Has anyone missed the ship while on a private tour?

[Markanddonna]

This topic comes up frequently. I'm in the camp who prefer DIY or private tours at port while others who buy ship excursions mostly do so because of the promise that the ship won't leave without them. None of us wants to be a pier runner or left behind, but most people who don't use ship excursions plan well and use reliable companies. I've also seen that a captain will hold the ship for non-ship excursions folks who had a legitimate reason. I assume they will only do this if they have enough time to accommodate.

 

I'm on a 12 day Med cruise in November and the website shows only 49 excursions for this port intensive cruise and many ports have zero. 

 

There are some cruisers who seem paralyzed in their planning with the possibility of being left behind. The only time I use a ship excursion is when the next port is a thousands of miles and almost a week away. (Maui to Fiji for example.) Most reputable tour companies want to maintain their good reputation and are very careful with time.

 

Has anyone personally missed the ship while being on a private cruise or a DIY tour?  

[evandbob]

I haven't - yet.

 

The 2 times (Panama, Florence) I was delayed due to heavy traffic I was on ship excursions.

[evandbob]

Just now, evandbob said:

I haven't - yet.

 

The 2 times (Panama, Florence) I was delayed due to heavy traffic I was on ship excursions, so of course the ship had to wait for us.

 

[LHT28]

No  & we have done many private tours

We always make sure we are back  at least 1 hr prior to sailaway 

[6rugrats]

No, always done private tours, never had any problem being back on time.

[navybankerteacher]

Obviously some of the people who have missed their ship had been on private tours - but I doubt many will post here.

[Woody14]

Also the private tour companies don't want you to miss the ship as it is bad for business.  One or two tours missing ships would ruin their business.   If they know what ship you are on they will do everything they can to get you back on time.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, evandbob said:

I haven't - yet.

 

The 2 times (Panama, Florence) I was delayed due to heavy traffic I was on ship excursions.

And if there are delays for ship excursions that get back late due to heavy traffic, doesn't it follow that the ship will still be there when others not on ship excursions are also late? It's not like they are going to say you can board because you were on a ship excursion, but the rest of you cannot.

[ldubs]

6 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And if there are delays for ship excursions that get back late due to heavy traffic, doesn't it follow that the ship will still be there when others not on ship excursions are also late? It's not like they are going to say you can board because you were on a ship excursion, but the rest of you cannot.

 

My SIL was among a group that was 45 minutes late on a private tour bus.  Ship waited for them.    In order to head off a barrage of "not necessarily" responses, clearly this is not guaranteed and may not even be common.  But it certainly happens.   

[mom says]

31 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

And if there are delays for ship excursions that get back late due to heavy traffic, doesn't it follow that the ship will still be there when others not on ship excursions are also late? It's not like they are going to say you can board because you were on a ship excursion, but the rest of you cannot.

Of course what you say is true. No one would dispute that. However you can't count on the ship excursion to be the last one back. Nor can you count on the Captain being willing or able to delay departure

 

Your scenario was the one we faced on an excursion in Phuket.  We would have missed the last tender had it not been for the ship's  excursion bus that was behind us on the return trip. I never want to be that close to missing the ship again.

[lenquixote66]

2 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

This topic comes up frequently. I'm in the camp who prefer DIY or private tours at port while others who buy ship excursions mostly do so because of the promise that the ship won't leave without them. None of us wants to be a pier runner or left behind, but most people who don't use ship excursions plan well and use reliable companies. I've also seen that a captain will hold the ship for non-ship excursions folks who had a legitimate reason. I assume they will only do this if they have enough time to accommodate.

 

I'm on a 12 day Med cruise in November and the website shows only 49 excursions for this port intensive cruise and many ports have zero. 

 

There are some cruisers who seem paralyzed in their planning with the possibility of being left behind. The only time I use a ship excursion is when the next port is a thousands of miles and almost a week away. (Maui to Fiji for example.) Most reputable tour companies want to maintain their good reputation and are very careful with time.

 

Has anyone personally missed the ship while being on a private cruise or a DIY tour?  

I was on a cruise in the days when there were no such thing as shore excursions,yes,I am that old.My wife and I got off the ship in port and went off to explore the beautiful island of Bermuda.Several hours later I gazed at my watch and saw that the ship was due to leave in 45 minutes.We were more than an hour away.We hitchhiked and got back to the ship just as the ropes were being untied.

[Markanddonna]

When we were returning to port in Israel a few years ago, we went past a ship excursion bus on the side of the road that had caught fire. It was pretty well burned by then. Things happen to the ship's buses too. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, navybankerteacher said:

Obviously some of the people who have missed their ship had been on private tours - but I doubt many will post here.

or maybe  too long sitting in the bar 😉

[LHT28]

24 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

When we were returning to port in Israel a few years ago, we went past a ship excursion bus on the side of the road that had caught fire. It was pretty well burned by then. Things happen to the ship's buses too. 

