A distastrous port excursion leaves me with a question!

We recently had an absolutely dreadful day in Bangkok which was booked through Cruising Excursions not through the ship. (No need for further details as they have subsequently handled things very well with full refunds given and the tour guide in question is no longer employed by them.) we were over an hour late back to the Sapphire Princess, who luckily had waited for us.

as we boarded the head of security told me that if they had had to leave they would have left a crew member ashore to assist us and also offloaded our passports.

So my question is

Would that always happen or were Princess being extra impressive ( possibly because we were a group of 18 &/ or because the next port was Vietnam)

I must admit I had always thought that if the ship went that you were on your own apart from assistance from the port Agent but maybe someone knows what would actually happen?

It is my understand (fortunately never tested system) that, if leaving a passenger behind, Princess will go to their cabin and retrieve the passport. It is given to the contact listed on the front of that day's Princess Patter. That person will wait on the pier for the passenger to show up and collect the passport. The contact will also help the passenger(s) make arrangements to get to the next port.

This is one reason that if you leave your passport it should be in your safe. The cruise line will get your passport from there but will not search through your room if it isn’t in the safe.

I can imagine that they wait when they can: no adverse tides or another ship waiting for the berth. They are more willing to wait in ports where it is difficult for the passengers to be stranded. You are lucky that they waited for you.

On our Oceania cruise, the ship waited hours in Miami for a late plane from the UK with many cruise passengers on board. Our Princess ship waited in an Australian port hours for returning busses, some private excursions some ship's excursions, was difficult to see the difference.

You got lucky

maybe because you were a larger group

One cruise on princess they left 6 pax in a port stop in Mexico after waiting 30 mins past sailing time

they had to make their way to the next port

It is my understand (fortunately never tested system) that, if leaving a passenger behind, Princess will go to their cabin and retrieve the passport. It is given to the contact listed on the front of that day's Princess Patter. That person will wait on the pier for the passenger to show up and collect the passport. The contact will also help the passenger(s) make arrangements to get to the next port.

That's why it's always important to take the Contact information with you!

You are extremely lucky and let this be a warning for those considering 3rd party excursions to research their track record of getting pax back to ship on time. If they don’t have a solid reputation then don’t chance it

This is one reason that if you leave your passport it should be in your safe. The cruise line will get your passport from there but will not search through your room if it isn’t in the safe.

Yes, that's the norm.

But leaving a crew member behind if pax miss the sailing isn't the norm.- one reason why they have a port agent in each port (the contact details in ships' daily news-sheets mentioned by paul). As others have posted, leaving a crew member for the OP may be because of the size of the party and/or the ports involved - or may have been after-the-event bravado that wasn't going to be tested.;)

BTW I'm guessing that cmrog is aware that cruisingexcursions are a booking agency - they don't organise excursions, they sell them to cruisers worldwide on behalf of local operators.

So I'm not sure whether this is good publicity for them - sounds like they handled the problem well as an intermediary.

Or, more likely, bad publicity - they perhaps weren't too fussy about which tour operators they used.

But whilst there should be no need for an international intermediary, that surely makes redress waaaaay easier than dealing with a small tour operator on the other side of the world. :)

Glad it worked out for the OP - I think I'd have needed a change of underwear :D

JB :)

Also, while many lines say they will do that, are you willing to bet that they will?

Also, while many lines say they will do that, are you willing to bet that they will?

Given the very small chance that they might need to, sure, especially when I will very likely be able to call them and tell them that I need them to do this.

This is one reason that if you leave your passport it should be in your safe. The cruise line will get your passport from there but will not search through your room if it isn’t in the safe.

The last Princess cruise I was on here in Asia and for that matter every cruise in Asia for the last 10 years the cruise lines have collected and held all passports until after the final port call of the cruise. While this may not be the normal way to operation in other parts of the World it is how they do things here. But that aside if you had been left behind you have only a few options.

You could go to Bangkok and fly to Ho Chi Minh City many flights each day. Or you could go ground by Car, Van or Charter Bus, around 16 hours to Ho Chi Minh City. I believe the person they would have left behind is the port agent who is not on the ship. But you did have a large group so they could have left a member of the crew who knows that area to set up transportation and to bring you to the ship.

I have never gone overland in one trip from Bangkok to Vietnam. But have done the trip over several days stopping in Cambodia. It would not have been a fun trip if done over land.

OP

You were very lucky that Princess waited for all of you.

We have been on several cruises where passengers and crew members missed the ship. We waited only a few minutes -- just enough time for security to get their passports and pass them onto the port agent.

Thanks all

Yes we were indeed very lucky, it was very very unpleasnt and one of our number was quite poorly overnight with the stress of it all. We certainly would never travel so far from the ship again unless with the Ships tour. We only did it this time because the offered an itinerary that the ship didn’t. The problem was the tour guide going off piste and adding things to boost his income ( lunch, river cruises, potentially a police bribe....) that wasted our time. We were running right to the wire and if all had gone ok on the journey back we would have been ok...unfortunately it didn’t!

I hadn’t realised that Cruising Excursions were an agent for local companies but thinking about it I suppose the ships tours are booked in much the same way, no one has staff all over the world! interestingly the last time I looked they were no longer offering Laem Chabang/ Bangkok as an option so maybe it is just too much trouble there.

Princess were holding all our passports centrally because of the various immigration/ visa complication for Vietnam and I imagine that is why they were going to leave us an officer to help (standing there in his uniform with an overnight bag bless!), I certainly expected them to leave and was pleased beyond measure that they didn’t ( and that they were so pleasant about the trouble that we had caused!)

One other lesson learnt is to take a phone charger/ power pack ashore, it was amazing how quickly my battery started to run out.....

Glad it all worked out OK in the end. I lived in Thailand for several years near the port. It was a 2 hour trip to Bangkok or 90 minutes 3am in the morning or 3 to 4 hours with traffic. It was never a fun trip.

Given the very small chance that they might need to, sure, especially when I will very likely be able to call them and tell them that I need them to do this.

Your choice.

But not mine.

Your choice.

 

But not mine.

That's kind of the point, there is nothing wrong with either choice.

I'm reluctant to take an independent excursion when there's going to be a language barrier and distance from the ship. I also take into consideration where the next port is. For instance, on our British isles cruise last summer, I booked excursions with an independent because I knew they had good reputation and could get us from Cobh to Dublin if for some reason they did not get us back to the ship in time. I did the same in Invergordon.

On the other hand, we had tablemates on another cruise who told us their tale of missing the ship in St. Thomas. It turned out well for them. They got to spend a few days and nights in St. Thomas. When they went back to Norfolk to pick up their luggage, they ran into people they had met on the ship who told them how bad the seas had been on the trip home.

Good advice about taking the phone charger. I always do and depending on where I am...the current converter too

Sent from my iPad using Forums