This is what happens when you Miss the Boat!

[karfest]

Here's a post that was in an odd place on the boards-

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=134549

 

She isn't getting much sympathy from her fellow cruisers. I don't see why any of this would be the cruiselines fault.

[deltachi96]

That would truely suck unless you were stuck in Hawaii or something like that. I might just have to try this there as it would be a great excuse to spend another week in Hawaii!!!!

 

On a more serious note, I think she is totally in the wrong and would be surprised if NCL did anything about it.

[johnql]

I do have sympathy for the couple based on what they had to go through. However, they blame everybody but themselves for what happened. As others have already pointed out, NCL (and all other cruise lines) repeatedly publicize time changes. Somehow, this couple managed to miss all the announcements and then compounded their mistake by cutting it too close in their return to the pier. A hard lesson learned.

[pitcairn]

Well worth the read a very :( tale but made me:) I'm sure we can all learn something from it, but like most i think that the blame is with ( I MISSED THE BOAT and not NCL, look on the bright side you lived to tell the tale and made a lot of us smile :) :) :)

[cliffd64]

Well worth the read a very :( tale but made me:) I'm sure we can all learn something from it, but like most i think that the blame is with ( I MISSED THE BOAT and not NCL, look on the bright side you lived to tell the tale and made a lot of us smile

 

 

Gotta love it... the sense of entitlement is most humorous!

[greenie]

You know, it's a shame the whole thing wasn't presented a little differently--if it had been along the lines of "OMG, did we ever mess up. We did something so stupid and it was a nightmare!" I'm betting there would have been a lot of sympathy offered. They DID go thru hell, it must have been really scary and even creepy.

 

But it was presented as if they really don't feel they did anything all that wrong! That's amazing to me! They should be mad at themSELVES first, for God's sake. I know I would be. THEN be upset about the small part of it that perhaps NCL could have done differently for customer relations if for no other reason. The second NCL ship could have at least tried to reach the one they missed and at least gotten someone to explain the situation to them. .. That did seem a little heartless to me. Kinda like the old "Sorry, that's not my department" runaround you get in a lot of large stores.

[mkk]

Does the tone of the post surprise you? Seventy-five percent of the people I talk to these days just WILL NOT accept responsibility for anything that happens to them....there are truly very few innocent victims in this world...

greenie..I agree..the second NCL ship in port could have been a little more helpful..just from a good PR standpoint..but bottom line..they screwed up and probably will not stop whining until they get some compensation!

[Zeno]

You know, it's a shame the whole thing wasn't presented a little differently--if it had been along the lines of "OMG, did we ever mess up. We did something so stupid and it was a nightmare!" I'm betting there would have been a lot of sympathy offered. They DID go thru hell, it must have been really scary and even creepy.

 

But it was presented as if they really don't feel they did anything all that wrong! That's amazing to me! They should be mad at themSELVES first, for God's sake. I know I would be. THEN be upset about the small part of it that perhaps NCL could have done differently for customer relations if for no other reason. The second NCL ship could have at least tried to reach the one they missed and at least gotten someone to explain the situation to them. .. That did seem a little heartless to me. Kinda like the old "Sorry, that's not my department" runaround you get in a lot of large stores.

 

Good point Greenie. I have no sympathy for them, mainly because of their attitude. If they had admitted that THEY screwed up I certainly could have mustered up a little sympathy for people stuck in another country with few resources. I still can't believe that they expect compensation from NCL for THEIR screw-up.

[TWA4Ever]

It's also posted on the Carnival Board. I wonder how come she could find the Carnival board, but could not find this one?

[johnql]

It's also posted on the Carnival Board. I wonder how come she could find the Carnival board, but could not find this one?

I've been thinking about that and the only thing I can come up with is that she wanted to bash NCL but didn't want to risk being flamed by NCL loyalists. She may not have counted on the post being read by so many NCL cruisers, especially those from her specific sailing, people who were able to refute her claim that they weren't told about the time change.

[tjosh7]

You will get no sympathy from me on this one....

 

Perhaps the Dream was full and could not accommodate these passengers?

 

Did I read this post right? They boarded the boat upon embarkation right before it left?

 

Seems like she needed to blow off steam, and, like soooooo many other people, she chose this outlet to do just that.

 

You are in a foreign country - BRING YOUR PASSPORT!!! BRING YOUR CREDIT CARD!!! KNOW WHEN THE SHIP IS LEAVING!!!

 

It's just that simple.....

 

Happy Cruising!!!!

[karfest]

Actually, the OP posted this on the "Need Help Using the Boards" area!! The threadstarter on Carnival found it there as I did.

