Bebop1088

On 3/27/2022 at 7:33 AM, fox02554 said:

I'm glad to see you still talk of " we " ❤️🦩

 

Yes! We do, and we are doing well. It has become an anchor point for us. We we struggle or disagree one of us will just reference missing our cruise ship and we laugh and reset. We really feel that after getting through that experience without any arguments or issues we can do anything. 

On 4/1/2022 at 10:49 PM, AntiMatter said:

After so many years of cruising and watching pier runners I thought nothing like that would ever happen to me but it nearly did - in Norway. I got back from a RCL tour and got mired in a souvenir shop by the pier in Geiranger, losing track of time. Once I realized nearly everyone had cleared out and checked the time it was defcon 1 to rush to the ship (about 5 mins away). The first checkpoint had already closed and I could see in the distance that onboard ramp to enter the ship was being removed. The officer had to contact the captain by radio and ask for permission to allow me and my companion aboard and I can say that the pause in waiting for a reply was panic-attack inducing.

 

Thankfully he did because I cannot imagine what I would have done had I been stuck in a sparsely populated fjord in Norway with hardly anything other than what I was wearing plus some gift shop apparel and refrigerator magnets. 

 

After that harrowing experience I make it point to take steps and never allow myself to be in a similar situation again. As others have mentioned, among the tips I incorporated are to set an alarm on my phone for at least 1 hour before departure (and subsequent alarms); I double check the departure time on the Compass the night before whenever stopping at a port and on the sign on the way out as they scan your card to be sure it's prominent on my mind (before I hardly paid attention to them); and finally I scan and save as pdf files my passport, id and travel insurance papers and upload it as an attachment in an email to myself, and to a secure cloud vault for redundancy so that I can access it anywhere in the world with wifi availability. At some point I also became familiar with the STEP program and use it as well. It's also good to take a pic of the port agent info from the Cruise Compass, just in case.

 

Hopefully by Bebop1088 sharing her experience in this excellent thread it will help someone avoid a similar, potentially horrendous situation or ameliorate it should it occur.  

 Thank You for sharing your experience, It is comforting to know that I am not the only one who has made the mistake of losing track of time on vacation mode but I am also glad you were able to catch the ship. I would love to complain about my accommodations after missing the ship but I was really very fortunate that the stars aligned for us. 

This will certainly be a story I tell for years to come! 

From Personal experience it 100% will show up on the summary with the full note attached. I had a friend send me chocolate strawberries and wine for my sailing and I saw they would be coming before the sailing when checking my excursions on the app

On 3/24/2022 at 9:31 AM, CDR Benson said:

 

This thread is a classic example of the aphorism "You can't judge a book by its cover."  Or in this case, its title.

 

I'll bet a lot of folks, upon first seeing the banner of Bebop 1088's original post, had the same initial thought that I did:  "Oh, great!  This is going to be a tirade from someone who missed ship's movement, blaming everybody else for it, and expecting someone else to pay for the resultant inconvenience."

 

Then, I clicked on it.  Hooboy, was I wrong!

 

Instead, this was a post by a responsible individual whom, through, yes, an avoidable, but natural lapse of thought, missed her ship, as did her boyfriend/travelling companion.  No excuses, no equivocations, no evasions; she took responsibility for the mistake.  Moreover, she put herself right out there and described the resulting travails in detail.  And she did this undoubtedly with the expectation that some folks would respond in derision for having missed the ship.

 

Despite that, she provided a valuable service.  Hers was more than a cautionary tale.  We've all heard of pier runners, seen the YouTube videos, read the articles; they all generally allude to the expense and difficulties undertaken by those who miss their ships.  But none of them actually describe what those expenses and difficulties are.

 

Bebop 1088 filled that gap---by describing the step-by-step problems and costs and set-backs she and her boyfriend experienced.  No doubt, some of it was embarrassing, but she put it down here anyway, so other cruisers could learn from it and prepare, if the worst should happen to them.  She provided a primer on what occurs when one misses ship's movement and what one has to do to deal with it.  I never come across this kind of detail in any other cruising fora.

