I was a port runner, once.

[SolocruiserMA]

I'll share my most vivid cruising memory with the forum in hopes of stirring all of you to bring to mind your most vivid cruising memories too. 

 

I took a 10 day Southern Caribbeam cruise on the NCL Gem in March 2019.  Our very first port was San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was a late visit. 3pm to 10pm. 

 

Finally not being solo, a miracle of miracles, I decided to check off an item on my list and do a "tandem kayak and bioluminescent bay tour".

A bit of background. I'm of average fitness, barely clinging onto my 30s, and kayak often in lakes. I booked through NCL, which I almost never do. I can usually find local attractions on my own easy enough. Gosh, I'm glad I did! This excursion was the marine equivalent of 40 years schlepping through the desert! Get your life preservers on for ride. 

 

I should have figured, this tour had all the hallmarks. The three little people walking logo under activity level, the time it started was 315 and the time ended was 9:45, 15 minutes in either direction of our port visit, and to the word "brisk" mentioned several times in the description. But, I figured I have done similar activity and I'm not quite yet ready to hang my adventure hat up. 

 

The tour bus is waiting for us as we disembarked. It was a regular size School Bus and there where exactly 10 of us on the tour. We were absolutely hustled on, air conditioning blasting, which felt really good as it was still sweltering in the Sun and we were all in our bathing suits as instructed by the tour description.  Off we went for a short ride through the Puerto Rican countryside. Well, it wasn't really short. It turned out to be almost 2 hours with traffic. Surveying the other victims, the age ranges were a husband and wife similar in age to me and their two children who were young teenagers. Quite a few people who must have been in their 50s or 60s I imagine and the rest in their 20s. 

 

As we finally pulled up, very close to 5:30, the bright warm sunshine has faded away into the very beginning of dusk. A stiff nreeze was blowing on shore and we were looking at a vast ocean bay with a chop.  Lined up were 6 bright yellow tandem kayaks, paddles, life jackets, and safety gear.  We all signed the requisite if you kill me it's not your fault forum. Received instructions that we were going to paddle across this vast bay to the third opening in the mangrove swamp and turn left. Another clue should have been they sprayed each of us pretty heavily with bug spray and gave us each a safety whistle. Paddling across that bay with a fading sunlight wasn't too difficult. Heading into the breeze was a bit challenging as was synchronizing your strokes with your partner. After we dodged several moored sail boats that had to have been at least 40 ft in length and made it closer to the mangroves it became quite dark and it was a bit challenging to tell what was an opening between two mangroves and what was just a split in the roots of 1 mangrove tree. Wishing I was 10 years younger, so I could actually see something again, we went for it. Somehow, we guessed it right and our guide was up ahead.  He said rather calmly that we're going to paddle about 6 miles through the mangrove swamp and when we come out we will be at our destination. He advised us that it's going to be dark in there as light doesn't really penetrate through the foliage, we will be going against the current, there will be other groups of both kayakers and small motor boats coming in both directions, and there will be bugs of all shapes and sizes paying us a visit. He said but we are going to have fun. I do believe that was the only audible chuckle I heard from our group the rest of the evening. I took the whistle which you were to blow if you got lost and somehow he would find you and started the sojourn through the mangroves. At first the sea air must have been with us. I was wondering he you thought we were just a bunch of soft tourists who couldn't handle the stray mosquito or a bit of exertion. I changed my mind rather quickly on that front when I saw this terrifyingly large beetle looking bug land on my forearm and then a smaller looking bug landed next to it with a few mosquitoes thrown in for good measure. After I nearly became one of those soft tourists and paddled my way out of there, I composed myself enough to swat them away and paddle just a little bit faster. At this time it had to have been close to 7:30. We were about halfway through the initial 6-mile paddle in and the smell of the mangrove swamp was indescribably putrid. I'm from New England and I have smelled my fair share of fishing ports but this was like magnified twice! Mix that with the constant assault from every single bug species in Puerto Rico, utter and complete darkness, a group of people who quite frankly had no idea what we were doing, and various other groups of people coming in the opposite direction, who also had no idea what they were doing. It devolved into a cluster of about 40 kayaks and paddles, bouncing off one another for 2 hours whilst fending off attacks by bugs.  

