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When you are in port can you get on/off ship whenever you want?


bahama_mama2015
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First time cruiser here! I love this board and I have learned so much!

 

Question: When you are in port can you stay on the ship and enjoy the empty pools and bars and then get off the ship later in the afternoon?

 

Or can you get off and enjoy port first thing and then go back to the ship early?

 

Thanks for any insight!

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Welcome to Cruise Critic.

You can come and go as often as you want once the ship has been cleared by the local authorities.

Unless we are not on a tour, we always wait for the tours to leave the ship first as there is usually a mass of people getting off at that time.

We also make certain that we are back on the ship at least 1 hour before the ship is scheduled to leave. In other words, if the ship is scheduled to leave at 5 PM -- we are back on board by 4 PM. Cruise lines usually require you to be back on board by 1/2 hour before sail time.

The times will be listed in your daily program which you get the evening before.

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Just a warning. Coming and going is fine when you are docked. But it can become a real hassle (and a huge waste of time) if you are in a tender port. Tendering can take much longer then you would expect...even when there are no queues for the tender. In fact, DW likes to ask (right before we step on a tender) if they are going to leave sooner rather then later (we have been on shoreside tenders that waited more then 15 minutes for more passengers. So our basic advice is that if you are in a tender port try to plan your day so you do not need to return to the ship until you are ready to leave the port.

 

Hank

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First time cruiser here! I love this board and I have learned so much!

 

Question: When you are in port can you stay on the ship and enjoy the empty pools and bars and then get off the ship later in the afternoon?

 

Or can you get off and enjoy port first thing and then go back to the ship early?

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

You can leave and re-board the ship as often as you wish. Just make sure that the last time you re-board the ship is at least 30 minutes prior to its departure time.

 

You can't enjoy the empty pools. However, you can enjoy the pools that have water in them, even if no one else is using the pool.

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You can't enjoy the empty pools. However, you can enjoy the pools that have water in them, even if no one else is using the pool.

 

Ha Ha. I am sure we have all seen pools void of water on a cruise. OP, welcome to cruise critic.. Just remember, we are always laughing with you, not at you. But please, stay out of the empty pools, you may get caught in the net. lol

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You may see many passengers stay on board especially if they are repeating an itinerary and have been to those ports.

 

For us, Ensenada is a stationary sea day for us. Unfortunately it's a required stop on the RT Hawaiian cruise, but on those cruises it's not unusual for about 80 to 95 per cent of the passengers to stay on the ship.

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As everyone has said you can pretty much go and come as often as you want.

 

In most instances you need to return to the ship 30 minutes prior to departure.

 

As Hank mentioned, if you are not docked in port you will take a tender and will be dependent on the times it runs and that varies by port and cruise line. It might be a tender service that the ship runs and they run almost non stop but some ships and/or some ports use a ferry type of service and they usually run less frequently.

 

Keith

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You may see many passengers stay on board especially if they are repeating an itinerary and have been to those ports.

 

For us' date=' Ensenada is a stationary sea day for us. Unfortunately it's a required stop on the RT Hawaiian cruise, but on those cruises it's not unusual for about 80 to 95 per cent of the passengers to stay on the ship.[/quote']

 

In that case use the pools that are on land as they will be less crowded.

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Make sure someone in your party has an actual watch set to ship's time. Cell phones will usually reset to port time if they pick up a signal, and if port time is different from ship's time, that could lead to problems.

 

Another tip is to bring along the part of the daily ship's newspaper with the port agent information on it. Then if some problem does occur that delays your getting back to the ship, you will know whom to call.

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You can stay on board and enjoy the facilities or get off but best to do that after the organised tours have left. Smaller ships may dock closer into city centres than the bigger ones berthed at semi-remote cruise terminals or worse, offshore (via tenders). It's also quite nice to go back to the mother-ship for mid afternoon tea, each to their own preferences...

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  • 2 years later...

I am taking my first cruise in August (norwegian epic). The itinerary says we will arrive in Naples at 7. Does that mean we will be able to start getting off of the ship at 7? I am trying to arrange a private tour that will pick me up at the dock at 8. Will I have enough time to get off the ship by 8 if the itinerary says arrival is 7?

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First time cruiser here! I love this board and I have learned so much!

 

Question: When you are in port can you stay on the ship and enjoy the empty pools and bars and then get off the ship later in the afternoon?

 

Or can you get off and enjoy port first thing and then go back to the ship early?

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

Thanks for asking. I was wondering myself. Thought we might just stay and have breakfast on the ship if we don't have anything planned and get off afterwards.

Must also mean we could get off, go back for lunch and get off again making sure to get back on time if course!

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