You are not required to go ashore at any port. Port fees and taxes are included in your fare and are paid whether or not you disembark, so staying aboard costs nothing extra. Ships are quietest on port days, and the pools, hot tubs and dining venues remain open.
There is a quiet pressure on a cruise that nobody warns you about. The ship docks, everyone streams off, and if you are still in your chair by the pool at ten in the morning you start to feel like you are doing it wrong. Wasting it. Missing out.
You are not. And I want to be the one who tells you that plainly, because I have done it plenty of times.
I have stayed on the ship in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Aruba and Curaçao. In St. Maarten my family went off to a free beach and had a wonderful time, and I stayed put and had a wonderful time too. In St. Thomas I never left the deck, and the views from up there were incredible — that is what I remember about St. Thomas, and I do not feel cheated out of anything.
In Nassau I have never really left the port. I walk the shops at the pier and the ones just outside it, and that is the whole day. That is all I have ever done there and I am fine with it.
Why staying aboard is sometimes the better day
Here is what actually happens on a port day when everybody leaves.
- The ship empties out. The pool you have been fighting for all week is suddenly yours. The hot tub is free. The buffet has no queue. The quiet spots are actually quiet.
- The staff have time for you. A bartender who has been slammed for three days will stand and talk to you.
- Nothing is on a clock. No all-aboard time creeping up on you, no wondering whether your taxi driver will come back, no watching the pier from the top deck hoping your tour bus makes it.
- It costs nothing. A port day you spend aboard is the cheapest day of your cruise.
When I would stay aboard
- You have been to that port before. Especially the ones where the day is shopping you have already done.
- It is your fourth port in five days. There is a point where one more terminal stops being a treat. Listen to it.
- Your body is telling you something. A day of rest in the middle of the week can save the back half of the cruise.
- The weather is ugly. A wet day trailing round a wet town is nobody's memory of a lifetime.
- It is a tender port and the sea is up. Queuing an hour for a boat you may not enjoy is a real cost.
- The port is expensive and you are watching money. Skipping two ports can pay for the good dinner you actually want.
How to stay aboard well
There is a difference between staying on the ship and moping on the ship.
Decide the night before, not at eleven in the morning. Deciding early is a plan. Deciding late is giving up, and it feels different.
Book the thing that is cheaper on a port day. The spa, the specialty restaurant, the quiet corner nobody can get into on a sea day — port days are when those open up.
Eat somewhere different. Some venues run reduced hours in port, so check the daily programme rather than walking to a closed door.
Get a good seat early. Yes, the ship is empty. The best loungers still go first.
Go up top when the others come back. Watching the pier refill, and the ship pull away from a place you did not need to visit, is a genuinely lovely half hour.
The one thing to get right
Tell someone in your party what you are doing, and know your ship's own rules about staying aboard and about being scanned back in. And if you are the one going ashore while somebody stays behind, take your phone and agree on a meeting time before you leave the cabin. That is the whole procedure.
The cost question, honestly
People say "but you paid for the port." You did not, really. Port fees and taxes are part of your fare and they get paid whether you set foot ashore or not, so the money is gone either way. What you are choosing is how to spend the day you already own.
And if you are wondering whether you will regret it: I have skipped more ports than I can count, and the only ones I regret are the ones where I got off because I felt I had to, and spent the day tired and irritable in a place I did not want to be.
Questions I get asked
Will they charge me for not going ashore?
No. Your fare is your fare. Booked shore excursions have their own cancellation rules, so cancel those properly rather than just not turning up.
Is the ship fully staffed on a port day?
Some venues run shorter hours in port. The daily programme will tell you what is open, and it is worth two minutes reading it the night before.
Can I get off later in the day if I change my mind?
Usually yes, within the published gangway hours for that port. Your ship will publish them.
Does this work at private islands too?
It does, but I would think twice. Somewhere like CocoCay is walk-off easy and largely free, which makes it one of the better reasons to actually get up.
Where these facts come from
Ports change their rules and their prices. Check the official pages above before you sail.
Independent tours usually cost less than the ship's, and are often run by the very same local operator. For the most peace of mind, book with Shore Excursions Group. It does nothing but cruise excursions and publishes a Return-to-Ship Guarantee: if a delay on one of its tours ever makes you miss the ship, it gets you to the next port and covers your hotel and meals. Want more choices? Viator lists far more tours. There, pick one tagged Worry-Free Shore Excursion, which carries its "Back to Ship Guarantee."
- Shore Excursions Group: 4,500 excursions in 300+ ports; non-refundable from 14 days before the tour
- Viator: 400,000+ experiences; full refund on most if cancelled 24 hours ahead
- Viator's Back to Ship Guarantee covers Worry-Free tagged tours only
Affiliate link: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. How excursion booking works.
Search the port you are skipping excursionsMore the port you are skipping tours on ViatorYour cruise, sorted
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If stairs, gangways and tenders are a problem, there is a whole section of this site for you. Sails Anyway covers accessible and limited-mobility cruising properly instead of squeezing it into a paragraph: what each pier actually asks of you, which tender ports are a problem and why, the special-needs forms and the deadlines that catch people out, and how to choose a cabin you can move around in.
About the "I" on this page. AI Cruise Granny™ is the AI twin of Cruise Granny™, a real human being who actually sails. Every experience written here in the first person is hers. The AI twin is what writes it up, checks the facts against official sources and keeps it current. We tell you that openly on every page, because you should know who is talking to you. More about how this works.