Missed The Ship's Departure In Port ...

[cherski]

This has never happened to me, but considering Murphy's Law, someday it will.

 

Has anyone ever missed the ship while exploring a port on their own?

 

How did you re-connect with your cruise?

 

Did Celebrity do anything to help?

 

Did Travel Insurance cover anything?

 

Any tips (besides taking official ship's excursions) for being prepared for this eventuality?

 

Cher

[lougee1043]

yes people have missed their ships departure ---never me personally

the cruise line will help by NOT rebooking your cabin while you are on shore

you would have to check with your travel insurance company to see if this is covered

what you have to do is make it to your next port destination on your own--this usually entails flying to the next port at your own expense ---needless to say if you get stuck in this situation a credit card and passport would come in handy

[thomasale]

Happened to 2 people at the table behind me in St. Marteen. They flew home. I am glad to find out they do just leave if you are late. BTW the other people at the table were outraged that they would leave you.

[Danno]

One thing I like about cruise ships it that they do LEAVE...they can't be waiting for people who aren't responsible enough to make it back. Unfortuneatly there are some who get left behind through no doing of their own, but if the ship is supposed to sail at 6, it should sail at six.

[LovetheSea]

I have heard of passengers missing ports on independent tours. They broke down in a jeep far from the ship. A good reason to book through the cruise line.

Also it is important to know that sometimes the traffic can be a LOT heavier coming back to the ship than when you head out. What was a half hour taxi ride can now take an hour or more! Acapulco and St. Thomas come to mind. Be sure and give yourself PLENTY of time!

Take two watches. One couple missed the ship because her hubby's watched stopped while they were on a beach far away from the ship. Some cruise lines go by their own time not the time in port. This can also mess you up.

The closest I came to missing the ship was in St. Thomas. We were doing some last minute shopping in Havensight Mall. When we came out, there were no taxis or free shuttles! And we were the farthest ship on the dock. We had to run for it. The guys at the gangplank just shook their heads at us, and pulled it up right after we got on! Whew! Too close.

[Guest alexMD]

No, it's never happened to me.

 

But I have been on my balcony and seen the frenetic running and MORTIFIED looks of two or three groups of people who got to the pier in time to see the ship doing its graceful pirouette before it sets all engines ahead full.

 

Two of the three times, I saw the passengers have a heated discussion with some sort of port officicial, complete with a lot of hand waving. The passengers then boarded the pilot boat and were transported alongside the ship. They then had to make what I thought was a very precarious leap from the moving pilot boat to the moving cruise ship (no, the ship does NOT stop -- it didn't even slow down that much that I could feel). The dramas were acted out in front of a majority of the passengers, who were watching the scene with a lot of amusement, cheering, and catcalls.

 

The third time, the passengers were merely led away at the pier. They shared our butler, who had to pack their belongings and put them ashore at our final destination.

 

On the last trip, my butler said that our suite had been occupied by a couple who missed the ship in Cozumel after spending too much time shopping. They ended up flying directly to their home and their luggage was UPS'ed to them.

 

Although it is true that buying a ship's excursion will save you this fate, I still do most of my excursions on my own and keep track of time. Crew and agents ashore will be able to provide you with a very good estimate of return traffic, road conditions, and other useful advice.

[jcallcut]

I had one cruise Director tell me that if you missed the ship in port to make sure you have a camera because you will never get a better picture of the ship leaving port.

[NitaBcruising]

I had one cruise Director tell me that if you missed the ship in port to make sure you have a camera because you will never get a better picture of the ship leaving port.

Too funny! But, I never want that opportunity!!! :D

[Randyk47]

Have come close but never have missed the ship. It was our honeymoon and the one time I didn't go the day before the cruise almost turned out to be a disaster. First plane held in Huntsville, AL, because of weather. Missed the connection in Atlanta. Second plane from Atlanta had a mechanical problem after takeoff. Flew in circles for over an hour dumping fuel and then landed back at Atlanta. Third plane made it to Ft Lauderdale where HAL representative was jumping up and down and hollering we needed to run. This was my bride's first cruise and I'd made a big deal about walking onto the ship and being greeted then escorted to our cabin. No such luck as we boarded through one of the service hatches after waiting for a forklift to load fruit. Walked on and we're in the bowels of the ship. First person who spoke to us wanted to know how we got down there. Literally pushed us to an elevator.....so much for the grand entry. I suspect we were the last passengers on as the ship departed 20 minutes later and that was an hour or so after the scheduled departure. I have always thought they waited because we were flying using their arranged air and I'd called HAL several times to keep them abreast of our situation and progress. I think if I'd been on my own arrangements and/or hadn't kept them informed (they were working with us to find next best flights, etc) we'd been waving good-bye from the shore.

