missing the ship

[Lizzie68]

Au contraire mon ami.

 

You're right that one cannot drive out of Juneau and stay in the USA. But you can drive from Juneau to Anchorage or anywhere else where there are roads, for that matter, but the drive requires a ferry ride and driving into Canada (British Columbia and Yukon Territory) and takes a very long time. Non stop and a good ferry connection will require 21 hours driving time.

 

Picky picky! As I said - boat or plane. A ferry is classed as a boat.;)

[bcnvcanada]

The op is using SPS tour in St Pertersbug and they if, you should be late will get you to the next port at their expense. Since you are in Russia you will have your passport with you. A side note the have never missed a ship's departure. You will love the Baltic, and like someone said do the places that are the farest away. Where people go wrong is usually shopping, near port, or in a bar.

[At_Sea]

I have done a number of private tours from Alaska, Mexico and Caribbean and never missed the ship. The operators were all aware of how important it is to get back to the ship.

 

The internet is a wealth of information on tours off the ship. Do your homework.

[corkpopr]

Last fall was our 31st cruise. We missed the ship by 15 min in Barcelona.we had returned to ship the 3 prior days at five, four, and seven and we thought it was six! Port police met us and had us wait for the ships agent who had our passports. She hailed us a cab so we could go to the train station. Guess what? A one day train strike! We walked to the bus station and they did not have the concession for Valencia! The bus station next door has the concession for Valencia but not from that bus station. We had to go to the north Barcelona station instead. Got there and thought we would eat since the bus didn't get in till eleven. No time said the clerk, " the bus leaves in 8 minutes". We got into Valencia and walked two blocks in shorts sleeves and checked into the Spanish equivalent of a days inn for 45 euros. The lovely clerk asked if we had eaten and sent us to a restaurant that would be the equivalent of a TGIF Fridays. We came back and she gave us toothbrushes and toothpaste and had the bar comp us a couple of drinks. Rest of the stores later!

[Hlitner]

We help and advise many here on CC who want to do things on their own. But after helping folks for more then thirty years, we have developed a ver simple response to your concern. For those who tell us they are concerned or worry about missing the ship we simply say, "book a cruise line excursion." It is not a flippant response, but rather based on experience. If you are the type of person who will fret over missing the ship, then going off on your own or with a small private tour may not be a good fit for your state of mind.

 

We almost always do our own thing anywhere in the world and do not get concerned about missing the ship. We simply have a Plan B and even a Plan C on what to do if the worst happens.

 

Hank

 

 

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[corkpopr]

I agree, we always do our own thing in ports either as tour or exploring on foot. My fault for not paying attention. We don't like sitting on a bus with 30-50 people and being on a schedule.

 

So, the next morning it turned out that the hotel was right next door to El Cote Ingles (the Macys of Spain) and when they opened I went in at got 16 Cuban cigars and my wife got a new outfit. We grabbed a cab and had a tour of the city and then made our way back to the port. We were a hundred feet from the gangway at 1pm when security started laughing. I said you know who we are? they said yes our photos were all over when they were looking for us. that night we went to a small cocktail party with the officers and when we met the Captain he asked how our cruise was so far. I simply said, "we were the ones" and he said "that missed the ship last nite?" I nodded and then he said good thing it was Barcelona and not Valencia. We would have had to go back to Barcelona to catch an expensive flight to Sardinia which was our next stop.

 

All in, (not counting the department store) we spent about 140 euros for the adventure. I probably would have spent that on board in the casino so we didn't lose anything really and we have a great story. That being said, it will never happen again!

[DaveOKC]

We help and advise many here on CC who want to do things on their own. But after helping folks for more then thirty years, we have developed a ver simple response to your concern. For those who tell us they are concerned or worry about missing the ship we simply say, "book a cruise line excursion." It is not a flippant response, but rather based on experience. If you are the type of person who will fret over missing the ship, then going off on your own or with a small private tour may not be a good fit for your state of mind.

 

We almost always do our own thing anywhere in the world and do not get concerned about missing the ship. We simply have a Plan B and even a Plan C on what to do if the worst happens.

