What time do you have to get off the ship after the cruise is over?

It all depends on the ship and the port and if you were home porting or catching a plane later. We had to check out of our room by 10:30 and be off the ship by 12:00 pm. This is what we were told. The ship was the Sea Princess since they have to get the rooms ready for other passengers boarding. Another ship might be different. I realized that they had other passengers still on that were leaving later because some of them took a tour and said they had to be back by 2:00pm.

It depends, but generally will be mid to late morning. The ship has to be cleared by the US, which means that every person on board — crew and passengers — must personally take his or her passport for review by officials who board the ship after it docks. Until the ship is “cleared” nobody can leave the ship. Once the ship is cleared, people can begin to leave, and they do that by calling groups over the PA system, usually by color of baggage tags they have given you. What color your tags are and what order the colors groups are called will relate to when flights leave. They do ask people to clear out of their cabins as soon as possible so they can clean them and get ready for the next group of passengers boarding the ship in the afternoon, and that is simply a time to find a comfy spot in one of the lounges or other public rooms with your overnight bag, ready to leave. Disembarking is, unfortunatly, delayed when passengers don’t think they’ll bother with going through the line with their passports, and those names are broadcast on the PA system while crew members actually go look for them. Those delays can make people miss their flights, and I have always thought those people who cause the delays should be thrown overboard. Anyhow, the bottom line is that just because the ship pulls into port around sunrise doesn’t mean you must or can leave the ship then.