Worst thing that ever happened to you on a cruise?

[uncleg]

Caught some sort of nasty bug from my cabin stewardess, poor thing was so sick. It hit me the last night of cruise I missed two weeks of work with a mild case of Pneumonia. Still it was a great cruise.

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

No luggage on a 2 week transatlantic. Just our carryons.

Took 6 months of battling with Lufthansa (and getting the govt oversight agencies involved) to get our compensation

LOL, my parents had no luggage for a 3 week cruise from Italy to South Africa. The luggage actually got more airmiles than they did because it went South Africa-Europe-South Africa-Mauritius-South Africa. They got a few basics from the ship/port shops, and a good refund from the airline.

[Athankfulheart]

7 day western Caribbean sailing with 4 ports. We had excursions booked at all 4 and had first time cruisers as well as cruisers who hadn't been to these ports before. After a year of planning we had 21 very disappointed people.

 

We missed 2 ports and had high winds, rain and rough seas for almost the entire week. Of the 2 ports that we did make, we got rained out of one excursion and did the other (ruins) in the rain. I think the sun only came out on the last sea day for a while and as a result the topside decks were so crowded by people trying to get to the sunshine.

 

Bonus : I now know which of my children don't handle rough seas very well.

 

 

We never saw or stood on a beach the entire vacation :( We all made the best of it, but all those sea days in the rain really stunk. We didn't get comedians because of the missed ports and the staff seemed to struggle to find enough for the passengers to stay busy. It was a super bummer for our immediate family of 10 because this was our long planned for, last vacation together because the kids are growing up, cruise. First world problems I know, but it does make me a little sad.

 

Someone else on our sailing had a worse week because of a drunk woman using their baby's stroller to keep from falling off the gangway and into the water below. The stroller was occupied at the time and she was grasping it as she was falling, pulling the stroller nearly into the water as well. Passengers were all screaming at her as she continues to pull the stroller and throw around some colorful language.

[Alyrica]

On my first cruise last year I had ATD. The MDR was offering corn chowder that evening which sounded delicious. I asked our waiter for the evening if the soup contained seafood because I'm allergic. He said he would check with the chef. After a bit he came back and set the soup in front of me. I started eating but it tasted funny. After pushing it off to the side the waiter comes back and asked "did you not enjoy the lobster bisque?" :eek: luckily my allergy doesn't cause anaphylaxis or any other life threatening symptoms. That was not a great night....lol

[blackpool belle]

OMG! I am so very sorry, on behalf of the American cruising community. She is not "representative"...I am so very sorry..and speaking as an American, if I had been there, she would have recieved the "spanking" she deserved from me. LOL. That is just terrible. :eek:

 

Thank you for your comments. I realise it was a one - off. I wouldn't demean myself & retaliate with anybody let alone an 80+ year old woman.Some of my nicest friends ( all met through cruising) are from the USA...all lovely people.

Edited February 26, 2014 by blackpool belle

[Robin7]

Long ago, on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Star Princess, we were upgraded from an inside to an outside with an obstructed view. The obstruction? A lifeboat. Whatever, it was a window, and we were thrilled!

 

One night before dinner, I showered, and my husband was lying on the bed reading. We always left the curtains open. I came out of the bathroom naked as the day I was born and looked right into the eyes of a crewman sitting in the cockpit of the TENDER lifeboat! :eek:

 

I hit the floor so fast!! I yelled at my husband to close the curtains. He, ever helpful, was laughing so hard he could not get up! So I crawled over behind the bed on the side away from the window.

 

Yes, we are still married (31 years in April), but I'm not sure I have forgiven him yet. :p

 

Robin (who closes the curtains now!!!)

[screwsmcernst]

Long ago, on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Star Princess, we were upgraded from an inside to an outside with an obstructed view. The obstruction? A lifeboat. Whatever, it was a window, and we were thrilled!

 

One night before dinner, I showered, and my husband was lying on the bed reading. We always left the curtains open. I came out of the bathroom naked as the day I was born and looked right into the eyes of a crewman sitting in the cockpit of the TENDER lifeboat! :eek:

 

I hit the floor so fast!! I yelled at my husband to close the curtains. He, ever helpful, was laughing so hard he could not get up! So I crawled over behind the bed on the side away from the window.

 

Yes, we are still married (31 years in April), but I'm not sure I have forgiven him yet. :p

 

Robin (who closes the curtains now!!!)