 

How many of us ever knew of the State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program?  I hadn't, and I worked in government for twenty-seven years.  Yet, thanks to the responses encouraged by Bebop, we learnt of that valuable resource, and many of us have registered with STEP.

 

The information Bebop 1088 has provided is so crucial, I recommend that the powers-that-be on this site move her post to its own category, perhaps under the New Cruisers heading, so that everyone, not just the NCL followers, can find it and learn from it.

 

Like I said, a gutsy, resourceful lady.

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much for your kind words and understanding. Being the analytical person that I am as soon as I could I searched and searched the internet for a story like mine to help guide me and also to give me some hope that it would be okay. Once I realized there was no information available I knew I would be writing my story. 

So often, by nature we judge based on those tidbits or titles. I am happy that so many people took the time to read my post. I am even thankful for the negative comments that accompanied it as in this forum it allowed me an opportunity to hopefully show an alternative to the bad. 

If even one person can benefit it was worth the shame and embarrassment of being "that' person for me!

On 3/24/2022 at 4:07 PM, JCDCA said:

No passport and no credit cards while traveling internationally?  Pretty big risk there.  Also you’ve been on 15 cruises without these essentials? 🤔

I am in my early 30's. I have not had credit cards since I was 18 and had my identity stolen. Not to say I did not have available funds. I just believe that if I do not have money available I should not be making a purchase. My cash app card is linked to my bank account and I can transfer up to 10k in one click, same with a secondary card. So although not 'credit' i had funds available to utilize and did so in this situation. 

I have never had a passport. My out of country travel was through the military or on my previous cruises. I was briefly married a few years back and I was going to wait to apply for my passport until I changed my name. Since my husband left me, I never changed my name but then COVID hit and I wasnt able or willing to travel during that time and therefore did not persue getting a passport. We booked this trip very last minute on a whim. Being on 15 cruises and never 'needing' the passport before it seemed like a good alternative for me. 

Now I am the proud owner of a 10 year passport though!

16 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Also very nice you had that special hotel rate.

That made it very easy to keep the extra night just in case - and *very* good planning with that!

So glad that it ended so well, given the situation.

But it *is* a bit worrisome that Security wasn't tasked with removing a few things from your room/safe, like passports (and hopefully any medicines sitting right there?).

Some of our meds would be a top concern if they all sailed away without us, although we always do carry an bit of an extra supply with us when we leave the ship "just in case".

 

Tricky about the passports.  Some people prefer not to carry them at all times when traveling, lest they get stolen.  We've tended to keep ours with us with us whenever traveling overseas, but not always...

 

We probably should have gotten passport cards along with our passports.  Would a passport card make it any easier to get home (should passport go missing) vs. having a copy of the passport?

 

GC

When we were initially left, as I do with pretty much everything I went to google and all my research showed that this was something the cruiselines did. Although us missing the ship was our own negligence it could have been anything, an injury or emergency that caused someone the miss the ship. The port agent seemed equally surprised by it.

In our stateroom right in my purse (left right on the bed) was my full wallet, with social security card and other IDs) and in our bathroom right on the shelf was my contact lenses and medication. I would not have expected them to leave our cash in the port, although mine was in my purse it was hidden away in a side pocket and his was in his luggage. 

There is a comment from someone who worked at an embassy that had some really good information in it on this thread that is certainly worth reading and would help with the information about passport cards. I do as standard practice have photos of my Drivers license and Vaccine card on my phone and I took pictures of my boyfriends before the trip as well which was handy since currently nassau is still operating under strong covid protocols and it was needed at both hotels we stayed in while there.

21 minutes ago, nalrudaini said:

Kudos for not losing your cool.

