How many of you feel that ship AND private organized tours start too early?

[4774Papa]

We go on cruises for the ports and want to spend our time well. If I wanted to sleep late (sleeping late even at home is getting up at 7:30), or stay on the ship, I would just stay home. or take a land tour.

[Pearl64]

The issue of early tours is breakfast. For someone who needs to take medicine one hour before eating this gets to be problematic. We were in BLU on our last cruise and breakfast does not open until 7:30. We had several tours that left before 7. Yes, one could get room service and hope it arrived on time. We don't do OceanView due to the possibility of inconsiderate guests in regards to health conditions. One way we resolved the issue was to get muffins from Cafe al Bacio the day before and get room service coffee. Not a cooked breakfast but we could control the times better. Also, many ports do not allow food to be taken off the ship unless it was packaged. We usually skip lunch on port days so we need a more substantial breakfast. It's not all about getting up early. There might be other factors.

 

Pearl

[Rob the Cruiser]

I can sleep when I'm dead.

 

And by "dead", I mean "on the plane ride home".

 

:D

 

Agreed. We sleep an average of seven hours when at home. We sleep an average of five hours when at sea. Perhaps it's because we don't have a Martini Bar in our house.

[ghstudio]

Believe it or not, some actually go on a cruise to see the ports...the ports are important, not just something that interfere with their enjoyment of doing nothing. Many of the tours offered by Celebrity are from ports a long way from their "nominal" city...eg. Florence, Paris, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and so on. Those tours need to leave early or it's almost not worth taking them....as it is, they do a fly by....the famous David by Michelangelo is in that building.

 

Other tours are more or less convenience tours....3 or 4 hours at the most and can really start any time during the day. Many of these are already offered as morning or afternoon tours.

 

Although the final choice on the poll is a bit nasty, the roll calls almost always have groups of folks who get together for private small group tours....sometimes to save money, sometimes to see things not offered by Celebrity and sometimes just so they don't have to wait for the slowest person to get back on the bus (there's always one person who has to visit the facilities or has to get that special purchase making others wait).

 

I think Celebrity does a pretty good job of setting up excursions and there certainly are options for those on cruise critic and the roll calls for those that don't like Celebrity's offerings.

 

For the record, we only take Celebrity excursions when there is a long tour at a short port stop....eg. visiting some of the mayan ruins in Belize. We much prefer the small group tours and occasionally we just book our own guides which in some ports costs less or at least not much more than two on a celebrity excursion.

[Mississippian]

Always neat to see what my fellow cruisers are interested in.

 

Love the overnight ones we've done and like maxing time ashore when it's a new stop for us.

 

Would have thought that cruise companies would benefit from better revenues (casino/shops/bar) if people could stay up a bit later when berthing later in the morning....

 

Looking forward to our British Isles cruise.... our 8th cruise this year :D

The ship gets virtually no shop or casino revenue in the mornings, and only the die-hard alkies are drinking. So that's when they want everyone off the boat. They want everyone back on the boat by 6 p.m. so they can eat and start gambling and drinking. Those who want to sleep late can sleep late, but everyone is going to be on board at 6.

 

In looking at cruises I've always noticed that Azamara and Oceana always have a few ports where they stay late, thus allowing passengers to enjoy a few suppers ashore, should they wish. I'd love to cruise with these schedules, but don't have the money; or don't want to spend it, anyway.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Mississippian

[ORV]

The ship gets virtually no shop or casino revenue in the mornings, and only the die-hard alkies are drinking. So that's when they want everyone off the boat. They want everyone back on the boat by 6 p.m. so they can eat and start gambling and drinking. Those who want to sleep late can sleep late, but everyone is going to be on board at 6.

 

In looking at cruises I've always noticed that Azamara and Oceana always have a few ports where they stay late, thus allowing passengers to enjoy a few suppers ashore, should they wish. I'd love to cruise with these schedules, but don't have the money; or don't want to spend it, anyway.

 

Noticed your location, I was born about 45 minutes away from you in Ripley.