 

That reminds me of the time we were on the top deck at sail away, and a Princess ship was on the other side of the pier. This man on Princess must have just come out of the shower, and he opened his curtains to the balcony, and there he was buck naked as we sailed by. He stood there frozen for a few seconds, then grabbed the curtain and hid behind it as he closed the curtains again. :eek:

[rere827]

Just came off the Ruby Princess and stingray city was closed by the Grand Cayman govt so we couldn't feed the rays.

 

Why was it closed? We were there on February 13 -sorry you missed it = never thought I would like it but it was awesome!!

[jhnsnfamily]

I was on a Princess cruise to Alaska with my mom and my son. My son was 15 at the time. He made several new friends quickly. He would spend most of his time in the teen club. His curfew was midnight every night. I would always check on him before going to the cabin for the night. He was always home on time…..until the second to the last night. I had fallen asleep. I woke up at 4:00AM to find he was not there. I quickly got dressed. I started searching the ship. I was so sick to my stomach thinking the worst had happened. I first went to the swimming pool area. I ran into a crew member and described my son and asked if he had seen him. He said yes, he’s over there with his girlfriend. I look up and see a boy lying on top of a girl in a lounge chair covered up with a blanket making out. I was instantly relieved but mad at the same time. I walked up to them and slapped him on the top of the head. He looks up and IT’S NOT MY SON! I said oops, you’re not my son. I asked if he knew him and he said yes but didn’t know where he was. Of course the boy and girl were in total shock and their eyes were as big as saucers. My stomach was again in knots. I went back to the elevator not knowing where to go next. That’s when I heard a bunch of laughter coming from the deck below. I walked down the stairs and the first person I see is my son. He knew by the look on my face he was in trouble. He said “Mom I’m sorry, I left me key in the room” I told him knocking on the door worked great.

I told him he was grounded the next night. Of course being the softy, I felt bad and let him go to the teen club on the last night. But I told him he better NOT be late. He was in the room by 11:45.

That was one of the worse nights of my life. There were several teens out at that hour. I can not for the life of me understand why a parent would allow that. Maybe they didn’t know they were out. But I can’t imagine all the parents not knowing. But I do laugh now about slapping the wrong kid on top of the head. All the kids were given T-shirts and everyone sighned each others shirts. The kid I slapped signed his name and said "I will never forget your mother" on my son's shirt. LMBO!

 

LMBO! This is totally something I would do! Having traveled with my sons on two cruises, and one scheduled for this summer when they will be 13 and 16, I can see this scenario playing out in my future! For our last cruise two years ago, the boys were in a cabin across the hall and we set curfews for them and put the fear of God in them if they didn't abide by the rules. Luckily, they are obedient and we didn't have any problems; however, I would totally do what you did in that circumstance. I read this to my soon to be 16 year old and he laughed too. He said, "yeah Mom ... that sounds like something you would do!" :D

 

As far as my "worst things" ... compared to some others, mine are minor ...

 

Honeymoon cruise in 1995 ... this happened while just trying to get to the ship! Wedding on Saturday and sailing on Sunday ... got one hour and 40 minutes sleep before a 6 a.m. flight out of Dayton, Ohio. The hotel had "breakfast" which consisted of donuts ... I can't eat donuts for breakfast because they make me sick, so I didn't eat. Long story short, two plane rides later and NO FOOD due to no time between flights, I was shaking I was soooooo hungry (low blood sugar) ... we finally get on the ship. This was before my discovery of Cruise Critic and our first cruise, so we had no idea there would be a buffet waiting on us. We saw people carrying plates of food and we about RAN to the buffet! After that, we were fat and happy and went to take a nap ... and almost missed the sailaway! Trying to get home from the cruise, we had plane issues ... after several delays and a change of planes, we finally made it home about 8 hours after we were supposed to land. This was before cell phones and the air line could not tell my parents (who were picking us up) when we would be landing because we literally were told to "go get on this plane and fill up all available seats ... if you can't find a seat, we will get you on another plane." ... They stayed at the airport ALL DAY waiting for us! I still to this day have no idea how our luggage arrived at the same time we did because there was no way to track who got on that plane that we ended up flying home on! :eek:

 

Cruise in 1997 ... had a migraine so bad one night, I had to get up and leave in the middle of dinner because I thought I was going to be sick everywhere. Got back to the cabin and took my meds that knocked me out for the rest of the night. Sucks that I lost a whole evening due to headache. :mad:

