Will the ship leave port without you ??? What do you think???

[Bonnie J.]

When you hear them calling passengers to the purser's desk just before you are supposed to leave, those are the passengers who didn't get back on board. they calling to make sure they're not on board and the ship will not wait for them. We go back to only showing your ship's ID so they had no way of knowing if all were back. Back then...... you gave your ID to your buddy who gave it to another buddy to get on board with YOUR ID- who was then a stowaway ! No pictures back then!

[wwinfl91]

I have definitely seen a ship leave passengers. It happened on a stop in Key West. Everyone was back on board except for the 6 passengers whose names they began announcing. Suddenly a couple came running dock the far dock area, the husband ahead of the wife although he finally stopped and decided to help her make it the rest of the way to the ship. They continued calling out the names of another couple and two ladies names right up until the ship pulled away from the dock. So I can only assume that 4 people got left in Key West. I guess if you have to miss a ship that is probably the best place to get left as at least you are in the USA. Several other times we have been on ships where the same kind of announcements were made and we later heard rumors that someone had heard those people had not made it back to the ship. The only other time we saw a couple running up as the ship was getting ready to leave and names were being announced was in Kusadasi Turkey when a young couple came running along the long dock and made it to the ship as they were getting ready to pull in the crew ramp. We usually try to be on one of the upper decks when we leave a port to be able to take pictures and also to see if anyone else comes runing up to the ship. Luckily it has never been us. We have been on a ships tour in Mexico that got back late but there were a whole busload of us (turned out to be 3 busloads) and we were relatively sure that since it was a HAL sponsored tour they wouldn't leave without us. We ended up leaving port almost an hour later than we were supposed to.

That is the biggest advantage I can think of for taking ships tours as opposed to private ones.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[Luvcrusin']

Oh, YES, they do leave passengers behind!! We just returned from a Princess cruise to the Eastern Caribbean and when we where in St. Maarten they began announcing several passengers names over & over & over. The last night on the ship (2 days later) we met the 7 young men that where "left behind" and it took them 3 airplane trips to get back onto the ship!! I would guess it cost them (or their parents) more $$ to return to the ship than the cruise cost them!! :eek:

 

The moral is: PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT TIME THE SHIP WILL DEPART & DON"T BE LATE!!

[Queenk2]

Years agog we were on a Princess ship that visited Costa Rica...way befroe it became a popular place. We took an excursion run by the cruiseline that included abusues and a "bullet" train through the jungle. This was the first time that Prncess had included this top and I imagine the first time they dealt with this tour operator. Low and behold our 6 hour tour became 14 hours. The cruise ship did wait as we were over 200 people on this tour. We had a fabulous day..the pasengers waiting cheered as the buses pulled onto the dock!

[tigerlilycruiser12]

During one of my sailings to Bermuda, a couple was left behind and the pilot boat brought them to the ship as the ship was not out of the harbor yet. Boy was that a sight as they were trying to get on to the ship from the pilot boat. :eek: The crew lowered down to the pilot boat about 5 pizzas for there trouble.

[MrsPete]

Seems almost worth the extra $$ you pay to take excursions thru the cruise line. I sure wouldn't want to be left. It would be our responsibilitiy to get to the next port which could be your return port and all your money is onboard in your cabin! EEK! Your kids could even be on the ship!! I couldnt leave mine onboard because they are too young but some people do. I keep weighing the pros and cons of booking excursions on my own or not. This thread just might help me make up my mind!!I much prefer on-our-own excursions. They're much less expensive, but the main reason is that I do not enjoy being part of a herd of people. With a ship excursion, you'll be unable to stop in at a cute little shop, and you'll have to wait while the entire group stops at a place that doesn't interest you.

 

In some cases, however, the ship's excursions make sense. For example, to see the ruins near Cozumel you must take a bus, then a ferry ride (and the transportation time is something like 2 hours one way). That's risky -- too many things can happen, and I don't speak Spanish well, nor do I see any possible "back up plan" if the transportation were to fail. But that's the exception rather than the rule -- most shore activities are very do-able on your own.

 

Don't worry about missing the boat. Instead, use that energy for planning: Make sure every member of your group has a good watch, double check the ship's time with the crew member who processes your seapass as you leave the boat, and make sure you know when the ship's leaving. Have a cell phone and the ship's phone number with you, and be sure that you know your transportation plans (and have plenty of money). Keep your group together -- you know, common sense stuff. Most importantly: don't cut it too close.

[MrsPete]

New question:

 

Is it safe to assume that trip insurance would not pay for a person who was left behind on an island due to his own negligence?

[happysinglemom]

I would not think that the cause would matter - that is why you are paying the insturance - to cover those unexpected things. But....I really don't know....:confused:

[Schplinky]

I have seen it happen twice in Cozumel, too much partying at Carlos `N Charlies I think!! This is a good reason to have a passport, if you are left behind, and you have to get to the next port, or home under your own steam, try showing your drivers license to a foreign airline!! Carry a copy of your passport when off the ship....jean :cool:

 

In this situation, a copy of your passport is worthless (you could have made it on PhotoShop). Better to have the real thing. You leave the copy in your room safe for if you lose your passport and need the info to get it replaced.

[traveller99]

Hi, Schplinky. Good answer. I kinda keep wondering about why folks want to carry the copy. I have said the same thing that you did, many times. The response is ..."what if it's stolen or I lose it." Like you said, that's why the copy is in a safe place. Do people carry a copy of the credit cards, driver's license or other ID? I think not. You safeguard your passport, just like these other items that you carry.

