Disembarkation from Silver Cloud

[KennyMandy]

We are booked on Voyage 1907 from Ushuaia to Cape Town in February 2019.  This is our first cruise with Silversea so would welcome advice about disembarkation, ie how long it takes.    We asked Silversea and received the following reply: "The Silver Cloud will arrive to Cape Town at 08.30 am on 27^th March, guests will spend one night onboard and disembark on 28^th March, after breakfast. The latest disembarkation time is 10 am.".  

As our cruise is fast approaching (😀) we'd like to book onward flights from Cape Town Airport, so we'd welcome feedback from Silversea cruisers (especially anyone who has disembarked at Cape Town) on what to expect.  We were thinking of booking a flight (domestic to Johannesburg) at 1225.  Does this sound realistic?

[jpalbny]

That should work fine. The airport is usually less than 30 minutes from the pier; we've made the drive ourselves a few times. They will ask you about your onward travel plans a few days prior to disembarking, so they should be able to make arrangements to accommodate that flight. You shouldn't need to disembark before 9:00 and even that is probably much earlier than you have to leave, especially for a domestic flight.

 

We have disembarked in CPT before, but we just walked to the hotel at the pier and checked in for a post-cruise stay.

[turtlemichael]

Quite realistic to me. Having done the trip from downtown a few times, for a domestic flight I'd be aiming to get away from the port by 9.30am, out at the airport an hour later at most in plenty of time to check-in before my flight. If you have a low threshold for stress make sure you arrange to leave the ship even earlier. You are travelling against the traffic at that time of day.

[LAL Cruiser]

We disembarked the Cloud in Cape Town; you should be fine with a 1225 flight.  When doing you disembarkation questionnaire just ask to be part of one of the earlier groups or simply ask one of the crew members at Reception to note this in your file.  Its a small ship and Cape Town is a small port, all drama free.

 

We had a car service waiting for us to take us from the Port to our hotel; you may want to arrange a car in advance as I do not remember many cabs line up when we exited the terminal.  Travel time to the airport is about 30 to 40 minutes (I think) so you should be OK.  IN any case, there are very frequent flights between CPT and JNB if everything goes wrong.

 

Enjoy.

[shipsmail]

We have also good experiences with embarking/disesmbarking in CPT in the past. 

BTW we will be in the same cruise and will leave the ship on the day of arrival already to get a flight in the afternoon back to Europe and we will not enjoy the additional night on board.

[tsavorite]

My experience in CPT was not as positive - very slow immigration on disembarkation. There may have only been 200 or so guests (plus quite a few departing staff), but we had to wait for almost 40 minutes before we could get through to the luggage hall. After that it was straightforward. So do give yourselves time, and try to be relatively early off the ship.