How Long Does a Cruise Ship Stay in Port? About 9 Hours, and Most Leave Between 5 and 6 PM

We read the arrival and departure time of every port stop on 3,076 Royal Caribbean cruises. Here is how long you get ashore, when the ship leaves, and what happens if you are late.

A Royal Caribbean ship stays a middle 9 hours at a port stop. The most common time to leave is 5 PM: 3,796 of 8,664 departures, 44%, are at exactly 5:00 PM. Nearly two in three leave before 6 PM. The times are the ship’s own, in the port’s local time, from the itineraries Royal Caribbean publishes.

Every number comes from our own itinerary data, as captured on Oct 31, 2026: 8,834 port stops on the 3,076 cruises we track that had not yet sailed. A port stop is a day the ship docks or anchors somewhere between the port where you board and the port where you get off. The box at the bottom says exactly how we counted.

How long a stop lasts

Of the 8,509 stops with an arrival and a departure time on the same day, half are 9 hours or less and half are longer. 4,156 are 10 hours or more, and 826 are 12 hours or more. Only 29 are under 6 hours, and none is under 4.

155 stops are overnights, left out of those hours: the ship stays in port through the night and leaves the next day. They are on 150 cruises, about one in 20.

What time the ship leaves

Departure times of 8,664 port stops, in the port’s local time as Royal Caribbean lists it, on cruises sailing after Oct 31, 2026. An overnight is counted on the day the ship leaves. Shares are rounded, so they add up to 101%.

The time the ship leaves is not the time you must be back. Royal Caribbean’s ticket contract says the boarding cut-off times for a port of call “are as announced on the applicable Cruise”. The Points Guy puts the usual gap plainly: all aboard is the time guests are expected back, and the sail-away time is “usually about half an hour later.”

The 20 busiest ports

The 20 ports with the most stops on Royal Caribbean cruises sailing after Oct 31, 2026. Middle (median) hours from arrival to departure on stops of one day. A tender stop is one where the ship anchors and small boats carry guests to land.

Perfect Day CocoCay is the busiest stop by far, with 979 visits; the middle stay is 10 hours, and 93% of visits leave at 5:00 PM. The late leavers are the evening ports: the most common time to leave Aruba and Santorini is 11 PM, and Skagway and Juneau 8 PM.

Tender ports: a small boat each way

At 990 of the 8,834 stops, 11%, the ship anchors offshore and you ride a small boat, a tender, to land and back. 654 cruises, about one in five, have at least one tender stop. In our data Santorini, Mykonos and George Town are tender stops every time. The boat ride back takes time, so a tender day is the one to come back early on.

If you are not back in time

The same ticket contract says the line does not have to refund “any portion of the Cruise or CruiseTour Fare” for a guest who is not on board by the boarding cut-off time at a port, and is not responsible for “lodging, meals, transportation or other expenses” that follow. On its help page about shore excursions, Royal Caribbean says: “The ship will not wait for any guest faring on their own, as it is their responsibility to be onboard before the ship’s scheduled departure time.”

The one exception is a tour you book through the line. The same page says that if such a tour is delayed, the ship will wait, and if it cannot, the line will get you back to the ship “at no expense to you.” On a back-to-back, the day the first leg ends is a different thing again: see Missing the Ship Between Back-to-Back Legs and Turnaround Day on a Back-to-Back.

Plan your day ashore

1. Read the all aboard time the ship gives for that port before you step off. It is earlier than the time the ship leaves.
2. Go by the ship’s clock. In some ports the time in town is not the time on the ship, and a phone can switch to local time on its own, as SlashGear and The Traveler both warn.
3. On a tender stop, leave extra time for the boat back.
4. If you want the ship to wait for a late tour, book the tour through Royal Caribbean.
5. Check the ports and times of each leg before you book. legtolegcruises.com shows every port of every leg on a back-to-back. Our guide Will You Visit the Same Ports Twice on a Back-to-Back? counts the repeats.

Questions people ask

How we measured this

Sources

The legtolegcruises.com Logbook is independent editorial and is not affiliated with Royal Caribbean International or Club Royale. Offers, fares, and program rules vary and change often; confirm every detail with Royal Caribbean before you book.