Last Passengers on Board – they held the ship!

[Nancyquilts]

FASCINATING--But, what about all those other thousands of passengers who were looking forward to that scheduled departure time? Perhaps they had romantic events planned ? When you book a cruise, you sort of expect things to happen when the cruise line said it would. I would feel rather guilty about having deprived a few thousand people of their dreams and indeed, "fun"

If they are already on the ship, maybe they are already having "fun" or romantic events, or whatever. :D It seems rare nowadays when everything goes according to schedule. Nancy

[Toto2Kansas]

While I am glad they waited for you..........

 

I have seen plenty of people who board the ship in the next port who they did not wait for...... So I don't want to mislead people that the ship will always wait for people who are late.

 

I am so glad the OP did not miss their long awaited cruise, but I have to agree here, this is rare anymore, especially for only two people. The last time I saw them hold a ship for an hour was when almost 100 people had problems with their flight arriving.

 

Glad they held the ship for you, but don't count on something like this happening very often, as it really doesn't. You were very lucky this time, buy a lottery ticket. :) :)

[Crown Prince]

"We will never know and be able to thank all those who helped us, but were honored to hand a personal Thank You note to Captain Giorgio Pomata, who most certainly had to have been responsible for the decision to delay departure."

 

Thank you, Bob, for such a well-written saga of your adventure.

You are truly blessed :D

[Lynda90]

What a wonderful, heartwarming story. So glad it worked out well for you. I'm sure most people onboard were happy you made it and probably didn't really care that the ship didn't sail exactly on time. That's the way I would feel--if I'm on the ship--I'm a happy camper.

[vickie_bernie]

great to hear a positive story -- and some great tips to make things easier and to assist in case the worse happens.

[kikiwik]

i'm glad to hear you made the ship and had a great cruise. When did you luggage show up. Because is i read correctly you chose to leave the airport without it so you could make the ship. Which i would have done also.

[quincytoo]

Thank you for sharing that story with us !!! I am so glad it worked out for you!

[Times Prince]

I am so glad the OP did not miss their long awaited cruise, but I have to agree here, this is rare anymore, especially for only two people. The last time I saw them hold a ship for an hour was when almost 100 people had problems with their flight arriving.

 

Glad they held the ship for you, but don't count on something like this happening very often, as it really doesn't. You were very lucky this time, buy a lottery ticket. :) :)

We have no doubt we were extremely fortunate this time. It was amazing to see all the pieces come together, and all the communications really having an effect, but also somewhat comforting to know we had a backup plan available, as Princess really didn't have to delay for us. But they did !

 

Lottery ticket? I think we used up any luck on this one.

 

Thanks everyone for your comments so far - we had a fantastic cruise, and you better believe we were on board early at every other port !!! :D

[JLC@SD]

Flights were from Austin TX to Atlanta GA, connecting there to Fort Lauderdale, scheduled arrival at 2:38PM. Plenty of time to make a 5:00 PM sailing, right?

 

...my response would be nope......:)

 

I would never cut it that close.......the plane just needs to be delayed a couple of hours to miss the ship.

 

Glad you able to make it and everything worked out......and you post has many valuable tips.....thanks.....:)

[DeltaOne]

Thanks everyone for your comments so far - we had a fantastic cruise, and you better believe we were on board early at every other port !!! :D

Great story, thanks for posting it. My take-away lesson is to arrive at the departure port two days early, instead of one. ;-)

[bhopal21]

Great story, thanks for posting it. My take-away lesson is to arrive at the departure port two days early, instead of one. ;-)

 

My lesson is to continue to book my own flights and not rely on Princess or anyone else to be in charge of my scheduling. It just works better for me.:)

 

Mike:)

[Coral]

...my response would be nope......:)

 

I would never cut it that close.......the plane just needs to be delayed a couple of hours to miss the ship.

 

That was my initial thinking also. That is too close to comfort for me.

[bookworm1]

Glad you made it. At one point, some ship officials referred to you as longshoremen. that problem at the front gate to port everglade had been going on all day. there were something like 9 liners in port that day. I know it took us amost 30 minutes to go a quarter mile. Broward county will figure it out some how.

