Pier Runners - Any near misses?

[arxcards]

Watched this youtube video, and it is the first time I have seen the first clip - LMAO. We have clapped a few late arrivals over the years, but haven't seen any running up the pier while the ship is moving away. 

 

 

We had a close call in Whittier a few years back, when we just missed the tunnel direction. The group of around 30 of us were the last to hit the check-in counter and the ship was backing out from the pier as we were heading-up to our cabin. It was a long day and a long way from home to be cutting it so fine.

 

Have you had any near misses?

[buchhalm]

People don't miss the boat anymore, it seems. I haven't seen any NEW pier running incidents in a long, long time.

🙃

[possum52]

We were later returning to Port Chalmers from a private tour than we expected.  All the passengers (a coach load) were running/walking as fast as they could to the gangway and it was right on all aboard time but the crew checking our cards didn't seem in a hurry to get us onboard.

 

It turned out there had been a medical emergency on the ship and they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive. We were at late dinner after showering and dressing when we heard that the ambulance had just arrived. 

[onlyslightlymad]

Yes, much as I have mocked others, it came back to bite me.

In Hoi An, I had a blazer made at one of the bespoke stores.  They assured me it would be ready that afternoon.  It did not fit.  They assured me they could fix it straight away.  Nope.  Stress levels rose.  The family started hopping from foot to foot.  After some time, I pounced on the blazer as was and we went for it.

Our driver was informed we were in a hurry.  He overtook three buses at once in the Hai Van tunnel.  We thought we had arrived at our final day on this earth.

As we crested the rise we saw that our ship was still there, but getting ready to leave. Our tour guide asked if we would like to pull over for some photos with the ship in the distance.  We did not think this was a good idea and expressed our feelings vehemently.

We made it just before they lifted the gangplank and did, indeed, do the walk of shame.

Every time I wear that blazer, someone says "Is that the one?".  Nice jacket, though.

[OzKiwiJJ]

We did an excursion to Bangkok once where we were late  back due to an accident on the motorway. Luckily it was a Princess excursion! In fact the ship left an hour or two later than scheduled so there must have been a few bus loads snarled in the traffic jam. 

 

In Naples we watched a limo pull up and two people frantically running to the gangway. Then we laughed as a bus load pulled in shortly afterwards! But those people in the limo could have been in trouble if it wasn't for that - traffic in Naples is notoriously bad. 

[MicCanberra]

My wife was one in Mexico, along with 20 others whose shorex was very late returning to the ship.

[Relaxing Robbies]

Last year in Tauranga we returned to the ship 10 minutes before the cutoff time. We were surprised to find that they knew what our names are. They told us we were the last passengers and pulled up the gangplank as we boarded!

 

In Manila back in 2017 we did have a bit of a scare. We did a private excursion out to the countryside and on the freeway back into Manila the traffic was horrendous. We were actually stationary for 45 minutes, and we started to worry when we realised that there were vendors walking up and down the freeway selling bottles of water.  Fortunately we had told the driver we had to be back at the ship an hour earlier than the required time.  We were supposed to see some of the city sights, but instead we insisted that our driver return us straight to the ship once traffic finally started moving slowly again.  It was an interesting race to the ship, but we made it with a bit of time to spare, thank god.

[ozdevil]

i need to hold my tongue  on this subject   

i hate being late to anything  and if i was late getting back to a ship leaving port  , i would be so gutted and angry with myself  i'm not even sure i would head to the next port to catch up   i would most likely end the holiday and cruise and sob my way back home .   

its rather  funny though watching some of these videos.   

[Ozwoody]

In Pago Pago in 2014WC we did an excursion to a private home our bus had several crew with us, while there another crew member turn up in a car.

Everyone was drinking and dancing, it was a really fun day, but as time wore on, we kept checking our watch, as it was getting quite late and it was a fair bit back to the boat.

Suddenly the crew all disappeared, we assumed in that car.

But the guide was still not making moves to return to the ship, everyone was really getting edgy, when finally they started heading back about 30 minutes before boarding time.

Then insisted on taking us on the scenic route back so we could see more of the island.

Everyone kept pointing at their watches, and the tour guides kept nodding and smiling and saying its fine.

We eventually reached the ship about 15 minutes late, but instead of stopping and let us run across the road, they insisted in going up to where they could turn around and drive into the port.

 by the time we were able exit the bus, and head for the ship we were about 20 odd minutes late.

there was a very rapid exit and run for the ship, as we headed up the gangway, there was a lot of clapping going on.

We were all shaking our heads and going "It wasn't our fault, It wasn't our fault".

 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Ozwoody

[CDaze71]

We were the very last ships tour back in Noumea once (Amedee Island) and they brought the gangway up as soon as we got back onboard. 

[Ozwoody]

For those interested these are the Pago Pago buses.

Our bus was the bottom right bus, it was the deluxe version, it had vinyl covers over the bare wooden seats.😆

[icat2000]

 But several shore excusion buses on Princess tours were delayed for hours getting back to ship on Port stop of Casablanca.  Other than that I have seen in Carribean a few pier runners. They have drinks at the local pub or bars and forget time. 