 

Cruise in 2007 ... first cruise with my kids ... I had been doing the Atkins diet leading up to the cruise from Jan 2 to the day before we sailed for a Spring Break cruise. I was successful and lost 26 pounds in three months by not eating any sugar or carbs. Well, once I got on the ship, all bets were off ... and I didn't pace myself ... AT ALL ... and my body just couldn't handle the overload of carbs and sugar and I was soooooooooo sick! Never again!!! Severe stomach cramps!!! Also on this cruise, we sailed with my parents and did an excursion with them that included snorkeling out in the ocean over a ship wreck. We have a pool at home and the boys can swim, but swimming in your backyard is way different than swimming in the ocean! I stayed with my youngest and my husband stayed with my oldest. Well, my husband and older son were a ways ahead of us and I looked up and noticed a small inflatable boat with a small motor was going over to my husband and son ... my heart sank when I saw them pull my son into the boat! It turns out he had swam through some plankton and gotten "stung" all along his torso and arm and was in some pain and crying. The pain didn't last long, but it certainly put a damper on his day.

 

Cruise in 2012 ... our kids were in a cabin across the hall from us. In the middle of the night, we get a call in our room from our youngest son saying that his brother was throwing up everywhere ... oh joy! :o DH went over there and sure enough, it was EVERYWHERE. Turns out, he ate too much shrimp that night! We were close to the laundromat on our floor and tried to clean up the best we could and put the soiled linens in the sink in the laundromat. We told our cabin steward the next morning about the mess. He was a trooper. He changed all the linens, including the bed spreads, got us all new towels, and had the carpet shampooed twice (that day and again the next day). He put a huge fan in their room to dry the carpet (which they loved ... they sleep with fans at home and like the "white noise"). Even on a cruise ship, when your phone rings in the middle of the night, it's never a good thing! Ohhhhh ... and our credit card info was stolen and our account closed while we were sailing ... it was the only credit card we have ... I was on the phone our first night at sea for over an hour and a half with Capital One ... we brought some cash and were traveling with family, so we worked it out, but it still sucked to have to worry about that on vacation!!!

 

So, I'd say all in all, we've been pretty lucky!!! (knocking on wood now ... :D )

Edited February 27, 2014 by jhnsnfamily
edited to add the bit about the stolen credit card! How could I forget that!!!

[Mrsdigi]

Why was it closed? We were there on February 13 -sorry you missed it = never thought I would like it but it was awesome!!

 

 

They said the waves were too high. I was really looking forward to it, too. Guess well have to go back. :)

[kpgibbs]

LMBO! This is totally something I would do! Having traveled with my sons on two cruises, and one scheduled for this summer when they will be 13 and 16, I can see this scenario playing out in my future! For our last cruise two years ago, the boys were in a cabin across the hall and we set curfews for them and put the fear of God in them if they didn't abide by the rules. Luckily, they are obedient and we didn't have any problems; however, I would totally do what you did in that circumstance. I read this to my soon to be 16 year old and he laughed too. He said, "yeah Mom ... that sounds like something you would do!" :D

 

As far as my "worst things" ... compared to some others, mine are minor ...

 

Honeymoon cruise in 1995 ... this happened while just trying to get to the ship! Wedding on Saturday and sailing on Sunday ... got one hour and 40 minutes sleep before a 6 a.m. flight out of Dayton, Ohio. The hotel had "breakfast" which consisted of donuts ... I can't eat donuts for breakfast because they make me sick, so I didn't eat. Long story short, two plane rides later and NO FOOD due to no time between flights, I was shaking I was soooooo hungry (low blood sugar) ... we finally get on the ship. This was before my discovery of Cruise Critic and our first cruise, so we had no idea there would be a buffet waiting on us. We saw people carrying plates of food and we about RAN to the buffet! After that, we were fat and happy and went to take a nap ... and almost missed the sailaway! Trying to get home from the cruise, we had plane issues ... after several delays and a change of planes, we finally made it home about 8 hours after we were supposed to land. This was before cell phones and the air line could not tell my parents (who were picking us up) when we would be landing because we literally were told to "go get on this plane and fill up all available seats ... if you can't find a seat, we will get you on another plane." ... They stayed at the airport ALL DAY waiting for us! I still to this day have no idea how our luggage arrived at the same time we did because there was no way to track who got on that plane that we ended up flying home on! :eek:

 

Cruise in 1997 ... had a migraine so bad one night, I had to get up and leave in the middle of dinner because I thought I was going to be sick everywhere. Got back to the cabin and took my meds that knocked me out for the rest of the night. Sucks that I lost a whole evening due to headache. :mad:

 

Cruise in 2007 ... first cruise with my kids ... I had been doing the Atkins diet leading up to the cruise from Jan 2 to the day before we sailed for a Spring Break cruise. I was successful and lost 26 pounds in three months by not eating any sugar or carbs. Well, once I got on the ship, all bets were off ... and I didn't pace myself ... AT ALL ... and my body just couldn't handle the overload of carbs and sugar and I was soooooooooo sick! Never again!!! Severe stomach cramps!!! Also on this cruise, we sailed with my parents and did an excursion with them that included snorkeling out in the ocean over a ship wreck. We have a pool at home and the boys can swim, but swimming in your backyard is way different than swimming in the ocean! I stayed with my youngest and my husband stayed with my oldest. Well, my husband and older son were a ways ahead of us and I looked up and noticed a small inflatable boat with a small motor was going over to my husband and son ... my heart sank when I saw them pull my son into the boat! It turns out he had swam through some plankton and gotten "stung" all along his torso and arm and was in some pain and crying. The pain didn't last long, but it certainly put a damper on his day.

 

Cruise in 2012 ... our kids were in a cabin across the hall from us. In the middle of the night, we get a call in our room from our youngest son saying that his brother was throwing up everywhere ... oh joy! :o DH went over there and sure enough, it was EVERYWHERE. Turns out, he ate too much shrimp that night! We were close to the laundromat on our floor and tried to clean up the best we could and put the soiled linens in the sink in the laundromat. We told our cabin steward the next morning about the mess. He was a trooper. He changed all the linens, including the bed spreads, got us all new towels, and had the carpet shampooed twice (that day and again the next day). He put a huge fan in their room to dry the carpet (which they loved ... they sleep with fans at home and like the "white noise"). Even on a cruise ship, when your phone rings in the middle of the night, it's never a good thing! Ohhhhh ... and our credit card info was stolen and our account closed while we were sailing ... it was the only credit card we have ... I was on the phone our first night at sea for over an hour and a half with Capital One ... we brought some cash and were traveling with family, so we worked it out, but it still sucked to have to worry about that on vacation!!!

 

So, I'd say all in all, we've been pretty lucky!!! (knocking on wood now ... :D )

 

I think you and I could cruise together and have a great time. Take our boys and put leashes on them. LOL

[Mrsdigi]

LOL! Indeed you are blessed! Hug each other, kiss each other, and all your loved ones. And enjoy your life together, espcecially the parts you are on the sea....Toast each other at sailaway and remember that the world needs people who love each other.

 

 

You made me tear up. What a wonderful statement!

[uncleg]

I have one more, I blocked it from my memory...you never want to have an automobile accident in Mexico. Enough said.

[artist47]

Long ago, on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera on the Star Princess, we were upgraded from an inside to an outside with an obstructed view. The obstruction? A lifeboat. Whatever, it was a window, and we were thrilled!

 

One night before dinner, I showered, and my husband was lying on the bed reading. We always left the curtains open. I came out of the bathroom naked as the day I was born and looked right into the eyes of a crewman sitting in the cockpit of the TENDER lifeboat! :eek:

 

I hit the floor so fast!! I yelled at my husband to close the curtains. He, ever helpful, was laughing so hard he could not get up! So I crawled over behind the bed on the side away from the window.

 

Yes, we are still married (31 years in April), but I'm not sure I have forgiven him yet. :p

 

Robin (who closes the curtains now!!!)

 

 

This exact same thing happened to me on the s/s Norway....I was in a suite ---- they had floor to ceiling windows IIRC. It was sort of early in the morning at the Norway had to drop anchor and tender in to port. (I think it was St. Maartin). Anyway, I didn't realize it but the QE had pulled alongside. She was right outside my window and there was a lot of people on the promenade deck, along with some officers.

 

When I came out of the shower, I was naked like I was just born, and the curtains were open....I am not normally a shy person...and being a European, nudity doesn't normally bother me. (I'm also an artist so I am used to drawing live nudes in classes, etc.

 

It was the ShOCK of seeing at least 150 - 200 people staring back at me that freaked me out!

