Meraviglia Accurate Port Arrival Times?

[jaysoko]

We’re sailing on the Meraviglia in July. The itinerary has us arriving at Port Canaveral and Nassau at 1pm. For those who have left out of Brooklyn have those time been accurate? Looking into different excursions like Kennedy Space Center and Blue Lagoon and trying to justify if they’re worth it with an afternoon arrival. Thanks all! 

[Essiesmom]

Well, Kennedy is probably the best option for that port with that arrival time…unless you just go to the beach.  Theme parks too far, long lines, etc.  waste of time.  EM

[Homosassa]

21 minutes ago, jaysoko said:

We’re sailing on the Meraviglia in July. The itinerary has us arriving at Port Canaveral and Nassau at 1pm. For those who have left out of Brooklyn have those time been accurate? Looking into different excursions like Kennedy Space Center and Blue Lagoon and trying to justify if they’re worth it with an afternoon arrival. Thanks all! 

Remember that any arrival and departure time (or even the date of that port visit) that may appear on a ship's itinerary is a schedule made up months (years) in advance of publishing the information on websites.

 

It is the itinerary that the cruise line plans on doing.  However, any schedule can change, whether it be arrival and departure times or even visiting the port at all.

 

The change in itinerary for ports  may be given to you far in advance or while on the cruise (can be when the pier is in sight, but water and weather conditions cause the docking to be delayed or cancelled).

 

That being said, the Meraviglia has just recently started the sailings from NYC.  It is too soon to know the general pattern of arrivals based on experience. Hurricane season in which you are sailing,  can cause disruptions in the ship's itinerary. ( Helpful hint for those sailing from northern ports on itineraries heading south in hurricane season: Always pack a sweat shirt and a pair of long pants, you may find you are cruising to New England and Canadian ports when you board the ship.)

 

The following is my opinion based on years of cruising and familiarity on how things affect certain type of shore excursions:

 

Blue Lagoon: I looked at the Blue Lagoon excursion on the internet and see that it involves an approximately forty five minute boat ride out to the island. If anyone in your party has the least bit of problem with motion sickness, this may not be the excursion for them. Traveling across the open off shore waters of the Atlantic in a boat can be a problem( guaranteed if there is a tropical system anywhere within several days that may be causing higher waves traveling out from the system).  Other than that, going on the excursion depends on the ship's planned departure time from the port and the time duration of the excursion.  The travel time to and from the ship is included in that excursion length. And, yeah, I would only do this excursion on a ship's excursion because of the distance by boat from the port.

 

Kennedy Space Center: It will be open until 5PM. Is it worth going?  It depends on what you may wish to do there.  If you only want to do the basic tour that is included in a ticket, it will take a minimum of one hour to scurry through the  exhibits.  When we have gone (not on a ship's port call), we have happily spent four hours on more (including lunch break) just walking around and doing one of the optional tours.

 

If you have never visited the Kennedy Space Center and have any interest in the space program, it is worth a visit, even a short one.

[CruisinPedsNurse]

Just got off the ship today, we got into port about an hour early everyday. 

[NCMtnBoys]

Got off Meraviglia yesterday, we were early to all the port stops. We did the Disney Springs transfer at Port Canaveral. Plenty of time there. Be aware, however, that for MSC excursions, the excursions will still leave at their regularly scheduled time even though you may arrive early into port. This is because everyone has already been given a meeting time. And even then, you might not leave the port on time for your excursion. For example, our Disney Springs excursion stated that it was 1:00pm-7:00pm. I expected that meant we left at 1:00pm and arrived back to the ship at 7:00pm. But because of how MSC does their excursions, we didn't leave the port area until 1:40pm, and were told as we were boarding the bus that the bus back left Disney Springs at 7:00pm. MSC had us meet in the rear theater (Carousel Lounge) at 1:00pm. It wasn't until 1:20pm or so they then walked us off the ship to the waiting buses. A lot of wasted time doing it this way. We much prefer when the meeting point is shoreside and everyone meets out there at the bus and it leaves on time. I also expect that when they say the excursion ends at 7:00pm, that means you're back to the ship at that time. We missed a specialty dining dinner reservation because we got back after our reservation time and had already eaten at Disney Springs because they said we wouldn't be leaving there until 7:00pm. I will say, though, that even though we were told the bus left at 7:00pm, there were two bus loads of passengers that went over, and around 5:40pm a bus was loading to go back to the ship. There were enough passengers ready to go back early so the first bus left to go back to the ship at 6:00pm. YMMV with whatever excursions you choose, but I would think that having just the afternoon would be very much worth it. A lot of other ships arrive in the morning, so by your afternoon excursion time, a lot of the stops may be less crowded. If the ship is in port from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, it's the same amount of time as if a ship is in port from 8:00am to 4:00pm. Worth it either way!  

