Missing the ship from excursions

[jenf22]

There was a post a year or so ago about an Alaska excursion that got delayed overnight due to fog. It may have been DCL or another cruise line, or a mix of both. People on cruise-sponsored excursions were helped to the next port; people on the same excursion but booked privately were on their own to catch up to the ship. I'll see if I can find the story.

We were on the Wonder in Alaska in 2012 and they left people on a DCL excursion on the glacier in Juneau (I think it was Juneau anyway). I think it was a helicopter excursion and a storm came in and they couldn't make it out. The ship waited a couple of hours but then we went on. There was even a cast member up there. Someone from our FE group was there and posted about their "camp" experience. I believe they met the ship in our next port.

 

[Capt_BJ]

few years back my USCG Cutter was docked in Cozumel for a two day R&R. It was evening time and I wandered up to the bridge to watch the cruise ship across from us leave. It had just begun backing away from the pier when a lady came running down the pier with a shopping bag in each hand. She got to about my place on the pier when she realized the cruise ship was pulling away. She stopped, dropped the bags and a look of panic set in . . . I called down, "is there a problem?"

"My husband and kids are on that boat . . . ." .... "wait there" I hollered down ... and called the gangway watch to send some one to fetch her and 'be nice' ... she's left behind.

Then I grabbed the bridge to bridge radio and hailed the cruise ship. "Hi Captain, this is the US Coast Guard Cutter & I've got one of your passengers!" I proposed that as they dropped the pilot if they'd wait just a couple of minutes I'd run her out to them.

I used it as a rapid rescue drill for the in port watch and we had our fast boat in the water and ready to go in under 10 minutes. Loaded the wayward mom and got her in a life jacket and ran her out to the cruise ship ...... guess how many people were watching as she climbed up the pilot ladder!!!!!

broke up a routine duty day for the crew!

She had a story to tell .... but sadly we never got a thank you note . . .

 

[FigmentSpark]

That's awesome, Capt_BJ. About the note though, and I speak as someone who once inadvertently got a woman fired by praising her great service to her boss. It turns out she wasn't supposed to do all the things she did for us and she was fired. Now, I am really wary of writing notes or praise about anyone, because finding out she was fired because of me felt horrible. All I had to do was keep my mouth shut.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

starvenger posted a link to someone's experience, back on the first page, post #19; it's a pretty detailed report. Others have posted seeing people "running the pier" while the ship sails away. I'm guessing nobody on DIS has been late -- or not willing to 'fess up

There was a post a year or so ago about an Alaska excursion that got delayed overnight due to fog. It may have been DCL or another cruise line, or a mix of both. People on cruise-sponsored excursions were helped to the next port; people on the same excursion but booked privately were on their own to catch up to the ship. I'll see if I can find the story.

I don't know how I would feel if this happened to me. On the one hand, sucks to miss a night on the cruise. On the other hand, free overnight camping on a glacier sounds kind of awesome.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I've only ever read one report of someone missing the ship, and it was kflnger on the CC boards (I've butchered that, I'm sure), the link posted by starvenger on this thread. And if you read that you'll certainly see that a number of things went wrong there.

My view is this: I'll always bring along the phone # for the ship's agent or port agent or whatever the name is that is on the paper navigator. If for some reason my excursion is late, or in danger of being late, I would always call ahead and warn the cruise line. I would imagine that if they can wait, they will - many of us have been in port longer than expected for some reason or other. Obviously it's not always the case, but research, having the right contact info ready, all those are important.

 

[Dug720]

starvenger posted a link to someone's experience, back on the first page, post #19; it's a pretty detailed report. Others have posted seeing people "running the pier" while the ship sails away. I'm guessing nobody on DIS has been late -- or not willing to 'fess up

There was a post a year or so ago about an Alaska excursion that got delayed overnight due to fog. It may have been DCL or another cruise line, or a mix of both. People on cruise-sponsored excursions were helped to the next port; people on the same excursion but booked privately were on their own to catch up to the ship. I'll see if I can find the story.