 

 

In addition to needing help using the boards, she should also get help using a watch:D

 

I can't feel bad for people who blame everyone but themselves. I don't think she has ever returned to defend herself.

[msescada]

That was down deep in the original posts.

 

So may we assume that these folks are, on top of everything else, travel agents?

 

Here's to hoping that if they are, their customers will learn from that experience.

 

Wow. And I thought I'd heard everything....

[YOW]

mkk, you are right on about people not wanting to accept responsibility. I see it every day in my job.

 

Two recent examples are a customer who lost his paper ticket, was 'forced' to go out of pocket for a one-way ticket to Florida, then demands that we pay for his return; and another claiming he was bumped because he booked with (company name omitted), but in fact showed up to the airport 45 minutes before his transborder flight to the States and thus was denied boarding.

 

It seems whatever the rules are, people either don't pay attention or feel that these rules are only for every other jerk out there and not for him or her.

[Elaine515]

Ok, what happened to the Post??? Where did it go and why was it pulled?

 

Guess it was something someone said, did etc....

 

Bottom line, DONT MISS THE BOAT....

[basketballmom]

Don't worry, she got flamed big time on the Carnival board! :) Look for the post by Mr. Pete LI.

 

If her boyfriend was a TA, he should have known better. And I can't believe she said they never informed her of the time difference between the ship and the island. It's announced everywhere, over the PA, in the Daily Freestyles, even when you get off the ship.

 

Another case of "it's not my fault, it's eveyone else's"! Also if you look, it was her first or second post.

[zimmerjulie]

Here is the post to which this thread refers.

Originally posted by Orange24Before leaving the boat we packed our bags with sunscreen, two towels, a credit card, and our key cards. We tendered to the island of Roatan at about 1:00 pm. On Roatan we took a taxi cab with a tour guide to Half Moon Bay Cabins on West End. Before dropping us off we decided to tell our driver that we wanted to leave the beach at 4:30 pm. This would give us a half an hour to drive back to our boat, still arriving a half hour before it was scheduled to sail. After enjoying the beach we decided to snorkel, first looking at Brad’s watch to make sure we had enough time. Brad took off his watch and put it into our bag while we snorkeled. After snorkeling we napped for a little while in the sun, then asked our tour guide what time it was, to which he replied 4:15. He told us that our boat left at 5:30 and we had plenty of time and we could relax a little bit longer. At 4:45 we left the beach in our cab. On the drive to the boat Brad took his watch out of the bag to put it on. He looked at the time and it said 6:02. We realized it was exactly on hour different than our tour guide’s watch. Since it had been the watch we had been following our entire vacation, we knew there must have been a time zone difference that we had not been made aware of.

 

Once we arrived at the port we knew that something was wrong; our boat was gone. After frantically asking many guards if the Spirit was gone, they laughed, said it was long gone, and that they would contact the port agent. Once the port agent arrived he told us there was no way to catch the boat or fly to it. He told us that since there was another Norwegian ship, the Dream, at the port we should try to get on it. We walked onto the Dream and told them our situation. They said, without looking at our key cards, asking us for documentation, or contacting the Spirit, that they could not help us and the port authority could. They repeatedly said, “The port authority will help you”. This was not very reassuring given the fact that the port authority is who told us to try to get on the Dream. At this point we were scared. We sat on the cement and watched the Dream sail away. The port was dark and everyone was gone.

 

The Port Authority took us to their office to ask us questions. Lynnette, who seemed to be the head authority, informed us that in these situations since we had no documentation with us, we would have to wait until the ship responded to the messages she sent to them, which would be the next morning. She told us she would be in the office at 8AM. A man who worked for the Port Authority drove us to the Executive Inn. On the way there he mentioned that he was waiting until the ship gave him authorization to pay for our expenses while on the island, since this does happen. Arriving at the Executive Inn, the man had not received any authority to pay for our room. We were on our own. We paid for our room and got our key. We asked to man what to do and he said he would talk to us in the morning and did not have any information. Brad and I were frightened even more at this point. We had not talked to Norwegian and we were on another country’s island with no way off. Brad asked for the number to the United States Embassy and the number for the Port Authority Office. We ate a meal and went to bed.