 

With Herculean effort by all, our 40 years was up we thought. Arriving at the promised land of bioluminescent Bay. The 2 hours we spent paddling around where indeed one of the highlights of my life. Breathtakingly beautiful under the tropical moon.  

 

The guide said on the way back it would be a little bit easier as we're going with the tide. He said the darkness and the bugs will be worse however. And on that bright spot we continued Our Journey part 2. The same bugs were eager to see us again, the same stench permeated our noses, and now even bigger power boats were whizzing by us uncomfortably close in the dark. 

 

When we saw the light at the end of the swamp we realized then we had to travel across that vast bay avoiding the darked sailboats and their spider web of a lines. With arms absolutely aching, legs cramped, and backs screaming we paddled across Back Bay getting very close to several sailboats we simply couldn't see and shouted Land Ho when we finally saw the beach. If I've ever felt like an immigrant it was at that moment when a muddy, stinking, curled up, wretch of a human washed ashore so inelegantly on the beach that night. 

 

There was no Fanfare to meet us back the guide simply told us to get back on the bus as quickly as possible as we were running late. The two-hour ride back was certainly quiet. 10 exhausted masses of people stenching like the very swamp they were in 4 hours. Welted from head to toe with various bug bites. Surely I can say now I've caught a 1920s disease. I suppose another one to check off my list. They offered us refreshments, not a soul stirred from their seat. 

 

To tour guide said not to worry he has been in communication with the ship saying we were going to be very late indeed. I kept thinking about being so careful in the past to allow myself several hours before departure. This certainly isn't my first rodeo. And I wondered will they really hold a ship up for 10 people. 

 

My question was answered shortly after 11:30 when we pulled into port and I saw the bright lights of the ship blazing like a beacon on the shore. The Glorious lights. How I would have yearned for one in the swamp just a few hours ago. We hand to the tour guide whenever money was in our wallet. I'm still not quite sure how much that was. It didn't matter he brought us home. We file out of the bus. What a sight we must have been. The people on their balconies still up at that late hour are shouting to us welcome back you must be the 10 passengers we are all waiting for.  We go through the security scanner there is an officer just beyond him. He shakes our hand and said see, I told you we will wait. He said you're awfully lucky this is a Norwegian tour, if this was any other tour we won't have left hours ago.  

 

We were definitely starving, cold, wet, itchy, and sore. Our clothing certainly wasn't the same color as when we left any longer.  I was very grateful for a hot shower that night and the largest breakfast at sea I've ever had the next morning! 

 

That, was my most memorable time on a cruise. I hope that when we all can cruise again, you all have memorable moments  that you cherish as much as I have. 

 

[PelicanBill]

Wow! Good story.  I bet that tour operator was penalized future business. They should have had you back at the pier by 9:30 with a margin of error for that travel time. In my book they were 2 hours late returning. Since there was no broken down bus or thing like that, it was grossly mismanaged.

 

In St.Maarten we took the popular Eagle Catamaran.  When we boarded they asked what time we sail. I said 5pm. He looked nervous about my answer and went to talk the the captain right away (I followed.)  We returned to the excursion dock at 4:30 - exactly all aboard time. But with a 10 minute walk for a normally abled person, My wife walks half as fast at best. At 4:50 they could see us and stopped pulling the last gangway.  They assumed we went off and did something else even though it was a ship tour we had booked.  

[luvcruzing]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.  I was nervous for you just reading about it.

[Gershep]

Good thing it was booked through NCL.

[esm54687]

The title had me expecting a story about you sprinting through the customs gate and screaming to stop the ship..... leaping from the dock to slide into the closing door.... 

 

pretty anti-climatic when you leisurely walked on to the ship as it was waiting for you.....

[texasgirl29]

In Jamaica on a Princess tour, we were running late. For no particular reason other than the excursion seemed to take longer than the time allotted. On the bus back, we heard our guide talking to someone presumably at their office that we were on our way. Next thing we know, we had a police escort back to the ship.

