Anyone ever missed their ship??

[ladyj3641]

Has anyone booked an excursion with a company other than Carnival and missed their ship??

 

I have two people in my group that don't want to use any company but Carnival for excursions because they are scared!

[DohBoy]

I understand their nervousness. The wife and I are first time cruisers and while we're just dipping our toes into the cruising waters, we decided to play it safe and book our excursions through Carnival.

 

I didn't want something like this to happen:

 

Everything I've read points to the fact that the ship will not wait for you.

 

However, I would welcome the thoughts of other, more seasoned cruisers.

 

Clear skies and calm seas...DohBoy

[johnlo81]

Has anyone booked an excursion with a company other than Carnival and missed their ship??

 

I have two people in my group that don't want to use any company but Carnival for excursions because they are scared!

 

They are also smart... :)

[FightOnRon]

Only been on HAL so far but I have seen people get left behind. There were 7 on one curise that had to get to the next port. I have also seen the ship wait for a bus that was late bringing back tourists on a HAL excursion.

[Jaymee287]

We are first time cruisers, well come this June lol! We didn't book anything through carnival, saved us nearly $400.00 :eek: But we did tons and TONS of research. With the help of cruisecritic, we booked all of our excursions through highly recommend companies and for the earliest time possibly.

 

I have been reassured by many as long as your smart about it and use common sense you should be fine.

 

However, I do understand the nervous part! We are still a little bit on edge but we are very pleased with our decision! We have paid everyone and now we just wait 122 days!

[jetskier]

I normally booked excursions on my own or go on my own. The rules that I follow are:

 

1) If the excursion is only offered through Carnival, then I go with the ship.

2) The excursion is a lengthy one that is offered by both, I go with the ship

3) I follow the time on my watch, not my cell phone, not the time that the local has.

4) I figure out an alternative way back to the ship in case something happens.

5) If it is a diving excursion, I NEVER book with the ship as it is not safe in my opinion. Too many people and not enough oversight.

 

Dave

[scperk]

We were on the Liberty when the lounge band went to Mauharal at Costa Maya and spent too much time at the Cats Meow....They had changed the time they left from the time they left the week before...They were left standing on the dock in shorts, swinsuits and flip-flops....The Holiday was still there and they had to get on that ship and go back to New Orleans and then fly to Miami and await the Liberty coming back...They are from West Tennessee and we see them sometimes at the casinos in Tunica Ms and I still give them a hard time...LOL...:)....Dennis

[seashinesunshine]

We came close, within 15 minutes where there was a small bit of trouble with the catamaran we were on, however we were with a Carnival tour and they would have held the ship for us and our tour company was in contact with the ship. We book both ways just do research and watch your time. One other thing to think about is the safety of the company, Carnival does require the companies they use to have insurance, whatever that means.

[CruiseLover824]

I personally witnessed 3 people being left behind in Cozumel last year. They came running down the pier with what looked to be nothing more than a small bag and their Carnival beach towels.

 

On the same cruise, we had pier runners in Roatan. They kept paging a couple named Sylvia and someone. The ship seemed to kinda wait a bit to see if they were going to show up. All of a sudden, a girl and guy came rolling down the street on an ATV---they jumped off and ran to the ship. The entire port side of the ship was yelling out their names as they ran up the gangway!!! Very embarrassing!!! And they were very lucky the captain didn't take off without them!!:eek:

[cawagner]

I didn't want something like this to happen:

 

Wow :( that would be scary! And what if when you came to port you left your credit cards and majority of cash back on the ship..wow I felt bad for that couple :(

[skylock]

Has anyone booked an excursion with a company other than Carnival and missed their ship??

 

I have two people in my group that don't want to use any company but Carnival for excursions because they are scared!

 

Then they should book through the ship.

 

If depends a great deal on what and where and how long the excursion is and far to complicated to explain here.

 

If you can see the ship I would never pay their prices. On the other hand, if it is several hours to the place, I would only book with the ship.

 

I almost never book with the ship and I have never even come close to missing the ship. But I also have a fair knowledge of the places I will be going and transportation/road situations.

[explodr]

we have done both but I also know that most every one I was on had people that booked through the ship were with us so we wouldnt have missed the boat just be smart and have fun

[conchead]

Then they should book through the ship.

 

If depends a great deal on what and where and how long the excursion is and far to complicated to explain here.

 

If you can see the ship I would never pay their prices. On the other hand, if it is several hours to the place, I would only book with the ship.

 

I almost never book with the ship and I have never even come close to missing the ship. But I also have a fair knowledge of the places I will be going and transportation/road situations.

 

Last week when leaving Progreso, there were runners..lots

of them. Then came the "they won't leave me" walkers, then the

last minute bus comes rolling up to the drop off, and about

8 people come running on out.

 

We sit and wait..finally a van comes into the port area,

drives down the pier and drops off a few people right at the

gang plank from a Carnival excursion, they haul in the ropes

pull in the gang plank and the ship starts moving.

 

They waited only because there was a carnival group.

I wonder had that group been on time, would they have

waited so long for the others

[jenelizab]

I have never done a non-ship excursion, but this March I will be doing my first. I'm sailing on the Pride with my sister who's never snorkeled before. Our stop in Freeport is our best chance to go. I want her first (who knows, it could be only) snorkeling experience to be fun, and the two Carnival snorkeling excursion descriptions did not exactly bowl me over. However Sand Dollar Cruises has gotten rave reviews all over this board. So we're going to take a chance.

