Eastern Med- Ship Disembarking time if not on ship excursion?

[Mierin828]

Hi all,

 

Lurker here- thanks in advance for the help. I'm on Rhapsody Sept 6th for the Eastern Med cruise, and am considering DIYing it in several ports. My question is, how long after docking/anchoring do they generally let you off the ship if you're not on the ship's shore excursion?

 

I see a lot of promo material for the excursions saying 'first off the ship' and such, but that doesn't seem to square with people's reports. So, does anyone know generally when RC starts letting non-ship excursion guests off in port?

 

Thanks very much!

[Clarea]

Our experience has been that people start leaving the ship 30-45 minutes after arrival.

[steveru621]

The only difference we have found is in tender ports. If there are two tenders, excursions get one, everyone else gets the other. The problem is in ports like Santorini where there may be rough seas that may cause delays.

 

Generally RCI excursions meet in the theater on Med cruises and are escorted off. Non RCI excursions can leave as soon as the ship is cleared, but there may be lines for the port shuttle.

[Mierin828]

Great, thanks very much for the help!

[Hailzmick]

We just finished three weeks of med cruising. There were a few tender ports and a lot of docked ports.

For the first two weeks, we did our own excursions. If we were anchoring at 8am, usually, they got there earlier and we were off the ship by 8.10. The only place this didn't happen was Santorini, as it was too rough to stop & tender.

The best advise I can give is if you are tendering, get a tender ticket SUPER early. If they say you can collect them at 7.30, be there before 7- as they always give them out earlier.

On the second cruise, (week three), we did ship's excursions. They don't all start when the ship docks, and they had their own exit. So there was never a problem.

Hope that helps?!