early ship departure times

[greener]

just wondering why ships are departing port as early as 3 pm these days.  flying same day is very "iffy" with these new departure times.

[Honolulu Blue]

20 minutes ago, greener said:

just wondering why ships are departing port as early as 3 pm these days.  flying same day is very "iffy" with these new departure times.

I suspect one reason is that leaving earlier allows them to sail more slowly to their next destination, resulting in less consumption of fuel, which costs them less $$$.

[Pickels]

If you're traveling or flying to the departure port the same day, (which we are going to try for our next cruise, 😬), make sure you're leaving home very, very early that day,  Way back, on one of our first cruises flying from New York to Ft. Lauderdale, we left New York airport at 8am, our cruise was leaving at 4 p.m.  Plenty of time, so we thought.  We had a delay leaving New York due to an equipment problem with the plane and we finally got to Ft. Lauderdale, there was another delay-- getting a gate because we were off schedule.  Bottom line, we got to the ship a little past 3 p.m.; too close for my cup of tea.  Wife wants to leave and arrive same day; lost the argument! 🤞    

[kywildcatfanone]

3 minutes ago, Pickels said:

If you're traveling or flying to the departure port the same day, (which we are going to try for our next cruise, 😬), make sure you're leaving home very, very early that day,  Way back, on one of our first cruises flying from New York to Ft. Lauderdale, we left New York airport at 8am, our cruise was leaving at 4 p.m.  Plenty of time, so we thought.  We had a delay leaving New York due to an equipment problem with the plane and we finally got to Ft. Lauderdale, there was another delay-- getting a gate because we were off schedule.  Bottom line, we got to the ship a little past 3 p.m.; too close for my cup of tea.  Wife wants to leave and arrive same day; lost the argument! 🤞    

We do this when our flights just don't align to go down the day before, and not had a problem YET.  We do book direct flights when flying the same day to avoid any problems with connections.  Not ideal, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

[Pickels]

1 minute ago, kywildcatfanone said:

We do this when our flights just don't align to go down the day before, and not had a problem YET.  We do book direct flights when flying the same day to avoid any problems with connections.  Not ideal, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

Gotcha!  Good  luck, hope it works out!

[Lady Arwen]

Flying in the same day gives me heart palpitations just thinking about.  I stress out if it’s just one day prior!  Two is good!

[SCX22]

My friends posed this question to Maddi, the Entertainment Director of the Enchanted, last month.  They've been on the ship since November 1, though the Med, stayed on for the TA to FLL, and are staying on for the 1st Caribbean cruise out of FLL.  Long story short, the earlier departure times are so that the ship can beat departure traffic in port--too many ships with 4:00pm departures which causes delays.  In addition, it's so that the sail away party can happen on the Lido Deck.  Because it gets dark early in the winter, there's only a short window there's enough sunlight to have sail away on the Lido deck.  There's a larger window of time for the sail away party to happen on the Lido Deck before it has to be moved to The Piazza in the Event of a departure delay.  (This was the case in Europe in November, it was pitch black outside for every port we had.  In Rome and Barcelona, the sail away parties were moved to The Piazza)  I've noticed in PE if X, RC, and Princess all have a 4:00 p.m. departure and all are ready to set sail at 4:00, X and RC go first because they are closer to the exit channel.  Princess usually goes last.

 

My thought was it also saves Princess money.  If they can achieve a departure an hour earlier, Princess shaves an hour off the time they have to pay the port agents and the stevedores.  

[TheDawg79]

Flying in same day is rarely a good idea

[beg3yrs]

3 hours ago, TheDawg79 said:

Flying in same day is rarely a good idea

Heck, even driving in the same day makes me nervous. We are driving to San Pedro from Tucson in April. Originally were driving a day early and overnighting by the port but DW doesn't like the super long drives. Our compromise was to overnight in Palm Springs and drive to San Pedro that morning. Given the unreliability of Southern California and especially Los Angeles traffic, I'll be pushing for a very early departure from Palm Springs.