Left folks behind in Cozumel, What happens to them now?

[Aussiegrlfl]

I had a friend a doctor actually who went ashore in Nassau with her cousin and thought the time she needed to be back was 5:30 not 4:30....when she arrived back the ship was a speck in the distance....and the agent was there, but nothing from the ship guys.......and she is indian by birth.....so they did have cc so stayed overnight in Nassau, but had to pay their own way back to MIA and deal with customs without passports.......so I don't know where you are getting the info they pull your stuff..........not this time.......we still tease her about that.......all that education and you still can't tell time..........and it was an expensive lesson......today she is leaving for a med cruise....and we all gave her hell about it......

[akcruz]

so question for all of you here. Many will not take your passports ashore for fear of getting them wet, loosing them, etc. However, you recommend bringing your cell phone in case you are running late to call and have the ship get your passport off for you. Don't the same worries apply to the cell phone? I would say it is harder to keep that dry and safe then a passport. Where's the logic in that?:confused:

[AmeriScot]

I was a staff member on RCCL from 91-94 and more than once we had to leave people behind. Many more times than that we had the pilot boats running people out to the ship.

 

More times than not it was someone who thought that their need to do one last bit of shopping or grab one more beer at Carlos & Charlies was more important than the needs of the other thousands of passengers and crew. I used to love it when people would have to be brought out by a pilot boat and the other passengers would boo them as the ship had to stop for the transfer of the idiot.

 

Ahhh, good times.

[jorapp]

Big Booper..."Always take a copy of the compass for each stop as it lists the local port agent of the line.

" I did not know that. That is a golden piece of info. Thanks!

[billie5]

Lose my cell phone and I lose perhaps $60. Unpleasant but it certainly does not interfere with my vacation -- I may lose more than that at the casino. However, losing my passport is a heck of a lot more pain. That seems logical to me. :cool:

 

Bill

[dirtgirl]

As someone who was the victim of theft in a port - thank god the passports were in the safe. We would have been screwed otherwise. We lost money, driver's licenses (and there is a nasty person out there with my name now; Customs people always look at me closely), and a credit card. But, we got home, we got new licenses, and we cancelled the credit card. Key is - we got home. We had our passports.

[baggal]

Post 9-11, if you lose or misplace your passport ANYWHERE, it becomes more difficult to replace it. Can't imagine what you have to go through to get one if you are in a foreign port. We always leave our passports in the cabin safe and keep an eye on the time to get back on board in time.

[AFS1970]

How about "water". Has this been discussed?

 

Don't be silly, where on earth are you going to find water in the middle of the ocean?

[Mack2]

Everything isn't suited to cruising. The trip to Tulum is a good example. It's just too far from the pier and requires too many forms of transportation.

 

I completely agree with you.

Last cruise, my wife felt the kids were finally old enough to really appreciate Tulum so she booked the excursion there.

 

Let me tell you how uncomfortable I was on the ferry back, looking at my watch and knowing that the ship was waiting for the two Tulum tours.

It's stressful.

 

Now I have the piece of mind that we did Tulum... don't have to do that again for a long, long time. It had been over 20 years since I saw those ruins previously... and like before... it's now off the bucket list for another few decades (that's assuming my kids grow up, get married one day, and drag me along on a family vacation with the grandchildren)

[mjm325]

Anyone catch the recent show about FOS on the Nat'l. Geog. Channel. Mom missed the ship in Jamaica (?) with her young daughter left on board by herself. The captain stopped the ship until the mother was brought out on a pilot boat. What the heck was the mother thinking....SAD!:eek:

 

are you serious!?!?!?! WOW. I would never leave my child alone on a ship.

[mo&fran]

are you serious!?!?!?! WOW. I would never leave my child alone on a ship.

I thought that story ended up that the child was involved in some shipboard activity supervised by ship staff. In fact Aquahound posted that and I understand he is privy to details like that.