Michael and Jeralyn

[noblepa]

I'm one of the (apparently) few people who reads all of the information in the cruise documents or pre-cruise information package. I specifically search for those phone numbers and put them in the speed-dial directory of my cell phone, along with the reservation numbers for all of the airlines involved.

 

I also put the numbers for my credit card companies, so if a cc is lost or stolen during the trip, I can quickly call and cancel the card.

 

On a cruise on the HAL ship Veendam out of Tampa a few years ago, we flew in from Cleveland the same day. There was a line of thunderstorms that extended from Savannah to Pensacola. The flight controllers were not allowing any planes to cross the line. In effect, Florida was closed. Fortunately (???) for us and a lot of other passengers, Tampa Bay was fogged in and the ship was five hours late arriving from the previous cruise. We finally made it aboard at about 5:30. The scheduled sailing time was 5:00. They began announcing that they were holding the ship because there were quite a few passengers whose flights were delayed even longer than ours. We finally sailed at 8:30. They held the muster drill the next day, at sea.

[Jesterscourt]

In most ports (at least in some foreign countries), the cruise line has to pay thousands of dollars to the port if they don't leave at the scheduled time. We missed our ship in Hamburg, Germany, by 2 minutes (our fault) several years ago and Celebrity had an apprentice drive us in a small Toyota racing along the canal of one the world's biggest ports trying to keep up with our departing ship. We then boarded a tugboat that went alongside the moving ship as it raced out of the harbor and climbed onto a rope ladder into the cargo hold of the ship as thousands of passengers watched in awe. Lesson number one: always leave time for getting lost! And don't try to do too much in 1 day.........

[wrongwaywatson]

I have to agree with the poster who said that 2:38 pm is cutting it to close in the first place.

 

Let me say, first off, that I'm happy for you that it worked out well, but I think a requisite for waiting for a delayed passenger should be that their scheduled flight is set to arrive no later than 11:00 am. But, I am glad for you!

[Familycruzer11]

Adding my thanks for posting this great story and very glad to see your happy ending. I am curoius as to how you got your luggage (did the rep wait for it and shuttle it right over?).

 

What would have happened if the luggage didn't make it - would it be sent it to the first port?

 

Just wondering... It is nice that you didn't have to worry about it!

[Northshorecruisers]

I just scanned this thread, but don't see this mentioned anywhere.

The reason the ship waited was because you purchased your air and travel insurance through Princess. Had you purchased those items on your own, the ship would have left on time and you would have had to make arrangements to get to the next port.

Although it's usually very expensive to book these items through the cruise line, this is one instance it paid off.

[Toto2Kansas]

I just scanned this thread, but don't see this mentioned anywhere.

The reason the ship waited was because you purchased your air and travel insurance through Princess. Had you purchased those items on your own, the ship would have left on time and you would have had to make arrangements to get to the next port.

Although it's usually very expensive to book these items through the cruise line, this is one instance it paid off.

 

I totally disagree with this idea. Honestly, you are not guranteed the ship will wait for you even if you purchased your flights and insurance through Princess. It is an old myth that just doesn't seem to want to die. And many read responses like this and think they will hold the ship for them no matter what happens and then are furious when their flights are late and the ship sailed without them, it just isn't true in most cases. Princess will assist you in catching up with the ship, but they will not necessairly hold the ship until you get there. Lots of different things come into play here when they hold up a ship, and booking Princess air and insurance are at the bottom of the list.

[spingal]

Wow!!! WHAT A GREAT STORY!!!!!!!!!! It is so nice to hear something wonderfully positive about Princess!!! :D

[curiouscat]

Yes, we were waiting for times prince at Outriggers for sailaway meet and greet and every ship kept sailing away except us:D It was one ship after the other sailing away till it was dark and the seafood buffet called our names.....

 

What an experience.... I'm sure it was cheaper and easier to get ya then to fly you to st.thomas put up hotels etc.

 

 

and as an atlantan we all know Delta/atlanta airport bad combo for connections.... 2:38 is way too late... I would question your TA

You may not be so lucky next time:eek:

 

CuriousCat

[DeltaOne]

The reason the ship waited was because you purchased your air and travel insurance through Princess.

