Getting off the ship in a reasonable time?

[web monkey]

My wife and I and another couple are going on the Star Princess in Jan to Cozumel (maybe?), Grand Cayman, etc..

 

We would like to privately book some dives on the islands, since the ship's dives are usually short and not especially interesting.

 

The only problem is that we would need to get off the ship shortly after it docks (within maybe an hour).

 

On Carnival, they let everybody on the ship who signed up for a tour get off before the people without tours, which meant I could never get off the ship in time to dive.

 

Doeas anybody know if Princess would let us off the ship early enough, or will it be the same thing as Carnival?

 

Thanks!

[jbrambach]

It has been my experience that people booked on shore excursions get off first when you have to tender which we did when we where did Cozemel this year in Jan. Maybe you can speak to someone about getting on one of those first tenders.

[rxmurphy]

Probably done on a case-by-case basis, but on Sapphire Alaska in 04 we had an excursion we booked ourselves. Boat docked late. Went to purser's desk, and they let us take first tender out, but had to show them documentation of confirmation with excursion time. They were very accommodating. Take printout of your tour if possible.

[A Sixth?]

What rxmurphy said. On NCL we just showed our printed confirmation and were treated as if we'd booked aboard ship when it came to tenders. I'm sure Princess would do the same (never sailed princess yet)