How long to disembark once docked?

[njterp]

Hi all,

 

We're taking our first cruise in 20 years come the end of July (AOS 7/29) and I have a question about disembarking. Once we've docked for the day how long does it take before we're allowed to leave the ship? I'm setting up a shore excursion in Antigua and we're supposed to meet the guide 30 minutes after docking. Is that enough time or is there a chance we'll be held up by immigration? I know once we hit St. Thomas that we'll need to go through customs but I wasn't sure if we need to go through Angtiguan immigration or not. Same thing would apply for Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Maarten. Thanks in advance for your responses.

[superjerryw]

There is no personalized immigration check in any of the ports that you mentioned (except St Thomas). The ship does however need to be cleared by the local authorities before anyone can disembark. In many cases the ship acutally arrives in port before it's scheduled time and is cleared by the local authorities so that the passengers are already going ashore by the predesignated time of arrival. That is not always the case however and the ship may arrive exactly on time and it may take a while before the ship is cleared and anyone can go ashore. 30 minutes might be enough and it might not depending on what happens that day. In any case, be sure to be in the area of the gangway so that you are one of the first people off the ship since there may be a long line of people waiting to go ashore.

[njterp]

Thanks for the response and the advice on being close to the gangway. We'll be up early so I'll know soon enough how tight our time will be.