 

Unable to sleep by the horrible room conditions and the circumstances we got up at 7 AM and contacted to Port Authority when they opened. She informed us that the ship needed to know where Brad’s passport, my birth certificate, and my driver’s license were located in our room. This process took a long time because Lynnette was not communicating directly with the ship. She had to contact the Miami office and then they called the ship. While Lynnette was attempting to communicate with Norwegian, we contacted the Embassy. A woman named Victoria gave us the option of flying to Honduras (which we couldn’t do without identification), taking a bus to the Embassy (she mentioned that 28 people had been shot and killed by gang members the week before), and then getting pictures sent to her from my mother and father to make a judgment call as to if I was an American. Victoria told us she could give us one phone call to the States to contact our family. We told her we would wait to see what option the port authority would give us. Lynnette told Brad and I that the ship found our documents and would be mailing them on Friday, same day air to Honduras. This was definitely relieving news because we did not want to risk our lives on an expensive trip to Honduras to possibly have passports issued. Our decision was to wait for our documents to arrive on Friday afternoon and take a plane to Miami on Saturday morning. Lynnette booked two seats for us on Saturday’s flight.

 

We remained at the Executive Inn waiting for a ride to town from the port authority until 4:30 pm to get to an ATM. After giving up on that ride we called a taxi ourselves. The taxi took us to the port to ask people that spoke English where we could find a good place to stay on the island, an ATM, and a place to buy soap and shampoo. After running our errands and settling into a cabin at Half Moon Bay, we called Lynnette to give her our new location and phone number. On Friday morning, Lynnette called and told us that the ship mailed our documents through DHL. She later informed us that DHL does not deliver to Roatan on the weekends. After explaining to the man whose phone we were using our situation, he mentioned there were two mail carriers that deliver to Roatan on Saturdays. At this point there was nothing Brad and I could do but wait, because we were under the impression our passports were already sent. Lynnette cancelled our flight. On Saturday Lynnette called Miami to get a tracking number on the package. After receiving the number she contacted DHL to make sure the package was on it’s way to Roatan, only to discover the tracking number did not exist.

 

Brad and I had food poisoning all day on Sunday. Monday morning the mail arrived, but there was no package for us. This left us with the choice of either waiting for our passports (which we were told would be there by Monday at the latest), or attempting to get to the US embassy. We headed for the Embassy. With the help of the head of Customs for Roatan, we got on a plane to Honduras, where we then took a taxi to the United States Embassy. Brad and I were issued passports. We could not pick them up until Tuesday morning. After we received our passports we headed to the airport where we waiting for our flight. There were only two flights to Miami before the 15th of January. The least expensive tickets we could find were first class tickets and cost $478 each. During our seven hour wait at the airport we used an internet café to contact Norwegian’s corporate office in Miami. We spoke with Danny Leon who facilitated getting our luggage to the security office, where we were to pick it up at 1:00am. After landing in Miami, we rode in a taxi to Norwegian’s security office to gather our things. Once we arrived in Miami we went to get my car out of the parking lot and began our 24 hour drive home. We stayed in a hotel Tuesday night and examined our luggage. There was a portable hard-drive missing from a laptop briefcase, an apple ipod photo, as well as a set of Seinfeld DVD’s. These items are worth several hundred dollars, but are priceless to Brad. His hard-drive and ipod hold years worth of digital pictures and documents.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, we had to learn a number of lessons the hard way through this experience. A couple things could have been simply pointed out by the cruise line that would have made this experience significantly better. Firstly, making a point to make passengers aware that Roatan is in a different time zone would have made a substantial difference. Second, the importance of a passport has become abundantly clear to us over the last week. Had the cruise line mandated a passport to get on the boat and suggested taking a copy off the boat with us, much of our struggle would have been alleviated. These both fall under the category of poor communication.

 

 

 

Beyond simple miscommunication, there were still a number of things that if handled differently would have reduced our anguish during this experience.

1. 
   
2. We were told our passports were going to be shipped to us. – we never received them and according to DHL, the tracking number given to us does not exist. Our time on the island was spent waiting for our passports due to the fact that we had no identification to fly to the mainland where the embassy is located. We are currently with out Brad’s check books, multiple pieces of identification ranging from state and federal identification to ATA travel agent identification due to this “shipping error”.
   
3. The Norwegian Dream was still docked after the Norwegian Spirit left. The port authority told us to try to get on the ship. When we attempted to do this, not only were we denied, the crew of the ship offered us no help. It should be a simple task to at a minimum communicate with another ship from the same company to assist us. The port authority’s help was to attempt to get us on the Dream.
   
4. The port authority had an extremely difficult time getting in contact with the Spirit. She contacted NCL in Miami who relayed messages to the Spirit. This process took a tremendous amount of time. Had the port authority had the option of immediate direct contact, our situation may have been remedied in a timely fashion.
   
5. My mother contacted NCL several times to get information about our whereabouts. Norwegian’s consistent response was to put her on hold, then tell her they’d call her back immediately. One returned call was received days later by Danny Leon.
   