 

And the suite was so large I couldn't escape and couldn't get the curtains closed fast enough...My husband (whom I later divorced. ;) ) was laughing his butt off, watching me do the Gypsy Rose Lee scramble....When I was finally able to get both curtains closed, it was not before I saw, 3 of the QE officers, standing together, and in full SALUTE.

 

It's funny now, but it was NOT funny then!

:eek:

 

ps - to explain: the QE and the Norway were the only ships too big to dock in those ports back then....they would usually "salute" each other with horns, and bells when they arrived in the same ports and they would give each other courtesies not seen among other cruise ships.....those were really great days of the cruising world. I miss those beautiful, true ocean liners! They were so beautiful, and so grand to see , sitting out there in the bay.

[artist47]

You made me tear up. What a wonderful statement!

 

 

You are the one who is sweet --- I hope I get to meet you, and more people like you on my next cruise. GBY! (hug!)

[cruisue]

When we were on a beach in Grand Turk, my husband took off his wedding ring (from 45 yrs ago) to apply sunscreen and continued to sunbathe having placed the ring on the chair. He didn't notice he wasn't wearing it until we got back to the port. It must have fallen in the sand when he got up. Couldn't go back to look for it, ship was ready to sail and the beach was too far away.

[port msp]

Eurodam, Feb 2010. Last day of cruise at Half Moon Cay. They couldn't get one of the anchors up due to mechanical trouble. We left many hours late. To add to the complexity, the southern US was socked in with a weekend storm and thousands of flights had been canceled. Doing the math, I knew we wouldn't make our 1230 flight. I couldn't get through to Delta's call center to rebook. I got online and rebooked for later in the day on another airline that connected through Charlotte, figuring ATL wasn't going to deal well with the ice they had gotten, and Delta had days worth of canceled passengers to rebook. We usually self disembark, we pack pretty light, so we hadn't set out our bags for pickup. The next morning, we made our way to the gangway area when instructed. The area was packed with very angry people who weren't self-disembarking (many just had small tote bags instead of luggage). They were told they couldn't get off the ship if they weren't self-disembarking because their luggage wouldn't be ready for collection for a while and they weren't allowed to wait in the luggage hall until all the luggage was unloaded from the ship. (or something to that effect, it was 4 years ago;-) It was quite a scene. One lady standing behind us, I'd guess to be in her 70's, yelled, "this is a cluster @!#$, I'm going to miss my flight!". I was so shocked to hear that come out of her mouth that I laughed. I turned to her and said that most everyone was going to miss their flights. I'm pretty sure that didn't help.

We got to the airport, and just for fun, I went to the Delta counter and asked when they'd be able to get us out of FLL and back home. I was told late Monday night or Tuesday morning. (it was Sunday)

The whole scenario just reinforced my strategies of packing light, handling my own luggage, being flexible, and taking it all in stride. I think I earned some karma points for helping some "less than computer savvy" fellow passengers rebook online in the internet cafe.

The bbq place in the Charlotte airport wasn't bad. We got home late Sunday night and were back at work Monday morning with an interesting story to tell. I will never forget the cursing granny!

[dmndlil]

Noro in 2009. Was sick for 2 days of the cruise.... :(

[buggins0402]

Thank you for asking :). He was fine- but it was clear from the times we spoke on the phone that he was trying to hide how frightened he was (I found out later when we were together just how scared he had been). We live right outside of Jerusalem, and it was the first time in 40 years that the area was under missle attack; there were also several times that the air raid sirens went off as he was driving home from work, and he had to run for shelter.

 

I simply felt helpless- and tried not to lose hope.

 

Although the sirens went off in our town a few times, there were no direct hits so our home was fine. By the time I got back home things were back to 'normal,' but after 1500 missiles in 2 weeks, my friends needed to talk about what they had been through, so I got caught up quickly.

 

This page gives a bit of an idea of what those two weeks were like (there are several videos as you scroll down the page).:

 

http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Pages/Israel_under_fire-November_2012.aspx

 

We ported in Israel on the NCL Jade during this time. The night before we were to port in Haifa, I was watching CNN in the ship's fitness center when they reported the missiles had started flying and reaching farther north than usual - up to Tel-Aviv. Usually with smaller rocket attacks the ships would just stay in Haifa and skip the second southern port in Ashdod. I guess it was just timing, we were a few hours from porting in Haifa, news of what was happening was still sketchy - so we ported (with our ship staying the night in Haifa). We had planned to spend the night in a hotel in Jerusalem and we continued with the plan. I did have difficulties sleeping that night - the room had a noisy air conditioner and every time it came on I thought it was an incoming rocket. All the ships scheduled to port after us diverted and I'm sure we would have also, if the ship would have been scheduled to come in one day later - when the true extent of this attack had been known.

