Has anyone ever missed their ship at a port?

[ninamb1973]

We are cruising to Harvest Caye in a couple of weeks and considering an excursion not offered by NCL. It requires a ferry ride to Placencia for all day snorkeling. I can't seem to get any solid answers from other cruisers about how the ferry schedule works and if anyone had any problems getting back to their ship on time. So I'm now wondering worst case scenario we miss our ship. What would happen at that point?

[LHT28]

I  am sure if it is  a cruise line  excursion they will have a time & place  where you must be  to get the ferry back

 

You could ask on the NCL forum for experiences from previous cruisers  on that trip

[ninamb1973]

As stated in my original inquiry this excursion is NOT offered by NCL. It will be a third party excursion.

[LHT28]

sorry missed  the NOT  offered

I would  still ask on the NCL  forum

 

[Heidi13]

If you miss the departure time and you are not on a ship's excursion, the ship will depart. Don't know about NCL, but the company I worked for, the Pursers/Security would search quickly for passports, and if found they were left with the agent.

 

It is your responsibility to get yourself to the next port of call. This is also at your expense. The ship's agent contact details are normally listed in the daily newspaper. The agent will normally wait at the dock, for a reasonable time, for any missing pax. The ship's agent can assist making flight reservations, etc.

 

When I worked on the ships, we experienced missing pax, but certainly not at every port. Few years ago, while visiting our son in Victoria, we met 2 couples also waiting to board. They missed the ship, had to fly down to Victoria and were re-boarding to pack bags for disembarkation the next day.

[sparks1093]

I just read an article about a couple on an NCL cruise to Cuba. They missed the change in the sail away time so they were left behind. They weren't on an NCL excursion. 

[cb at sea]

Your private guide would quickly go out of business if they let their customers miss the ship!  As long as you know what time "all aboard" is, and leave yourself ample time to get back, you should have no issues.  Always,  ALWAYS carry a watch set to "SHIP'S TIME"....do NOT rely on your cell phone, as it will show local time, which may not be the same as "SHIP'S time"!

 

A great majority of cruisers do their own thing, and have no issues!

[davekathy]

...Nope. 

[John Bull]

The risks of missing a sailing are grossly over-hyped and we rarely take ships' excursions - but we do consider them when the destination is distant or time is limited or there's no Plan B to get back to the ship.

And this sounds like a destination where no Plan B is possible - assuming there's no alternative transport, if there's a distinct possibility that the return ferry may not run due to weather or mechanical gremlins or whatever, or there may not be sufficient space on the ferry for everyone, then we'd probably draw the line. 

 

If a large number of passengers are late back due to ferry difficulties , and especially if a large proportion are on ship-sponsored excursions (I'm thinking of Cozumel), then I'm sure the captain would do his very best to delay the sailing.

But no guarantees.

That's why we took the ship's over-priced excursion rather than the local ferry from Tortola to the island of Virgin Gorda.

 

 

Bu if you did miss the sailing you're (almost) on your own.

The crew will know that you're not back and - in theory at least - will search your cabin safe for passports and leave them with their shore agent (shore agent's details on the daily ship's newspaper). The shore agent will help to make arrangements for you to catch up with the ship at a subsequent port.

But that will be entirely at your own expense.

And if you have no passport you'll have extra hoops to climb through.

 

I don't know your destination so I can't comment on that particular level of risk.

You need to weigh up whether it's a quantifiable risk.

And what the consequences are. For instance whether the next port is Belize City - or the Canary Islands  

 

JB  

  

[Zach1213]

I have done two cruises - the first one I only did ship excursions, and the second one I did no ship excursions. But what I did was a TON of research to make sure the third party excursions I was doing were legitimate, and had been in business for a while. If not, I wouldn't touch them. When I did stuff on my own (without any excursion), I gave myself plenty of extra time - for example, stopping in St Thomas but taking the ferry to St John, I made sure there was at least one ferry after the one I planned to take just in case. It's just a matter of doing research and being smart. Stuff can still go wrong, but the odds are significantly less.

[ninamb1973]

Sure, that's what I've been working on the last few days. But it's still difficult because the ferry I want to take from Harvest Caye to Placencia, Belize is run by NCL and they do not provide any info until we board. Making it difficult to really plan anything with a third party. Although the two tour companies I'm trying to work with have very good reviews, but none of the reviewers say whether or not they were cruise passengers. So darn stressful.

[LHT28]

I  had  read  someplace that the ferry was for employees of the Caye only & probably ship's excursions

Have you checked on the Port of call forum or trip advisor to see if PAX  not on excursions can use the ferry?

[ninamb1973]

I read on other forums that passengers use the ferry just to go to Placencia and walk around town for the day, so they are obviously not booked on an excursion. My issue is that I do not have access to the ferry schedule so planning my excursion ahead of time to insure we have enough time back for the last ferry is very nerve racking. I am going to see if I can arrange a private snorkel tour so that we have more control over our schedule and not interfere with anyone else who might not have a time limit.

