Anyone ever seen anyone miss the boat?

[rangerdog]

Yes, we actually saw our ship (Splendor) leave with a mother and 2 teenage boys running down the pier towards the ship (Cozumel this past March). They continued pulling up the gangway and the ship backed away from the dock. There were LOTS of people up on deck watching this. The mother (who looked very drunk) and the 2 teenage boys were just standing there watching us leave, when an officer came up to them and told them something. We saw them walking back down the pier with the officers. Next thing we knew, the pilot boat arrived at our ship to pick up the pilot, and the mother and 2 teenage boys had to climb onto the ship, up a rope ladder. If you have ever had to board a tender in somewhat rough seas, then you KNOW how difficult and dangerous this was for them and the ship crew that were helping them. I'm sure they were for ever indebted to everyone that helped them. Moral of this story: Don't ever be late (or even close to late) when boarding at a port. They leave when they say they are leaving, period!!

[beachchick]

Okay, here's our story (it's not about being left behind; it's about the computer thinking you are about to be left behind). On Mariner this May, my DH wasn't feeling well and decided to skip the snorkeling we had planned for the morning. So my sister, BIL, and I went anyway. We got back to the ship about 11:15. They went off to the straw market, etc to window shop and such. I went onboard to check DH to see if he felt up to going out for a bit. He was not in the cabin (this is good--he must feel better). A check on the computer shows that he's off the ship.

 

So, I go off to meet sister and BIL for lunch. We have lunch, shop, wander, etc. and get back at 1:25 or so (1:30 back onboard w/ 2:00 departure). The computer says DH is still off the ship. This is odd as he's a fanatic about being on time and is paranoid about missing a ship departure.

 

At 1:50, he's still not onboard. I'm down at the gangway talking to ship's officers and getting rather freaked. My sister goes to our cabin and gets our passports, money, etc. from our safe just in case I have to step off and go find DH after the ship departs.

 

About 1:58, BIL comes running down to say the DH is onboard AND HAS BEEN SINCE 1:00! Apparently, there was a computer glitch when he reboarded and no one caught it. Of course, at this point I'm about ready to collapse in a little puddle of anxiety. DH even had to convince the security personnel that he was onboard. It was almost surreal. Phew!

 

Now here's the kicker: At 1:58 the computer showed 26 people not back on the ship. The ship sailed at about 2:02. I'm wondering how many of those pax were actually onboard and how many got left behind in Nassau?

 

What a day!

beachchick

[koolcruiser43]

I have heard rumors that if a ship leaves passengers in port they are charged a fine.

I do not know how true this is but the ships do seem to slow down or wait for late passengers most of the time.

[PGcruiser]

I am still laughing at all the funny stories. Not so funny for the people who missed their ship.

 

When we were in Tahiti we rented a car and went snorkling around the island of Moorea. We had stopped at a few isolated spots and our last spot was at one of the resorts. When we went to start the car to head back to the ship it would not start. Fortunately we were at a resort and could phone for help. The rental company was there within 20 minutes and we were given the car she was driving to go back to the ship. This could have been a horror story if we had been at one of the other locations that we snorkled that day.

 

We don't have a cell phone that worked in Tahiti. Does anyone know if telus cell phones work in Hawaii?

[madforcruising]

Well I haven´t been left behind and I´m on time always at least an hour before scheduled departure unless on a RCCL excursion. But there was a question about changes due to weather. I expierienced this almost in France. It was at the port of Villefranche and we had to tender there. On the way back to the ship (it was a RCCL Excursion) the tour guide got a little nervous about the weather. He mentioned that the wind frshed up and the tendering might get rough. He also mentioned that he hopes we would still be able to tender to the ship otherwise ha had to bring us to I think Marseille where the ship could dock to pick us up. It would have been a multi hour trip. Thanks got we reached the ship although it was a rough tender trip.

That opened my eyes to the tender ports and what could happen. Never thought about this before.

[Tide Pride]

We have not been left behind BUT we thought we would be left behind. We were on Vision of the Seas five years ago in Hawaii. We were in Maui for the day and rented a car to drive the " Road to Hana ". I don't recall the exact driving time but it is several hours. We were in a van with two other couples on the trip to Hana and between sightseeing, taking pictures and ' yacking ' we totally missed a sign posted on the highway on the bank of a hill stating that there was road construction later in the day and that the road would be closed until 4:00PM. We proceeded onto Hana and did sightseeing and had lunch and left around 12:45PM to return to the ship. Approximately 50 minutes into our return drive we encountered a road block with a highway patrol officer. There were bulldozers and dump trucks crossing the road and the officer informed us that the road was closed until 4:00 PM. Our ship was due to depart Maui at 5:30 and we would not have enough time to get to the ship if we waited until 4:00. The officer informed us that if we turned around and went back to Hana and drove straight through that the road would eventually take us back to the ship. However the road was " unimproved " and the rental car companies specifically prohibited driving on it in the rental contract. We had no choice but to try it.

