Long Excursions - will I miss the ship?

[wadsworth]

Hi,

 

I wasn't sure where to post this. 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!

[Alexis]

Hi,

 

I wasn't sure where to post this. 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!

 

I will only answer what is docked and what is tendered.

Docked is when you actually pull into a dock and tie the ship up to it. You then get off and you are on shore.

To tender is where the ship stays out in the water and you must take a smaller boat from the ship to the shore. That can be time consuming depending on the amount of people on board who want to get off and on and the amount/size of the smaller boats they use to take you back and forth.

[Sue L]

We will start with the easy stuff. If the ship is docked it is just as it states you dock at the port and just walk off the ship to get to that port. With tendered you have to take a small boat off that will bring you to the actual dock at the port.

 

 

You should be alright with the tour, if it leaves at 8am and is 11 hours that is 7pm. But also be advised if your tour leaves late and you are late returning to the ship they will leave without you. Sailaway you said is 10pm so you will have to be back on the ship by 9:30pm. If this is a well known and reviewed tour they know that there business depends on getting you back to the ship on time so you should be fine.

 

 

At that port is the ship dock or tendered? If tendered those with ship's tours booked do get priority for the tenders so you might want to take that into consideration. Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

 

 

Sue

[Inshape]

Sounds like you should have enough time. The excursion starts at 8am, and 11 hours later brings you to7pm. If the ship leaves at 10, you probably need to be onboard at 9, and if you tender you need to find out when the last tender leaves the land.... When you hire an excursion company they do not want to miss any ship either. If you find you are running late, just ask them to get you back. Now you may miss something that you were suppose to do...but better to be safe. But it seems ok since you should be back at 7 pm.

[Coralc]

WOW!! What a gutsy cruise and tour for a first cruise! Good for you, we just sort of dipped our feet in the water, on the first cruise. You should be fine, timewise, barring unforseen circumstances like flat tires or breakdowns. Unfortunately, the ship will not wait if your tour runs long. :)

[TEXASMUNK]

If you tender!

 

Priority tendering is ONLY for those tours BOOKED through the ship!!!!!

[Coralc]

Oh. Is it a tender port? Probably bad idea then, and you most likely won't make the start time then, either:)

[TPKeller]

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 sounds like you booked an independent tour operator through your travel agent. If I were in this situation, I would find out from the travel agent the name of the local tour company or operator that they booked you with, then do some research (here and especially on the port of call message boards, and also using Google) to determine the reputation and level of resources the operator has. If the van breaks down, you want to be assured they will immediately be able to recover and still get you back in time.

 

This is something I would not take for granted from the agent. I would want to personally and independently verify that it was a reputable company.

 

Theron

[Sheik]

I've travelled a number of times in Egypt on my own and all I can say is that you take a very huge risk. There are so many factors that can happen on the way back to the ship, the ride to Cairo is long....

During our visits we saw a lot of accidents and except for that, Egyptians are not the most reliable people on this planet. Don't get me wrong, the people are nice and try to help if they can, but if you're in trouble because of the time, they usualy don't care that much. It's your problem, not them.

 

My advice (based on a lot of experience): book a shipsponsored tour, relax and enjoy the beauty of Egypt.

[lauren0309]

I think a tour that length of time you should take through the ship. So many things can happen (car breakdown, etc.) that can cause you to lose time and you might not get back to the ship in time and be stranded. I would worry too much the whole time I am on that excursion. I would feel safer taking a tour through the ship and not having to worry about missing the ship. When you are on a tour sponsored through the ship, if anything delays you getting back then the ship will wait.

[kingsgirl]

Hi,

 

I wasn't sure where to post this. 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!

 

It looks like you'd be cutting it close. How far is the excursion from the dock - do you know? Just to be sure, check the excursions policy on getting you back to your cruise ship (if it has one). Many wil guarentee that you get back to your cruise ship or will pay to get you caught up with it. Call and find out how "on time" their excursions run too and if there is anyway you can leave early if need be. If your ship departs at 10 pm, then it's most likely the last boat to the ship will leave at 9 or 930 depending on the distance to and from.

 

Just so you know, RCI is so stringy about ppl not taking their excursions that they will leave you behind. I've heard from ppl that it's an empty threat but my friends friend (haha) took an alaskan cruise, did an independent tour and it ran late. The ship left, but the company flew them to the ship, and had a policy of catching them up obviously.

 

Tendering/Docking. MAKE SURE YOU GET A TENDER TICKET. I didn't know what they were before, but they make sure you can get off more quickly than without one. I believe you get them from the Pursers desk but I'm not 100% sure so you might want to ask around. The ship could be late getting in or you might have trouble getting off the ship and to land before your excursion leaves, without a tender ticket.

 

I hope this helps. Sounds like a crazy amazing excursion - I hope it works out for you!:)