6. In the process of packing our belongings, a number of things did not make it back to us. This is a large problem. It brings up concerns beyond those fore mentioned and some which potentially deal with the safety of the ship.
   

 

While we take some responsibility for not being at the port when the last tender left, we feel the cruise ship and cruise line are culpable as well. Many of the issues that arose could have been prevented with better preparation and communication. Including the items that came up missing from our luggage, our excursion cost us an additional $3682.76. Needless to say, this is a significantly greater expense than we anticipated. If this cruise had been completed, it would have been my 6th cruise and my 2nd Norwegian cruise. While I am a huge fan of cruising, and truly enjoy the flexibility offered through Norwegian due to it’s “freestyle cruising”, I would need to have these issues resolved before I felt comfortable entrusting Norwegian through another cruise experience. This experience has caused us as well as our friends and family a great deal of stress. We’d appreciate hearing from you at your earliest convenience to discuss this with you.

[KathieP]

When we were on Roatan on our cruise over New Years, we saw something interesting. When we first got to Roatan, there was a Carnival ship docked and we tendered from not too far away. Later, our ship pulled up to the dock and the Carnival tendered, or maybe it just left early, I'm not sure. When we got back to the ship about 1/2 an hour before we were supposed to be there was a couple crying to the Dream officers. Apparently, they were Carnival passengers who didn't make it back to their ship in time and were stranded on Roatan. I don't really know the outcome but I felt sorry for the couple. It was pouring rain and the forecast was for more rain. Our tour guides had told us there were no more ships until the following week.

 

I agree that if they had taken responsiblity for their actions, we would have all had more sympathy for the other couple. I do think that going the extra mile would have been very kind and courteous of NCL. As much bashing as NCL gets here I would have loved to have read that the officers of the Dream immediately took the couple to a phone and got in touch with their ship.

[orange24]

Hello, first of all...I cannot believe what an absolute stir I created on this message board. When do you people have time to cruise? I do not quite understand the lingo here, but I did get a chance to read some of the responses. Thanks you to everyone who did interpret the theme of my letter as informative and not begging for sympathy. My intentions of posting the letter I wrote to Norwegian was to inform everyone who read it that there is no policy set in place for what to do when you miss a ship, at least a Norwegian ship. I realize my boyfriend and I made mistakes, I am well aware of it. I did not need 500 people to analyze where I went wrong and what I do not deserve. I had a week to think about everything that should have happened and why it didn't. When writing a letter to the company to inform them of how things could have been handled differently, I was not about to focus on how we did not hear an announcement. I have been on enough cruises to know that when there is a time difference on an island everyone is made fully aware of it. On this cruise we did not notice a sign or hear an announcement. and yes I do realize that 2,000 other passengers made it back to the boat on time, we didn't. And what we did was sit and wait for Norwegian to help us or tell us how to get help ourselves. They didn't. We never spoke to the ship once until the day we were back to the US. And they still had no answers for our missing identification and luggage. On the island no one knew what to do with us. Although we met some helpful Hondurans, they had absolutely no power. It was scary. I am well aware of the fact now that I need to carry my passport wherever I am going, but this is something I was never informed of. I learned that lesson the extemely hard way. I did not write the letter to gain your sympathy, like many of you think, I was honestly trying to help people not make the same mistakes we did. I was telling my story. I am glad it served you with so much entertainment over the last six days. I do think that being on Rotan for a week taught me many valuable lessons. It is a absolutely beautiful island and there are many friendly people there. I do advise anyone who wants to go on a Carribbean vacation to travel there, but not through Norwegian Cruise Line.

[Leejnd4]

Just to help you understand the furor this caused, you should know that the one thing that got everyone in a lather here was the fact that you seemed to be going after NCL to reimburse you for your expenses.

 

I and many others did sympathize with your plight, and agreed that NCL could have handled things better once they discovered you missed the ship. But I am 100% certain that if that expectation of reimbursement from NCL wasn't present in your post, you would not have been raked across the coals. Your sequence of events made it clear that NCL had absolutely no responsibility in your missing the ship, and we do not believe that they should pay for your error.

 

If your primary reason for posting your story was to help others learn from your experience, I think your mission was accomplished. It certainly reinforced many lessons about timing, being prepared, what to take with you off the ship, etc.

 

I am glad to see you returned, though! I for one wanted to hear your perspective.

 

LeeAnne

[zimmerjulie]

I agree that it is an unfortunate situation, but I believe that the crew of the Dream may have had their hands tied as to what they could do for these folks. It may be that there are now strict security regulations regarding ships letting people onboard. They have to report the manifest to the U.S. government prior to leaving the embarkation port and may not be allowed to return to a US port if they have picked up passengers not pre-screened by this process.