 

Hank

 

Good advice - each person has their own worries and concerns and they should do what works best for them given that.

 

DaveOKC

[Hlitner]

I agree, we always do our own thing in ports either as tour or exploring on foot. My fault for not paying attention. We don't like sitting on a bus with 30-50 people and being on a schedule.

 

So, the next morning it turned out that the hotel was right next door to El Cote Ingles (the Macys of Spain) and when they opened I went in at got 16 Cuban cigars and my wife got a new outfit. We grabbed a cab and had a tour of the city and then made our way back to the port. We were a hundred feet from the gangway at 1pm when security started laughing. I said you know who we are? they said yes our photos were all over when they were looking for us. that night we went to a small cocktail party with the officers and when we met the Captain he asked how our cruise was so far. I simply said, "we were the ones" and he said "that missed the ship last nite?" I nodded and then he said good thing it was Barcelona and not Valencia. We would have had to go back to Barcelona to catch an expensive flight to Sardinia which was our next stop.

 

All in, (not counting the department store) we spent about 140 euros for the adventure. I probably would have spent that on board in the casino so we didn't lose anything really and we have a great story. That being said, it will never happen again!

 

Great story with the proper ending. When you consider the cost of a cruise line excursion, you probably saved money even though you did miss the ship. We generally factor the cost of "Plan B" into our planning. If we know that we can easily catch-up to the ship the following day, we might cut things a bit close. But if it is a potentially bad situation (like getting stuck on Sardinia, Azores, etc. then we are a lot more cautious. In those situations we work our way back towards the port so that we are in the area with lots of time to spare. We usually take the name and phone number of the ship's local agent so we can give them a call if we are going to miss the ship.

 

Hank

[corkpopr]

Hey hank, I remember when you were under ten thousand posts. Your sage advice for all is always appreciated. We haven't been on holland since spring of 09. Doing a TA Rome to Ft Lauderdale in Nov. We will be back in time at all stops on this one!

[donaldsc]

I agree, we always do our own thing in ports either as tour or exploring on foot. My fault for not paying attention. We don't like sitting on a bus with 30-50 people and being on a schedule.

 

So, the next morning it turned out that the hotel was right next door to El Cote Ingles (the Macys of Spain) and when they opened I went in at got 16 Cuban cigars and my wife got a new outfit. We grabbed a cab and had a tour of the city and then made our way back to the port. We were a hundred feet from the gangway at 1pm when security started laughing. I said you know who we are? they said yes our photos were all over when they were looking for us. that night we went to a small cocktail party with the officers and when we met the Captain he asked how our cruise was so far. I simply said, "we were the ones" and he said "that missed the ship last nite?" I nodded and then he said good thing it was Barcelona and not Valencia. We would have had to go back to Barcelona to catch an expensive flight to Sardinia which was our next stop.

 

All in, (not counting the department store) we spent about 140 euros for the adventure. I probably would have spent that on board in the casino so we didn't lose anything really and we have a great story. That being said, it will never happen again!

 

You guys have the right attitude. There are some places where missing the boat is not a problem and can lead to interesting adventures. In other places, you are in deep trouble.

 

We have friends who took a cruise to Europe which stopped in several Caribbean Islands on the way to Europe. On the last island before the TA, a couple went to the beach - no clothes but their swim clothes, no passports, minimal money, no credit cards, no medicines, no nothing. They missed the boat. Somehow they did manage to make arrangements to stay on the island and somehow they managed to get to Europe to meet the ship.

 

Now that is a boat miss end end all boat misses.

 

DON

[Harry1954]

In all honesty, the only tours that I have seen arrive late are the ship's tours. Not sure if it's because they know they can or are held up at stops by people who are not back on time.

We have taken many HAL tours as well as private tours. We do find that the main reason for a HAL tour being late at any time is due to some self-centered person not following the simple requests of the tour guide as to what time to be back to the bus or meeting place. Time and time again this happens; however, HAL doesn't want to offend any of their customers, so they seem to always ignore this. Too bad there are not any consequences for such idiotic actions.

 

harry

Edited June 8, 2014 by Harry1954