Another one...

[Sinbadssailors]

Really tired of these "stranded passengers" stories.  

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/cruise-passengers-stranded-norwegian/index.html

Edited May 1 by Sinbadssailors
Link

[Ellis1138]

It's funny that it's getting so much news coverage these days. But maybe word will spread that if you do an independent excursion, aim to be back an hour before all aboard, just in case of delays. Also take a day or 2 of important medicines, necessary items and passport with you. I also always (even for non-cruise vacations) bring a list of all the Plan B places and what to do if the original plans are awry.

 

But they got back to the ship, which is a happy ending.

[UKstages]

this one is a little different, in my opinion.

 

yeah, they booked an independent excursion. mea maxima culpa.

 

but, here, i would side with the couple. they notified the ship they were running late and indeed they arrived very shortly after scheduled departure. if i read it correctly, just ten minutes.

[bluesea777]

Sorry to say .... if the couple say they're experienced cruisers/travellers with 30 cruises under their belt, it seems they need to learn a very important lesson .... take their Freestyle Daily with them or at least take a photo of the Port Agent Information section of the first page of the Daily. This is the first person to contact if you're running late as this person knows who to contact on the ship. And this person would stay on dock to meet with late arrivals and offer assistance where needed.

 

In this case, according to the news report the couple got back to the dock and looked around and there were noone there.

 

 

[Laszlo]

While the ship sailed away with Claudene’s medication, Richard’s eyeglasses and both their spare hearing aid batteries and phone chargers on board.

 

Their is a reason why I carry a small backpack with me whenever we do an excursion for the day.

 

Med's.... check

Sunglasses, eyeglass.... check

Hearing Aid batteries not needed

Phone charger.... check

[Two Wheels Only]

45 minutes ago, UKstages said:

but, here, i would side with the couple. they notified the ship they were running late and indeed they arrived very shortly after scheduled departure. if i read it correctly, just ten minutes.

 

"Norwegian Cruise Line said it disputed the time of the couple’s arrival at the pier. 'The two guests who went ashore independently arrived at the pier approximately an hour late and missed the all-aboard time of 5:30 p.m. local time, for a sail away at approximately 6:00 p.m.,' a spokesperson said via email."

 

It's a case of "he said/she said" as to the actual amount of time that they were late.

 

Does that mean 6:30p or was it 6:10p?

 

To me, 10 minutes late means 5:40p so I guess that's why I don't miss my ship, my plane, my train,.....etc.

[julig22]

At one Q&A session (after we'd had pier runners the previous day), the captain explained how it works - at least how he handles it. First and foremost, CONTACT THE SHIP!  Which means contact the Port Agent. If they know you are late they will advise you on what to do. If they don't know why you aren't onboard they will most likely leave without waiting.  But it also depends on the port. Sometimes they just can't wait - there may be other ships waiting for the dock and/or channel, changing tides, or an already short time to make it to the next port.  And there are reasons that all aboard is 30 minutes prior to sail time. They have manifests to complete, gangways to disengage, etc.

 

As to contacting your friends 15 minutes after all-board time- maybe, maybe not. Once they knew they were going to be delayed, they should have called, even if they thought they still might make it to the ship on time.

[hallux]

I'm not sure how this matters to the current situation - “Never before have we ever missed catching a ship on time at a port. So we are not someone who abuses the system.”

 

The ship doesn't know if they're on-time people or habitual 'offenders'.  They took a risk, they calculated incorrectly, they eventually got back to the ship.  I have to wonder if the cruise line somehow had incorrect contact information for them as there were allegedly several attempts made to contact them.  

[zqvol]

I hope this doesn’t go on for dozens of pages like the Africa mess. These guys just messed up

[Asawi]

At least this is a little bit less of a sob story that the recent Dawn/Africa one. 
 

[kitkat343]

 

36 minutes ago, hallux said:

 “Never before have we ever missed catching a ship on time at a port. So we are not someone who abuses the system.”

The ship doesn't know if they're on-time people or habitual 'offenders'.  They took a risk, they calculated incorrectly, they eventually got back to the ship. 

 

Right.  It's not about abusing the system.  It's about the fact that sometimes the ship has some slack in its schedule and can wait for latecomers and other times (port schedules, tides) there is no slack in the system.  I hope that a ship will wait for passengers when it can, but when they can't they need to go.  I only take ship tours when I can't avoid them, and if I ever miss the ship on a private excursion it will be my responsibility and I will understand they can't always wait for me (or anyone else) if its the first time or the 100th time I'm late.

