Port time Too Short?

[Desert star]

We are just back from the Jewel, and had a great time, but does anyone else feel that the port time are just too short?

ALOT of the excursions are 5+ hours long leaving no time to look around the port or shop at all. Expecially in St. Thomas where you now have to go through the passport check with Homeland Security before you leave the ship and the excursions don't leave till almost 10:00am We went to trunk Bay on St. Johns and made it back to the ship like 20 minutes before be were suppose to be back on board. Trunk Bay was fabulous , but we all were disapointed that we didn't get a chance to see or shop St. Thomas.

[Arwenmark]

Shore time is ABSOLUTELY too short and getting shorter every year, The ships pay for all the time they are in port and so they keep cutting it to save money, soon we will get to wave at the islands as we go by.

[Snowrose]

I kept the port time in mind when selecting our excursions. Had to hunt a bit among the various documents but then I compiled all the times in one document and we chose excursions based on whether we thought we'd want time to look around a specific port.

 

It varies depending on the schedule of course, but the excursions available when we are in St. Thomas vary from 1 to 5.5 hours. The one we selected was 2.5 hours because we liked the excursion and because it would give us time before and after to look around.

 

Teri

[Don Haynes]

If NCL allowed you to spend a couple of days at each port, you won't book another cruise there would you? If they keep the shore time short, you won't be able to book all of your excursions, and thus have to book the same cruise again. More business is better for the cruise lines.

 

Cruising is a habit. Once and you're hooked.

 

I consider cruising a sample package. If you really like an island, you can spend more time there by flying the next time.

[Desert star]

We really wanted to go to Trunk Bay, and it was well worth it, even though we didn't get to sight see and shop, but we thought we had the timing all planned out as well. We got into port at like 6:00-7:00am I forget without looking, but thought we would be getting off and starting our excursion right away like most ports. We didn't even think to ask exactly what time we left when we booked (our mistake) but we had no idea about the passport check, and by that time it was too late to get a refund on the excursion.

[vacation luvver]

<<If NCL allowed you to spend a couple of days at each port, you won't book another cruise there would you?>>

 

I don't know about that. I've taken a number of cruises to Bermuda (where we spent a couple of days), and I'm going back in July.

 

A problem that I faced on the November 26, 2006 sailing of the Norwegian Dawn was that I booked a Cozumel shore excursion online, and it was described as being two hours long. Since we had to meet in the theater at 8:00 AM, I figured that after we took the tender to Cozumel, went sightseeing, and took the tender back to the ship, we would get back to the ship between noon and 1:00 PM.

 

It turned out that the excursion wasn't in Cozumel after all but in Playa del Carmen on the mainland. I had no problem with that. We were put in the ferry chartered by NCL to go to the mainland, and when we got there, we found out that we would have to wait for the ferry chartered by NCL to take us back to the ship. We got back to the ship on the ferry chartered by NCL after 4:00 PM. We weren't able to go to Cozumel at all, since the last tender left Cozumel at 4:30 PM.

 

My complaints are as follows:

 

1) Since we took an NCL chartered ferry to get to the mainland and an NCL chartered ferry to return to the ship, I have no idea why the NCL shore excursion employees told people who had booked the excursion that there would be plenty of time to go shopping in Cozumel afterwards. It's not as if they didn't know what time the ferry would get us back to the ship.

 

2) I have no idea why lunch wasn't included in the excursion, since we had to meet in the theater at 8:00 AM, and the ferry was supposed to return us after 4:00 PM. That's a long time to go without eating. There was a group of people taking another shore excursion who met in the theater at 8:00 AM, and they were given box lunches to take with them. We thought that we should have been given box lunches, too.

 

3) I have no idea why that excursion was listed as being only two hours. Forget the ferry time and the time it took us to get from where the ferry dropped us off to the site of the excursion. We spent well over two hours at the site of the excursion.

 

I booked an excursion in Ocho Rios. The night before, I received a message that the time had been changed - we would leave a couple of hours later than what we had been told. Some people had planned to have lunch in Ocho Rios after the excursion, but with the time of the excursion being pushed back, there wasn't time for them to have lunch on the island before the ship sailed.

[chill243]

If the ports of call had any brains they would welcome a ship staying longer. HELLO??? I guess no one is home. The longer the ship stays in port the more money the island makes.