But they will normally wait  for those pax  or at least arrange for them to get to the next port

[LHT28]

34 minutes ago, lenquixote66 said:

I was on a cruise in the days when there were no such thing as shore excursions,yes,I am that old.

WOW  you must be old 😉

 

Even in '74  we had shore excursions  even  on our stop in Bermuda

[wcook]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

And if there are delays for ship excursions that get back late due to heavy traffic, doesn't it follow that the ship will still be there when others not on ship excursions are also late? It's not like they are going to say you can board because you were on a ship excursion, but the rest of you cannot.

Also keep in mind ship excursions are willing to schedule later returns to the ship. 

[navybankerteacher]

30 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

or maybe  too long sitting in the bar 😉

Everyone picks his own tour destination.

[Top_of_the_Cube]

I am sure there must be cases in which the ship has left behind passengers on a private excursion returning late, but my quick search for stories has not uncovered any such incidences.

 

On a private tour in Belize, our guide/owner received a call about another company with bus problems while we were returning to the ship.  He was prepared to divert our group to pick up any ship passengers on the competitor's bus.  The other company did resolve this without our needing to change our course.

 

As our guide commented to us, the reputable private tour companies work together to make sure that no passengers miss their ship because of the tour.  If just one group ever got left at the pier, that would spell doom for all their businesses.

[Hlitner]

I read about the fear of missing the ship, pier runners, etc.  We have been cruising since the mid-70s and know we have spent more than 1300 days on more than 100 cruises (we long ago lost the actual count).  Those cruises ranged from typical 7 day to over 60 day and touched on 6 continents and hundreds of ports.  We are not aware of anyone, on all those cruises, who actually missed the ship be it from private tours, independent travel (which is usually us), etc.  Personally, we have come close twice (in Malta and Italy) but in those cases we had our "Plan B" about how we would simply catch up to the ship (not easy when on Malta).  

 

Over the years we have helped anyone who asked when they wanted info on independent shore travel.  Some of those folks did go off on their own and others later told us they ultimately took a tour because they could not handle the anxiety connected to missing the ship.  

 

My advice remains the same.  If you are going to suffer from anxiety because you are on a private tour or on your own you should just mortgage the house and pay for cruise line excursions in each port.  Nothing I or others say is going to resolve your anxiety because there are just some folks who are very risk adverse and seem to suffer anxiety about many things in life.  Others are easily able to do their own thing without being overly concerned about the risk of missing the ship, getting lost, language issues, etc.  It is just the nature of life that "different strokes for different folks" truly describes much of life.

 

So getting back to the OPs question, we know (not think) that the risk of missing a ship when you take private tours (from reputable providers) is minimal   It is also minimal for independent travelers who use some common sense (and do their homework).  But there is no way that you can completely eliminate all risk even if you are on a cruise line excursion.  I think reality these days is that the biggest risk cruisers take is just trying to get to their embarkation port on time and staying healthy.

 

Hank

[ldubs]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I read about the fear of missing the ship, pier runners, etc.  We have been cruising since the mid-70s and know we have spent more than 1300 days on more than 100 cruises (we long ago lost the actual count).  Those cruises ranged from typical 7 day to over 60 day and touched on 6 continents and hundreds of ports.  We are not aware of anyone, on all those cruises, who actually missed the ship be it from private tours, independent travel (which is usually us), etc.  Personally, we have come close twice (in Malta and Italy) but in those cases we had our "Plan B" about how we would simply catch up to the ship (not easy when on Malta).  

 

Over the years we have helped anyone who asked when they wanted info on independent shore travel.  Some of those folks did go off on their own and others later told us they ultimately took a tour because they could not handle the anxiety connected to missing the ship.  

 

My advice remains the same.  If you are going to suffer from anxiety because you are on a private tour or on your own you should just mortgage the house and pay for cruise line excursions in each port.  Nothing I or others say is going to resolve your anxiety because there are just some folks who are very risk adverse and seem to suffer anxiety about many things in life.  Others are easily able to do their own thing without being overly concerned about the risk of missing the ship, getting lost, language issues, etc.  It is just the nature of life that "different strokes for different folks" truly describes much of life.

 

So getting back to the OPs question, we know (not think) that the risk of missing a ship when you take private tours (from reputable providers) is minimal   It is also minimal for independent travelers who use some common sense (and do their homework).  But there is no way that you can completely eliminate all risk even if you are on a cruise line excursion.  I think reality these days is that the biggest risk cruisers take is just trying to get to their embarkation port on time and staying healthy.