I don't see how that could be correct. The only reason the ship waited was because they could -- they obviously had enough time to wait and still make the scheduled arrival at the first port.

 

Suppose someone with Princess insurance was a day late? Would they wait? Of course not. At some point, even if Princess is footing the bill to fly someone to the next port, it makes sense for the ship to leave.

 

Besides, I expect Princess insurance isn't underwritten by Princess -- they're simply reselling insurance they've purchased. Princess could care less if that insurance company takes a hit.

[Times Prince]

I think it should be clear - one should never expect a ship to be held for you if you are late. That's what made this whole experience such a Great Customer Experience for us. We honestly did not expect Princess to do this.

 

At no point did anyone explain to us the rationale and/or decision factors engaged for actually delaying the ship, so we cannot comment more definitively on them. Whether it was our use of the Princess system, our cruise history, a simple swap of departure order, factors having nothing to do with us, or divine intervention we will never know. Joanne and I are just thankful they did, and wanted to share some of the lessons learned that made the experience less stressful for us - and maybe for some of you in the future.

 

Thanks for all the great feedback! We really appreciate the well wishes.

 

Bob

Adding my thanks for posting this great story and very glad to see your happy ending. I am curoius as to how you got your luggage (did the rep wait for it and shuttle it right over?).

 

What would have happened if the luggage didn't make it - would it be sent it to the first port? Just wondering... It is nice that you didn't have to worry about it!

We believe the Princess reps at the airport snagged our luggage and probably transported it by car to the cruise terminal. They had the description and, as I mentioned, looked for the Emerald Princess tags. All we saw when our luggage arrived was the luggage sitting on the ship by the gangway and a uniformed person disappearing down the ramp toward the shore. Likely it was the same fellow we met briefly at the airport by the carousal. I didn't catch his name.

 

If the luggage hadn't made it, we were told it would have been forwarded to the ship at St. Thomas. Princess Cays was our first stop.

 

Yes, we were waiting for times prince at Outriggers for sailaway meet and greet and every ship kept sailing away except us :D. It was one ship after the other sailing away till it was dark and the seafood buffet called our names.....

 

What an experience.... I'm sure it was cheaper and easier to get ya then to fly you to st.thomas put up hotels etc.

 

and as an atlantan we all know Delta/atlanta airport bad combo for connections.... 2:38 is way too late... I would question your TA

You may not be so lucky next time:eek:

CuriousCat

After reading about port costs on CC we were sure any delay would be more expensive to Princess than using the Travel Care Gold coverage. That's part of our amazement at what happened.

 

It wasn't the TA that assigned the flights, it was Princess Air. We didn't have a choice, and thought as many did that 2:38 was a little too close for comfort, but coming due east we didn't expect weather issues, and really didn't have any bad weather for our flights. It was the lack of crews from flights originating from the north that hurt our schedule.

 

You better believe it we always try to book flights the day before - it just didn't work this time.

[Silvara7]

What a great story! I was seriously feeling stressed at the thought of all you went through to get to the ship while reading it. I'm glad to hear Princess did so well by you. It could have come out so much worse.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

What a great story with a happy out come. I have to admit I cheered reading you post:) And to have your luggage get on board as well, that almost brought tears to my eyes. That is so great.

Now granted I like to make sure that my arrival time to the city I am leaving at is in the morning because we like to be one of the first on the ship but to be honest I have never been upset over the ship leaving late. I disagree with the poster who commented

FASCINATING--But, what about all those other thousands of passengers who were looking forward to that scheduled departure time? Perhaps they had romantic events planned ? When you book a cruise, you sort of expect things to happen when the cruise line said it would. I would feel rather guilty about having deprived a few thousand people of their dreams and indeed, "fun"!

 

I disagree that anyone was upset over departing late. Out of 16 cruises at least 10 of those cruises did not leave on time, one left as late as 7 hours late out of FLL and not once was I upset for not leaving on time. I think this is a very heart warming story that I am sure made for this to be a start to a great Christmas cruise. I for one am glad to hear stories such as this.