Flying home early from a cruise

[Hflors]

Has anyone flown home early from a cruise.

 

My mother is ill. She could go any day. today Tommorow or two months from now. I was talking to my sister and she told me last night that if something happens "we" will need to come home the next day. What I can't understand is we are on a ship in the carribbean? Yes there are places we will need to stop, but good lord how would you "come home?"

 

We couldn't get travel insureance when we booked the cruise because they wouldn't insure us since her being ill was a pre-existing condition.

 

ANyone have an experience like this?

[luckyprincess]

I don't have experience with this, but I just wanted to say I'm so sorry about your Mother. I hope that things work out for you, being without trip insurance. Good luck to you.

Melody

[MLG4MEE]

A few years back when my father-in-law was very ill with cancer, I, my wife , her sister and brother-in-law had an Alaskan Cruise planned. My father-in-law health started going down as we were getting closer to the date we were to leave. He told us to go, if he died while we were gone my wife's other sister who wasn't going was not to call and tell us till we got back. He said enjoy yourselves he wasn't going anywhere and they could put him on ice till we got back. He died three weeks before we were to leave so we didn't have to worry about what was happening. The cruise was fun but you caught yourself thinking about him.

[bld16]

FYI, I am sure there are ways to fly home if you must. However, keep in mind that if something happens there is nothing you can do about it. Case in point I know a couple who was vacationing in Hawaii, scheduled back on Sunday. Grandmother died on Friday and family insisted they fly home on Saturday. The funeral wasn't until Monday. So they lost vacation days, money and peace of mind for something they couldn't do anything about. I work in a funeral home and know that families can and do wait for family members away at school, vacation and working to make arrangements for the trip before making funeral arrangements. Recently we had a man who's wife had died. He knew the grandkids would be home from Florida in a few days, so waited to have the funeral an extra couple of days. He didn't want the kids to have to pay extra money to get home.

 

All that said, my thoughts are with your family and hopefully you will have worried for nothing.

[sailor moon]

We are in this exact same boat and our cruise is supposed to leave 3/12 with our 2 kids. We do have insurance that covers if we cancel at the last minute. I did tell my family that if we were on the trip and she (my Mom) died that we could not come back immediately as DD has autism and trying to deal with her in an emergency situation would not work. The stress of all of this killing my stomach as we are waiting day to day to see what happens. Our kids have no idea of what is going on other than their grandmother is very ill and has been for a long time. I did book a back up cruise for late May as a fallback in case we had to cancel this one. My Mom wants us to go but who knows what is or might happen between now and 3/12. Sorry to ramble on, I am just stressed a bit.

[erisajd]

Ok - seems kinda heartless but I was in college and the standing order was NEVER to call me in the middle of the night [this is still a house rule].

 

My family was thousands of miles away and it took the better part of a 24 hours to get there. So,. if somebody dies, they ain't going anywhere and from 5000 miles away there is nothing I can do about it anyway. That and there are not alot of flights leaving at 2am. If someone dies, the funeral usually set for 2-3 days later and I plenty of time to get there if I need to.

 

If someone is sick in the hospital, well, once again, they'll being taken care of and there is darn little I can do about it so why bother me.

 

I feel that way about relatives who live the next town over- what can I personally do about it at 3am? 30 miles away?

 

A cruise is the same day, you thousands of miles away in a part of the world with very poor infrastructure for the most part. Even assuming you can get away who is to say you can actually get a flight home. Sure, from the caribbean there may be daily flights but can you get on one and what is the cost?

 

Just cause someone else sez 'you HAVE to be here now," what is gonna happen if you actually miss a funeral? will the deceased care? I think not. The only people who will care are other relatives, and didn't you go on vacation to get AWAY from those people in the first place?? haha

 

If someone is so far gone that their death is imminent, I can promise you that in 90% of the cases they have NO idea what is going on around them from multiple organ failure, drugs or coma. You'll just have to deal with them harping on you every time they see you about the time you wouldn't cut your vacay short cause some distant [or close] relative died. Boo hoo I say. That is THERE problem.

 

YOU wanna be there - then you make the effort. If not, enjoy your cruise!!!

