Anybody ever miss the ship at a port?

[Debbierpof]

I was wondering if anyone has had the experience of missing the ship at a port. My biggest concern is missing the ship at Naples (since we're "at-sea" the next day). What happens if you miss the ship, let's say in Florence or Rome? Do you just call the cruise and let them know you will get to the next port and board there? Are there any penalties? :eek:

 

We're thinking of sharing a private guide in Naples (Salvatore). I'm nervous because of the chance we may miss the ship. I'm torn because I really want to take the tour. Any advice would be welcomed!

[trvlnliz]

There is always a possibility of missing the ship when you do private tours but with a good driver and planning the risk is minimal. We always do private tours and have never missed a ship. Always carry the ships agent information with you incase there is an emergency. Also always carry your passport or a copy of it. Don't worry and have a great time! :D

 

Liz

[pvmkmyer]

I've never missed the ship, but I witnessed some of the cruise director's staff arrive late at Civitavecchia. They were standing on the dock as we sailed away to Sicily. They caught up with us the next day; the CD was NOT happy.

 

If you are on a ship's excursion the ship waits for all its excursions to arrive before sailing. Otherwise, it's your responsibility to be on time. But I've hired plenty of private drivers in various ports and have never had a problem returning on time. They all build in extra time for traffic. I don't think you'll have a problem.

[ClaudiaF]

You should "always" take the name of the port authority ( and their information)..it is always given to you somewhere on the Daily ship paper that they leave in your cabin for the next days port of call.

This is truly wise if you are hiring your own cars for touring.

If you miss the ship you can contact them and they will notify the ship.

You will need to get to the next port on your own ( so a copy of your passport and a way to get there ( money/credit card) should always be carried too.

Always hoping that doesn't happen..but you know the saying...

"ship happens" ;-)

[TedC]

Excellent informatrion about having the ship's port agent name and number, and to carry passport and enough money or credit to get you to the next port.

 

We mix ship and private excursions with just wandering around on our own. If we want to go far from the ship with limited time we usually take the ship excursion, it's worth the extra money when you know the ship will wait if you're delayed by traffic, etc.

 

Before making private or personal arrangements, I consider how difficult - and expensive - it'll be to get to the next port.

[innka]

I thought the cruise keeps your passport?

[Browezilla]

We're thinking of sharing a private guide in Naples (Salvatore)....Any advice would be welcomed!

I believe there isn't a penalty (if you discount chagrin ;-), but it is completely at your expense to catch up to the ship.

 

We're also booked with Salvadore for the 10/22 sailing. He has an excellent reputation, so I think there is only a minimal risk, as there are with all private excursions. If you are really concerned, ask him to do the Pompeii tour last. That way, if you are running late from the Amalfi drive, you could cut short or cancel the Pompeii piece. He allots 2 hours for that, and it is also fairly close to the ship.

 

Bon voyage,

B

[leighuf]

Here's a review about "missing the boat." It involves the Golden Princess & Naples & and a group of people who chose a private driver. Traffic caused them to miss the ship. The itinerary had a day at sea following Naples, then a port of call in Athens. The group met up with the ship in Athens on their own dollar (hotel, food, flight to Athens). Hint: bring your credit cards and passport WITH you!

Here's their story:

