Marseille to Avignon TGV

With the TER connection between Avignon TGV to Avignon Centre stations (http://www.ter.sncf.com/paca/) that makes it easy to reach central Avignon from TGV station, we are considering travelling via TGV from Marseille to Avignon for a Sunday port day, with ship in port 0800 to 1900.

I need opinions regarding the return train to Marseille. There's a TGV that arrives Marseille at 1716. The following one arrives 1746. Unfortunately, we could not take the next earlier one that arrives 1619 because it's almost twice the price. Our other option is to return via regional train from Avignon Centre at 1648.

Do any of these options sound reasonable? Are the trains usually on time?

Trains are usually, but not always, on time. Since the faster TGV trains are normally coming from a long distance before they reach your station we think the odds of them being late are greater then the regional trains. Also keep in mind that the TGV does require reservations (and often must be purchased in advance during the busy tourist season). For the higher TGV price you will save 15-25 min in time but certainly have a more comfy train. Personally, we would just deal with the situation at the time and not get hung-up with advance reservations, but then we are pretty laid back travelers.

You always need to have a "Plan B" in case the trains are delayed. In many cases a good Plan B would be how to catch-up to the ship the following day :). This is the way we think when we cruise in Europe and have never missed the ship (although we have come very close a few times).

Hank