[navybankerteacher]

16 minutes ago, ninamb1973 said:

Sure, that's what I've been working on the last few days. But it's still difficult because the ferry I want to take from Harvest Caye to Placencia, Belize is run by NCL and they do not provide any info until we board. Making it difficult to really plan anything with a third party. Although the two tour companies I'm trying to work with have very good reviews, but none of the reviewers say whether or not they were cruise passengers. So darn stressful.

 

Because the ferry is run by NCL and Harvest Caye is NCL’s private island, the situation arising from missing that ferry would be comparable to missing a ship’s tender from any port back to the ship.  If you got yourself to the ferry landing by the correct time, it would seem that NCL would make extraordinary efforts to get you back on board - possibly using ships tenders if the ferry were inoperable.

 

If you just missed the last ferry because you were late, you would be in the same position anyone would be in if they missed the last tender, or failed to reboard when at any port.   

 

Since you asked about “worst case”, you might think about the salt water crocodiles in the lagoon.

[ninamb1973]

Ok. That's helpful to know. One of my concerns was that the ferry pass NCL provides is only for 3 hours, our tour is 5 hours. Some have mentioned on other forums that it's a suggested time and if we don't make it back in 3 hours we will still be allowed on the ferry if there is extra room. Hopefully NCL has it together and keeps the ferrys running until everyone makes it back to Harvest Caye.

 

I'm surprised there's no good conversations about this in forums. Lots of people asking the same kinds of questions I am, but with very few responses.

[Grandma Dazzles]

38 minutes ago, ninamb1973 said:

Ok. That's helpful to know. One of my concerns was that the ferry pass NCL provides is only for 3 hours, our tour is 5 hours. Some have mentioned on other forums that it's a suggested time and if we don't make it back in 3 hours we will still be allowed on the ferry if there is extra room. Hopefully NCL has it together and keeps the ferrys running until everyone makes it back to Harvest Caye.

 

I'm surprised there's no good conversations about this in forums. Lots of people asking the same kinds of questions I am, but with very few responses.

 

Sorry that you feel you are not getting responses. However, as suggested, you may get a better response by posting on the NCL board. Your question is specific to NCL. 

[ninamb1973]

Ok. I will try that. Thank you.

[paul929207]

We have taken about 150 private tours all over the world and have never missed the ship.

[jagsfan]

4 hours ago, paul929207 said:

We have taken about 150 private tours all over the world and have never missed the ship.

Any time I make a comment like that, I duck, because I know what’s going to happen. 

[John Bull]

11 hours ago, paul929207 said:

We have taken about 150 private tours all over the world and have never missed the ship.

 

6 hours ago, jagsfan said:

Any time I make a comment like that, I duck, because I know what’s going to happen. 

 

 

Doubtless it's happened a time or two somewhere somewhen, but I do keep my eyes and ears open for reports from folk on independent organised tours who have missed the ship, and I have yet to learn of even one

 

JB 

Any time I make a comment like that, I duck, because I know what’s going to happen. 

[sparks1093]

44 minutes ago, John Bull said:

 

 

 

Doubtless it's happened a time or two somewhere somewhen, but I do keep my eyes and ears open for reports from folk on independent organised tours who have missed the ship, and I have yet to learn of even one

 

JB 

Any time I make a comment like that, I duck, because I know what’s going to happen. 

Likely because missing the ship is a rarity, it's caused by losing track of time (by being overserved at Senor Frogs, not knowing what time to be back, relying on a cellphone that changed to local time instead of ship's time, etc. etc.) instead of being on a late excursion, and anyone that missed the ship is too embarrassed to mention it in a public forum.

[MicCanberra]

We have been fortunate but have never missed a ship or even come close with the many private tours and excursions. But then we do factor in contingency plans and if in doubt (full day excursions) we do a ship's tour.

[jagsfan]

We do a lot of private excursions and did have a scare once. Our van developed a problem and we were stuck waiting for the driver’s friend to bring his own van. The man ran a couple of errands on the way to get us, and the seats were loaded with boxes. We all pitched in and moved the stuff to the other van and made it to the ship

after all aboard but before they moved the gangway. 

I don’t know if my heart could take that now. 

 

[ninamb1973]

Thanks for everyone's replies. So my concerns have been relieved. We are booking a private tour. The tour operator said he knows the ferry captain and will be communicating with them. He was even able to tell me when the first ferry out of Harvest Caye is. He said he knows the ferry system well and guarantees we will not miss out ship out. Whew!

[JMorris271]

3 hours ago, ninamb1973 said:

Thanks for everyone's replies. So my concerns have been relieved. We are booking a private tour. The tour operator said he knows the ferry captain and will be communicating with them. He was even able to tell me when the first ferry out of Harvest Caye is. He said he knows the ferry system well and guarantees we will not miss out ship out. Whew!

I would surely feel safer with this guys guarantee.