Edited March 2, 2014 by buggins0402

[greatam]

Not actually on a ship but 2004, Infinity broke down in the Panama Canal. They disembarked all passengers in Acapulco. We were to board the next sailing to Hawaii off the West Coast. We had 3 days notice that our cruise was cancelled. As it worked out, we were able to change our airline tickets to Hawaii, booked almost the identical trip on land as we would have had on the ship and with Celebrity offering free cruise vouchers, reimbursement of any non refundables and airline change fees, we didn't loose any money and had at least (well, I think better) time then we would have had on the ship. Only thing I truly missed was sailing past the volcano at night with the lava flow. Other than schlepping luggage, changing hotels and dealing with rental cars, we did a lot more than we would have in the short port times on the ship.

 

BUT our real disappointment-Sept 2010. We had booked the Alaska to Beijing trip. We made SPECIAL arrangements to get off the ship in Vladivostok. We purchased our own Russian visas for entry into the country. We were taking the trans Siberian RR to Mongolia and Moscow, then flying home. We had the requisite "permission" letter from the Captain allowing us to disembark in Vladivostok. When we attempted to board, we made it through the initial check in process but were met entering the ship by people from special services. They told us we COULD NOT get off at Vladivostok. They very carefully separated the two of us. I'm the one with the big mouth and the world travel experience. My dear departed DH was a "go along with the program" person. One person was telling DH the ship was oversold, they would refund our money immediately and give us two free cruise certificates. He was NOT a wave maker.

 

The other person was telling me my visa had NOT been verified by THEIR visa company, Zierer, so they could not allow us to depart in Russia. We would have to continue to Beijing. I kept demanding the Captain show up to settle the argument. I kept waving the "permission letter" he had signed allowing us to get off the ship in Russia. He was no place to be seen. It got into almost a threatening situation. I felt if we didn't leave, they would call security/the cops and we would be thrown off the ship and possibly jailed if we didn't leave.

 

We finally left. Flew to Moscow, then to Vladivostok. Got there the day before the ship-train was leaving the day the ship arrived. I wanted so very badly to go to the ship, flaunt it in their face-"look where we are-how did we get here if our Russian visas were no good in Anchorage?". But DH asked if I wanted to spend time in a Siberian gulag? NOT a pleasant thought so I stuck close to the hotel until it was time to board the train. SUPERB trip seeing things most people will never see. Ulan Baator Mongolia particularly. But sure missed those 7-8 sea days of pure, unadulterated relaxation on the ship.

Edited March 2, 2014 by greatam

[port msp]

BUT our real disappointment-Sept 2010. We had booked the Alaska to Beijing trip. We made SPECIAL arrangements to get off the ship in Vladivostok. We purchased our own Russian visas for entry into the country. We were taking the trans Siberian RR to Mongolia and Moscow, then flying home. We had the requisite "permission" letter from the Captain allowing us to disembark in Vladivostok. When we attempted to board, we made it through the initial check in process but were met entering the ship by people from special services. They told us we COULD NOT get off at Vladivostok. They very carefully separated the two of us. I'm the one with the big mouth and the world travel experience. My dear departed DH was a "go along with the program" person. One person was telling DH the ship was oversold, they would refund our money immediately and give us two free cruise certificates. He was NOT a wave maker.

 

The other person was telling me my visa had NOT been verified by THEIR visa company, Zierer, so they could not allow us to depart in Russia. We would have to continue to Beijing. I kept demanding the Captain show up to settle the argument. I kept waving the "permission letter" he had signed allowing us to get off the ship in Russia. He was no place to be seen. It got into almost a threatening situation. I felt if we didn't leave, they would call security/the cops and we would be thrown off the ship and possibly jailed if we didn't leave.