 

The on-board time is posted in several places (including elevator).  But I always do is set my alarm for one hour before the on-board time.  I also have a clock widget on my mobile that's called "Ship Time". 

I understand the time postings, and frankly we somehow had in our brain the sail away time was 4:00PM. I am not sure why we thought that but it is why we did not push or question the time when we couldnt log into the app and were not stressed throughout the day. It is no excuse, but it is just how it was for us and a mistake we wont be making twice. 

8 hours ago, brad0576 said:

 

Sorry that happened to you  - 

 

December 2019 I was on the Breakaway out of Port Canaveral - We live in Orlando so just had a friend drop us off around noon and were on the ship in no time.  

 

Our first stop was Spice H2O  - and there was already a family group that was out of control in one of the hot tubs - completely wasted and it was 4 hours until departure.  Every ship has at least 1 group like this, and barely on the ship we already found them lol.

 

Fast forward a few days to St Thomas - multiple names are called for almost an hour after our posted DEPARTURE time - and finally we depart late.  about 30 minutes later I hear the lead trainwreck in this group complaining to others on how the staff was so rude to them when they got onboard - they were not that late and who cares we are only at sea the following day.  

 

The funny thing was when they tried to order drinks apparently they can been cut off for the remainder of the trip - they looked miserable on the following sea day.... I found it deserving.

 

While you were not in that situation...be glad you didn't have to pay the consequence.

To my knowledge we did not cause any delay to the ship departing the port or inconvenience to the other passengers (other than them having to hear our name called over the intercom on the ship). The ship left on time right at 2:00PM it did not delay waiting for our arrival or we would not have missed the boat since we were waiting for our check when it departed. Even a 15 minute wait and we would have been late but on board. That being said I wouldnt expect them to wait for us unless they knew they might have needed to. I can see if we knew were were late and somehow contacted them the captain would make that decision but it was not the case with us. 

10 hours ago, Old & Retired said:

Expensive lessons.

This will sound silly but I actually think it was less expensive than being on the ship. I say this because the ship on this particular sailing had very little activities to entertain you. The ship also did not stop in any other ports on the trip back like scheduled so I would have ended up burning money playing in the casino, or bingo. We were lucky to secure relatively inexpensive flights home and since out flight was delayed 4 times and then ultimately cancelled before being rebooked the airline compensated us in addition to the fact that we did not use their hotel accommodations. 

8 hours ago, LisaLisa87 said:

Wow — what an experience! I’m impressed with the way you handled everything, and reaching out to Atlantis and then not checking out when you left for the airport were strokes of genius. What concerns me is that the powers that be on the ship were apparently unaware that you hadn’t reboarded. How does that happen?? 

I saw on the cruise facebook group that the ship did attempt to page us on board as part of their protocol. But did not follow up in any other method with the cruise agent or with us directly. While we were going from the embassy to the passport photo store I called NCL myself to notify them of the situation and try to determine what options or assistance they could provide. Which was essentially none. 

4 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

Keep in mind that if someone steals your credit card (or clones it or whatever), then you can work with the charge card company to sort it out, while your regular funds sit there for your use.  The card issuer will usually send (or overnight) a new card to you while they work on this for you.

IF you have money stolen through your debit card, there may or may not be similar protections, BUT... your bank account might be drained, and then what would you use then or in an emergency?

 

You can get a guaranteed card (you put money in the account or such) and work your way up.  If you have a good salary, no problem.  If you've got a credit union, it's probably even easier.

 

GC

The joy of the cashapp card and the reason I love it is that if stolen the thief will only have access to the money I’ve put there for use. Adding money is a three second process, instant and free from my linked bank but can only be added through the app or online which requires authentication and security questions. Our finances were the easiest of our headaches. Between us we were able to enjoy our self’s without pinching Worrying about money. Although having the money we had won in the casino on the ship would have been nice we elected to leave that in our stateroom that day. 

