Anyone miss the boat?

[TravelingAPor]

I am using all private tours on my 12 day cruise and hope never to miss the boat! :(

Have you ever missed your boat? What do you have to do to catch up?:eek:

Thanks for your input.

[Hlitner]

We have been doing independent travel off of ships (on 6 continents) for about forty years and never missed the ship (came very close a couple of times). We always have a "Plan B" and sometimes even a "Plan C" in case things go wrong. If we know that its easy to catch-up to the ship the following day we might cut things a bit close. Otherwise, we go to our furthest points early in the day and work our way back towards the port in order to minimize the risk. But if you are taking a private tour...the professional tour operators are usually very cautious about getting folks back.

 

Hank

P.S. For those who cannot easily deal with the risks without getting carried away with worry we simply suggest they always take the overpriced cattle drives called cruise line excursions :)

[cruisemom42]

Not sure you'll find anyone to post about missing the ship. I've been reading these boards nearly daily for about 8 years and I can only recall a very few instances of someone posting about having missed their ship in Europe.

 

Sure, it happens. But I suspect most of the people who come to these boards and carefully plan their trip are not the ones who are going to experience this kind of mishap.

 

In recent days, the closest thing I've read is someone who got left by their private tour in Rome due to a miscommunication over their meeting point. They still managed to get back to Civitavecchia in time to re-board their ship.

Edited June 18, 2013 by cruisemom42

[CathyCruises]

And the private tour operators make their living from this--they know their livelihood depends on getting the passengers back to their ship in time. Whenever I have taken private tours, the driver always has one eye on his watch.

 

I agree with CruiseMom--I have almost never read of someone missing the boat. There was one instance years ago where the group was running late, kept adding in extra stops and lingering extra long, and encountered a bad traffic accident on the road back to the port in Civitavecchia (or Naples??)and did not have the port agent info with them. I think they caught up with their ship in Athens. . .

[Keith1010]

I have not missed the boat but have been on sailings when people did.

 

To me you have to plan a little for the unexpected and that includes allowing cushion time for things that could go wrong.

 

Keith

[aquilegia]

As to what you'd have to do to catch up, you'd obviously have to arrange transport to the next port at your own expense. It would be very unusual for this to happen to anyone on a private tour. The people who miss the boat are usually those who've gone off sightseeing on their own and haven't researched times and transport options sufficiently, or who are on the beach or drinking in a bar and don't notice time passing till it's too late. Private tour operators would soon go out of business if they didn't get passengers back on time.

[TravelingAPor]

Thank you everyone for the replies! :)

Yes, I did read about the recent fiasco, with some people rushing back from Rome, in the nick of time!

I'm glad everyone has faith in the tour company looking out for the passengers. I am using 3 good reputable companies. I should have just gone with one, however, I did my research separately and ended up with 3 tour places.

[Aurora2143]

Thank you everyone for the replies! :)

Yes, I did read about the recent fiasco, with some people rushing back from Rome, in the nick of time!

I'm glad everyone has faith in the tour company looking out for the passengers. I am using 3 good reputable companies. I should have just gone with one, however, I did my research separately and ended up with 3 tour places.

 

I read about that too, but also someone told a story about a couple that didn't do a private tour but decided to do their own thing. They forgot to change the time on their watch and missed their ship.

 

I have total and complete faith in our upcoming west med trip that our drivers will get us back to the ship.

 

Have fun on your cruise!!

[paul929207]

We have also done private tours on 6 continents and never had a problem making it to the ship on time.

[lexmiller]

Have some fun at the expense of others, by googling 'pier runners' and a whole host of youtube video options will come up - watch as many as you can in your spare time - videos of passengers who push their shore time to the last second, filmed running down the pier, shots of passengers who's ship has just left talking to the shore agent, etc - watch these videos and you will always be careful to never miss your ship! Yes, "Pier Runners" - there is a bonafide term for those that are late!

[cruisemom42]

Most of these are in the Caribbean or Mexico and I suspect alcohol is involved in a large number of them. Just sayin' :cool: I don't think it is as true of the Med/European ports.

[flames9]

Only cruised 3 times--have yet to do a ship sponsored excursion--see no reason to pay more, be stuck with more people, yet see less,lol

 

I know On Celebrity in their daily TV messages, they hyped thier own tours and then always included the comment--the ship will wait for you if you book with us!

 

Private tour operators know their business depends on good reviews and coming back late is not a good thing! Yes the unexpected can happen, and if it were, I'm sure the good tour companies would do thier best to get you to the next port to meet the ship!

[sweetpea222]

For our upcoming Med cruise, we're doing a mix of DIY and ship tours. We are doing Rome on our own feeling pretty confident after doing so much research here and other places online. But the next day in Livorno, we have booked the ship's transport-only to Florence. Just didn't want to deal with a long DIY train ride two days in a row, so we thought we would appreciate an easy transfer and no stress about missing the ship.