On a Celebrity “Paris on Your Own” bus returning to port from an overnight there was a bad accident on an access road and our bus was stuck in traffic. By stuck I mean standstill for hours with people getting out of their cars and standing in the roadway discussing the situation. We were several hours getting back, and the buffet was barely open — they were cleaning up as we got in and we had to ask them to let us eat something.

We have done both ship sponsored and independent tours but these two ship excursions saved us from missing the boat.


Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Newleno]

14 hours ago, SolocruiserMA said:

I'll share my most vivid cruising memory with the forum in hopes of stirring all of you to bring to mind your most vivid cruising memories too. 

 

I took a 10 day Southern Caribbeam cruise on the NCL Gem in March 2019.  Our very first port was San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was a late visit. 3pm to 10pm. 

 

Finally not being solo, a miracle of miracles, I decided to check off an item on my list and do a "tandem kayak and bioluminescent bay tour".

A bit of background. I'm of average fitness, barely clinging onto my 30s, and kayak often in lakes. I booked through NCL, which I almost never do. I can usually find local attractions on my own easy enough. Gosh, I'm glad I did! This excursion was the marine equivalent of 40 years schlepping through the desert! Get your life preservers on for ride. 

 

I should have figured, this tour had all the hallmarks. The three little people walking logo under activity level, the time it started was 315 and the time ended was 9:45, 15 minutes in either direction of our port visit, and to the word "brisk" mentioned several times in the description. But, I figured I have done similar activity and I'm not quite yet ready to hang my adventure hat up. 

 

The tour bus is waiting for us as we disembarked. It was a regular size School Bus and there where exactly 10 of us on the tour. We were absolutely hustled on, air conditioning blasting, which felt really good as it was still sweltering in the Sun and we were all in our bathing suits as instructed by the tour description.  Off we went for a short ride through the Puerto Rican countryside. Well, it wasn't really short. It turned out to be almost 2 hours with traffic. Surveying the other victims, the age ranges were a husband and wife similar in age to me and their two children who were young teenagers. Quite a few people who must have been in their 50s or 60s I imagine and the rest in their 20s. 

 

As we finally pulled up, very close to 5:30, the bright warm sunshine has faded away into the very beginning of dusk. A stiff nreeze was blowing on shore and we were looking at a vast ocean bay with a chop.  Lined up were 6 bright yellow tandem kayaks, paddles, life jackets, and safety gear.  We all signed the requisite if you kill me it's not your fault forum. Received instructions that we were going to paddle across this vast bay to the third opening in the mangrove swamp and turn left. Another clue should have been they sprayed each of us pretty heavily with bug spray and gave us each a safety whistle. Paddling across that bay with a fading sunlight wasn't too difficult. Heading into the breeze was a bit challenging as was synchronizing your strokes with your partner. After we dodged several moored sail boats that had to have been at least 40 ft in length and made it closer to the mangroves it became quite dark and it was a bit challenging to tell what was an opening between two mangroves and what was just a split in the roots of 1 mangrove tree. Wishing I was 10 years younger, so I could actually see something again, we went for it. Somehow, we guessed it right and our guide was up ahead.  He said rather calmly that we're going to paddle about 6 miles through the mangrove swamp and when we come out we will be at our destination. He advised us that it's going to be dark in there as light doesn't really penetrate through the foliage, we will be going against the current, there will be other groups of both kayakers and small motor boats coming in both directions, and there will be bugs of all shapes and sizes paying us a visit. He said but we are going to have fun. I do believe that was the only audible chuckle I heard from our group the rest of the evening. I took the whistle which you were to blow if you got lost and somehow he would find you and started the sojourn through the mangroves. At first the sea air must have been with us. I was wondering he you thought we were just a bunch of soft tourists who couldn't handle the stray mosquito or a bit of exertion. I changed my mind rather quickly on that front when I saw this terrifyingly large beetle looking bug land on my forearm and then a smaller looking bug landed next to it with a few mosquitoes thrown in for good measure. After I nearly became one of those soft tourists and paddled my way out of there, I composed myself enough to swat them away and paddle just a little bit faster. At this time it had to have been close to 7:30. We were about halfway through the initial 6-mile paddle in and the smell of the mangrove swamp was indescribably putrid. I'm from New England and I have smelled my fair share of fishing ports but this was like magnified twice! Mix that with the constant assault from every single bug species in Puerto Rico, utter and complete darkness, a group of people who quite frankly had no idea what we were doing, and various other groups of people coming in the opposite direction, who also had no idea what they were doing. It devolved into a cluster of about 40 kayaks and paddles, bouncing off one another for 2 hours whilst fending off attacks by bugs.  