[mr walker]

We have always been very conscious of re-boarding times on all our cruises. always aiming to be back well ahead of deadline, even telling our driver of an earlier time at times for JIC.

 

But on our Wellington, NZ port call in 2019 we came as close to missing the ship as we ever want to. Returning from our non-ship tour of LOTR sites & WETA workshop tour, our mini-bus became stuck in roadwork traffic that was making us later & later for all-aboard time - our driver was becoming more & more concerned. There were 4 of us from the ship on the tour and the other 6 or 8 on the tour was staying in Wellington hotels, where they were to be dropped off enroute to our ship. At one point the driver asked the other passengers if it was OK for him to drop us off at the ship first and a number of the passengers objected to that insisting they were to be dropped off first as they got on first????. The driver just shrugged his shoulders and went along with them.

 

We reached a point close to CBD & I was now mentally planning our way to Akaroa to catch up the ship tomorrow, when Tracey suggested we aim to go to the ship shuttle bus CBD pickup location to try and get to ship that way. The driver agreed with us & took a couple of turns & there parked was a bus with SHIP SHUTTLE sign - I checked my watch and it was now 5 minutes to all aboard time. I jumped off the bus with Tracey telling our driver don't go until we tell him & raced across the road to shuttle bus. The driver confirmed he was going to ship & I raced back across the road and told the tour driver he could go & ran with Tracey back to shuttle bus. I grabbed the other couple that were on the tour from the ship & said let's go - they thought I had abandoned them 🙂 I said no, we were all in this together & I was always coming back for them. The 4 of us jumped on the bus & were the only people onboard. I said to the driver "we were lucky to get the last bus" & he replied quickly "the last bus left 15 minutes ago, this is the backup bus to catch the stragglers." We sat there for what seemed to be a long time before the bus controller spoke on his radio and then told the driver "you can go now".

The bus seemed to take forever to reach the ship, and when we pulled in, all the cones/barriers etc were gone, but we could see the gangway was still in place. We jumped off the bus and hustled towards the ship, made it up the gangway & thru the card scanner & we were aboard. The four of us, even though we had never known the other couple, went into a group hug, so relieved to having made it.

Several minutes later, the captain came over the speakers saying " we would like to welcome back Mr & Mrs somename who apparently have decided to join us, and we can now depart". We WEREN'T the LAST ones aboard after all that. We agreed 'NEVER AGAIN'. It's funny now, but it wasn't at the time. At Akaroa & Dundedin we made sure we were back early from our tours 🙂

[buchhalm]

The Caribbean with their itsy-bitsy island nations isn't a place where you'd want to miss the boat.

If you were to "do" that, a cruise up and down the coast of Italy would be the place. It would be annoying, but not a huge drama. The ports are SO close together that it would be easy to catch up. I guess even by bicycle you'd be in the next port earlier than the ship. (😉)

[muddles@sea]

We being  tightarses decided to catch a bus from Santiago to the port, about an hour's trip. First the taxii driver tried to drop us at a bus stop not the bus terminus. Eventually arrived with minutes tot spare. Getting along the motorway think should by be there in 

plenty of time. There was. a huge bus accident that held us up to nearly 90  minutes.

Arrived at the bus depot could see the ship but couldn't find the entrance nto the port, carting s carton of wine . Eventually some port worker pointed us in the right direction. Nearly an hour later than the departure, fortunately there was a Princess  bus caught up in the traffic jam. The photo taken wasn't flattering, very red and stressed😞

[valantine80]

We were on a Royal Caribbean cruise several years ago and left four people behind in Iceland. We had an overnight in Reykjavik and had a midday departure so they may have been confused re12pm departure. Ships there are on strict time slot so no waiting. Captain confirmed they were being well looked after by the port agent. That was our last port so they were returned to England.

 

[MMDown Under]

I did get left behind at a small port in Canada.  I saw passengers waiting for boat back to ship.  Decided to go to toilet nearby - big mistake!  When I came out I was surprised to see an empty wharf.  i don't know how the system failed as there should have been an unclaimed life jacket on the wharf.  A  fisherman on a boat called the pilot who came back and took me to the ship. By then the ship had identified that a passenger hadn't clocked on!

Wasn't as scary as the run along the pier in the Caribbean and boarding via crew quarters, in my youth!

[possum52]

While on a Saigon/Ho Chi Minh stop, having docked at Phu My, our ship's tour into the city was very late returning, it was well over an hour past the time we were due to sail. No-one on the coach was concerned, as we knew the ship would wait, well we hoped it would. We needn't have worried because as we turned into the port there was a line of coaches pulling in and within minutes more behind us. If I remember correctly, we were close to two hours late leaving by the time all the passengers boarded.

 

We were so pleased we chose to go on a Princess tour. 

 

[Gwendy]

In Cobh on WC three men had to run down the pier, they had been at Kelly’s Bar.  I was standing near one of their wives, she was ,less than impressed.

We were looking in the gift shop near where the ship was docked in Stockholm.  Two of the ship’s crew came and rushed us out, there was still 30 mins before we were supposed to board.  As we got into the lift the gangway came up and we were away.