[paul929207]

Have some fun at the expense of others, by googling 'pier runners' and a whole host of youtube video options will come up - watch as many as you can in your spare time - videos of passengers who push their shore time to the last second, filmed running down the pier, shots of passengers who's ship has just left talking to the shore agent, etc - watch these videos and you will always be careful to never miss your ship! Yes, "Pier Runners" - there is a bonafide term for those that are late!

Remember there is no indication on these videos of who was on their own and who was off a ship tour and stopped to shop heading to the boat.

[TravelingDiva1]

Never done a ship excursion. Have always used private local operators with no problems. Worst case scenario, the good thing about an European cruise is the ease of catching a train to the next port if the ship is missed. ;). I'm sure everything will be fine! Enjoy your cruise!

Edited June 18, 2013 by TravelingDiva1

[Hlitner]

One time we almost missed the ship in Livorno because of sheer stupidity. DW and I were taking the train back from Florence and we both fell asleep and missed our stop in Livorno. When I finally woke-up and realized we had screwed-up we hopped off at the next station down the line. We then waited for a train going back towards Livorno and finally one showed-up.. We hopped on the train and as luck would have it...the conductor actually checked our tickets (which were not valid since we were going the wrong direction). It took a few minutes, but we finally managed to explain our plight to the conductor (with the help of another passenger who helped translate) who finally threw up his hands, muttered a few words in Italian (probably like "stupid Americans") and let us go. We did make it back with about 15 min to spare :)

 

Hank

[TravelingAPor]

After reading all these posts, I feel so positive. I'm sure the driver and guide will be keeping an eye on the time for me.

Thanks! :)

[Aurora2143]

Just have a great time!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[lexmiller]

Have some fun at the expense of others, by googling 'pier runners' and a whole host of youtube video options will come up - watch as many as you can in your spare time - videos of passengers who push their shore time to the last second, filmed running down the pier, shots of passengers who's ship has just left talking to the shore agent, etc - watch these videos and you will always be careful to never miss your ship! Yes, "Pier Runners" - there is a bonafide term for those that are late!

 

 

Remember there is no indication on these videos of who was on their own and who was off a ship tour and stopped to shop heading to the boat.

 

Yes, but they sure are fun to watch! I didn't know about these videos until one of the ship's officers told me about them! I think it's fascinating, so maybe I have a macabre sense of humor!, to listen to the announcements on board about 30 min before the ship is supposed to leave, to hear the names of those that have still not beeped back on board with their Seapasses! I love to watch the dock workers and ship's personnel milling about for the last late comers - the greeting tent with the cold cloths and glasses of water and juices with the ship's staff welcoming us all back "home" have long gone back on board, all but one of the gangways have been pulled up - replaced by only a handful of worried looking personnel on their walkie-talkies - and then the decision to leave the people behind. This happens frequently, but agreed, that the people that miss the ship, generally speaking, are not the ones that will be found on these forums.

Edited June 19, 2013 by lexmiller
add reference to youtube pier runners videos

[flames9]

lol, funny videos! Out cruise started May 22nd in Venice--BUT we actually did not depart until 1700 May 23rd...A few were fortunate that the ship left 30 min late as I saw a few casually walk onboard around 1700

[D4]

Never done a ship excursion. Have always used private local operators with no problems. Worst case scenario, the good thing about an European cruise is the ease of catching a train to the next port if the ship is missed. ;). I'm sure everything will be fine! Enjoy your cruise!

 

It's smart to consider where the next port is when planning your day. You can't always take a train to the next port in Europe.

 

Last fall I thought of booking an all day private Almalfi Coast tour from Naples until I realized the next two days were a sea day and then a small Greek island. We did Pompeii instead.

[paul929207]

I have not seen it this year, but last year, John Heald (Carnival Senior CD) used to post the countdown on Facebook every port day. Starting 30 minutes or so before sailing he would post how many passengers were not on board. This ended with the number left behind. Seemed that there were a couple or more many days. He was on a Carnival ship in the Med.

[TravelingAPor]

We left Venice 20 minutes late and they were announcing names over the PA system. Some people casually walked back on board, after the time set to return. I guess the ship is willing to wait for 20-30 minutes for late passengers.

At the other ports, the ship pilled out early because everyone was back on board.

[chipmaster]

Pick a reputable private tour and you'll be good. You'll be off the boat hopefully before the big bus, wisked from site to site much faster and with smaller faster moving crowds then all the big bus snail tours. If you have common sense and don't force your driver/guides too stretch, you should be on the ship sipping a drink watching the bus tours come back while having seen more too!

 

I am using all private tours on my 12 day cruise and hope never to miss the boat! :(

Have you ever missed your boat? What do you have to do to catch up?:eek:

Thanks for your input.

[TravelingAPor]

I agree with Chipmaster. I used different tour companies and they all got me back to the ship, right on time. They don't want to risk being late because their reputation is on the line.

BTW I had a fantastic cruise, with wonderful excursions at each port. :)

Edited July 21, 2013 by TravelingAPor