[cruzincurt]

I was a staff member on RCCL from 91-94 and more than once we had to leave people behind. Many more times than that we had the pilot boats running people out to the ship.

 

So, as a previous crew member, can you put that urban legend to rest that at 5 minutes to pulling the gangplank, the crew is running around searching cabins for passports and medications?

[2Krunk]

Not defending those that don't keep an eye on time, but if your late through no fault of your own, then the ship should wait... I recently came off the Serenade and on the first day we took an excursion with a tour of the island (Barbados), on the way back to the port our bus was involved in an accident and we had to wait for another bus to come ferry us back to the port. We made it with plenty of time (morning excursion), but if this was an afternoon excursion, there would have been no way we would have made it by departure time. I would have been furious if the ship had departed. I would say most of the stories here are indeed due to careless people, but some may indeed have situations beyond their control.

[Cruzaholic41]

Not defending those that don't keep an eye on time, but if your late through no fault of your own, then the ship should wait... I recently came off the Serenade and on the first day we took an excursion with a tour of the island (Barbados), on the way back to the port our bus was involved in an accident and we had to wait for another bus to come ferry us back to the port. We made it with plenty of time (morning excursion), but if this was an afternoon excursion, there would have been no way we would have made it by departure time. I would have been furious if the ship had departed. I would say most of the stories here are indeed due to careless people, but some may indeed have situations beyond their control.

 

If your excursion was through the ship, they would have waited, partly because they would have known. It's those late from private tours that are out of luck.

[2Krunk]

If your excursion was through the ship, they would have waited, partly because they would have known. It's those late from private tours that are out of luck.

 

 

I would normally agree, but RCCL did not know of the incident, I say this because we were never contacted to see if we were okay, it seemed surprising that an excursion via RCCL was involved in an incident an no questions were asked by RCCL. I am not a litigious person, but I would think RCCL would want the details. I followed up at guest relations before we left the ship in San Juan and received a blank stare from the person working the counter. (The accident was due to the aggresive driving of our bus driver and the other bus that hit us.)

[AmeriScot]

So, as a previous crew member, can you put that urban legend to rest that at 5 minutes to pulling the gangplank, the crew is running around searching cabins for passports and medications?

 

HA! Yes, that is an amazing urban legend. In the cruise staff we were trying to get ready for the evening events and the rest of crew was doing the same for their jobs. If a tour that was booked through the cruise line was late (like Tulum was 1/2 the time), then we knew about it and waited. For all the others...we just found out when someone travelling with them freaked out or the port agent called the ship to tell us.

[temple1]

I would normally agree, but RCCL did not know of the incident, I say this because we were never contacted to see if we were okay, it seemed surprising that an excursion via RCCL was involved in an incident an no questions were asked by RCCL. I am not a litigious person, but I would think RCCL would want the details. I followed up at guest relations before we left the ship in San Juan and received a blank stare from the person working the counter. (The accident was due to the aggresive driving of our bus driver and the other bus that hit us.)

 

What were they supposed to do at the desk? You were back in plenty of time, it was at the end of the excursion and you did not mention injuries. It was probably reported to the PTB in Miami who are in charge of contracts with third party tour operators.

 

So forgive me (and I think we are not really as litigious a society as large corporations would have everyone believe) what questions should you have been asked?

[temple1]

Me, I'm chronically late, but I also have told everyone who might be affected by me being punctuality challenged to never wait for me. If I'm late - my loss.

 

So when I'm on tours or other activities with the cruise line I make it a point to be on time. I was so annoyed when we were all on the bus waiting and waiting on a ship sponsored tour in Belize. We finally told the bus driver to go on - we had waited long enough. I don't know or really care what happened to the folks who were so important that they set the schedule.

[2Krunk]

What were they supposed to do at the desk? You were back in plenty of time, it was at the end of the excursion and you did not mention injuries. It was probably reported to the PTB in Miami who are in charge of contracts with third party tour operators.

