Planning a family day
Pirate Boat Side: The Day-Before Pickup Message Explained
Nowhere on this site will you find a pickup time, and that is deliberate. Yours comes in a single message the day before you sail. Here is what is in it and what to do with it.
Short answer
The day before your pirate day, we send you the pickup time and the meeting point at your hotel, by phone or WhatsApp, to the number you gave when booking. Reply to confirm you have it and that the hotel and guest numbers are right. If nothing has arrived by the evening, message us on WhatsApp at +90 536 603 75 84 — do not just wait and hope.
Why the time comes the day before
Our pickup belt stretches between Gündoğdu at its western end and Kızılot at its eastern end, and each day's times are worked out once that day's bookings are in. Fixing a time weeks in advance would only be guesswork, and a wrong guess leaves a family on the pavement or a driver waiting. So the time is set hotel by hotel and sent the day before.
The same goes for both of our days. On the kids' pirate programme the ship sails at 10:00, and the transfer is timed around that sailing; on the pirate boat trip the day simply runs from morning to afternoon. Either way, the message gives you the time that matters: when to be ready at your hotel. Our hotel pickup page explains how the belt works.
What the message tells you
- The time to be ready at your hotel.
- The meeting point — usually somewhere at your hotel, confirmed in the message itself.
- Which day you are on, so you can check you booked the right one.
The message is the only source of your pickup time. If a friend at the pool says their pickup is at a certain hour, that is their hotel's time, not yours.
How to reply
A short reply is all it needs. Confirm you have the message, and check three things against your booking: the hotel name, the number of guests in each age band, and the date. If anything is wrong — a different hotel, an extra child, a guest who can no longer come — say so in the same reply, so it is fixed before the car sets off.
If you are staying in Side town itself, the old town's lanes and hotel entrances can be confusing to describe; our Side town pickup guide has tips on getting the meeting point clear.
If the message does not arrive
Check the obvious first: is the phone you gave at booking switched on, and does it have WhatsApp? Messages to a number with a missing country code sometimes go astray.
Then contact us. Write to +90 536 603 75 84 on WhatsApp with the name the booking is in and the date, and we will send the time again. Do it the same evening rather than the next morning — a missed message is easy to fix the night before and much harder at breakfast. Our booking guide covers what happens after you book.
The morning itself
Be at the meeting point a little before the time in the message, with everyone dressed for the sea, swimwear underneath, and euros for the fare: it is paid on the day, not before. The itinerary guide walks through what happens after the pickup on each day.
If plans change at the last minute, remember that cancelling stays free only until 48 hours ahead of the trip. After that, still tell us — an empty seat the driver waits for helps nobody.
