Long Excursions - will I miss the ship?

[wadsworth]

Hi,

 

We are going on our first cruise with Royal Caribbean to Italy, Greece and Eygpt. We booked through Viva Voyage after seeing a Zoo Travel email with a special price for the cruise.

 

Our travel agent highly recommended Shore Excursion: The Pyramids of Egypt, which we booked through the agent at the same time as we booked our cruise. It was $145 per person for an 11 hour excursion. This excursion is not booked through Royal Caribbean.

 

The ship docks at 7am. The tour starts at 8am and lasts for 11 hours. The ship departs at 10pm.

 

Do you think we'll miss the ship because the tour is so long? I'm pretty worried b/c this is our first cruise.

 

Also, what is the difference between the ship being docked and tendered?

 

Thank you so much for your help!

[sk8teacher]

Hmm, you will be in port long enough for the tour, and you should be back about 2 hours before sailing. That said however, booking through the cruise line ensures that if the tour is late for some reason, they will wait for you. By booking through someone else, if you are late getting back, the ship will sail without you and you will have to make your own way to the next port.

 

When the ship is "docked", they are tied up along side a pier, and you simply walk off the ship, down the pier into the town.

 

When you "tender", you anchor out and take small boats into the local port.

 

Cheers.

[dforeigner]

I would have to agree here with booking through the ship. You may be saving some money by booking through an independent but if, for example, the tour bus breaks down then by the time you finish paying for an overnight hotel, meals and plane tickets, it will end up costing you more. You never know when Mr. Murphy (Murphy's law) may end up paying you a visit.

[Keith1010]

I tend to worry about these types of things and I have cruised for many years now.

 

Based on what you said you should be back by 7:00 PM. But, based on what I know one of the reasons that your excxursion is so long is that you will have a long drive in both directions. I think about 3 hours each way. There is always the risk that there will be a problem with the transporation which could cause you to miss the ship. I know, highly unlikely but there is this thing called Murphy's law.

 

We have an upcomnig cruise that includes Egypt. I have booked through the cruise line. My undertanding (and I could be wrong) is that if there are multiple buses for our tour that we will esentially stay together and will be escorted there by the Egyptian military.

 

I just think for a variety of reasons that I would go with the cruise shore excursion. When your excursion is throught the cruise line, If for whatever reason there is some delay which could cause you to get back to the dock after the scheduled departure time for the ship, they will wait for you. If you do this on your own, they will likely not wait for you.

 

Keith

[lougee1043]

that time frame is too close for my comfort ---- im going to cancel an excursion in puerto vallarta because the ship has shortened the port time and it is now to close for my comfort

[wrp96]

If it were another port, where you could easily get back to the pier on your own if something went wrong I would say no problem going with an independent. But with a 3 hour drive each way you are looking at serious problems if something goes wrong.

[wadsworth]

I would like to express my thanks to everyone who posted. I think I will cancel the independent excursion because the timeframe is a little to close for comfort.

 

Thanks so much!

[wadsworth]

One more question for the expert cruisers.............

 

For this excursion that I booked independently, who else will be on this bus? Other people from my cruise or people from other ships as well?

 

Would the ship wait if there were like 75 people from my cruise and we were all late?

[Vampire Parrot]

Would the ship wait if there were like 75 people from my cruise and we were all late?

 

This is one of those questions where the answer is "it depends".

 

If the ship is due at a port -say- 100 miles away in 12 hours, another ship doesn't require the berth, the berth is in a secure area and the port authority isn't going to charge extra for the ship's extra time, then many (most?) Captains would be inclined to wait.

 

But I've been on a ship where our time moored at the berth was extremely limited, and the only reasons the ship could have stayed would have been either safety or technical failure. The reason for this is that our berth was occupied with 20 minutes of us leaving by another ship.

 

James

[CaptData]

One other thing to think about. Take your passport with you on this trip in case you are left behind. On your indepent tour with 40 cruise pax from several ships chances are some may wait but others won't Yours could be the one that leaves.

 

Also where are you to meet this tour, on the dock or somewhere in town? the other thing is yes you dock at 7 but the ship may not be cleared until 7:30 or later by local authorities. So you do not have much time to find where you are to meet to go on the tour.

 

My recommendation on these long tours where you must go far from the ship is to take the ship excursions only.

[CaptData]

One other thing to think about. Take your passport with you on this trip in case you are left behind. On your indepent tour with 40 cruise pax from several ships chances are some may wait but others won't Yours could be the one that leaves.

 

Also where are you to meet this tour, on the dock or somewhere in town? the other thing is yes you dock at 7 but the ship may not be cleared until 7:30 or later by local authorities. So you do not have much time to find where you are to meet to go on the tour.

 

My recommendation on these long tours where you must go far from the ship is to take the ship excursions only.