Just got an email from Princess regarding the ships leaving time in November.

[Shippy]

Seemed a bit odd to me.

  Sailing out of Galveston. The ship will be departing at 3 pm instead of 4 pm.

  Why do you think that might be ?

[Rick&Jeannie]

Any number of reasons...nothing to worry about! Have seen this on more than one occasion. 

[Coolmama_1]

Probably schedule.  May be more than one ship on port.

[memoak]

6 minutes ago, Coolmama_1 said:

Probably schedule.  May be more than one ship on port.

Or tides

[Steelers36]

I believe PCL has changed to 3:00pm departures in Port Everglades, which is well before other ships depart (or used to, including PCL).  Perhaps they have a new goal in all US ports.  It certainly makes flying in same day a much riskier proposition.

 

As for Galveston - if tides were a concern, then I would expect variable times since high/low tide times are not the same every day.

 

I like the idea of earlier departures.  When the ship moves, there's no turning back and it's off to the open sea.

[Host CJSKIDS]

The Sky is scheduled to depart at 3 PM from Port Everglades in December which I have not seen before either.

[voljeep]

CB also leaves at 3:00pm on Halloween - I thought it might be just because they needed the extra hour to get to P Cay the next day - but looks like this may be the new normal

[skynight]

My 2024 sailings from FLL are scheduled for 3pm. Agree with post #5. Risky day of fly in. The timing could effect bookings. Many people do not have the time to fly in early.  

[cr8tiv1]

24 minutes ago, voljeep said:

CB also leaves at 3:00pm on Halloween - I thought it might be just because they needed the extra hour to get to P Cay the next day - but looks like this may be the new normal

 

That means they will be rushing passengers OFF the ship.  Better for embarking passengers.  Risky for same day arrivals.  No room for error (ship arriving late into FLL).

[Outerdog]

Isn't fog problematic in Galveston that time of year?

[Shippy]

31 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

Isn't fog problematic in Galveston that time of year?

Do not know. Never been there before. I do like the earlier departure time. We are going in 2 days early so we will not be effected by it.

[Steelers36]

38 minutes ago, Outerdog said:

Isn't fog problematic in Galveston that time of year?

Houston had that at times in the channel and I think was a factor in the move to Galveston.  From Galveston cruise docks to open Gulf looks like an easy run.

[Outerdog]

16 minutes ago, Steelers36 said:

Houston had that at times in the channel and I think was a factor in the move to Galveston.  From Galveston cruise docks to open Gulf looks like an easy run.

 

Ah, you're right. I was thinking of Houston. Not my neck of the woods. Thanks.

[beshears]

Yes I just received the same for our Regal that we plan to do in February, but leaving at 3:00 instead of 4:00, but we shouldn't have any problem, as we plan to go in the day before, since in February it can be very cold/bad weather in Missouri.

[Honolulu Blue]

On 9/12/2023 at 4:42 PM, Shippy said:

Seemed a bit odd to me.

  Sailing out of Galveston. The ship will be departing at 3 pm instead of 4 pm.

  Why do you think that might be ?

 

The first thing I thought of was fuel.  There might be a significant difference in fuel consumption between 19 and 19.5 knots on the way to Costa Maya/Belize/Cozumel/wherever.

 

On 9/12/2023 at 7:01 PM, Outerdog said:

Isn't fog problematic in Galveston that time of year?

 

I think fog is a bigger problem in Galveston in the winter.  My non-Princess ship once was delayed by fog on the way in in January.

[kywildcatfanone]

On 9/12/2023 at 4:42 PM, Shippy said:

Seemed a bit odd to me.

  Sailing out of Galveston. The ship will be departing at 3 pm instead of 4 pm.

  Why do you think that might be ?

I've had this happen a couple of times.  Likely for other traffic at the port.

[IndyKid]

On 9/12/2023 at 5:22 PM, Steelers36 said:

I believe PCL has changed to 3:00pm departures in Port Everglades, which is well before other ships depart (or used to, including PCL).  Perhaps they have a new goal in all US ports.  It certainly makes flying in same day a much riskier proposition.

Given the current issues facing the airline industry I would never try to fly in the same day as embarkation. 

[BamaVol]

On 9/12/2023 at 5:13 PM, skynight said:

My 2024 sailings from FLL are scheduled for 3pm. Agree with post #5. Risky day of fly in. The timing could effect bookings. Many people do not have the time to fly in early.  

We don’t even drive in the same day.  We’re about 5 hours north of Ft Lauderdale and bad stuff happens on Florida’s Turnpike every day. Much safer to book a room and enjoy a day at the port city.

[Thrak]

We're sailing out of SF on September 26. The booking says we depart at 4:00 PM and I haven't gotten any notice from Princess regarding an earlier departure. I would "like" to be onboard early but we are being driven to the port by my wife's oldest sister and her husband. That particular sister is always late for everything. Sometimes hours late. It's going to be a trial to get her motivated to get us to the port on time. Hopefully my wife can work some kind of miracle and light a fire under her sister.

[cr8tiv1]

26 minutes ago, Thrak said:

We're sailing out of SF on September 26. The booking says we depart at 4:00 PM and I haven't gotten any notice from Princess regarding an earlier departure. I would "like" to be onboard early but we are being driven to the port by my wife's oldest sister and her husband. That particular sister is always late for everything. Sometimes hours late. It's going to be a trial to get her motivated to get us to the port on time. Hopefully my wife can work some kind of miracle and light a fire under her sister.

Oh my.  
😶

[IndyKid]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

We're sailing out of SF on September 26. The booking says we depart at 4:00 PM and I haven't gotten any notice from Princess regarding an earlier departure. I would "like" to be onboard early but we are being driven to the port by my wife's oldest sister and her husband. That particular sister is always late for everything. Sometimes hours late. It's going to be a trial to get her motivated to get us to the port on time. Hopefully my wife can work some kind of miracle and light a fire under her sister.

I would drive separately from them. If they're late then at least you won't be missing the boat. 

[Thrak]

13 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

I would drive separately from them. If they're late then at least you won't be missing the boat. 

 

We're leaving our car with them for 63 days. They are just driving us to the port.

[IndyKid]

2 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

We're leaving our car with them for 63 days. They are just driving us to the port.

I don't know how far you are from SF, but I do understand not wanting to leave your car parked there for 9 weeks. Can you Uber it, or do you know someone who's a bit more reliable?

[Thrak]

5 minutes ago, IndyKid said:

I don't know how far you are from SF, but I do understand not wanting to leave your car parked there for 9 weeks. Can you Uber it, or do you know someone who's a bit more reliable?

 

We will just have to browbeat her into leaving early. We won't miss the ship but I want to be at the port fairly early. They live in Sebastapol so it's not super close to the port.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Thrak

[IndyKid]

6 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

We will just have to browbeat her into leaving early. We won't miss the ship but I want to be at the port fairly early. They live in Sebastapol so it's not super close to the port.

Tell her you just received a message from Princess that says it will be leaving earlier, say 2 PM...