100+ late passengers delay Insignia 6 hours

More than 100 passengers on four coaches returning to Insignia in Mombasa were delayed 17 November by six hours due to heavy rain that caused roads to be covered in mud and vehicles bogged down.

A police escort was sent to escort the convoy back from what had meant to be all day excursions. Didn't help much because the police car had an accident!

Because of the delay Insignia arrived Zanzibar this morning two hours late.

I bet those passengers were happy they'd chosen a ship's cruise!!!

Ha, I'll bet!

I am not that much surprised at all. We took that drive once in a bus some years ago and it wasn't even raining. It had to rank among the 3 worst driving experiences in our travels (together with a nightime drive from New Delhi to Agra and a drive in the Sikkim mountains after rains).

I would never take any of those drives again :D

All's well that ends well - glad that everyone is OK

but if they skipped the port everyone would be screaming

Good reason why the ship tours are a good deal at times

Things happen, that's why life is a great adventure!

Good reason why the ship tours are a good deal at times

But a big bus without 4 wheel drive gets stuck easier in mud.

Those on private tours were probably onboard enjoying a cocktail in Martinis :D

Lucky they were on a ships tour. We did a drive in safari years ago in Kenya and the roads were horrific. I can't imagine driving on them during the rainy season.

We're in Zanzibar right now on a pre cruise land holiday and luckily where we're staying it was a gorgeous sunny day but hotel staff said there were torrential rains in Stone town. Sound like the rains followed them.

In a case like this, those on a private tour would have been alright as long as they were not more than 6 hours late. Their problem would be the stress unless they were able to have the operator call ahead and get an update.

As the OP I should add I was told by the guide on our private tour - which didn't suffer any problems - that Insignia was only the second cruise ship to dock in Mombasa this year, the first being Nautica three days earlier.

Tourists are just not going to coastal Kenya any more it seems because, he said, of the terrorist problem. He is now only working part time.

More than 100 passengers on four coaches returning to Insignia in Mombasa were delayed 17 November by six hours due to heavy rain that caused roads to be covered in mud and vehicles bogged down.

 

A police escort was sent to escort the convoy back from what had meant to be all day excursions. Didn't help much because the police car had an accident!

 

Because of the delay Insignia arrived Zanzibar this morning two hours late.

 

I bet those passengers were happy they'd chosen a ship's cruise!!!

Oceania has cancelled the excursion for Nautica on December 23 citing bad weather! They must have a crystal ball!

The excursion is presumably offer to all Oceania ships visiting Mombasa, wonder if there are other incidences like this before, or Oceania simply just wants to have a sure profit without any risk in doing business?

Oceania has cancelled the excursion for Nautica on December 23 citing bad weather! They must have a crystal ball!

 

The excursion is presumably offer to all Oceania ships visiting Mombasa, wonder if there are other incidences like this before, or Oceania simply just wants to have a sure profit without any risk in doing business?

I looked into your posting history before I wrote this response, and virtually all of your posts concern Private Tours.

If you are interested in participating in this particular Tour, then why not consider organizing it privately?

If the answer is that you are unwilling to take the risk of not making it back to the ship on time, then you may already have the answer to your question. :p

I looked into your posting history before I wrote this response, and virtually all of your posts concern Private Tours.

 

If you are interested in participating in this particular Tour, then why not consider organizing it privately?

 

If the answer is that you are unwilling to take the risk of not making it back to the ship on time, then you may already have the answer to your question. :p

You need to decide which risks to take and which ones could be a problem. About 6 years ago we took the ships overnight to Hanoi because of the long travel time ( about 3 hours each way) and the very bad roads. Good thing we did as the buses were 2 hours late and they waited for us. Would have been a mess if we took a private tour. Just have to pick your spots for private tours. St. Petersburg is no problem as the ship is pretty close to the city and the private tours are so much better and we did so much more since we were only 4 people. :):):)

We did that in Japan. Took the ship's tour to Nara and Osaka as we did not want to miss the ship. In this case the traffic was light because of a national holiday, but on other days, I don't know if we would have been so lucky. Part of the ships tour was to also use up our shipboard credit, so we killed two birds with one stone as the saying goes.

We have been on a private tour which did not get us back to the ship on time. We got out of the car and hoofed it through the traffic jam in Zanzibar and made it just in time. They had pulled everything in except for the gang plank and they held it for two other couples who were behind us trying to make it back to the ship. It only made the ship 5 minutes late leaving, but we were pretty worried about missing the ship. The passengers behind us were relieved that we told the crew they were at best 5 minutes behind us and were walking as fast as they could with their canes.