I know it happened with HAL. I think the cruise before the one I was on - a shore excursion crew member was on my excursion (they will sometimes put them on when there is room so they can describe the excursions if asked) and told us about it. There were actually 2 HAL ships affected. Once down, they were put on a train to the next port or a boat to go catch the ship.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

does anyone have a story of them actually missing the boat and what happened?

While it wasn't us, I know a number of people missed the ship on our EBTA cruise in 2016. Due to massive traffic delays, some of the excursions couldn't get back to the ship in Dublin by the time the ship had to leave (they have big tides in Dublin). They were put on a ferry to Liverpool, our next stop.

I'm not sure any of those people have reported exactly how things were handled. Maybe someone will.

 

[FSU Girl]

When I was in the Mediterranean with my friend on a Royal Caribbean cruise we did a cruise sponsored excursion to Pompeii at Naples. It was a half day excursion in the afternoon and as we were heading back to the ship we got stuck in rush hour traffic. We were pretty late and the ship was waiting for us to leave. As soon as we walked on they sailed the ship. I was really happy to be on a cruise excursion then. Especially since we had left with plenty of time to make it back to the ship and got stuck in unforeseen amounts of traffic.

 

[DisneYE]

I found the story. Follow the link

This is a pretty good read.
I chuckled a few times, the person that posted it writes well, it was quite entertaining.
Thanks for sharing the link.

 

[Sytrace]

What is said about the tour company on the ports of call section of cruisecritic? How about on TripAdvisor? I don’t normally trust TA, but if something even remotely negative happened with the tour company that’s where people go to tell others.

When using a non cruiseline tour, I start with cc. There are enough users there for a good sample.
Someone mentioned construction on the main road in Jamaica. Does your tour go along there? Email the tour company and ask if it impacts you, and what their plan is.




Ah, do you think that anyone plans to lose track of time?

And people are talking about the cruise line not caring about the reason because you are differentiating the reason. And people are, IMO, saying that bad things happen, watches break and phones die, or amazing fun days happen, and responsible people sometimes behave irresponsibly by accident, but it doesn’t matter to the cruiseline.

So my bottom line is *how trustworthy is the tour company*?



Hmm. They weren’t yet late but the employees had already packed bags? Sounds a bit like a medical emergency had happened and the family had been in contact and weren’t sure they’d make it back. Packing bags up isn’t a normal thing they do, from the years I’ve been reading about this.

They were late at that time by 30 minutes past all aboard time. Many calls over the ship system were made to have this family check in with no response. I would imagine that they had also tried to reach the family by calling the phone number noted on their reservation to no avail. Officers went into the room, gathered clothing and all property put it in their suitcases and had it out on the pier in case they did not get back in time. (30 minutes past all aboard time)
The officers on the pier were pacing back and forth and speaking with the dockmaster as well so they were trying to hold out as long as possible. But worse case scenario, the guests would have had their things and would be able to get home in the event they did not make it back. I can only go by what I observed of course in regards to whether it was a medical emergency or not and it appeared to be that they lost track of time and perhaps taxi that they arrived in was delayed in traffic. I am told this happens in Puerto Rico. The family made it back and boarded quickly and off we sailed.

 

[starvenger]

This is a pretty good read.
I chuckled a few times, the person that posted it writes well, it was quite entertaining.
Thanks for sharing the link.

Not a problem. Granted, I doubt this will happen to many of us, but it gives you an idea of what one needs to do should the situation arise.

 

[DisneYE]

Not a problem. Granted, I doubt this will happen to many of us, but it gives you an idea of what one needs to do should the situation arise.