 

With Herculean effort by all, our 40 years was up we thought. Arriving at the promised land of bioluminescent Bay. The 2 hours we spent paddling around where indeed one of the highlights of my life. Breathtakingly beautiful under the tropical moon.  

 

The guide said on the way back it would be a little bit easier as we're going with the tide. He said the darkness and the bugs will be worse however. And on that bright spot we continued Our Journey part 2. The same bugs were eager to see us again, the same stench permeated our noses, and now even bigger power boats were whizzing by us uncomfortably close in the dark. 

 

When we saw the light at the end of the swamp we realized then we had to travel across that vast bay avoiding the darked sailboats and their spider web of a lines. With arms absolutely aching, legs cramped, and backs screaming we paddled across Back Bay getting very close to several sailboats we simply couldn't see and shouted Land Ho when we finally saw the beach. If I've ever felt like an immigrant it was at that moment when a muddy, stinking, curled up, wretch of a human washed ashore so inelegantly on the beach that night. 

 

There was no Fanfare to meet us back the guide simply told us to get back on the bus as quickly as possible as we were running late. The two-hour ride back was certainly quiet. 10 exhausted masses of people stenching like the very swamp they were in 4 hours. Welted from head to toe with various bug bites. Surely I can say now I've caught a 1920s disease. I suppose another one to check off my list. They offered us refreshments, not a soul stirred from their seat. 

 

To tour guide said not to worry he has been in communication with the ship saying we were going to be very late indeed. I kept thinking about being so careful in the past to allow myself several hours before departure. This certainly isn't my first rodeo. And I wondered will they really hold a ship up for 10 people. 

 

My question was answered shortly after 11:30 when we pulled into port and I saw the bright lights of the ship blazing like a beacon on the shore. The Glorious lights. How I would have yearned for one in the swamp just a few hours ago. We hand to the tour guide whenever money was in our wallet. I'm still not quite sure how much that was. It didn't matter he brought us home. We file out of the bus. What a sight we must have been. The people on their balconies still up at that late hour are shouting to us welcome back you must be the 10 passengers we are all waiting for.  We go through the security scanner there is an officer just beyond him. He shakes our hand and said see, I told you we will wait. He said you're awfully lucky this is a Norwegian tour, if this was any other tour we won't have left hours ago.  

 

We were definitely starving, cold, wet, itchy, and sore. Our clothing certainly wasn't the same color as when we left any longer.  I was very grateful for a hot shower that night and the largest breakfast at sea I've ever had the next morning! 

 

That, was my most memorable time on a cruise. I hope that when we all can cruise again, you all have memorable moments  that you cherish as much as I have. 

 

Did you file a complaint with the shore excursion team?  Get any OBC?

[ellasmomanddad]

On a coastal California cruise on the Ruby Princess 2 years ago we took a tour that included Pebble Beach. Most of the group where in there 70’s. The tour guide said you have a half hour to go to the clubhouse or green to take pictures etc. What the guide didn’t say was it’s at least a ten minute walk for a teenager each way. When we got back to the bus it was gone. There was 30 of us standing there without a bus. A Pebble Beach worker seeing us laughed and told us it happens all the time, another bus will be here in 10 minutes. Sure enough 10 minutes later here comes a bus. It’s worth noting we caught up and didn’t miss any of the tour stops. My dad was very mad but we laughed at dinner that night.

[jaxw17]

I had some butt clenching moments reading that.

Glad you got back okay I would have been in ICU following that.

 

No stories of getting back late, but on a middle east cruise on Marella a couple of years ago we had quite an experience. On passing by Somalia and taking on armed guards to assist our passage the ship was full of tales of kidnaps etc. These were quickly laughed off.

We woke in the morning to find us floating off the coast of Somalia with engine failure. All of a sudden the stories of kidnaps seemed a bit more real.

