enough signed up. I would hate to be stuck on ship.

Hoping folks sign up for hermitage and churches.

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We returned nearly three hours late from a Carnival excursion to the Panama Canal due to an unforeseen issue with the boat. The ship waited for us and we left shortly after we got onboard.

 

When doing bigger excursions that frequently offer delays or require travel to a city very far away from the port, we tend to reserve directly through Princess.

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