Cruise line excursions: does the ship ALWAYS wait for you?

[Almighty188]

Interesting bowler15547, that's probably why for ship excursions, I rather do a sightseeing tour instead of the adventure types as for those, it's probably better to do those as a excursion when one flies to Punta Cana and lives at a All Inclusive Resort for example since there would be a lot less risk as you don't have to worry about a ship leaving without you and you can always take the next flight available should you miss your flight.  Wow, how many buses does it take for the 150 people?  Do excursions for sightseeing tours really sell out fast since if they did, then I thought there would be no reason for a shore excursions sales on the ship itself since they won't have anything to sell.

[bowler15547]

8 minutes ago, Almighty188 said:

Wow, how many buses does it take for the 150 people? 

 

They were large open sided 4 x 4 vehicles. They probably held 20-25 people each. If memory serves me correctly, they had two running continuously. The excursion people were extremely nice, and the ship treated us very well after the experience. We were back in the Dominican Republic the next year and opted for the beach instead. 🙂 

[ONECRUISER]

4 hours ago, Almighty188 said:

Do they just fly the people to the next port or do they also provide hotel and food as well since I thought a ship travels very slow so the people who fly to the next port will probably be waiting days.  Cruise Critic started on AOL?  That's interesting.   I was one of the forum hosts on PC-Link which was part of all the various online services for different computer platforms that later became AOL in 1991.

Yes, was a ship sponsored tour and in the story were flown to next Port. I was on the Serenade Dec 2017 when that ship sponsored bus accident happened, injuries/death. Always wonder what if myself...  Been a Cruiser since 80's always bought Porthole type magazines. Soon as we bought our computer Xmas 1997 and saw AOL/Cruise Critic was on there right away, and since...

Edited January 22, 2019 by ONECRUISER

[gatour]

On 9/4/2017 at 8:29 AM, BND said:

We've waited about 1/2 hour to depart for excursions to return, but we've never been on an excursion that was late getting back. Cozumel seems to have this happen a lot. There is at least one excursion across to the mainland gets back at departure time or just before. We've stood on our balcony and watched people stream off the ferry and onto the pier. It's not the main ferry terminal in town, but the one right at the pier itself. I'm not sure what excursion is it, but it always gets back just at or just after all aboard time. I've seen several reports of ships not waiting for excursions due to factors out of their control, so it can happen, but it's not common. Of course, there's always the people in Cozumel who stay til the last minute and they're the ones you see running. Those getting off the ferry seem to just walk because they've been told the ship is waiting for them.

That would be the Tulum excursion.  It is an excursion to see Mayan ruins.  If you ever see pictures of Mayan ruins right on the coast, that is it  It is an all day excursion as the ruins are hours and hours away by bus.

 

One thing to do is see where the next port of call is in relation to the port that you have a excursion that returns right at departure time.  Some ports are relatively close, so don't really take all night to go between.  If so the ship has more potential to stay for a while waiting for a late excursion.

[BND]

6 hours ago, gatour said:

That would be the Tulum excursion.  It is an excursion to see Mayan ruins.  If you ever see pictures of Mayan ruins right on the coast, that is it  It is an all day excursion as the ruins are hours and hours away by bus.

 

One thing to do is see where the next port of call is in relation to the port that you have a excursion that returns right at departure time.  Some ports are relatively close, so don't really take all night to go between.  If so the ship has more potential to stay for a while waiting for a late excursion.

I know which excursion it is.  I was just stating the fact that there's at least one that is always late.  After 25+ cruises we know how it works lol.

[Teacher42]

There is only one, 100% way the ship will always wait for your  return from an excursion of any sort. Take the captain with you.

[Almighty188]

5 hours ago, Teacher42 said:

There is only one, 100% way the ship will always wait for your  return from an excursion of any sort. Take the captain with you.

Either that or do something so the port won't allow the ship to leave since if I am correct, the port has authority of allowing a ship to dock and allowing it to leave.  

Edited January 23, 2019 by Almighty188

[SRF]

On 9/3/2017 at 5:56 PM, WeLuvVacation said:

100% they will not leave without you on a RCCL sponsored shore excursion lest they foot the bill for 30 - 40 cruisers to the next port or home port as the case may be. And you know they do not want to foot that bill.

 

Wrong.

 

As has been stated, they will TRY to wait for you.  But they may not be able to.

 

They WILL be on the hook to take care of you until they get you to join the ship.

 

The cost of getting 30 - 40 or even 100 people to the next port may be cheaper that excess port fees or other charges for staying.