Conflicting Port times

Not sure if anyone can help me but I'm leaving in 2 weeks for an 8 night on The Splendor. One of the ports is Grand Turk. According to my cruises log in page its says we arrive @ 9am however one of the shore excursions I'm trying to book has a choice of departure time of 7:30 or 9:30. Also if you pull up the port calendar from Grand Turk's web site, it has our ship coming in @ 7am. I called carnival and they were no help. My problem is that I really want to book this excursion but only if we really do get in @ 7am. If I book it and find out our ship doesn't get in untill 9am I don't want to do it because I don't want to take away from my time enjoying the beach and Margaritville. The excursion is a 2 hr dune buggy ride. Anyone have any idea how I can find out for sure?

Not sure if anyone can help me but I'm leaving in 2 weeks for an 8 night on The Splendor. One of the ports is Grand Turk. According to my cruises log in page its says we arrive @ 9am however one of the shore excursions I'm trying to book has a choice of departure time of 7:30 or 9:30. Also if you pull up the port calendar from Grand Turk's web site, it has our ship coming in @ 7am. I called carnival and they were no help. My problem is that I really want to book this excursion but only if we really do get in @ 7am. If I book it and find out our ship doesn't get in untill 9am I don't want to do it because I don't want to take away from my time enjoying the beach and Margaritville. The excursion is a 2 hr dune buggy ride. Anyone have any idea how I can find out for sure?

Book it at 7:30. If the ship arrives at 7:00, you're good to go. If it doesn't arrive until the published 9:00, then its their problem and they'll refund the excursion cost. But you don't care because you didn't want to go at 9:30 anyway.

Problem solved...

The discrepancy may be between ship time, and local time. The ship, I believe, stays using the time zone it departs from. So if you cross into a different time zone to a location that doesn't use daylight saving time, you may well be arriving at 7:00 local time and it also be 9:00 ship time.

~Katy

The discrepancy may be between ship time, and local time. The ship, I believe, stays using the time zone it departs from. So if you cross into a different time zone to a location that doesn't use daylight saving time, you may well be arriving at 7:00 local time and it also be 9:00 ship time.

 

~Katy

Thought about that but I don't think we are changing times and carnival states the time listed is port time.

Also, you're the first ship in that day, so they ain't going anywhere with no passengers on the excursion. Glory is in at 11AM and the Ruby Princessdoesn't arrive until 1PM.

Book it at 7:30. If the ship arrives at 7:00, you're good to go. If it doesn't arrive until the published 9:00, then its their problem and they'll refund the excursion cost. But you don't care because you didn't want to go at 9:30 anyway.

 

Problem solved...

Well thats what I wanted to do but shore excursions are not refundable once on board.

Book it at 7:30. If the ship arrives at 7:00, you're good to go. If it doesn't arrive until the published 9:00, then its their problem and they'll refund the excursion cost. But you don't care because you didn't want to go at 9:30 anyway.

This only works if it is a cruiseline excursion. If it is private, he would be out of luck.

I would contact the excursion company and explain your confusion. They may very well hold the excursion till the ship docks.

Oh is this a ship sponsored excursion? Then don't fret. They certainly won't be heading off without the ship there.

Well thats what I wanted to do but shore excursions are not refundable once on board.

I realize that YOU can't get a refund, but if Carnival sells you a 7:30 excursion, and the ship doesn't arrive in the port until 9:00, then they'll have no choice but to refund you.

So if you buy the ticket for the 7:30 excursion, then:

EITHER

a) the ship pulls in @ 7:00, and everything is cool

OR

b) the ship pulls in @ 9:00, and Carnival says: "Oh, sorry we didn't make the 7:00 am arrival, here's your money back for the 7:30 excursion you missed" and everything is cool.

No huhu.

This only works if it is a cruiseline excursion. If it is private, he would be out of luck.

 

I would contact the excursion company and explain your confusion. They may very well hold the excursion till the ship docks.

Because of:

According to my cruises log in page its says we arrive @ 9am however one of the shore excursions I'm trying to book has a choice of departure time of 7:30 or 9:30.

I thought it was clear that the OP was booking through Carnival. And looking at my next cruise to Grand Turk, I see the dune buggy excursion being offered every two hours.

If the OP isn't inquiring about a Carnival sponsored excursion, then ignore my posts.

I don't think that the dune buggy excursion in GT is necessarily oversubcribed before the ship leaves. I would suggest waiting until boarding and then head for the excursion desk and sign up if offered. You'll have no time confict then. The times on the Carnival website usually apply for all ships, not tweaked for each cruise.

Yes the excursion is through carnival. Even if the ship doesn't get into port @ 7, the excursion will depart when it does get in, meaning no refund because they are just changing the time not the excursion. I wish there was a direct # just for excursions.

I don't think that the dune buggy excursion in GT is necessarily oversubcribed before the ship leaves. I would suggest waiting until boarding and then head for the excursion desk and sign up if offered. You'll have no time confict then. The times on the Carnival website usually apply for all ships, not tweaked for each cruise.

Only 6 left!

I thought all stops at Grand Turk had been cancelled for right now? Has that changed?

I thought all stops at Grand Turk had been cancelled for right now? Has that changed?

Yeah they reopened as of today.

Carnival ships stay on home port time unless the cruise is crossing several time zones (like a TA), so the ship will stay on EDT. I checked timanddate.com and at this time of the year the time in Grand Turk is the same as EDT, so the discrepancy is arrival times is not due to a difference between ship time and local time. I would tend to believe Carnival's time table since that's what they operate to.

I realize that YOU can't get a refund, but if Carnival sells you a 7:30 excursion, and the ship doesn't arrive in the port until 9:00, then they'll have no choice but to refund you.

 

So if you buy the ticket for the 7:30 excursion, then:

 

EITHER

 

a) the ship pulls in @ 7:00, and everything is cool

 

OR

 

b) the ship pulls in @ 9:00, and Carnival says: "Oh, sorry we didn't make the 7:00 am arrival, here's your money back for the 7:30 excursion you missed" and everything is cool.

 

No huhu.

Not necessarily. If the ship arrives late, I believe they are likely to just have the excursion leave late also.

Let me see if I have this straight...

Your aprox. arrival time to GT show as 9am under "Manage my cruise".

The Carnival excursion page, when accessing "plan activities" under "Manage my cruise" shows your desired tour as starting at 7:30am.

There are only 6 spots left on this tour at that time and you do not wish any other time.

If my thinking is correct 1 or 2 things will happen...

1) the ship will actually port in before 7:30am thus allowing you to make the excursion as planned.

or

2) the ship will not make port in time for the early excursion. In which case Carnival will have the choice of offering you a later slot on that same excursion or refund the tour cost as OBC.

Now to tell you my experience with Carnival rescheduling/cancelling a tour purchased online because of schedule conflicts once aboard the ship and what happened for our family. 2 years ago we had the earliest "Duck" tour planned for Nova Scotia through Carnival, well the day before the tour a letter arrived in our cabin say due to circumstances beyond their control they had to move us to the next tour time (2 hours later), including the new ticket (the bay was fogged so they expected to be late into port). We simply went down to the excursion desk (since it was open) as soon as we could and told them politely that the new time was unacceptable as we had other concrete plans for that time frame (we didn't but that's what we told them). They apologized for the change then refunded the full cost of the excursion to our S&S account. As it later turned out the fog became much worse and we did not even make that port at all.