[Don Haynes]

Here is a hint for those who are going on shore excursions, anywhere.

 

During breakfast I grab either a couple of apples, oranges, or banannas for the shore excursion and brown bag them. In this way I will have something to eat on the bus. Many of the tours either provide water or sell water on the bus. There is no telling whether the bus will or not break down. Bringing some fruit in a brown bag will get you to dinner.

 

Think. Why don't people use their minds?

[discjoker]

Here is a hint for those who are going on shore excursions, anywhere.

 

During breakfast I grab either a couple of apples, oranges, or banannas for the shore excursion and brown bag them. In this way I will have something to eat on the bus. Many of the tours either provide water or sell water on the bus. There is no telling whether the bus will or not break down. Bringing some fruit in a brown bag will get you to dinner.

 

Think. Why don't people use their minds?

 

It might get you to dinner...it also might get you thrown in jail. Produce is not allowed to be brought into port off the ship. Some countries are stricter than others but it is prohibited.

[Don Haynes]

Then all of those passengers that brought NCL's lunch box to the Tutum Ruins are quilty along with NCL. There was an apple in that box.

[discjoker]

Then all of those passengers that brought NCL's lunch box to the Tutum Ruins are quilty along with NCL. There was an apple in that box.

 

It's probably something that's done with special arrangement with the authorities (and NCL). As long as it is law of the land (and it states this in ship documentation), I am going to respect the laws of the country I am visiting and not take food off the ship. Plus I have terrible luck and the one time I try to bring an apple onshore the Mexico Department Of Agriculture will be standing by at the pier looking for a payoff. :eek:

[newmexicoNita]

We have done like Don, grabbed a little from the buffet before getting off the ship; actually I grab a couple of rolls and some cheese plus a little fruit; we also normally book our own tours timing them so we have an extra hour or two to shop or look around if we want.

 

Yes, I do agree port times are getting shorter; the reason? I would guess, to get more ports in on a 7 or 10 day cruise. NMnita

[newmexicoNita]

dupe again, this is getting rediculous...

[newmexicoNita]

dupe again

[newmexicoNita]

another dupe

[Stillfloatin']

Back to topic at hand, yes, I think the excursions are getting too short. On my upcoming Pearl cruise, we're only going to be in Tortola from 7:00 AM (too early for vacation!) until 1:00 PM. Not enough time to do much of anything special. I miss long days in port. My fave itinerary was 2 years ago on Carnival Destiny when we stayed all day, late into the night in both Aruba and Barbados. Plenty of time to do excursions and shop during the day, come back to the ship to clean up, then off again to visit the night spots. Same thing with our past Star cruise in Acapulco. The ship didn't sail until midnight. Again, plenty of time for a daytime excursion and a pub crawl at night. :D

[vacation luvver]

<<Think. Why don't people use their minds?>>

 

We had no idea that we should have brought along fruit on our "two-hour" shore excursion. And I've never been on a shore excursion in which water was available on the bus.

 

<<On my upcoming Pearl cruise, we're only going to be in Tortola from 7:00 AM (too early for vacation!) until 1:00 PM. Not enough time to do much of anything>>

 

That's terrible. You won't be able to get off the ship at 7:00 AM, and you'll have to be back on the ship by noon or thereabouts.

[monicajay]

Not sure if it is a factor or not but when the ship is in port they can't keep the casino open and the on board bars are not making as much money either. If they rush you back to the ship and don't leave as much time for shopping you might spend more money in the shops on the ship.

[sardonicus]

Yes, 10 hours in each port (which seems to have become the standard and which is often really more like 7-8 hours when tenders are used and "all aboard" is 30 minutes before departure) is not really enough. It's one thing when the ship has 400 miles to go overnight but there's really no excuse for it when you are making a short hop. I fondly remember being the last onboard the ship for a midnight call from Juneau back in the 90s.