[kevnick0814]

Ok - seems kinda heartless but I was in college and the standing order was NEVER to call me in the middle of the night [this is still a house rule].

 

'kinda heartless'? WOW!! That was 'serious heartless'.

 

Hflors, you have a tough decision. I would contact RCCL and ask one of their CSRs. I am sure this issue has arisen before.

My best wishes to you and your family.

[Arizona Cruz Chic]

I have a related story but not in relation of while on a cruise.

My FIL was very ill and in the Hospice program, everyone knew he was dying. When the call came my DH and I got our flights the next day AZ to Chicago...very expensive but we had no choice. When we got to his parents house we found out that the wake would not take place for 3 days!!! When that was questioned it was because everyone had to "shop" for something to wear - or - one brother had a commitment that he couldn't get out of - or - my MIL wanted it to be on a Sunday so more people had a chance to make arrangements....and blah, blah, blah. Needless to say we were a bit upset that we dropped every thing and flew out and then had to sit around while everyone else got themselves ready. While the important thing was that my DH was there with his mom, (the oldest of 6) it still made it uneasy with the fact that they could of told us not to come the next day!

 

So yes, the body can be held, I know it sounds cruel but it may work.

 

 

***

[arabrab]

We are in this exact same boat and our cruise is supposed to leave 3/12 with our 2 kids. We do have insurance that covers if we cancel at the last minute. I did tell my family that if we were on the trip and she (my Mom) died that we could not come back immediately as DD has autism and trying to deal with her in an emergency situation would not work. The stress of all of this killing my stomach as we are waiting day to day to see what happens. Our kids have no idea of what is going on other than their grandmother is very ill and has been for a long time. I did book a back up cruise for late May as a fallback in case we had to cancel this one. My Mom wants us to go but who knows what is or might happen between now and 3/12. Sorry to ramble on, I am just stressed a bit.

I think we're just of the right age. We're also scheduled for a Caribbean cruise during spring break, and my dad was just diagnosed with very advanced esophageal cancer. We do have insurance, but right now he's telling us to go ahead and go on our trip. We'll see.

 

But we did learn some things when my mom passed away in the same town last year: funeral arrangements take longer to set up than we thought. Just getting the church and priest scheduled was tough, and then we had to back everything else into it. It turned out for us that it was about a five day lag between mom's death and the earliest that the funeral could be scheduled what with weekends and all. I'm not going to be the one making the arrangements this time, and I figure that as long as we have at least three days notice I can get back no matter where we are in our cruise. I suspect that it will be very similar this year given how busy most churches and priests are in the days leading up to Easter. I've decided that this is a time when I can rely on my siblings to do more of the planning and I'm going to be fine with whatever they decide. I'm going out to spend a week with my dad now. I hope you get to spend some time with your mom.

 

Barb

[Hflors]

Thanks for all your replies. This past year and now has been a hard. What I didn't tell you is that this cruise was planed now because last year we lost our dear uncle and our father. Since my mother was already ill it didn't seem to be a problem. Well now at the 11 hour she could go at any time. I know in my heart my mother would say. "Stay home? No way! Go and have a good time." She wanders too much to ask her opinion.

 

I think it is kind of silly to fly home from god knows where, that is if we can get on a plane since we will need to wait for other family members coming from all over the country to be there. That in itself usually takes a couple of days.

 

We leave in about 10 days so we will just have to trust that mom will be here when we get back.

 

Oh yea. Mom live in another state. The last time I was there to visit (three weeks ago I kind of said my good-byes to her. (To my self you understand)

So I'm ok with that

[dad son team]

I think all you can do is hope for the best and plan to go on your cruise. Nobody can make you come home if you don't want to. If something should happen while you are on the ship, you can try to make arrangements to get off in the next port, but oneway fares from caribbean islands are expensive. You can go to the ships internet cafe and pull up some flights from a port you are going to and try to book something if you really need to get home. Otherwise, just wait until you cruise is over and fly home.

[ChoosinCruisin]

This situation reminds us all of how important is it to let loved ones know how you feel about them on a regular basis, so you don't have the

"I should have told them......" feelings.

 

Best wishes for your situation, my heart goes out to you.