 

Hank

 

This is good stuff.  I don't begrudge those who prefer ship excursions for peace of mind.  A good rule is don't do things that make you unhappy.   I am among those who didn't worry much about flights arriving the same morning because, with a little thought, the odds were good.    And, if I did miss a cruise I wouldn't like it but life would go on with a plan B vacation.  However, I think those odds have changed with the current flight issues.  No more same morning arrivals for me for the foreseeable future.  

[Markanddonna]

I suspect those who miss the ship were independent travelers and not on a private tour. About a month ago, a very nice young woman gave us a detailed story of what happened. They were not on a tour, but just enjoying a beach day in the Caribbean. Having read some stories about this problem, it seems miscommunication about the departure time or having too many drinks at Senor Frogs are the culprits. 

 

As an regular reader of CC boards, I can't ever recall reading that the tour operator was at fault.  

[Hlitner]

2 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

This is good stuff.  I don't begrudge those who prefer ship excursions for peace of mind.  A good rule is don't do things that make you unhappy.   I am among those who didn't worry much about flights arriving the same morning because, with a little thought, the odds were good.    And, if I did miss a cruise I wouldn't like it but life would go on with a plan B vacation.  However, I think those odds have changed with the current flight issues.  No more same morning arrivals for me for the foreseeable future.  

To say that flying, these days, is truly a nightmare is an understatement.  What you see on TV and social media only understates the issues.  We know this first hand :(.  We have two Fall cruises that involve air and have already modified our plans for both trips to fly-in 2 days early.  And even this causes me some anxiety as it took us 3 days to get home from Mexico in March (it should have been an easy 8 hour trip) which was before all this airline/airport nonsense reached its peak.  Whebn AA delayed our initial flight we missed our DFW connection.  Then AA said the next flight with seats was on Tuesday night....and this was Saturday! 

 

Recently flying home from Prague was a true adventure with 3 cancelled flights (United), one flight changed to a different airline (United to Lufthansa) and the need for a one-way rental car for the last leg (a 3 hour drive) to replace another cancelled flight!  And, at the time, we thought we were pretty lucky because we actually got home the same day as planned :).   And when we picked up our one way rental car at Newark we met quite a few folks who were truly out of luck as there were no more rental cars available (from any agency)!    Some might have heard about a recent Delta snafu when they offered passengers $10,000 to take another flight!  I thought that could not be right...but then it was confirmed by several news sources (can we believe anything on the news?).

 

Hank

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, mom says said:

Of course what you say is true. No one would dispute that. However you can't count on the ship excursion to be the last one back. Nor can you count on the Captain being willing or able to delay departure

 

Your scenario was the one we faced on an excursion in Phuket.  We would have missed the last tender had it not been for the ship's  excursion bus that was behind us on the return trip. I never want to be that close to missing the ship again.

I did not say or mean to imply that the ship would definitely wait for you. All I was saying was if there was something like a terrible traffic jam that caused the delay, the chances were excellent that ship's excursion buses would also be caught in it. 

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, Top_of_the_Cube said:

I am sure there must be cases in which the ship has left behind passengers on a private excursion returning late, but my quick search for stories has not uncovered any such incidences.

 

On a private tour in Belize, our guide/owner received a call about another company with bus problems while we were returning to the ship.  He was prepared to divert our group to pick up any ship passengers on the competitor's bus.  The other company did resolve this without our needing to change our course.

 

As our guide commented to us, the reputable private tour companies work together to make sure that no passengers miss their ship because of the tour.  If just one group ever got left at the pier, that would spell doom for all their businesses.

That is a good point. Just like any negative publicity about cruises is bad for the cruise industry, any negative publicity about private tour operators is going to affect all of them. As you said, they are willing to help each other out in order to avoid that sort of publicity.

[Mum2Mercury]

1 hour ago, Markanddonna said:

As an regular reader of CC boards, I can't ever recall reading that the tour operator was at fault.  

Agree.  

 

I really dislike ship's tours.  The higher cost doesn't bother me so much -- it's that they're larger and more impersonal.  They're a poor value, both in terms of fun and money.  

 

Sometimes the ship excursions are almost criminal.  Because of a medical issue, we're looking for sedate island choices for our upcoming cruise ... and we're looking at the free (again, FREE) trolley that runs through Aruba.  I saw that the cruise line is offering the very same ride on the free trolley for $35.  It's a couple blocks walk, then a hop-on/hop-off trolley ... and they're charging for it?  

Edited July 5, 2022 by Mum2Mercury