 

 I was only late once on my first cruise (the tour operator chose to wait for a family that was late instead of starting our tour on time, and was calling the ship tours operators as we were out to gauge how much time we had to return.  The ship tours were running late too, so they weren't holding the ship for us (we returned late but before the ship tours), but if we had missed the ship it would have been our fault.  We travel with kids now, so we book private tours for just our family and return with plenty of time to spare so barring an emergency this should never happen again to us but if it does, it will be our responsibility to meet the ship at the next port or make our way home.

[Asawi]

This story is a great reminder to
 

- Don't leave without your medication or other necessary aids.
- Make sure that the ways to contact you and/or your emergency contact that you give during checkin are ones that actually work!

(I know that I myself have been guilty of giving out my regular cell phone number, but then had my phone in flight mode in international locations. I do however also, if possible, give my email that I can access as long as I have internet connection. Hopefully I'd be smart enough to put my phone off flight mode in a situation like this and eat the roaming charges. But I can't swear I would be that together if really stressed out.)

[Jordan61]

“They looked around and they looked around and no one was there,” Marilee Barker, the couple’s Utah-based daughter, told CNN by phone. They got a taxi to the police station where “the policeman helped them call back to the dock. And they said, ‘there’s nothing we can do.’ ”

 

This sounds like they were way later than just 10 minutes.

[JandC_Cruising]

4 hours ago, UKstages said:

this one is a little different, in my opinion.

 

yeah, they booked an independent excursion. mea maxima culpa.

 

but, here, i would side with the couple. they notified the ship they were running late and indeed they arrived very shortly after scheduled departure. if i read it correctly, just ten minutes.

Sorry, have to disagree...they arrived 40 minutes late.   All on board was 5:30.  They arrived at 6:10

 

They failed to call their relative until 5:45pm....15 minutes after all on board..At best, that call was placed 15 minutes late.  Why didn't they call the ship, port, relative much earlier?

They knew they were running late well before the all on board time since the rainstorm delayed their bus by "over an hour".  They must have known way earlier they wouldn't get back to the ship by the 5:30 all on board posting.  They failed to take any action at that point.  

 

This is all on the couple.  

 

[CruiseMH]

There are many reasons why a ship can`t wait, no matter if they were contacted well in time or not. But asides all the good reasons every cruise line has the right o say " we left on time because we can and want to".

There does not have to be a valid or good reason why they have to leave or can wait.

They don`t have to give a reason for not waiting.

 

 

[yakcruiser]

I went from Motril to Granada on a private tour this time last year. There were many NCL buses doing the same excursion. If their bus (two people) was held up by the rainstorm, why weren't the NCL buses held up?

[Buford T Justiice]

The article's title should read " 85 year olds abandoned by friends and family in Montril, Spain"

Edited May 1 by Buford T Justiice

[blackwing]

14 minutes ago, Buford T Justiice said:

The article's title should read " 85 year olds abandoned by friends and family in Montril, Spain"

Agreed.  This couple was travelling with friends and family.  Why didn't any of the friends or family go with them on this private excursion?  Why didn't any of the friends or family call them to check in on them to make sure they were back onboard?  Why didn't they call any of the friends or family earlier?

 

The man claims their bus was delayed an hour and that they arrived at the pier at 6:10.  So if all had gone as originally planned, he planned on arriving at the pier at 5:10.  For a 5:30 all aboard time.  He says they are experienced cruisers, he should know that's cutting it a little close and that things can happen.  

 

If he planned on a 5:10 arrival knowing that the ship wouldn't actually leave until 6, then that to me is an example of him trying to abuse the system by building in those 30 minutes to his plans.

[UKstages]

reading this thread, i'm reminded how wise it is to take a break from cruise critic every now and again. y'all are brutal and unforgiving and strict constitutionalists... when you want to be.

 

what i said was they arrived just ten minutes after scheduled departure time. and indeed they did... according to them. NCL disputes that. but what they dispute is the arrival time of the couple to the pier... not the time they called and notified the ship (through a surrogate). so the real question is... how long should a cruise line wait when two delayed passengers make a good faith effort to notify the ship that they're late? 

 

we can argue all we want about whether they should have called the port agent themselves, but there is no denying that the ship was notified of their delayed arrival to the pier before the scheduled departure time.

 

according to the article, NCL says they arrived "approximately" an hour late... that would mean 6:30, since they were supposed to be there at 5:30. but that is - according to NCL - an approximation! the couple says they were there at 6:10. maybe they were, maybe they weren't. NCL says they were there at "approximately" 6:30. let's split the difference and call it 6:20. twenty minutes seems to me to be a reasonable delay... so does a half hour, quite frankly. it's the captain's decision and i'm not the captain, but i would have held the ship for twenty minutes. yeah, the couple screwed up. spank them and reprimand them. and don't give them a window table in the MDR. i hope it never happens to you. (missing the ship that is... not the window table snub.)