 

We finally left. Flew to Moscow, then to Vladivostok. Got there the day before the ship-train was leaving the day the ship arrived. I wanted so very badly to go to the ship, flaunt it in their face-"look where we are-how did we get here if our Russian visas were no good in Anchorage?". But DH asked if I wanted to spend time in a Siberian gulag? NOT a pleasant thought so I stuck close to the hotel until it was time to board the train. SUPERB trip seeing things most people will never see. Ulan Baator Mongolia particularly. But sure missed those 7-8 sea days of pure, unadulterated relaxation on the ship.

 

I think I remember this thread from years ago. (I lurk on these boards much more than I post) Wasn't the initial contention that the cruise line said you needed a visa for China even though you weren't planning to go that far and you didn't think you needed one? Did you end up with a visa for China as well?

 

Trans Siberian Railway is on my bucket list. If you've written anything about it, please point me to the blog. I'd love to read your account.

[greatam]

delete

Edited March 2, 2014 by greatam

[greatam]

 

I think I remember this thread from years ago. (I lurk on these boards much more than I post) Wasn't the initial contention that the cruise line said you needed a visa for China even though you weren't planning to go that far and you didn't think you needed one? Did you end up with a visa for China as well?

 

Trans Siberian Railway is on my bucket list. If you've written anything about it, please point me to the blog. I'd love to read your account.

 

I just wrote a long post explaining it had NOTHING to do with a CHINESE visa. But it evidently disappeared in cyberspace.

 

I had a multi entry Chinese BUSINESS visa and I got DH a single entry Chinese visa because they said we couldn't get on the ship without it.

 

It was the RUSSIAN visa which no one on the ship needed except anyone who was PERMANENTLY getting off the ship in Vladivosok. I got the visas on my own. Then Princess informed us that we didn't have "registered" visas with their visa agency, Zierer. And the BS began. Princess simply wanted us off the ship because we had a primo, mid priced cabin, the ship was oversold, we weren't spending much money on the ship because we were getting off in Russia and they didn't want to make arrangements for Russian immigration only for us. So they basically threw us off the ship after they separated us, took DH down the gangway, promised him a total refund IMMEDIATELY and future cruise vouchers (which we never got nor would I have used). THEN they let him come get me and the battle royal began (and continued on the plane all the way to Moscow). After a while, I got the feeling they were going to call the cops, so left the ship also.

 

If you want to know what happened in Alaska when they kicked us off the ship and the trip on the Trans Siberian, email me-greatam.az@gmail.com

[sirk25]

Last year, on a family cruise with my inlaws, DW and 2 sons, we were at Coco-Cay, at a "tendered" port. My eldest son and I had a late para-sailing excursion booked. We didn't really set up any meet up times with the rest of the family after the excursion, assuming we would just run into each other. Being out on the water and in the air, I didn't think it necessary to carry any valuables or belongings, so I gave it all to DW in a carry bag. (ID, ship card, cash, insulin pump) At the time, she didn't realize she was carrying it all. While we were enjoying our para-sailng adventure, the family decided to go back on the ship so the 3 yr old son could have a nap as he was getting cranky. See where this is going?

 

We finish the excursion, back on the island and start looking for the family. The island is getting pretty quiet, its late in the day and most people have tendered back to the ship. We are running all over the island, looking for them. Then it hit me, how will WE get back on the ship when we need our ship card to even get on the tender. Panic sets in as the ships horn blows and the last tender is filling up. Ship crew is trying to round up everyone. I explain to the nice ship crewman of our predicament, not knowing where our family was. I had him call our stateroom to see if they were on board.... no answer. He checked with security if they has checked in as being back on the ship....nope. NOW the panic elevated to a super serious level. :eek: Son and I were the last ones on the tender, after going thru a level of security checks, verifying photos, signing documents. Relieved we made it on the tender and getting back, but still no clue on the where abouts of the family. As soon as we got onto the ship, found the nearest phone and call our room to hear my wife answer in a happy cheery voice, not knowing what we just went thru. Lesson #1 learned.

 

Lesson # 2, the crew said something about getting a replacement card at guest services as our "missing/lost" cards were deactivated. Didn't know what he was talking about cuz when we got to the room, our cards worked find in our room, so we thought nothing of it. Next, getting off the ship in another port, running a bit late for an excursion, found out we couldn't get off the ship due to invalid ship cards. DOH!!! NOW I know what that guy meant. So a quick trip, fighting the crowds to get to the guest services desk to get cards replaced, and then we were good to go. Just a tad bit of embarrassment as we held up other people for some time.

Edited March 3, 2014 by sirk25

[MzMelissa26]

Left in Mexico until the next evening!