 

I always like to help people out, but can you imagine the precident it would set if the crew of the Dream allowed people onboard without having passage on the ship and without even having picture ID? Seems foolish from a security standpoint and could cause future theft of key cards to gain entry to other cruise ships (for whatever reason). Also, if people knew they could just hop another ship if they missed theirs, there would be even more difficulties for the cruise lines.

 

I do not see how the Dream calling the Spirit would have helped these stranded people. The Spirit was aware that they were not aboard. NCL had an obligation to the approx 2000 passengers who had made it to the ship on time and could not turn around to pick them up.

 

The procedure for people in this instance to go through the port authority and the main cruise line office is probably in place for a reason, or a variety of reasons. I do not believe they would have received their documents any quicker, had the Spirit been contacted right away. They were still at sea.

 

If you miss your ship, you are on your own. Simple and perhaps a deterrent to this type of negligence on the part of the passengers. Especially these folks who ignored the notifications about ship time vs. port time, set out quite late, slept on the beach, put the watch away, planned to return too late for safety-sake even if their time had been right.

 

Keeping in mind that we are only hearing one side of the story, I have a few comments regarding some of the things that were said to happen:

A man who worked for the Port Authority drove us to the Executive Inn. On the way there he mentioned that he was waiting until the ship gave him authorization to pay for our expenses while on the island, since this does happen. Arriving at the Executive Inn, the man had not received any authority to pay for our room. We were on our own.

 

WHY would the cruise line pay for the lodging of people who missed the ship due to their own lack of attention? If the port authority people did tell them this and did tell them that they should try to get on the Dream, it is unfortunate that they got this misinformation.

1. My mother contacted NCL several times to get information about our whereabouts. Norwegian’s consistent response was to put her on hold, then tell her they’d call her back immediately. One returned call was received days later by Danny Leon.

I am curious why Orange24 didn't call her mother herself?

 

The alleged theft and the shipping snafu are definitely blows that these folks did not need, nor deserve. I feel very sorry for them on these issues. The others were of their own causing and should have been accepted as such.

 

I am a very compassionate person, but pandering to this type of irresponsibility only causes it to be perpetuated.

 

Thank you Orange24. I feel that this story is a great reminder to those who might not be so careful to insure that they make the ship in time. I do know that it could happen to anyone, including me. That's why I would be ready to take my lumps if it were to happen. I make most of my comments to the group at large, because you have not responded on any of the threads, so it seems this has turned to an "academic" discussion. A lot of the responses have been pretty harsh, but, if you are reading them, I do thank you for posting your story. Lots of people, even if not agreeing with you, have gotten a reminder that may help them in the future (including myself).

[zimmerjulie]

Hi Orange24, I see you have responded while I was typing my last message. Your story has captured a lot of attention and evoked a lot of response.

 

When do you people have time to cruise?

Not often enough!

 

Just thought I might point out that on the original thread, someone on this sailing pointed out that it was written on the Freestyle Daily that "passengers should keep ship time while in shore today" and that announcements of the time difference were made over the loudspeaker and in the port information talk that also aired on the television.

 

Perhaps part of the reason for some of the harshness against your complaint.

[richtersl]

Thanks for sharing that, Julie. I was wondering what all the fuss was about.

 

It's a shame this happened to those folks, but I don't see where the cruise line has to be responsible in any way for a passenger's negligence. NCL does provide its passengers with plenty of information in the Freestyle Daily about time changes. And it's also announced over the PA in the mornings. :rolleyes: It's the passenger's responsibility to be on top of these things, especially if they do NOT do a ship's excursion.

 

But it is interesting to see what happens when you do miss the boat. I'm glad the story had a happy ending.

[Zeno]

 

I am curious why Orange24 didn't call her mother herself?

 

So am I. How very odd. Plenty of telephones in Roatan including right on the dock.

[F5Loar]

You only hear about it here from people who know about cruisecritic's site.

This happens more than you would expect. Some say a dozen couples get left each week from some port off some ship somewhere. We've been on 26 now and I've heard about it at least 10 times about so and so got left. People get off, forget the time change or get tied up in a bar for the 3 for 1 special while their ship pulls out.

In no way is this the responsiblity of the cruise line. Every line knows the risk of leaving passengers on shore. They go out of their way to post in the daily papers, signs at the gangway, and public announcements over the speakers and during the shows if you go. No excuse is no excuse. You live and you learn the hard way if it should happen to you.