Have you ever missed the ship?

[dyanna72]

Has anyone ever missed the ship during your 1st day of departure or from an excursion not booked directly thru the cruiseline? Lets hear the stories:eek:.

[hdawson]

Out of 18 cruises and all activities booked independently, never missed the ship. Wouldn't the tour companies be stupid to let that happen?

[lfeather]

We missed the ship in 2000. Splendor of the Seas out of Miami. Thank goodness the cruise lines booked our air that year!! It was a combination of two mechanicals and one weather delay. We were on the ground in Miami at about 4:50 pm and the ship would not wait for us (they could have very easily done). It took us two days to catch up to the ship in Cozumel. A rough start to a vacation. I don't think there has been a cruise that I have been on where we have not waited for someone. But having gone through that I don't mind one bit!!

 

Continental Airlines gave us vouchers and sent us to this very sleazy motel near the airport where we had to put down a $20 deposit to use the phone. It was totally disgusting. At that point I called Continental and got a decent customer service rep. I explained the situation and he then sent us to the Biltmore in Coral Gables...very nice. So at least we were in a great hotel for the next two days of waiting. The whole thing was awful!

 

Lesson learned...always go in the day before!!

[negc]

If you want to read a horror story about folks missing their ship when they returned from an excursion, check out the Princess' board. Anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong for these people.

[kiltilad]

We also booked through the cruisline. We missed the ship due to gate issues on the part of Delta and then scheduling issues on American who they had switched us to. We made it into Miami just as Explorer was leaving and were devistated. Luckily we found the Royal Carribean "refugee" agent in baggage claim (she was super and I wish I had wrote down her name) who set us up for two night hotel stay in Miami and flight to meet the ship in the first stop of Puerto Rico. Wasn't exactly how we planned to staqrt the trip but we made the best of it nonetheless.

[rusticfurnituremaker]

Sadly, yes, we did miss the ship when sailing out of Greece for a two week cruise. One of my worst travel nightmares, when simply everything that could go wrong, did. We ended up taking a 7 hour taxi ride to our next port (no other way to get there) costing over $500 with our many bags strapped to the back and roof of the taxi, then staying in a crummy hotel, then boarding the ship when it came in the next day. Thank goodness the ship wasn't going to another country for the first port. Lesson learned the hard way, plan ahead with travel arrangements and always get there at least 24 hours in advance. The $ saved (we thought) by not having to stay overnight was definately not worth the grief. Once we stepped onboard, ofcourse, all was heaven, and now we can laugh about it.

[TrinaLC]

If you want to read a horror story about folks missing their ship when they returned from an excursion, check out the Princess' board. Anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong for these people.

 

can you post a link? seems to have rolled off the first page

[surfklutz]

I had just the opposite happen to me. In the mid 80s I worked for a cruiseline as a port agent. We were off and on the ships prior to departure. I was on the ship and did not hear the final announcement - and didn't notice anything at all until I felt the ship move and we were underway to Mexico for a week. I had to get off with the pilot - jumping over about 4 feet of water to get in the pilot boat that was along side. Then I had to call my husband to pick me up about 2 hours from town. He was not happy!

[cruisegirl1]

Hurricane Charley was approaching Florida and the Sovereign left Port Canaveral (at the direction of the Coast Guard) several hours early and about 500 folks did not make the cruise! Our TA contacted us very early in the morning (we were on the road) and since we had planned to arrive early (by car) we had no problem. I did hear a story (don’t know if it was true) of someone on the cruise who dropped the luggage, went to pick up some booze, and when he/she returned the ship was gone.

 

Moral of the story – plan to arrive early

[truffles2]

We missed a cruise --along with about 150 other people--because of bad weather IN AUGUST! It was a transatlantic with no stops so no catching up was possible. It was awful and the fight with the insurance company was even worse.:mad:

[CruzinMom05]

Having never had a cruise problem, but just had a horror story from a bad, bad flight to & from San Francisco...I scoured these boards last week and decided to play it safe. I booked my flight in the night before. We will stay at a hotel, take only a thru flight (no missing connections). The next day we will rent a car for the drive to Port Canaveral (no waiting to miss the shuttle or it running late) where we will arrive at the earliest possible time to board the boat. No one is raining on my parade!!!! Same thing coming back. Taking our own luggage to our rental car/pier garage and making sure we get to the Orlando airport early so we don't miss our flight home. You look forward to your trip too much to have one thing ruin it! We have never had problems with excursions, but you never know. In fact we took a cruise where we found locals and made our own excursions and had the absolute best time ever in Jamaica. Cheaper too! Not at anyone's mercy either. Good luck to you!:D

[TupeloHoney]

Oh yeah, we missed the boat last year. It's a long story, but basically our first plane needed a new nose cone, and 2 of the other 3 planes we were to be on also had serious mechanical problems, and American treated us really, really badly and we ended up sitting in airports for 18+ hours and missed the ship. We did have trip insurance. And American did get us to the boat at the end of the first day - so we only missed 24 hours. But still, that sucked.