It was the road from " H--". There were potholes, dirt areas, rocks all over the place, gravel spilled all over and in many areas no shoulders. In addition we had no idea how long it would take so we were forced into speeding. Off we went speeding, sliding, and kicking up huge clouds of dust. Several times I thought we were going to spin off the road and even worse slid off a cliff into the ocean. As we traveled we caught up with a convertible which was absolutely covered in a cloud of dust and as we caught up with it we recognized our ship's dining room waiter. This told us we were in serious trouble and the ship would not wait as he was flying also. After a harrowing ride we came to the airport and turned in the rental van ( absolutely covered in dust ) and caught a cab to the pier where we could tender to the ship. We got to the pier at 4:40 so we made it in time. However when we began this journey we did not know if we would make it or not. All we could imagine was the VOS sailing from Maui headed to Vancouver, Canada with us sitting on Maui with no luggage and no idea how to get back... It was pretty scary !

[Sea Island Lady]

We've seen this happen a couple of years ago. One of the hosts was on the same ship. (Grandeur) The brought the person out to the ship on the pilot boat. I was told the only reason they even did this was because her 12 year old child was on the ship. (This also begs the question, why was a 12 year old left on the ship alone while mom went scuba diving?)

 

Family of 14 - I would never advise people to take all their cc's, money, etc with them. That is far too risky. It should only be necessary to take some money, a cc and some form of ID.

 

Children are left in the children's programs all the time while the parents go on excursions. Nothing unusual about that. That's one of the perks of cruising... a child doesn't want to go with parents, the ship's staff watches the child.

 

After reading these horror stories here and before we do not want to be off somewhere without resources. We carry our cash, credit card and passports and insurance information (both cruise and personal) in my purse, that is strapped over my chest. We also take travelers checks and leave some in the safe (never the cash...don't trust those safes). You never know when you might have an accident or health problem and need the above things while you are away from the ship. No time to go back and get it. We saw many people returning to the ship injured from various shore excursions.

What we do leave in the safe are our copies. A copy of a passport will do you no good if you really ever need to show proof of citizenship. A copy is not valid. They are only helpful if you lose the original. We use to leave our credit card in the safe until we arrived at an excursion we had booked online. We thought we had paid for the excursion already with our card, but the operators wanted to run the card through the machine and had not already charged us (they just had the number). It took a long heated argument to get the operators to let us join the excursion without the card.

Did you all ever read the review about Carnival passengers that were left behind? It was titled "Lessons Learned the Hard Way." Now that was a story and includes parts where passengers didn't have enough money, no passports,etc. Unfortunately, it was deleted with the new board change over.

[PokrChick]

Last April on the Star Princess we had a front row seat on our balcony to watch a man and his approximately 6 year old board the ship from a coast guard boat! As we were pulling away from the pier, the captain got on the PA and announced that we'd be going slowly as we were waiting for a passenger and his son. When the boat caught up to us, they opened up the side of the ship where the gangway goes (conveniently located below and slightly to the left of our balcony :D ). After handing life jackets from the ship to the two passengers, they passed a line to the kid that was wrapped around his waist. After he was passed to the crew, the father climbed on board to lots of applause. We found out the next day that the kid had wandered off. (we were in Mexico) The mother went on the ship to double check he hadn't gotten on while the father stayed in port hoping to find the kid there. Thankfully they obviously did find him but I can only imagine the panic! :eek:

[DanielleBoswell]

This thread brings back some bad memories. We were stopped in St. Martin or St. Thomas (can't remember which one) for the day and we took a taxi over to the other side of the island. We spent a couple of hours at the beach and then got a taxi to head back for our ship. We had plenty of time and were going to actually spend some more time shopping in town before we boarded. Everything was going fine until monsoon rains starting coming down and we all of a sudden came to a stop on the main road. We waited and waited for a long time and no movement. We found out there was a major accident and the road would be shut down for quite a while. We started freaking out that we would not make it back to our ship, so the taxi driver said the only other option was to turn around and go the opposite way around the island. It was a much farther distance, but the only possible way we might be able to make our cruise. Anyways, we drove and drove and finally go to town, we had 5 minutes to spare. But.... there was a massive traffic jam in the city. So, we got out of the cab and ran the half mile down to the loading docks. We barely made it! That was horrible!

[kitty1]

Last year we were leaving St Maarten. They had the gang planks all pulled in, and these 2 women were running up the pier yelling wait wait..... They had bikini tops on and were running so fast they were falling out of their tops.... But they made it just in time.

 

 

I had a dream about missing the ship... Hope it doesn't come true.

[fajitapita]

When we were in Cozumel on the Explorer in '02, the captain came on over the PA system at dinner saying that the ship was not going to leave on time as SEVERAL passengers were getting back late from an RCI excursion to Tulum. (There's one reason to book your excursions with RCI- evidently the ship will wait for you!) Jeffrey Arpin, the CD, said they almost always seemed to leave a passenger or two in Cozumel due to extreme drinking going on at Carlos and Charlies...