 

this isn't the africa thing! no comparison. they didn't wait long at the pier at all.  there was little doubt that the passengers would arrive in due time. there was no danger of a band of errant pirates trying to board the ship long after it departed.  in any case, it is in NCL's nature to dispute almost everything when a customer raises a concern. have any of you guys ever read virtually any other thread on cruise critic?

 

as for taking a photo of the port agent's contact info. i do that. a lot of people do that. that is wise. this couple is in their 80s. not to be ageist, but they may be luddites using flip phones. everybody likes to "translate" the experience of others into their own personal experience. taking a photo of the port agent's info works for me... for whatever reason, they didn't do it. it doesn't make them bad people. i'd say contacting the ship fifteen minutes after all aboard and fifteen minutes before scheduled departure is pretty darn good for a couple in their 80s.

 

i don't think anyone should ever miss the all aboard call. there is virtually no excuse for it.

 

but stuff happens.

 

walk a mile in another 85-year-old man's moccasins, why doncha?

[RocketMan275]

3 minutes ago, UKstages said:

according to the article, NCL says they arrived "approximately" an hour late... that would mean 6:30, since they were supposed to be there at 5:30. but that is - according to NCL - an approximation! the couple says they were there at 6:10. maybe they were, maybe they weren't. NCL says they were there at "approximately" 6:30. let's split the difference and call it 6:20. twenty minutes seems to me to be a reasonable delay... so does a half hour, quite frankly. it's the captain's decision and i'm not the captain, but i would have held the ship for twenty minutes. yeah, the couple screwed up. spank them and reprimand them. and don't give them a window table in the MDR. i hope it never happens to you. (missing the ship that is... not the window table snub.)

Lot of handwaving trying to create an excuse.   No reason to 'split the difference'.  They were an hour late, not 10 or 20 minutes.  They were supposed to be back at 5:30, not 6:00, not 6:10 or 6:20. 

[BirdTravels]

7 hours ago, Sinbadssailors said:

Really tired of these "stranded passengers" stories.  

 

https://www.cnn.com/travel/cruise-passengers-stranded-norwegian/index.html

If you are really tired, why post them?  Sucks to be them, but they were late and got left behind. Good on the ship and captain for not screwing up 3000 other people’s vacations for people who can’t be on time. 
 

From the story, they would have barely made all aboard time if they were not delayed. Pretty poor planning on their part. An “ experienced traveler would not have made that stupid mistake. 
 

I suspect that this is a lot of CNN fake news Sensationalization and click bait. 

Edited May 1 by BirdTravels

[Sinbadssailors]

Tired of the media.

 

Ships don't wait for independent excursions.  That's never been a thing. 

[Jordan61]

Finally got around to reading the whole article. It sounds like the ship was late to leave a couple of ports so I guess they thought getting back late wasn't a big deal.

 

“Our cruise began in Lisbon and we departed from Lisbon about one and a half hours after the scheduled departure at 4:00 p.m.,” Gordon told CNN. “Then the next night or two, at least a half-hour late from the dock, so it is clear that they do not always leave on the exact moment scheduled.”

[hallux]

13 hours ago, UKstages said:

not the time they called and notified the ship (through a surrogate)

An interesting thought on this - they called their family on board at 5:45, but how long did it take THEM to contact 'authorities' on the ship?

[KeithJenner]

8 hours ago, Jordan61 said:

Finally got around to reading the whole article. It sounds like the ship was late to leave a couple of ports so I guess they thought getting back late wasn't a big deal.

 

“Our cruise began in Lisbon and we departed from Lisbon about one and a half hours after the scheduled departure at 4:00 p.m.,” Gordon told CNN. “Then the next night or two, at least a half-hour late from the dock, so it is clear that they do not always leave on the exact moment scheduled.”

We were late leaving Lisbon because the port were so slow in checking passports before letting people into the terminal building and then getting the luggage onboard. I didn’t notice us being particularly late to leave either Gibraltar or Cádiz. Of course, if they have been on 30 cruises then they shouldn’t have needed those two ports to know that ships don’t always leave on time.

 

The strangest bit of the story for me is their bus getting caught up for an hour due to the weather. If it was any sort of excursion bus then why were they the only ones to miss the ship. In addition I have talked to a few people who went into Granada and nobody has mentioned anything about any weather problems.

 

Not saying they are lying, but it doesnt quite tie in with what I have seen or heard. It could also be inaccurate reporting by the journalist.

Edited May 2 by KeithJenner