Yes, it was quite informative for me.
I'm planning on renting a vehicle on my own in Martinique in July to visit an area where a famous painter I admire lived. Family doesn't want to come at all so I'm going solo.
Thanks to the post you shared I'll make sure to take enough cash/cc/charger etc in case something happens.
On previous ports of call I would only take my kttw, a little bit of cash and my phone. Often when i'm vacationing I'm so disconnected from reality I tend to forget important things.
Cheers.

 

[soniam]

Not a problem. Granted, I doubt this will happen to many of us, but it gives you an idea of what one needs to do should the situation arise.

I thought it was a good read too. I don't typically take much cash off the boat, but it's better to be safe than sorry. The phone charger and knowing how to dial internationally was a really good tip. I am actually going to save that info off for my family for our Barcelona, non-cruise, trip next month. If for some reason you couldn't get wifi or data, having it in a note would be very handy. It also reminded me that our son's phone battery is garbage and the phone is old. At home, it's not a big deal, but in a foreign country, if we get separated, it would be nice to be able to communicate. He'll be happy about getting a new phone The port agent info was good too. I know that you should have it, but I don't always remember to get it.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

To help in the unlikely event you do run very late, be sure to carry with you the name and phone number for the ship’s agent in each port — it is listed in the Daily Navigator.

I believe that the Ship's Agent contact information is listed on the "Port Brochure" document, not the Navigator. (which is good, because they still print the port shopping brochures, and deliver those, but aren't delivering the navigator anymore)

 

[pixiedustedme]

Not sure why you explained that it makes no difference to Disney why you missed the ship. That’s obvious. I’m just wanting to hear if there are real stories out there of people who actually missed the ship for reasons they couldn’t control- trying to gauge how much of a concern it really is and how often it happens. The reason they missed the ship makes a difference to me because I’m not going to lose track of time, so those occurrences don’t matter to me.

I don't agree with the PP that it makes no difference to Disney why you're late. I think they really do try to accommodate people within reason if it's possible & for good cause. On our Fantasy cruise, a major winter storm was snarling air traffic in the northeast. We sailed away from Port Canaveral hours behind schedule because, as the captain said, they wanted to wait for passengers whose flights were delayed due to the storm.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don't agree with the PP that it makes no difference to Disney why you're late. I think they really do try to accommodate people within reason if it's possible & for good cause. On our Fantasy cruise, a major winter storm was snarling air traffic in the northeast. We sailed away from Port Canaveral hours behind schedule because, as the captain said, they wanted to wait for passengers whose flights were delayed due to the storm.

If there are enough passengers being delayed, and there's no risk (monetarily, or weather-wise) for the ship to wait, they probably will.

But, you can't really count on it.

 

[pixiedustedme]

If there are enough passengers being delayed, and there's no risk (monetarily, or weather-wise) for the ship to wait, they probably will.

But, you can't really count on it.

I never said anyone could count on it. Thanks.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Didn't someone once talk about seeing a couple of women come back really drunk and swaying and laughing, getting on the ship late and then come to find out the ship waited because one of the women had a baby in the nursery while she was on shore? Anyone remember that story? It would have been a couple of years ago.

 

[Mommb]

I believe that the Ship's Agent contact information is listed on the "Port Brochure" document, not the Navigator. (which is good, because they still print the port shopping brochures, and deliver those, but aren't delivering the navigator anymore)

The port agent is listed in both the Navigator and the Port Guide, although I do see that it is often more prominent in the Port Guide. I rarely carry the shopping guide, but if Navigators are not easily available, I will have to start.

 

[kiford]

Yes, we've been on several DCL cruises where people didn't make it back in time. My father was on a Princess cruise where someone missed the last tender and then had to independently pay the/a tender operator to get him to the ship. My father watched as he was loaded on board the ship as they pulled out of the port through the same door that the harbor pilot uses to leave the ship. He spoke to him later and was told that it cost him $1,000 to get the tender operator to do that. He was lucky. It is a not-uncommon occurrence and why they tell you over and over about getting back on time. Crew members probably see it nearly every day.