Semper Vigilans - Always Vigilant

[jean s]

I recently booked an Alaska cruise with Princess. I also booked two morning deep sea fishing trips. My dh is determined to fish, fish, and fish some more. Anyway I saw a jeep tour to the Yukon (ship sponsored) and thought we should book it for a change from fishing. The tour is quite long and goes to a remote area. It actually goes from Alaska to Canada. Well just to make myself comfortable I called Princess to be positive that the ship would wait if we were delayed on a ship sponsored tour. I was told no! Now after reading the quote on this board I plan on calling Princess again to have this clarified. :confused:

[Capt_BJ]

'twas about 1987 when I was Operations Officer on board a Coast Guard Cutter on duty in the Caribbean. We were on a R&R stop in Cozumel. I was standing on the bridge watching the cruise ship that had shared our pier, depart at about 6pm (1800 for you sailors). She had just started to come up to speed having cleared the pier when I looked down from the bridge and saw a woman running down the pier. She got about half way down the pier, stopped, and dropped her shopping bags. Then just stood there....

 

I called down, "excuse me, is there a problem?"

"My husband and kids are on that boat....." :eek:

 

"Hold on a minute..."

 

I called the cruise ship on the bridge to bridge radio, "I have one of your passengers here."

 

They agreed to slow down to minimum speed. I rounded up a crew for our rescue boat, lowered it to the water, loaded up Ms Shopper and waved goodbye as the cox'n and crew made a special delivery. The ship lowered a rope ladder and we passed her and her bags up to the cheers of all on board.

 

I don't know for sure, but I think somewhere out there is a cruiser with a great story and I hope an appreciation for the boys of the USCG :cool:

 

I sure felt good about it and so did my guys. Having the duty was seldom as much fun!

[QueensChick]

Kudos to the US Coast Guard. I'm sure she is eternally grateful.

[Correia_Cruiser]

Coasties rock! :D

 

Here's a question... I booked an excursion that is offered through Carnival, but I booked it directly through the excursion company instead (discounted). However, I know one of my shipmates booked through Carnival for this same excursion. If he and his wife are the only people on that excursion, wouldn't the ship (technically) have to wait for them if we got back late? So... as long as I got off the excursion ahead of them, wouldn't the ship have to wait for me as well?:cool:

[jnc411]

Yes they will leave passangers behind. I have seen it happen at three different times, once in Matzalan, once in Acapulco and once in Punteranas Costa Rica. These folks must not have been on Ships excursions because they were left standing as the ship sailed off. The gang plank did not go back down for them , nor did the ship go back to the dock. If you are going to do your own excursions , be back on time, or get left behind. If you do ships excursions it is my understanding that they will wait for you, don't have any personal experience with this. Would hate to be standing there watching the ship sail off into the sunset without me. :(

Cori

[Fila]

Bump it up to new experiences.

[wrp96]

When we visited Grand Cayman, we had booked 2 excursions through the ship, an island tour in the morning and the stingrays in the afternoon. We were told that we had plenty of time between the 2 excursions. Well, the 1st excursion was only supposed to last 2 hours but ended up lasting 3. In the meantime, it had started pouring rain. When we got back to the pier, we had about 15 minutes until our Stingray excursion was supposed to leave. It was a madhouse at the pier because many of the excursions had been cancelled because of rain. Ours hadn't been cancelled - it had left 30 minutes earlier without us, along with several other people. The cruise line threw us onto another excursion offered by the same company, but never bothered to take a list.

 

We were still at Stingray City at the time the last tender was supposed to get to the ship. The only thing that was keeping us from completely panicking was there were a few people on our excursion that were actually on the excursion they had booked. When the bus got back to the pier, we all ran to catch the tender (the ship should've already left). They had held one tender for us, we got on along with the shore staff and the equipment, including all the signs. As the tender left the dock, we saw several groups of people running up and waving but we didn't go back. The ship left just after we got on board, although a couple of the people managed to get a boat out to the ship. We found out at dinner that night that our names had been called out repeatedly on the ship just before it left.

[michmike]

For those considering doing excursions on your own, I wouldn't let these horror stories deter me. The key is in knowing when to do an excursion on your own and when to take the ships tours.

 

If you are going quite a distance from the port or it is an excursion that will take the better part of the day you are in port, then you're generally better off doing the ship's tour. But for local sightseeing, or a snorkel charter or a trip to the beach, you are fine on your own. We typically will do the excursion in the morning and then plan on shopping or simply hanging out at a restaurant or bar in the afternoon.

 

And for your return trip, always plan on allowing twice the amount of time you THINK it will take, to allow for traffic jams and detours and such.

 

For us, there is simply too much enjoyment in doing things on our own or with the friends we travel with. I hate being herded around on a ship's tour. Those posters who advised being sure that your watch is in sync with ship's time are right.

 

As with anything else in life, you need to use a bit of common sense, but to limit yourself to ONLY ship's tours based on a fear on being left behind, would have left us with many fewer positive memories of the things we have done on our own.

[samdha]

WHat if the last tender to get on a ship is like at 5 and there is a huge line for it and some people dont make it?

[hvsteve1]

It also can work in reverse. Our recent cruise on RSS Mariner included a stop in Prince Rupert,BC where we,and others,had booked a rail tour on the North Coast Explorer through the ship. The Mariner was late getting into port. The railroad held the train for us. I also found that all the larger group tours booked through the cruise had a Mariner customer service person along for the ride. They not only monitor the quality of the tour,but,should there be a problem getting back on time,it does ot become the problem of the passengers to notify the ship.

[springtxbill]

If there are people still in line, they will run additional tenders. The ones they run will be at their absolute maximum capacity, so it will not be a comfortable ride.