 

You would think we would fly in a day early this year, but unfortunately DH's work schedule won't allow it. So now i'm a little nervous about the possible Delta pilots' strike as we are due to leave for this year's cruise a week from Saturday on Delta.

[Yazoo cruiser]

did have some fellow passengers get left behind. They had been to Dunn's river falls and had a flat tire returning to Montego Bay. Our tablemates were on deck when they saw the four people come running up the pier screaming. And yes, the ship did leave them. Don't know if they ever caught up with the ship in another port or what. Needless to say, since then we have booked through the ship.

[jayjackel]

This tory is absolutely true.

 

My wife and I along with my parents where to depart ot of Philly for a western carribean cruise in December of 2004, I was also paying for my son and now daughter in law, but they were flying from San Diego.

 

Philly was suppose to receive 8 inches of snow on Friday and saturday and we had an early Saturday flight. At about 10 pm est I logged onto US air to check our flight and found out it was good but my sons was cancelled (airport fogged in). I called him and he was just leaving to airport and diodn't know. Long story short, he was taken by bus to Los Angelas and put on a flight at 2 am our flight left on time.

 

We land in fort lauderdale and rccl rep says wait here along with 2 other couples. Rccl forgot about us. 1 1/2 hours later we are on the oldest bus I have evr seen just the 8 of us, and believe it or not they took us to the wrong port. We said to the driver where are we and he told us, and we said we should be in Miami, he pulled into a convience store since he did not have a cell phone, the owner was screaming at him to move the bus since no one could get in or out of the parking lot. He was calling his dispatch, who relayed this info that we were at the wrong port to rccl.

 

We them drove like a maniac to Miami. When we gotr there the two ships (EOS and Navagator) I believe are back to back, he headed for the wrong one and we told him. He then cut across the grass to get to the right ship and when he did this he had not looked for other traffic. We got hit at about 30 mph in the side by a bus which was empty and departing.

 

Folks where running down the street to us and they had us run all the way to the ship, at the same time the bus had been knocked out of square in the accident so they used crow bars to bust open the luggage compartment and the porters ran down the stree with our luggage.

 

The boat should have sailed 15 minutes prior but they waited for us and we were the last 8 folks to get on. My son and daughter in law met us on the ship. This was the first time we had met at the time his fiance. She was crying her eyes out. Here their luggae never made it on the trip from sand diego to La via bus or LA to Miami. no one knew where it was. Rccl was great and gave them emeregency packages of toiletries a pair of shorts and t-shirt. This was the Western carribean so 1st day is at sea, next day is at Labbabbe (no clothes shopping there). Rccl had a room full of formal clothes that they could pick something to wear since the sea day was formal. My daughter in law picked a dress but she had to borrow shoes from one of the crew and the huigh heels where a size and a 1/2 to bid so she had toilet paper stuffed in the back so they would not fall off her feet.

 

We finally get to Jamaica and took a shore excursion, when we got back to the ship at around 1pm rccl had delivered their lauggae (I still do not know how it caught up with us). They opened their bags and almost everything had been stolen. Basically only some shoes, underwear and socks and empty dry clean bags.

 

We all got off the ship and spent the next 3 hours buying them clothes for the remainder of the cruise in Ocho Rios.

 

All told I spent well over $1,500 buying them clothes on the ship for the 1st 2 days and then in Ocho Rios for the remainder. They filed a claim with the airline and got paid but they kept the cash.

 

This is a 100% true story.

[ORANGEinINDY]

I missed the Mariner the moment I stepped off of her... I still miss her.:D

[Puffinater]

When I was younger many adults told me my ship had sailed or I was missing the boat.

[BrnMlr]

Here is the link to the Princess thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=290129

[above sea level cruiser]

If you want to read a horror story about folks missing their ship when they returned from an excursion, check out the Princess' board. Anything that could have gone wrong, went wrong for these people.

Bill, I went to the Princess pages but couldn't find this thread. Do you remember how it was titled?

[fireguy091]

Didn't miss da boat but came close in St. Thomas. We were the last to get back on the ship. As we got there they said "you folks cut that one alittle close then raised the gang plank.

[ORANGEinINDY]

Bill, I went to the Princess pages but couldn't find this thread. Do you remember how it was titled?

It was about being held at ginpoint on the rhino tour... do a search with rhino and gun... you'll probably find it ... BIZARRE

[above sea level cruiser]

It was about being held at ginpoint on the rhino tour... do a search with rhino and gun... you'll probably find it ... BIZARRE

 

Ok I saw that one!!!! Wild. Are there no cops there? Pretty scary stuff. BTW I sent you a message and have been carrying it around for days. Hope you get it before you leave.

[ORANGEinINDY]

Ok I saw that one!!!! Wild. Are there no cops there? Pretty scary stuff. BTW I sent you a message and have been carrying it around for days. Hope you get it before you leave.

Sent me a message ...where?