A moral dilemma

[Orch at Sea]

Just off 2 wonderful weeks cruising the western Mediterranean on the indy.

 

We were on the last part of an official excursion visiting nice, when 3 senior citizens approached our guide. They were also from the Indy, however they had been dropped off by a private tour, who never returned to collect them. They couldn’t remember the company name, & had no contact details.

Our guide made a call ( I don’t know if she spoke with her company, or the ship), eventually we left them stranded.

 

Of course I understand..Should have taken an official excursion etc,etc. But as we had plenty of room on the coach, I believe there would be huge kudos to RCI, & would probably have made them lifelong cruisers of the company.

[Clarea]

Could have been legal or liability issues.

[Lionesss]

WOW

 

That would be my worst nightmare.

 

For us, out of the country, we only use Ship excursions.

 

Yea, we pay more, but for the peace of mind, I will pay.

 

Thanks for the post.

 

Safe travels.

[cosytoes]

If they couldn't remember the company name or contact then they may also have been waiting in the wrong place to be picked up or misunderstood the timings.

 

On private tours they either give you a card with their number or last year in Florence the driver took my mobile and sent me a text to make sure I had the number

 

Did they miss the ship?

 

It's a difficult call eg if the bus had an accident then who are the people, insurance etc.

 

Best option would have been for her to call them a taxi time permitting.

[BeachChik]

I wouldn't expect any tour company to just pick up extra people. If they were not near the ship they simply could have called a taxi to take them back.

[LMaxwell]

Not sure I'd feel comfortable with a tour company picking up extras; to me it could be a potential safety issue. There is no verification they came FROM the ship, other than their word, really. This is more of an ethical dilemma than a moral one. Moral guides your own sense of right and wrong, ethical deals with the business rules in place.

 

Let me put it to you this way; would you have been comfortable had the tour bus stopped to pick up hitchhikers along the way who were trying to get closer to the port, and at no extra charge while you paid for a specific benefit?

[Pmorton3360]

One time we were stranded in St. Maarten by our own foolishness. A Disney driver offered to help us. We were not on Disney. Ended up sharing a ride with 2 kind ladies. But I know I really appreciated the offer.

[xxoocruiser]

It's also a possibility the tour guide asked the 3 individuals for theirs names. Than either contacted the tour company to contact the Indy or contacted the Indy directly only to find out the names of the individuals were not on ship's manifest for that sailing.

[Grandma Dazzles]

Given the high security alerts, especially currently and in Europe, I would assume tour buses are forbidden from picking up extra passengers. Sad, but even innocent-looking seniors could be terrorists; a very sad fact in our world today. Sounds like the guide attempted to help by making a phone call - perhaps called a taxi for them.

[ONECRUISER]

Could have been legal or liability issues.

 

Agree. They called for them. Not as though they were stranded in middle of no where or some emergency situation.

[CGinMTL]

Guides all know each other. If the Guide made a call, we can only assume she did not leave them stranded".

 

We don't know what was said.

Personally, I always have the name of the company I booked along with the guide name.

Worst case, most private tours get paid at the end of the tour, If they "leave me behind" I will take a cab back.

.

Guess is they did not follow instructions and that is why they got left behind by original tour........ If you are not back on time, tours don't wait for you, even ship tours.

[pete1681]

I hope all worked out,those people need to leave a negative review on trip advisor for that company to warn others.Very surprising that someone would be left stranded like that,bad reviews can be deadly,who doesn't check out others feedback before booking?

[spookwife]

Just off 2 wonderful weeks cruising the western Mediterranean on the indy.

 

We were on the last part of an official excursion visiting nice, when 3 senior citizens approached our guide. They were also from the Indy, however they had been dropped off by a private tour, who never returned to collect them. They couldn’t remember the company name, & had no contact details.

Our guide made a call ( I don’t know if she spoke with her company, or the ship), eventually we left them stranded.

 

Of course I understand..Should have taken an official excursion etc,etc. But as we had plenty of room on the coach, I believe there would be huge kudos to RCI, & would probably have made them lifelong cruisers of the company.

 

 

actually, I think the excursion folks did plenty it was their( the other guests) fault that they had no contact information or remembered the name of the company/driver. I mean that is just plain stupid. now, if the excursion driver/host contacted a cab company or similar then that would have been going above and beyond. but I bet there are strict policies in place about transporting people NOT on their manifest.

 

the excursion people are NOT employees of Royal. they are private citizens who just happen to have a business arrangement with Royal.

Edited July 4, 2016 by spookwife
stoopid autocorrect

[spookwife]

I hope all worked out,those people need to leave a negative review on trip advisor for that company to warn others.Very surprising that someone would be left stranded like that,bad reviews can be deadly,who doesn't check out others feedback before booking?

 

why the quickness to judge the company? ten bucks says that the fault lies with the GUEST.. didn't return to the right spot to be picked up, didn't return on time to be picked up, etc.

 

even on ship sponsored excursions they will only wait so long to for stragglers and there are ALWAYS people who think they can just blithely hold everybody else up due to their inability to effectively manage their time.

 

5 minutes is one thing.. half an hour is entirely different. and that happened to us once and this one couple was late back to EVERY stop so much that we had to skip the final scheduled stop in order to get back tot he ship on time. and they just laughed and shrugged it off when the rest of us voiced our displeasure.

[ATC cruiser]

Given the high security alerts, especially currently and in Europe, I would assume tour buses are forbidden from picking up extra passengers. Sad, but even innocent-looking seniors could be terrorists; a very sad fact in our world today. Sounds like the guide attempted to help by making a phone call - perhaps called a taxi for them.