 

Others have talked about the reasons, which all come down to dollar-squeezing by the lines (time spent off ship is money spent elsewhere, and the time pressue inherent in the 8-6 port schedule puts the focus on ship-booked excursions, which often turns out like driving all day to Disney World in order to visit one attraction). This may be short-sighted, though, since it actually makes me *less* likely to come back via a cruise. Case in point would be our recent trip on the Dream; we really wanted to see Chechen Itza, but with the short port time meant that, at best, we were looking at 5 hours of bus time to get less than 2 hours of sightseeing (at the worst time of day for it). Similar frustrations occur whenever you only have time for one quick sample of a port; we've decided to come back to the Yucatan on a land visit next time (to one of the resorts AKA cruise ship that doesn't move) to explore this area more fully.

[cruisinpatty]

the NCL website goes into detail on all excursions booked thru NCL, including such info as length, degree of difficulty and whether or not food is provided. Its a matter of doing your "homework" before booking an excursion.

[megessey]

It might get you to dinner...it also might get you thrown in jail. Produce is not allowed to be brought into port off the ship. Some countries are stricter than others but it is prohibited.

 

Jail? Really? You sure they wouldn't just make you throw it away? :rolleyes:

[Desert star]

the NCL website goes into detail on all excursions booked thru NCL, including such info as length, degree of difficulty and whether or not food is provided. Its a matter of doing your "homework" before booking an excursion.

 

Yes, but there are other factors they don't tell you before you book, like we were having passport checks starting at 7:30am that we didn't know about , and were delayed because Homeland Security was delayed, and I don't think the excursion start time was listed in on the ticket order form, only on the ticket itself, and it was much later than we thought it would be. (Our fault for not asking, and assuming)

By the time we found out we were less than 24 hours out and couldn't be refunded.

 

We usually book our own excursions outside the ship,

I guess we thought we did do our homework.

[vacation luvver]

<<the NCL website goes into detail on all excursions booked thru NCL, including such info as length, degree of difficulty and whether or not food is provided. Its a matter of doing your "homework" before booking an excursion.>>

 

I just checked the NCL website, and the Cozumel shore excursion to Xcaret, the one that I took in which we had to meet at 8:00 AM in the theater and didn't return to the ship until after 4:00 PM, is STILL listed is taking approximately two hours. Even after those of us on the November 26, 2006 sailing of the Dawn let them know that the length was nowhere near two hours, TPTB still haven't bothered to correct the description. Yes, no meal is mentioned being provided during the shore excursion, but none of us expected a meal for a "two-hour" excursion. And what about the people who asked if there would be time for shopping in Cozumel after the excursion? They were assured that there would be plenty of time, which wasn't a surprise, since the excursion was listed as being two hours long, and we had to meet at 8:00 AM. Gee, I guess we didn't do our homework either.

 

And what about the shore excursion to Ocho Rios? Well, I guess we didn't do our homework again, because we didn't know that NCL was going to change the starting time to two hours later at the last minute (making it too late to cancel without penalty) and preventing people from having lunch on the island.

 

It's a good thing we're still not in school, or we would all be left back a year for not doing our homework!

[Stillfloatin']

the NCL website goes into detail on all excursions booked thru NCL, including such info as length, degree of difficulty and whether or not food is provided. Its a matter of doing your "homework" before booking an excursion.

 

I never book through the ship. Way too many people and impersonal cattle-call tours. And I do plenty of homework on these ports of call boards to find good private tours. That still doesn't change the fact that there isn't enough time to really explore and enjoy the country the way we used to be able to when the ship spent more time in port. Also, because most ships leave early, we don't get to sample the night life.

[mikeythemars]

Is the issue just ports stops that are too short - or also ones that are too long?

 

Exhibit A, our upcoming Spirit cruise in February. Our first stop is in Port Canaveral, Florida, where the ship gives you about 9 hours of shore time. That's works if you're going with the herds to the Orlando theme parks - but seasoned Orlando vets like us (we're Disney Vacation Club members) who already have abundant exposure to Orlando-fantasy-land get stuck in a Florida backwater port with just NASA and a B- beach area as options, hardly worth 9 hours.

 

Ergo, the stop in that port is too long.

 

Next day we're in Nassau - with shore time of at best 4.5 hours. Barely enough to wander around the tacky pier areas.

 

Ergo, the stop in that port is too short.

 

Then onto NCL's private island, about the only stop on the cruise where the itinerary seems to make sense (arrive at 7:30pm, go ashore for evening party, come back the next morning to enjoy the beach before sailing at 2).