2 hours ago, Oceansaway17 said:

I am glad I always take a ship excursion so I can get back with others.

If I walk around nearby by I do so for only a few hours.  But then again, I know when I get off the ship what time to get back on.

Was interesting that no one went to their room to remove things like paperwork.  

We did take a cruise excursion for our deep sea fishing in the morning. It was an expensive excursion and therefore there was not a large group of people. The captain of the small boat we were on was unsure of the ship sail time himself. We made a mistake, as people do by not verifying time and we accept that. We are by no means placing our irresponsible actions on NCL. But we were also surprised that the port agent was not even notified prior to the ship sailing and to our knowledge the port agent was unable to get in contact with the ship as they did not answer the phone the three times he called them in our presence 

4 minutes ago, sfaaa said:

Great job Girl. You handled the situation extremely well.  May be you should go into crisis management.  I would have a nervous breakdown at the pier followed by PTSD if this happened to me.

Thank you, ironically I do work in crisis management but usually I am not the one in crisis. The nerves were high for sure but we maintained composure as best we could. I was very close to tears wanting to accept responsibility but my boyfriend handled me like a champ and reminded me we are both adults and it was a joint mistake which helped

1 hour ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Did you have trip insurance? Just curious about the price 💵 of those last minute plane ✈️ tickets.

We did not have travel insurance since we booked our trip last second we opted against getting it. The last second plane tickets were actually very reasonable, it was just around $500 for two tickets

28 minutes ago, Kierste said:

Thank you so much for sharing… I am glad it turned out okay! Your post showed it helps to keep your self of humor in these situations… you will tell this story for years!

Thank you, I appreciate your kind words. We did our best to stay positive as best we could and it does make a huge difference. We are even considering Flamingo tattoos (The bird of the bahamas) to remember this crazy story we lived!

30 minutes ago, Cruising Lynne said:

Wow! Thank you for sharing. It was really great that you could get the casino deal on your room at Atlantis, and smart to book two nights. We will be in Nassau soon, and I will be sure to share your story with my husband, since he is the one that cuts it a little close sometimes. I always bring a regular watch on a cruise and ask what time it is, as well as check the all aboard time on the sign before getting off. Please let us know what happens with your luggage.

It is certainly better to be safe rather than sorry in these situations. We are very grateful to have made a decent ending to the process. I am not sure we would have ever been able to afford or see The Atlantis otherwise! It was really beautiful and we felt it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us to experience it, especially like that

45 minutes ago, TSUmom said:

Thank you for sharing your story and not blaming anyone for what happened.  Also I like the fact that you just rolled with it and made the best of everything, something I would like to say I could do.  Maybe after my initial panic I could.

Thank you. There was certainly an initial panic, Nothing like looking at a man you are just started dating and telling him he is about to see ugly crying for the first time! But we kept our composure. We were very fortunate to meet the right people and make good good connections. We opted to operate under no stressing what we cannot change. Good karma was on our side

52 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Glad everything worked out for you and you made the best out of the situation. I had one scary situation in port when I realized halfway through my day that I didn't know when the ship left. Luckily it was a 4pm or later departure so we made it back in time. But it's a terrible feeling that I won't repeat. 

Thank you very much. Lesson learned on our end for sure. We truly for whatever reason believed the ship was leaving at 4 not 2 or we would have had that same terrible feeling. We wont make that mistake twice!

Just now, Two Wheels Only said:

 

Hopefully, others will feel the same and everyone can learn before it happens to them.

 

I generally laugh at pier runners because...

...but after reading your post, I'll laugh with you and not at you.

Ironically enough I told him in the morning when we got back on the ship we should get some drinks and sit on our balcony and watch the pier runners! Karma bit me for that one 😆

1 minute ago, ontheweb said:

What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing it so others may learn.

 

And what a remarkable job you did of making "lemonade out of lemons". If you and your boyfriend become something more permanent, I am sure that this will be a story you look back on, and with time can laugh about it.