 

We eventually limped at 12 knots to Dubai. We stayed there a week unable to go anywhere and then flew home.

some we spoke to on the cruise did not even know we were going past Somalia and that it was in anyway dangerous!

Oh the joys of cruising. Even so I am missing it like mad.

[ellasmomanddad]

8 minutes ago, jaxw17 said:

had some butt clenching moments reading that.

It might be the six pack deep but I laughed hard at that line.

[esm54687]

5 hours ago, Newleno said:

Did you file a complaint with the shore excursion team?  Get any OBC?

Why would the OP be entitled to any OBC? They completed the excursion and boarded the ship without issue.

[goldfada]

8 hours ago, texasgirl29 said:

In Jamaica on a Princess tour, we were running late. For no particular reason other than the excursion seemed to take longer than the time allotted. On the bus back, we heard our guide talking to someone presumably at their office that we were on our way. Next thing we know, we had a police escort back to the ship.
 

I had a similar experience in Jamaica. For the last few miles, we drove down the middle of road like we were an emergency vehicle.

[smrtypnts]

18 hours ago, esm54687 said:

Why would the OP be entitled to any OBC? They completed the excursion and boarded the ship without issue.

They missed dinner?  Just throwing that out there.  hahahha

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

Wow, I didn’t realize the bioluminescent excursions were so intense!! I wonder if they all involve that much paddling or if there are less strenuous ones.

[F27TW]

9 hours ago, smrtypnts said:

They missed dinner?  Just throwing that out there.  hahahha

 

 

Tour was scheduled to end at 9:45p  .. . they'd have missed dinner anyway. no?

There's always some genius like the one above demanding OBC for something .... <smh>

[_Rick_]

1 hour ago, F27TW said:

There's always some genius like the one above demanding OBC for something .... <smh>

 

And also quoting the whole long post before the one line genius comment or question.  That drives me crazy.

[eileeshb]

Yikes! As I travel solo on my first cruise I booked all my excursion through NCL, but on subsequent cruises I mixed it up a bit. If it’s something that has fallback transport options then I’ll happily go with an independent operator as long as they’ve a decent reputation.

 

on my last cruise the Online group pre-cruise was quite active and a member offered to line-up a tour guide/bus for Tortola. After an initial false start trying to locate our guide and his bus we headed off on our island tour... the last stop was cane garden bay and we were supposed to be back on the bus after 45mins.
Slight problem, the girl and her friends that had organised everything didn’t show up on time!! I offer to go yell for them.. no sign of them so I head back towards the bus only to fall and skin my knee, then guess who appears to help me up, our missing tour people!
 

We just about made it back to the pier before all aboard time. Luckily for us there had been a few mishaps on some of the NCL excursions so there was a massive queue on the pier. The ship was probably a good hour late in departure by the end of it.

upside to the queue... alcohol purchases were not confiscated unless you’d bought big multiple bottles. 

[Peachypooh]

We were on Curacao on a book it yourself tour to a local resort. First thing that happens is

I fall flat on my face on the dock and get beat up pretty badly but luckily I travel with a

first aid kit and was able to patch myself up. We hung around until 1:00pm and then decided

to leave. All aboard was 4:00pm. Under normal circumstances we would have left at 2 p.m.

giving us lots of time to catch a taxi and get back. Luckily we decided to just get me back

to the ship an hour early because on the way back to the pier our cab broke down in a busy roundabout!!!

I wanted to start walking back to the pier..it would have easily taken at least an hour or more to do that. Our cab driver

convinced us we should wait for dispatch to send another cab. We reluctantly agreed to wait. After

25 minutes I figured I better get walking before we are stranded. As soon as I started walking the

replacement cab showed up. From now on only do it yourself tours if I can walk back to the ship in

the event of a mishap.  Not a fun day all around.

[F27TW]

15 hours ago, _Rick_ said:

 

And also quoting the whole long post before the one line genius comment or question.  That drives me crazy.

 

 ... the .. entire ... .post !!!    Lol

[fstuff1]

the port was Cartagena, columbia.

all aboard was 3:30pm, ship sails at 4pm.

