I'm daydreaming Actually, thinking of the next cruise. Looking at the schedules, and most of them are like this:

Seattle --- 5 pm
San Fr. 8 am 6 pm
Los Ang. 7 am 7 pm
(just an example)

but some of them are like this:
Seattle --- ---
Seattle --- 5 pm
San Fr. 8 am 6 pm
Los Ang. 7 am 7 pm

Does this mean they take people on a docked ship on day 1, and take off only on day 2. Instead of placing people in hotels, they put them on the ship?

Or does this mean they want to sell air tickets, and day 1 would be the day of the flight to the start of the cruise?

(I've been looking at cruises starting in S. America and Pacific)

Referring to Seattle departure, it looks like you board on Day 1 & sail on Day 2 at 5 pm.

If a cruise starts in SA, why would the first day be in Seattle? URL please.

I think Rhea58 is correct. When we took our Med cruise, it included an overnight in Istanbul before sailing. You board the first day and just stay on the ship. A couple of itineraries are set this way.

Jed, this is one of the URLs. I've used Seattle only as example while typing.

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll...vr=-1294637292

So I was right, they put people on a ship instead of a hotel. What a good idea, even if a flight is delayed, nobody is late!