 

I have to admit I am petrified about missing the ship. I've even had a bad dream about it! So I will not be watching that YouTube clip :)

[cruiserbryce]

thankfully no...when we go out on our own we make sure to plan a lot of cushion to make sure we dont get left behind

[Traveler353]

"Anyone ever missed their ship??"

 

Nope, but it sure if fun watching people run down the pier as the ship is pulling away. Seems to happen every cruise. :p

[ooomwizard]

On a cruise stop to St.Maarten me and my honey went to Orient beach for the day. The captain had announced on board we would be leaving 1 hour earlier than scheduled time due to an incoming storm.

 

We take our taxi over to the French side and make arrangements with the driver to pick us up. We spent a GREAT day at the beach and go to find a taxi for the trip back and there are NONE to be found. We had less than 30 minutes to meet the ship and it was a 20 min or so taxi ride. Orient beach isn't some out-of-the-way location either.

 

Luck prevailed and we finally found a taxi and worried ourselves the whole ride back about how close timewise we were going to be .We get to the pier and begin "moving butt" to get to the gangplank. Yep, people were yelling from their balconies "run! you can make it!" (They were rooting for us!) :p

 

The ship crew saw us running and sent a golf cart to pick us up. We got on board and the gangway was pulled onboard. We were happy! :D

 

I believe the taxi drivers were used to the ship schedule and didn't show at the taxi areas on the beach cause they didn't know the ship was leaving earlier then usual. :eek:

[salty dingo]

I have two people in my group that don't want to use any company but Carnival for excursions because they are scared!

You cannot miss the ship if you follow common sense rules:

1. Book an early excursion that returns several hours before your cruise leaves.
   
2. Choose excursions that do not travel far from the ship
   
3. Avoid less-frequently-traveled routes
   

Here's an example: Stingray City at Grand Cayman. It's silly to book through the ship for fear of missing the boat because there is nothing that can happen which cannot be remedied by the 200 other boat captains in the area, or the 2,000 other drivers.

 

Things like traffic accidents or jams are going to affect the ship tours and private tours alike, as there is only one road. If you are in a jam on your private tour, Carnival's tour is also, and the ship is not going anywhere until you all get back.

 

Also, if the ship is aware that a private tour is running late, they will stay in contact with the tour operator via radio and will wait a reasonable amount of time.

 

It is not true that the ship ONLY waits on ship tours. It's not like they don't care about you if you don't buy their tours. It is VERY bad business for a ship to leave ANYONE behind, and they will avoid doing that if at all possible.

[lizzytobias]

This thread terrifies me. I wanted to look into alternate excursions but I will be having 'running' nightmares for the next month!

[redlef]

This thread terrifies me. I wanted to look into alternate excursions but I will be having 'running' nightmares for the next month!

 

We book most of our excursions on our own. If I know I have to be back at the ship by 5PM, I plan to get there by 3:30.

 

In Rome (on NCL), they charge something like $129 per person for a bus ride from the port to Rome (a 1-1/2 hr ride). The train is about $15 round trip. We just make sure we plan to be on the 3rd earliest train before our "drop-dead" time. In other words, I want to have 2 additional train options if we run into a problem. And when we arrive in Rome, I check to see where the return train leaves from to make sure I don't waste time looking for it if I'm in a rush (in our case, it left from the same track it arrived on).

 

In the Caribbean, we always take a cab on our own to whatever beach we plan to visit. But we don't plan to leave the beach at 4:30 knowing it's a 20 minute ride to reach a ship leaving at 5PM. I would be so nervous it wouldn't be any fun.

 

BTW - everytime I did a shore trip on my own, there were people from the ship doing the same thing.

[read52]

My dh and I love to be on deck when we are leaving a port. It is amazing how many people come on board at the last minute or late. One time the assistant cruise director was about 15 minutes late. Another time a van came with 4 people that were drunk. The group that was the latest was a family with two small kids. The ship had already pulled away from the pier and they had to get a tugboat to bring them to the ship.

[golfadj]

We always take private tours. Save a lot of money and get a better tour.

 

Just make sure that you allow extra time to get back.

[ailuro]

We are first time cruisers, the tour we wanted wasn't available from NCL, but we went ahead and booked with a company who claim never to have missed the boat, and who will guarantee to pay to get you to the boat if it leaves without you because they were late.... I think that's a good compromise for my peace of mind.:)

 

I know there will be cynics who suggest it would be difficult to get the money out of them for transport to catch the ship, but it's not in a tour company's interests to have people bad mouthing them all over the web, especially when these companies only have 4 months to make their living (in Alaska anyway!)

[Princessbride3]

We have booked with Carnival and on our own. I usually do on our own because it is cheaper. If you do your research most always the people that are doing outside excursions dont want a bad name and have people left behind. I know it does happen. We are just very cautious and give ourselves ample time to make it onboard. I dont want to be one of the "runners" with my name being on the speaker! I have witnessed it though a few times!

[Cruise, J.D.]

If you go with a reputable tour guide or company, they will know what missing the ship means. They will not want that reputation.

 

For example, in St. Thomas our tour guide told us that the tour operators will work together to make sure people on tours get back to the ship. This indeed happened as a tour bus broke down, our tour guide handed us off to another tour guide, and he then went to get the passengers on the broken tour bus.