[Illbcruzn4life]

On 5/29/2023 at 9:26 AM, NCMtnBoys said:

Got off Meraviglia yesterday, we were early to all the port stops. We did the Disney Springs transfer at Port Canaveral. Plenty of time there. Be aware, however, that for MSC excursions, the excursions will still leave at their regularly scheduled time even though you may arrive early into port. This is because everyone has already been given a meeting time. And even then, you might not leave the port on time for your excursion. For example, our Disney Springs excursion stated that it was 1:00pm-7:00pm. I expected that meant we left at 1:00pm and arrived back to the ship at 7:00pm. But because of how MSC does their excursions, we didn't leave the port area until 1:40pm, and were told as we were boarding the bus that the bus back left Disney Springs at 7:00pm. MSC had us meet in the rear theater (Carousel Lounge) at 1:00pm. It wasn't until 1:20pm or so they then walked us off the ship to the waiting buses. A lot of wasted time doing it this way. We much prefer when the meeting point is shoreside and everyone meets out there at the bus and it leaves on time. I also expect that when they say the excursion ends at 7:00pm, that means you're back to the ship at that time. We missed a specialty dining dinner reservation because we got back after our reservation time and had already eaten at Disney Springs because they said we wouldn't be leaving there until 7:00pm. I will say, though, that even though we were told the bus left at 7:00pm, there were two bus loads of passengers that went over, and around 5:40pm a bus was loading to go back to the ship. There were enough passengers ready to go back early so the first bus left to go back to the ship at 6:00pm. YMMV with whatever excursions you choose, but I would think that having just the afternoon would be very much worth it. A lot of other ships arrive in the morning, so by your afternoon excursion time, a lot of the stops may be less crowded. If the ship is in port from 1:00pm to 9:00pm, it's the same amount of time as if a ship is in port from 8:00am to 4:00pm. Worth it either way!  

thanks for this. We are also booked for this and was under the impression you wouldn't have to stay until 7. We will also miss dinner. I will have to talk to my better half as we only wanted to go over for a couple of hours.

[Illbcruzn4life]

we will be canceling tomorrow and just staying on the ship that day. Hopefully when I call to cancel this they don't reprice my cruise.  Thanks again for the heads up

[CTGirl74]

Hopefully this question fits in with this thread (and I apologize if it was already said somewhere else).

 

When there's an in-port day (any port, doesn't matter where), how early does one generally need to back on the ship? An hour before sailing? Half hour? Seems like an hour would be about right, since I'm sure there are always stragglers that push it to the last minute for one reason or another.

 

We're doing the NE & Canada cruise out of Brooklyn in October and just trying to figure out how much time we'd realistically get in the port assuming the ship arrives on time. There are some places I'd like to go on our own, but I hesitate due to time restrictions. We plan to do some ship excursions, too. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by CTGirl74
spacing

[Illbcruzn4life]

4 hours ago, CTGirl74 said:

Hopefully this question fits in with this thread (and I apologize if it was already said somewhere else).

 

When there's an in-port day (any port, doesn't matter where), how early does one generally need to back on the ship? An hour before sailing? Half hour? Seems like an hour would be about right, since I'm sure there are always stragglers that push it to the last minute for one reason or another.

 

We're doing the NE & Canada cruise out of Brooklyn in October and just trying to figure out how much time we'd realistically get in the port assuming the ship arrives on time. There are some places I'd like to go on our own, but I hesitate due to time restrictions. We plan to do some ship excursions, too. 

Most cruise lines its 30 minutes. Dont cruise MSC until the rnd of the month so not sure about them

[NCMtnBoys]

6 hours ago, CTGirl74 said:

Hopefully this question fits in with this thread (and I apologize if it was already said somewhere else).

 

When there's an in-port day (any port, doesn't matter where), how early does one generally need to back on the ship? An hour before sailing? Half hour? Seems like an hour would be about right, since I'm sure there are always stragglers that push it to the last minute for one reason or another.

 

We're doing the NE & Canada cruise out of Brooklyn in October and just trying to figure out how much time we'd realistically get in the port assuming the ship arrives on time. There are some places I'd like to go on our own, but I hesitate due to time restrictions. We plan to do some ship excursions, too. 

There should be signage as you're exiting the ship that tells you what time the 'all aboard' time is, and it's usually 30 minutes before sailing.