Soon after we got on the right track back to the ship, the traffic started building. (The roads had been fairly clear in the afternoon to this point.) We got stuck in a jam on one windy road in Sorrento and somehow Carlo was able to back the van up into a driveway and turn around. Somehow we squeezed through places our van never should have fit, between cars coming in the opposite direction and parked cars on our side of the small two lane road. We ended up back on the main drag in Sorrento, but it was backed up just as much as the windy side road. We sat in traffic and watched as people walking past us kept pulling ahead of us time and time again. After an hour we had only gone about 2-3 miles and we knew we might be in trouble. It was 5:00 and we were supposed to be back onboard at 6:30 for a 7:00 p.m. sail away. We started joking around thinking of the best way to get to the ship: motorcycle (could we find six scooters each willing to take one of us?), helicopter (how much would that cost?!?! and where would it be able to land on this hilly countryside?), bicycles (I can ride 10 miles an hour which would get me back to the ship by 8:00 but still might be faster than driving), a boat? I actually asked Carlo at this point if he could just take us to the pier in Sorrento so we could pay someone to take us to the ship via the water. He said we were already past the turn and that we wouldn’t be able to find a boat to take us there. I still believe this would have been our best option as there were side roads it looks like we could have taken to get us down near the water. For 100 Euro, someone would have taken us in their boat to Naples. The clock kept ticking and traffic was near a standstill. Half our group started getting upset and three of us kept our cool because we knew it was out of our hands at this point and all we could do is pray and keep our hopes up. At this point, we knew a least one Princess bus was only an hour or so ahead of us. We knew we wouldn’t make it back by 6:30 p.m. or even 7:00, but we were hoping that the delay of the Princess buses would buy us enough time to make it to the ship on time. By 6 p.m. we started making calls to Daniele and Remo to see if they could contact Princess for us. Unfortunately, none of us had brought the Princess Patter with us, so we did not have the Princess port transfer agent name and number with us to call. That would have been our best hope for salvation. As the evening wore on, traffic only got worse. Up through the last call, they have told us the ship is still at the pier waiting for delayed Princess tours. We know we aren’t the only ones in this traffic jams of all traffic jam. Bill is from LA and he mentioned that even California traffic wasn’t this bad. We finally made it to the tollbooth that leads to the A-3 (I believe) freeway and traffic somehow seemed to get worse. Eight or so toll booth lanes all funneled into two or three freeway lanes but it appeared that no one on the freeway ahead of us was moving at all. We later found out that a tour bus had been in an accident with some type of vehicle and had killed three people, just after the entry onto the freeway. This caused a clog up of the two roads out of the countryside that fed into the freeway. Others on our cruise also mentioned that two Princess tour buses traveling together were delayed when the first tour bus hit a motorcycle and knocked a woman off the back. The cycle driver apparently broke the bus driver’s window and starting beating up the bus driver. The second Princess bus had to stop to give a statement to the police as to what had happened. Carlo decided our best bet was to avoid the freeway, so we somehow were able to exit off and hit the city side streets instead. Carlo was hoping to run parallel to the freeway for a while then get on it at a point further up the road. Eventually we were back in Naples to where we had started many long hours ago this morning. We raced through the streets to the port in the dark. We flew up the street into the pier area and could not see the Golden Princess anywhere. By this time it was about 8:47 p.m. and fairly dark. We thought we were at the wrong pier slip, but Bill recognized a terminal building he had used that morning to make a phone call. He said what we didn’t want to hear: “The ship is gone. It left without us.” We just couldn’t believe it because we had hoped if we would be back by 9:00 p.m. we would be good due to all the delays with the Princess tours. At that point, we saw a car drive up and a blonde lady wave at us. I was hoping she knew how to get us on the ship. Her name was Andrena and she was the Port Transfer Agent for Princess. She said we just missed the ship by 15 minutes. (The log of the cruise actually shows the ship left around 8:20, so it was actually more like 27 minutes instead of 15.) We asked if we could find a fast boat to catch up with the ship and she said the Golden had left at full throttle because of it’s late departure and there was no way we could catch up with it at this point. She said that the ship could not wait for us because they didn’t know if the six of us were together or separate and how far away we were. Remo had told us he was in contact with the Captain of our ship and he knew where we were, but obviously both stories cannot be true. I later found out that other cruisers had been told by the Princess staff that no one had been left behind in Naples, which we can verify was not true. Apparently, over 85 people were late for the ship and everyone but the six of us made it on board. The last ones on were a small group who had booked a private driver through Princess. They do truly wait for every one of their tours, whether large or small. No one could have predicted that the 30 minute drive from Sorrento to Naples would take nearly 5 hours (and would have been longer had we not used the white hanky out the window trick). I still will use private tours in the future, as they are usually are large cost savings and provide you with a better experience.

 

 

[Dbedros]

Everyone

 

Leighuf should have given the entire story. The original write up, from one of the persons that missed the ship stated that it was entirely their fault. Anyone that has even looked up from below at the traffic on the Almafi Coast knows that it is bad without an accident. These people stopped for late lunch or something around 3:00 PM and around 4:30 were doubling back to take pictures at someplace that they were not sure of the location.