[deb18]

My dd and I took my two dd's on a cruise, then 18 and 19. They went on a cruise excursion snorkeling and we went to a different beach. We told them we would meet them onboard an hour before we sailed. We embarked about 2 hours before sailing and waited for them. Well when they were supposed to board they were no were to be found. We were waiting for them very anxiously. The captain then announced they were going back to get the final load of people and we were very upset. Were the kids on it. They had no $ (very little) no credit cards etc. Finally they were on the last tender coming in. They were mad at us and would not talk with us. They were worried about us missing the ship because their understanding was that we were to meet at the tender pier in Grand Cayman lol. They were waiting there for us all that time! Phew. deb :eek:

[TWELVEOHONE]

I have seen a crew member miss the ship. Waiter told us that when that happens he is considered fired. Once saw another crew member jump across teh water to the gangblank to the ship as it was being removed. I would estimate about 3 or 4 foot.

 

Ship will NOT wait for late passengers, therefore it is important to check time ship is scheduled to leave port and especially when all passengers must be on board. Many times this is NOT the same as what is printed in the brochure.

 

If you should get caught missing the ship you want to check in with the cruise lines representative in that port. Before leaving the ship they can tell you who it is and where they are located.

 

Of course the best advice is don't miss the ship. Recommendation as listed in previous post are right on target.

[cruisinjudy]

We almost missed the ship once in San Francisco, our departure port. We were taking our time seeing San Francisco before boarding the ship, figuring departure was at 5:00 as I had in my info. We got to the ship a little before 4:00 and boarded and went to our cabin. As we were looking around our new home for the next twelve days, the ship started moving.We wondered why! Turns out departure was at four not five. I was probably looking at the info we got from the TA when we paid our deposit and it must have changed. Thank heavens we didn't cut it closer and arrive at the ship at 4:15 or we would have been flying to Victoria!

[cruisintwinsmom]

Our driver in Naples said that a fellow guide got one of his passengers back to the ship too late and he, the guide, covered the passengers expenses. Apparently it was quite a hefty cost; our driver learned from that mistake and was determined that it would not happen to him! So, he starts from the fartherest point away from the dock and works his way back to ship.:)

[Amagamma]

We missed boarding our ship in Miami. We had a 7:00 flight out, and boarded on time and sat on the runway, asked to leave the plane, sat in the terminal several hours, and didn't leave Cleve until after 2:00 American was going to fly us to Miami, then to SanJuan, then to St Maarten the next day at our insistence. They paid for the hotels, (we told them which ones we wanted), food and taxis. Everyone was great. On Tues morning, we met the first tender as it pulled up, and then got on the ship. The people at Norwegian didn't have much to say, and although it wasn't their fault, it seemed like they could have done something, like maybe a small note or something to recognize that we missed 3 days of our cruise. We were in a suite also.

We did have a blast in St Maarten for 2 days, so it was a great cruise.

Hopefully, never have to miss one in port.

[babylene]

What happens if you take sea/air from the cruiseline and the plane doesn't get you there on time?

[nealberk]

Randy,

We had a similar situation. Needless to say, it was exciting.....

 

The ship WILL wait if you are on a ship sponsored tour and your tour is late getting back to the ship. The ship WILL NOT wait if you are on your own.

 

What is it like missing a ship. Got some great stories and pictures on my website http://www.celebrity-century.com on two different groups who almost missed the ship (actually one did and got carried out by the pilot boat).

[eileen & jay]

Certainly would not want it to happen to us. Guess you need to be constantly aware of the time in port and allow EXTRA time for getting back to the ship. Although, we have seen passengers just BARELY make it on board and can't understand why some people just seem to wait until the last minute to board.

[amopgmr]

The idea of missing the ship absolutely terrifies us.... that is why we always fly in the day before and why we are always plan our excursions to be back on board 2 hours before departure.

 

We haven't come close yet.... thank God.

[mahdnc]

Cherski,

 

We had a couple of friends 3-4 yrs ago that just arrived in Port Everglades in time to see the Horizon leave the pier! They (and others that were "in the same boat" so to speak) were herded onto a bus and they traveled overnight to get to Key West which was Horizon's 1st port of call.....

[joramrose]

On last month's Constellation cruise, my travelling companion and I were not booked on the same flights to London. She was to leave here three hours before me, and eventually arrive in Dover three hours before me.

 

But I got there first. And I was about to panic when the ship pulled out without her. Finally customer relations called me to say she would join the ship next day in France.

