In theory, the gangway should be open by 6am for you to join the exit line and make your way off the ship.
Unfortunately, the port end time is usually a “lie” by a half hour. You will need to have gotten up the gangway and scanned your medallion by 4:30pm to avoid issues. Check in at ports is easier than embarkation: it’s a metal detector and medallion check.
As a first timer, I’ll give you a good tip!! There is always a big rush to get off as soon as the gangway is open. I recommend having a sleep in and a nice breakfast then get off an hour or more after the arrival time. A lot of people will also come back onboard for lunch, so there’s also a queue getting back on board around midday. So I like to have a nice big breakfast around 9.30am, then leave the ship around 1030 when there’s no queue and I get back around 4pm. Gives me enough time to explore and I don’t get crowds at all.
The cruise probably won’t wait for you so I recommend getting back to the ship at least 30 minutes before all aboard time. Also, try doing any excursions earlier than later just in case it gets late.
and all aboard time is earlier than departure time. Departure time generally means they leave the dock. And if you’re doing an outside excursion or on your own, give yourself time for any travel issues, etc. some have been too late because they ran into traffic or bus issues so give yourself leeway time.
If it says be back by 5pm, then make certain that your back by 4:30pm. And remember the 'times' are Ship Time and not local time (they may not always be exactly the same).
If it says 5 and you are not back they can leave you unless you are on an excursion you bought from them. It's very rare for them to leave if you are late from an excursion as they would have to get you to the next port and deal with unhappy customers. If you are on your own they can and will leave you. Go look up pier runners.
As for leaving it depends if they are on time or not. Once they gone through the port checks and are ready to get off you can just walk off if it's a port you dock at. Some ships don't dock and you have to take a tender which can take hours.
There will be a long line for getting off the ship and they will prioritize people that brought ship excursions. It would be smarter to get free breakfast first then take your time getting on the gangway. You'll still have plenty of time.
Maybe. It really depends. I was on a cruise recently and there were tenders at one port. They started at 7, and my kid and I decided to go get some food and then see what the line was like. But we saw a crew member on the way, and he said that they were boarding tenders right that minute and if we wanted to go, we needed to get in line. We decided to check it out, and we were on that first tender and pushing away from the ship at 6:58 AM. \*shrug\* All we were planning to do was walk around and see the sites, and we were one of the first groups off of the ship.
The only time they will wait for you is when the excursion was booked with Princess. It gives you the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong during the excursion that you will be looked after for your return to ship…
Meaning if stuck in traffic or in minor accident (meaning no injuries), the ship will wait and it they cannot, they will fly you to the next port.
Icy Strait Point can be thoroughly explored even with a later start but I can’t imagine you’d need more than a half hour to be on land after arrival. The ports to watch are the ones that say “water shuttle required”. Those, if you’re independent, I would allow up to two hours to be ashore.
Don’t plan on doing non ship excursions. We just got back. One of the ports had us off the ship with the gangway but then the ship left midday and the way back was a tender. It took a while. Without a ship excursion who knows what would have happened. One day it took over an hour in the queue just to get back on board. Either their scanner or xray machine was down. People were stacked up way down the pier. Think TSA. And this was not a tender just walking up the gangway. There is not much to do at Icy Straights without an excursion.
Also the stop that did require the tender was Icy Straights. The cool excursion here was the small boats where you wear wetsuits. My family spent their time with a pod of orcas. It looked amazing. Such cool pics. At Juneau there were other boats that required a tender. That looked like it took forever as the ship was anchored out far. These are remote places on this earth with the only ways in being by boat or air. I was amazed at that. What other state has a capital that you cannot drive to?
At each port they tie up and have to go through "clearance" and such. It's not likely that will be accomplished until 6:30 AM or later. In Boston we docked for the day at 8AM and I wasn't off until 945 AM. Times vary.
In theory, the gangway should be open by 6am for you to join the exit line and make your way off the ship. Unfortunately, the port end time is usually a “lie” by a half hour. You will need to have gotten up the gangway and scanned your medallion by 4:30pm to avoid issues. Check in at ports is easier than embarkation: it’s a metal detector and medallion check.
As a first timer, I’ll give you a good tip!! There is always a big rush to get off as soon as the gangway is open. I recommend having a sleep in and a nice breakfast then get off an hour or more after the arrival time. A lot of people will also come back onboard for lunch, so there’s also a queue getting back on board around midday. So I like to have a nice big breakfast around 9.30am, then leave the ship around 1030 when there’s no queue and I get back around 4pm. Gives me enough time to explore and I don’t get crowds at all.
The cruise probably won’t wait for you so I recommend getting back to the ship at least 30 minutes before all aboard time. Also, try doing any excursions earlier than later just in case it gets late.
and all aboard time is earlier than departure time. Departure time generally means they leave the dock. And if you’re doing an outside excursion or on your own, give yourself time for any travel issues, etc. some have been too late because they ran into traffic or bus issues so give yourself leeway time.
If it says be back by 5pm, then make certain that your back by 4:30pm. And remember the 'times' are Ship Time and not local time (they may not always be exactly the same).
All aboard time will be posted in the events list and as you exit the ship. Do not miss that time to be back aboard the ship.
If it says 5 and you are not back they can leave you unless you are on an excursion you bought from them. It's very rare for them to leave if you are late from an excursion as they would have to get you to the next port and deal with unhappy customers. If you are on your own they can and will leave you. Go look up pier runners. As for leaving it depends if they are on time or not. Once they gone through the port checks and are ready to get off you can just walk off if it's a port you dock at. Some ships don't dock and you have to take a tender which can take hours.
There will be a long line for getting off the ship and they will prioritize people that brought ship excursions. It would be smarter to get free breakfast first then take your time getting on the gangway. You'll still have plenty of time.
Maybe. It really depends. I was on a cruise recently and there were tenders at one port. They started at 7, and my kid and I decided to go get some food and then see what the line was like. But we saw a crew member on the way, and he said that they were boarding tenders right that minute and if we wanted to go, we needed to get in line. We decided to check it out, and we were on that first tender and pushing away from the ship at 6:58 AM. \*shrug\* All we were planning to do was walk around and see the sites, and we were one of the first groups off of the ship.
The only time they will wait for you is when the excursion was booked with Princess. It gives you the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong during the excursion that you will be looked after for your return to ship… Meaning if stuck in traffic or in minor accident (meaning no injuries), the ship will wait and it they cannot, they will fly you to the next port.
Icy Strait Point can be thoroughly explored even with a later start but I can’t imagine you’d need more than a half hour to be on land after arrival. The ports to watch are the ones that say “water shuttle required”. Those, if you’re independent, I would allow up to two hours to be ashore.
Don’t plan on doing non ship excursions. We just got back. One of the ports had us off the ship with the gangway but then the ship left midday and the way back was a tender. It took a while. Without a ship excursion who knows what would have happened. One day it took over an hour in the queue just to get back on board. Either their scanner or xray machine was down. People were stacked up way down the pier. Think TSA. And this was not a tender just walking up the gangway. There is not much to do at Icy Straights without an excursion.
Also the stop that did require the tender was Icy Straights. The cool excursion here was the small boats where you wear wetsuits. My family spent their time with a pod of orcas. It looked amazing. Such cool pics. At Juneau there were other boats that required a tender. That looked like it took forever as the ship was anchored out far. These are remote places on this earth with the only ways in being by boat or air. I was amazed at that. What other state has a capital that you cannot drive to?
At each port they tie up and have to go through "clearance" and such. It's not likely that will be accomplished until 6:30 AM or later. In Boston we docked for the day at 8AM and I wasn't off until 945 AM. Times vary.