 

 

If the 3 seniors were terrorists don't you think they would just pull out their AK-47's and hijack the bus. What's sad is people feel this way.

[spookwife]

If the 3 seniors were terrorists don't you think they would just pull out their AK-47's and hijack the bus. What's sad is people feel this way.

 

umm yeah. Not so much.

 

in point of fact suicide bombing, easily hidden by clothing or stashed in a bag, is far more likely with certain demographics( to include older people and women)

 

its a product of the last 15 years of world events. just like back in the 50s when entire generations grew up terrified of the Impending Commie Nuke Threat, today we have entire generations growing up terrified of Impending Extremist Terrorism.

[mkam2821]

Our experience in the Med was that we paid our dirvers/guides at the end of the excursion so it would appear to me that they did not even pay for their excursion. How can you hire a company and not remember who you hired? Our guide(s) either stayed with us (when permissible) or picked us up at a pre-determined spot. Definitely not the responsibility of anyone else to get them back to the ship and probably insurance liability issues if they transported someone that they did not have a contractual agreement to transport. They could always hire a taxi

[EmmasNana]

When we did a ship's excursion to Cinque Terre a couple years ago, part of the excursion was on a train. We were not able to stay together as a group on the train so were dispersed throughout.

 

Our tour guide gave directions on which stop we would get off the train and form our group again. I thought she said not the next stop...but the next stop.

She also said if we missed the stop we would have to get our own selves back to the ship and pay a very expensive taxi ride back.

 

When the train stopped DH and I were staying on as we thought it would be the next stop. Luckily we noticed a couple from our group and they got up to leave. I said, I thought it was the next stop and they thought so too...But they saw our guide standing outside with some others.

 

We were very lucky but at least one other couple did not make it off. Tour guide radioed in to someone and we were on our way to the next destination.

 

I don't know if they made it back to the ship or not. That could have been us !

[A&L_Ont]

Our experience in the Med was that we paid our dirvers/guides at the end of the excursion so it would appear to me that they did not even pay for their excursion. How can you hire a company and not remember who you hired? Our guide(s) either stayed with us (when permissible) or picked us up at a pre-determined spot. Definitely not the responsibility of anyone else to get them back to the ship and probably insurance liability issues if they transported someone that they did not have a contractual agreement to transport. They could always hire a taxi

 

Exact same with all our tours in the Med, except for one in Spain. We had print outs and emails with us each day for our tours with important things like tour company names and phone number. They also had our email and cell numbers. We were also never left alone to aimlessly wander off.

 

I kind of wonder if they did their own thing and were just looking for a "free" ride back to the port. Even worse, did they "tour and dash" on their guide without paying. What are the chances that all three would have forgotten the name of their guide company? Is it possible? Yes, but would all three have forgotten? We researched our med tour months in advance and a year later I could tell you who we toured with.

 

It just seems like a rather strange situation that these 3 got themselves into.

[ATC cruiser]

umm yeah. Not so much.

 

 

 

in point of fact suicide bombing, easily hidden by clothing or stashed in a bag, is far more likely with certain demographics( to include older people and women)

 

 

 

its a product of the last 15 years of world events. just like back in the 50s when entire generations grew up terrified of the Impending Commie Nuke Threat, today we have entire generations growing up terrified of Impending Extremist Terrorism.

 

 

Can you imagine what it would of been like in the fifties if Joseph McCarthy would of had social media and 24 hour news, we would of never survived.

[Missus Makkem]

If the 3 stranded passengers could not show a seapass then they had had it but if they had one and all info correct then they were most likely stranded passengers and not terrorists.

[Langley Cruisers]

They couldn’t remember the company name, & had no contact details... Our guide made a call ( I don’t know if she spoke with her company, or the ship), eventually we left them stranded.

 

Well, you don't know for sure they were left stranded. Your guide could have called a cab for them but you all had to get going, appearing to leave them behind.

 

Did you see them again on board ship? I know that seems odd to ask because there are thousands of passengers, but sometimes you run into the same people over and over again.

 

If it's really bothering you, you might try posting on the Roll Call for your sailing, and asking there. That is the only place on these boards we are permitted to ask about and arrange private tours - maybe someone will know about it. I don't know your exact date so you can look for the Roll Call here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=457

 

.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Exact same with all our tours in the Med, except for one in Spain. We had print outs and emails with us each day for our tours with important things like tour company names and phone number. They also had our email and cell numbers. We were also never left alone to aimlessly wander off.

 

I kind of wonder if they did their own thing and were just looking for a "free" ride back to the port. Even worse, did they "tour and dash" on their guide without paying. What are the chances that all three would have forgotten the name of their guide company? Is it possible? Yes, but would all three have forgotten? We researched our med tour months in advance and a year later I could tell you who we toured with.

 

It just seems like a rather strange situation that these 3 got themselves into.

 

Agree with all you've said. I've organized and participated in many private tours and always make sure tour participants have contact info for the guide/tour company with them. It's possible they picked up a tour at the port and were not on a pre-arranged tour. Even so....they should have asked for some kind of contact info when they were dropped off on their own.

 

In addition I always have the Port Agent's info from the Cruise Compass whether we're on a private tour or just walking around in a port.

[BLAMBKY]

My DH has been cruising since he was a child. Since married, I have planned our vacations (except one, don't ask) This last cruise he asked, what exactly are you ripping out of the cruise compass? Lol, really? I am tearing out the port agent info. just in case of an emergency on the island. I find it amazing how this information is not know and covered in your cruise documents.

 

 

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[dannyboy312]

Could have been legal or liability issues.

 

Agreed. We always book excursions through the ship. That way, we know we are always covered.