Meeting Place for Princess Excursion in Newport

We will be on the Caribbean Princess and we have signed up for one of the ship's Shore Excursions in the afternoon in Newport. We are hoping to be able to tender into Newport independently in the morning for some sightseeing on our own, and then meet the shore excursion group in Newport at the appointed time. Is that possible, or must we meet someplace on the ship and tender ashore with our tour group?

I don't think the cruise ship would stop you from taking an early tender; but a meeting place location for the excursion would have to be provided before you depart the cruise ship.

One thing in your favor is that there is a very limited area for the excursion buses to park. I would think that buses for the afternoon excursions would be kept in a remote parking area and not be moved to the tender dock area until maybe 15-25 minutes before the excursion would be leaving.

Excursion buses line up on America's Cup Ave which is just east of the tender dock or on Long Wharf which is just north of the tender dock.

Enjoy your cruise & Newport, one of my fav cities to visit.

SBtS

For the most part the excursion busses are now all lined up directly in front of the tender pier (perrotti park) , I agree with sbs that u would have to find out your tour group. The busses are clearly marked for each excursion,just have to watch if there is more than one ship in port...

The tickets you receive from the ship will tell you where to meet for the shore excursion. Usually it's back on the ship in a lounge or theater, but since you're tendering out early I would suggest talking to someone at the shore excursion desk before you get to Newport to find out if there's someplace else you can meet so you don't have to tender back to the ship and then back to Newport. I'm sure there won't be any problems. Just make sure to give yourself time to get to your meeting place before the group leaves.

Also, keep in mind that although Newport is a small town, it gets very crowded when ships are in port. If you're planning on visiting the mansions you can take a cab out to them but getting a cab back to the downtown area is difficult unless you can call one of them to come and pick you up OR you can catch the trolley. Even then, the trolleys aren't big and fill up fast.

So just keep an eye on the time and give yourself some cushion to get back in time for your shore excursion.

We just returned from the Canada/New England cruise on the Caribbean Princess. It's a great cruise and we absolutely loved Newport. We had both a morning and afternoon excursion booked through Princess. For the morning excursion the tickets directed us to the Princess theater as the meeting place where we were then taken as a group to the tender. However, the meeting place for our afternoon excursion was onshore near the tender pier. Princess has a white tent set up where the shore excursion staff are waiting to direct you to the bus for your tour. The buses line up on the curb right in front of the tendering area. So you should definitely be able to take a tender off on your own in the morning and then meet at the pier at the designated time for your afternoon tour. Have fun!