 

It seems her early flight out of Tulsa (OK) was scrubbed because of bad weather in Dallas, and the next flight would be too late for her to make connections to London. So they rebooked her at the airport to Chicago. Only that plane sat out on the end ofthe runway for hours for some ungodly reason. By the time she got to Chicago she had missed that flight. The airline sent her to an airport motel at midnight. Next morning they tried to put her on a London flight but she insisted it would arrive too late for the ship. So they rebooked her again to Miami to get a flight to Paris. Meantime she is talking to Celebrity headquarters and they promised to meet her in Paris and take her to Le Havre for the boat.

 

Only when she got to Paris, no transportation. Four hours later she finally finds a driver there to pick up someone else and convinces him to take her to LeHavre. She got there just as ship about ready to pull out, and they don't want to let her on the ship because she has no ID card. I think she was about ready to run over them and fight to board,but an officer came along, heard her story and let her on.

 

The captain sent her a nice note and gave her $100 shipboard credit for her ordeal. She was pretty spaced out for a couple of days.

 

 

In Germany I went with another couple in a rented car to a town about 100 miles away. We were having a great time until we got caught in a traffic jam, the mother of all jams. This was in the former Eastern Germany sector, and they are far behind there on building four lane roads. When we finally got on the autobahn back to our ship, we literally flew -- and made the last shuttle after turning in our car. We were already plotting our route if we had to drive to Poland, our next day's port of call.

 

Not that we needed to worry. The ship's tour to Berlin was four hours overdue, in part because a tree had fallen over the train tracks. We waited for them....700 passengers on that excursion.

 

love

joan

[clio]

What happens if you take sea/air from the cruiseline and the plane doesn't get you there on time?

 

We were on Grand Princess when a Ft. Lauderdale depature was delayed four hours because a group of Air/Sea passengers were on a flight from Cleveland that was seriously late. Don't know if Princess would have waited for just one or two people.

[davehau]

The chance of missing the ship while in a port-of-call also brings up the value of a)always carrying decent ID (including a photocopy of your passport, at least) and b) carrying some amount of emergency cash tucked away somewhere on your person. I usually carry at least enough to deal with any smaller emergency, such as having to pay a local with a decent boat to bring me out to the ship if it's still in sight (one with a marine radio works best, of course). I've seen folk have to hire a boat fast to do this more than once, and think $50 or $100 spent this way certainly beats trying to arrange flights home or to the next port. The cash can also come in handy if you accidently break some local law you didn't realize and face a fine, or simply knock over that "lovely" vase in a local store....

 

Dave

[stephy1]

We were in Bermuda and on the last day we were there, we foolishly decided to take the ferry to the dockyard. The return ferry broke down :eek: , so we had to scramble to catch a bus. The busses only take exact change, which we did not have. So we had to run into a gift shop and buy something, get the change and literally run to the bus. It was really, really hot, and we were sprinting! We managed to catch the bus and there were maybe 10 other people from our ship on the bus. He still had to make all his scheduled stops, and we were all biting our nails. I kept watching the time tick by. Fortunately we barely made it in time, I think we had 10 minutes to spare! I'll never do that again.

 

On our last Constellation cruise, we were docked in St Thomas at Havensight Mall. 15 minutes after we were scheduled to sail a golf cart type thing came driving up to the ship with 4 people in it waving and yelling "we're sorry!", clearly they were all drunk. I don't know why the ship waited for 4 people, but we did. The only thing I can think of is since our disembarkation port was San Juan we didn't have that far to go so it didn't really matter if we left late. Normally ships will not wait for a handful of passengers, unless they've taken a tour with the ship. Lots of people were out on their balconies watching this whole thing take place and most people were a little annoyed that we waited for four drunk people....didn't really bother me, I actually thought it was pretty funny to watch them stagger on board. :p

 

Stephanie

[lovingmom]

On the cruise compasses I have seen, they state all-aboard time is usually 30 minutes prior to the time the ship leaves the port. Does this mean the last time someone can walk through the ship's doors or the last time a tender would leave the port to go to the ship and the last time someone would be allowed to walk on the pier to the ship if docked at the pier?

[davehau]

On the cruise compasses I have seen, they state all-aboard time is usually 30 minutes prior to the time the ship leaves the port. Does this mean the last time someone can walk through the ship's doors or the last time a tender would leave the port to go to the ship and the last time someone would be allowed to walk on the pier to the ship if docked at the pier?

 

In ports where we tendered, there was actually two "last tender" times listed on the signs near the tendering points onship, one for the staff, and one for guests. This was the final time a tender would leave shore. When docked, the time indicated was the requested time for guests to be onboard -- as you say, about 30 minutes from departure.

 

Dave