 

i didnt book an excursion. i just walked around.

i timed it that i would reach the ship at around 3:15pm. apparently, so did alot of other people.

plus excursion buses dropping off people.

 

at 3:30p, there were still hundreds of people on the dock waiting to enter the ship. 

only the aft entrance was open because the forward entrance was past the short dock.

 

it was hot. i decided to walk to the front of the line. alot of people in line were giving me the evil eye as i strolled past them.

got to one of the crewmembers  giving out ice towels, got one, and walked back towards the end of the line with the cool towel over my head. oh man did that feel good.

 

then i decided not to wait on line in the hot sun but instead sat in the shade with my cool towel and waited till the line died down.

as an added bonus, since i was the last to board, there was no jockeying with other passengers to get a space on the elevator. (my room was on the 12th floor)

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by fstuff1

[TenForward]

19 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Wow, I didn’t realize the bioluminescent excursions were so intense!! I wonder if they all involve that much paddling or if there are less strenuous ones.

 

Not sure about cruise excursions but I've vacationed many years in Puerto Rico and our bioluminescent tours have always been very relaxing. We've never kayaked -- always ridden in a boat, sometimes on a larger with an open canopy to see the stars as well. Once we rode in a local's wooden rowboat that had an electric motor.  He took the 4 of us out for $5.00.  We tipped him well at the end. 

[Newleno]

25 minutes ago, fstuff1 said:

the port was Cartagena, columbia.

all aboard was 3:30pm, ship sails at 4pm.

 

i didnt book an excursion. i just walked around.

i timed it that i would reach the ship at around 3:15pm. apparently, so did alot of other people.

plus excursion buses dropping off people.

 

at 3:30p, there were still hundreds of people on the dock waiting to enter the ship. 

only the aft entrance was open because the forward entrance was past the short dock.

 

it was hot. i decided to walk to the front of the line. alot of people in line were giving me the evil eye as i strolled past them.

got to one of the crewmembers  giving out ice towels, got one, and walked back towards the end of the line with the cool towel over my head. oh man did that feel good.

 

then i decided not to wait on line in the hot sun but instead sat in the shade with my cool towel and waited till the line died down.

as an added bonus, since i was the last to board, there was no jockeying with other passengers to get a space on the elevator. (my room was on the 12th floor)

 

Yeah similar thing happened in Newport a few years ago, everyone was waiting for the Tender, it was pretty hot, no reason to stand in the line with no shade, everyone was going to miss the official all aboard time.  So we found a seat in the shade and just watched everyone bake for awhile,  we finally got on the last tender

Edited April 20, 2020 by Newleno

[jmin346]

Asian cruise 2018. We opted for the Great Wall tour through NCL from Tianjin. It must have been 6-8 busloads of people. We were nearly 2 hours late getting back and our guide was so calm. Kept telling us a big chunk of the ship was on our same tour and not to worry. We even stopped for snacks halfway through the return trip back. When in doubt, take the ship excursion. Worth the peace of mind for sure. 

[mking8288]

Norwegian Gem's captain, crew & security waited an extra 45+ minutes  that evening for several no-shows at the first stop, Port Canaveral - they could've have possibly been that late coming back from Coca Beach or nearby ...  Whatever the reasons, they're paged at least 3 times over ship's PA system to contact Guest Services.  End result - their belongings were retrieved, luggage & bagged belongings (presumably, contents in their safes like passports, etc.) and handed/signed off to port agents on the pier - ship finally sailed at 22:10 - more than an hour+ late.  

 

[eileeshb]

1 hour ago, mking8288 said:

Norwegian Gem's captain, crew & security waited an extra 45+ minutes  that evening for several no-shows at the first stop, Port Canaveral - they could've have possibly been that late coming back from Coca Beach or nearby ...  Whatever the reasons, they're paged at least 3 times over ship's PA system to contact Guest Services.  End result - their belongings were retrieved, luggage & bagged belongings (presumably, contents in their safes like passports, etc.) and handed/signed off to port agents on the pier - ship finally sailed at 22:10 - more than an hour+ late.  

 
was the cruise starting at port canaveral or was it a port of call?

my understanding was that at a port of call they only leave the contents of your safe with the port agent if you miss all aboard.