 

So forgive me (and I think we are not really as litigious a society as large corporations would have everyone believe) what questions should you have been asked?

 

 

Thats my point, "probably" and "what was reported"... Yes, I did not mention injuries, but that does not mean others on our bus were/weren't and that passengers on the other bus were/were not injured, I also did not mention the ensuing altercation between the drivers and "us" passengers requesting the doors of our bus locked, since the other bus passengers were spilling out of theirs. I did not list all the details of the incident here, the accident was a direct result of speed and aggressive driving, we requested the driver to slow down a few times. This is a place that I frequent for advice and to dream of that next glorious vacation :D, I guess I expected to give an accounting of what did/didn't happen. The incident would not prevent me from booking future cruises, but it does make me think twice about excursions and that person that returns late to the pier.... I am in agreement that the late person is "usually" careless about time, but a 30 minute delay doesn't bother me and that person running down the pier to catch the ship, gives us great fodder to talk about to our friends :rolleyes:

[elcydcruiser]

Mariner in San Juan...

Our balcony was on the dockside of the ship. As we got ready to sail away from San Juan, we could see the crew and the longies milling around. One RCL officer was pacing from one end of the pier to the other talking into his radio. He probably walked 3 miles up and down the dock. Finally the longies moved in to take away the gangway....the pods fired up....and Capt Johnny pulled away. Low & behold here come the 2 gals running down the dock. They meet up with the San Juan official and after lots of hand gestures and tears, we all waved bye-bye and sailed onto our next port.

 

Mariner in St Thomas...

Again, we were on the dockside. Again, we watched the crew and longies milling around....Again, we watched the RCL officer talking into his radio. We watched a couple come driving up in a taxi and ran....Good news this time, the couple made it in time.

 

At the Capt & crew Q&A, someone asked about the gals that missed the boat. Capt. Johnny said sometimes, one of the other ships might have a cabin available so they can hitch a ride. Chartering a plane to the next port is an option. And as you have read or watched the YouTubes, catch a pilot boat or water taxi.

[counsdr]

Thanks for the memories and laughs! I'm one of those watching the straglers return.

We did leave someone, I think it was in Cozumel. but i'm not sure. The Capt. had made a point of telling us that the words OSLO on the side of the ship meant "our ship leaves ontime". Well, he actually turned the ship around and went back to the pier to pick them up. The story was they were honeymooners who fell asleep on the beach!

 

For the person with the waterproof fanny pack, where did you find one?

[Rancher Dave]

To the question about a waterproof fanny pack...I've seen them in luggage type stores...but for less take a ziplock bag for the watertight needed items.

 

Passport goes where I go, not left in the safe, other than perhaps St. Thomas or San Juan where it is not needed anyhow.

 

Everyone is told to be back on 1/2 hour before sailing, so those who miss the ship other than when on a late RCCL tour are pushing their luck and leaving folks behind just helps let folks know the captain is going to keep on time for the masses not make everyone else late for the few...unless part of an RCCL tour.

 

Watch your time in port, have the port agent contact info with you and enjoy the ports of call while cruising. I doubt I will ever cut it close in Mexico since I barely even leave the ship there....the ABC islands...that is where I would be cutting it close...there and Alaska where we were in the long line that took 45 minutes to get on the ship right before sailing in Juneau.

[cruzincurt]

HA! Yes, that is an amazing urban legend. In the cruise staff we were trying to get ready for the evening events and the rest of crew was doing the same for their jobs. If a tour that was booked through the cruise line was late (like Tulum was 1/2 the time), then we knew about it and waited. For all the others...we just found out when someone travelling with them freaked out or the port agent called the ship to tell us.

Thank you for putting that to rest:)...Miss the ship, watch your passport and stuff sail away without you. The people were so smart to lock their passports in the safe but not smart enough to get back to the ship in time.