 

I guess a passport photo in a bikini would be too distracting for those whose job it is to scan your passport. LOL

Thank you, That is the hope! Once we hit US soil we certainly started seeing the humor in our first time traveling together being such a debacle but it made us closer and showed us we are a good team!

There is limited and mostly incorrect information on what happens in these situations on the internet. I was hoping to shed some real life knowledge on the subject.

Although in actuality missing our ship was our own negligence it is not always the case, sometimes other things happen be it injury or illness and some of this can be applied in those situations as well. 

The stigma associated with being in a foreign country with no passport is scary but I wanted people to know that with the right mentality you can get through it. 

3 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

Good times! My advice to you is to get a credit card before traveling again. What if you get sick or injured and need medical attention? My oldest did a mini semester in Greece her sophomore year of college, I asked her if she had a credit card, nope, just debit. I put her on ours and she applied for one when she got back home.

I have not had a credit card since I was very young and someone close to me stole my identity and opened many lines of credit in my name. I am able to transfer money to my cash app card instantly from my bank account which allows me access to my money quickly. Since I dont use credit cards I have no credit history proving it difficult at this point to get credit. Im the event of an emergency I would be able to secure funds quickly or contact my bank to notify them of the international travel. In this case it was not necessary as I just moved money to my cash app card that works the same as a secured credit card and is accepted anywhere VISA is allowed. 

I am also fortunate enough to have a government job, My health insurance is in most cases useable internationally as well!

1 minute ago, Iluvmykindle said:

How did you get your luggage back?

 

 

Ironically enough we have yet to receive our personal items, luggage (and decent amount of cash) from our stateroom! The "lost and found" contacted me on Tuesday (our ship docked on sunday) and advised they would be mailing them to me but I have not received any tracking nor our items. There is no phone contact for this department of NCL... I called the standard line 5 times over the course of missing the ship and receiving a call back and they all advised the only option was to wait for them to call me. 

I am hoping the items arrive soon as I had medication, and money in the stateroom!

1 minute ago, kfnesq said:

Thanks for sharing your experience and your great attitude! I, too, have been on a ship and heard the names being called prior to the ship leaving and have thought, how does that even happen?  But I can definitely see it now, having read your story.  Glad you are back safe and sound, and thanks again for sharing.  I will admit that I have said, oh that could never happen to me, but now I'm not so sure.  It's a good cautionary tale for all of us!  🙂

Thank you, I appreciate that. I can admit when it occurred I scoured the internet seeking someones story to know it was going to be okay and was unsuccessful so I am hoping this can help! 

Just now, weltek said:

Oh my gosh! Thanks for sharing and being candid. I always still debate about bringing my passport ashore, but alas, I just bring a photocopy in my wallet and hope it will help expedite things at the embassy if there's an issue.

I'm a bit baffled why you didn't just ask the crew upon leaving the ship, but hey, I've done baffling things before, so who am I to cast stones? Glad you took things in stride, had excellent local help and scored a good lodging deal!

I highly recommend when possible keeping your important documents with you. I have read on countless threads that the ship will leave those items with the port agent but that is clearly not always the case since the ship did not even tell the port agent to anticipate us. The embassy really was great and helpful with the process. I can only imagine the difficulty had I not grabbed the birth certificates that morning. Neither of us had a copy anywhere at home that could have been sent if we needed. 

In our minds we thought the ship left at 4, we booked so close to the ship and some how rationalized this time and accepted it as true. We certainly learned from it for the future!

6 minutes ago, Yinster said:

So that was you. It was a very early return. 13:00 for guests. 

Yes, It was us! That threw us for a curve only being in port for 6 hours. We accept responsibility for missing the ship, was certainly a learning experience! Just hoping others can learn from our mistakes. I have always heard the calls before the ship departs on the ship looking for those who have not made it back, I never wanted to be one of them, yet here we are!