 

Part of the group had left the ship without a copy of their passport. The fact they were in port without the contact information for the port agent lets you know that they were some what cavalier in their attitude. The company of the private guide was of great assistance in securing hotels in both ports, getting them to and from the airports, and getting them to the ship in Athens.

 

As travelers we must take responsibility for our own actions. This group did by stating that there were several instances when they possibly could have made the ship on time if not for choices that they made.

 

I have never read anywhere on the boards where the private guide made the passengers miss the ship.

[PETRA4U]

I have always been back on time with private guides. Most of my cruises, it is all I use.... Never a problem...

I read the entire posts about the goup that was late in Naples....several bad choices were made by them.....

 

We leave Wed for Barcelona and Splendour.... I have private guides in 3 ports

and am very pleased and looking forward to it.

 

Get a good private guide and follow his/her advice and it is well worth it. It is their lively hood and they do not want to have you come on the board and talk bad about them or missing the ship.

 

Most of the time when a ship is missed, it is not the guides fault but the passengers who will not listen and need to be round up like little kids or demand to be taken back to places they have already seen when they should have spoken up at that time and said they want to stop here.

 

be sensible, take a copy of your passport and the daily ship paper for contact info and you will be fine. :rolleyes:

[leighuf]

Leighuf should have given the entire story.

 

If you want the "entire story" (actually should be called a "wonderful review"), please email me leighuf @ yahoo.com. It's a 33 page Word document.

 

The original write up, from one of the persons that missed the ship stated that it was entirely their fault. As travelers we must take responsibility for our own actions. This group did by stating that there were several instances when they possibly could have made the ship on time if not for choices that they made.

 

An exact quote from above "No one could have predicted that the 30 minute drive from Sorrento to Naples would take nearly 5 hours (and would have been longer had we not used the white hanky out the window trick). I still will use private tours in the future, as they are usually are large cost savings and provide you with a better experience. "

True, but it did take them 5 hours. Traffic was the cause, not the guide.

 

I have never read anywhere on the boards where the private guide made the passengers miss the ship.

 

Did I say that? Nope. In fact, the reviewer mentioned they would STILL USE A PRIVATE TOURS IN THE FUTURE!

 

TO all others who've posted: it CAN happen. That's my point, period. Have your documents and contact numbers with you onshore. Things can happen. Traffic, train strikes, bad weather. Travelers should be aware and not trapped in the "it will never happen to me" complex. Will it happen to any of us on our upcoming cruises?? Hopefully not. :D

[drwong]

We nearly missed our sailing in Civitavecchia because the van keys were accidentally locked inside the vehicle when the driver stepped outside for a smoke and it took him hours to jimmy the lock with a coat hanger. Our driver said he would have put us up in his home overnight and then driven us down the coast to our next port-of-call to meet the ship, but then again, our next port was Naples.

[ClaudiaF]

I thought the cruise keeps your passport?

Yes they do, so make a copy to keep with you before you leave home..also will make life easier for you, should you loose your passport..

[ehogan]

On our cruise on the Brilliance in May, a group was left behind in Naples. I don't know if they were on a private tour or on their own. I understand that they had to wait to catch the train to the next port which left quite late in the evening. The ship did wait at least a half an hour for this group, and we know this because the captain apologized to the passengers for the delay, saying that they could not wait any longer.

 

The left behind passengers were warned by the train officials that since they were taking a night train, they would have to be sure to stay awake because robbery was a common occurance on that train. Needless to say, by the time they arrived at the next port at 5AM they were tired and frustrated. (One of the group was at guest relations the next day threatening legal action!)

 

We took the Amalfi tour given by the ship for that very reason, and trust me the traffic on that stretch of road is horrendous, we were also stuck due to an accident for over an hour, fortunately it just meant that we were unable to do the ending tour of Naples. Even doing the ship's tours, we generally take the early morning tours if we have that option. I would really advise that you either take a ship's shore excursion (especially for Amalfi) or make an arrangement that gives you several hours of leeway in case of problems.

 

And in any case, take the number of the ship's port contact and a copy of your passport (I don't know what would happen if your next port is in another country - would you need your actual passport?)