A few 1st timer questions...

[flyingdoxie]

My 1st cruise is the 11-19-06 Carnival Liberty sailing from FLL, to Freeport, Grand Cayman, & Costa Maya. I'm just wondering:

1) Being 1st time on a cruise and at those ports, we are booking excursions through Carnival. How much time do we allow for getting on/off the ship & how does that happen? There is a 15 to 30 minute window of time for our tours from the time the ship arrives or leaves the port. I'm very worried about missing the ship :o .

 

2) Should we bring our passport when we go for an excursion? Or will the ship ID's and/or state ID's be enough?

 

3) When do you find out about your room assignment (we booked an inside guarantee)?

 

Thanks everyone for your time & help!

[dna1990]

1. If you booked excursions thru the cruiseline (very wise for a 1st timer), then no worries on timing. Someone specific to CCL may chime in different, but you can expect to receive tickets for those excursions on the first day or so. They will have specific meeting places and times to begin your tour. The tour company will give you any needed details on the return place (sometimes they may offer options, be dropped off closer to a shopping area, or all the way back to the terminal, etc). Your on vacation and 'island time', no worries!

 

2. There is some debate on this, certainly pro's & con's. I will state we have always locked ours up in the safe on board and not messed with it until debark. It had always come down to the likelihood or risk of losing/damaging the passport versus the likelihood of actually needing it for some sort of an emergency. But in recent times, the ports (not the cruselines) have required a picture ID before leaving the terminal for the ship. We used driver's license (they are much more waterproof and easy to carry). But will consider the issue again on the next cruise.

 

3. Post on the CCL board for specifics, but to my knowledge on RCCL, you are given this info at the checkin pier. I have read of some cases where you heard in advance.

[kitty9]

As to the passport question, I asked a Customs and Immigration official on our last cruise whether it's better to leave your passport locked in your cabin or take it with you and his response was, "never, ever take your passport off the ship unless the specific country requires you to do so---there's too many problems with stolen and black market US passports". He then advised me to do what I've always done---make a color copy of your information page of your passport and take that with you. So there it is, right from an expert who should know---leave your passport on the ship.