Fess Up! Share stories of mistakes you've made while cruising.

[emptynestcruises]

I didn't actually do anything wrong, but I will never forget the experience. Sometime during the last day of the cruise some unknown person went to Medical to get some anti-diarrhea. Once they started asking him several questions he decided to leave. As he was leaving they apparently asked him his cabin number. He responded with a random cabin number that turned out to be mine. At dinner that evening I was approached by the Maitre' d and asked if I had been seen in medical that day. Remarkably enough, I had no idea what he was talking about. He returned a little while later with Security to escort me to Medical where the whole story finally became clear. If he would have just asked out waiter what I ordered to eat the whole thing could have been avoided as no person in their right mind would order Lobster Bisque if they were suffering from diarrhea!

[thefamilytravelagent]

We've only been on one cruise but I will say that the only regret I have from that cruise was one day that my daughter wasn't feeling well. She was just kinda acting funny and saying her belly hurt but she was still swimming after breakfast and going down the slide and laughing etc. I figured it was just sea sickness and she'd feel better when we got on land. Wrong! It just made it worse and she ended up spending our entire excursion sick and even threw up. I should have trusted her when she said she wasn't feeling well and just stayed in the room to let her rest for the day. It's never a good idea to over-do it, especially with kids and ESPECIALLY when they say they aren't feeling right. Thankfully she was her bright and cheery (and healthy!) self the next morning, though.

[tiggerkaj]

Summer 2012

 

There was a group of 13 of us for our daughter's and my best friends son graduation cruise. We were leaving the ship and trying to hurry to beat the crowd and get on the road. Our son (who was 12) stayed with the grandparents on the cruise so when I saw him pulling a suitcase as we were leaving I assumed it was his suitcase....WRONG!! He was pulling his grandmothers suitcase which I didn't realize until about a week after we got home when I started questioning him about where certain things were that we brought on the cruise. It was then that I realized we didn't have his suitcase from the cruise...:confused: After several phone calls and being told they didn't have his suitcase I assumed someone else picked it up :mad: A few weeks later I get a call from the port stating they found his suitcase and $40 later go his clothes back. Guess that's what happens when you travel with a group on a cruise and don't count your luggage...lol

[cruzngrl]

not me but my dd. headed off to her first (and only) cruise for her 16th birthday. She had never flown before and when we got to the airport she told me she didn't feel well. I chalked it up to anxiety and nerves over her first flight. We get on the plane, buckle up, and hit the runway. As we are taxiing down the runway she gets "that look" on her face and proceeds to vomit everywhere..and i do mean everywhere. There is nothing the attendants can do as they are strapped in..ohhh that smell!!!! Poor kid and poor everyone else sitting within ten aisles of her..she was fine after that:D

[Sandy Sails]

First time EVER that I did not pack an extra pair of contact lenses - I never lose them, ever. Uh oh, Day 2 - down the drain went one! I had to wear my ugly thick glasses. Day 3 - uh oh, glasses broke. THAT'S why I always pack that small roll of duct tape!

[Katgoesonholiday]

In two months darling hubby and I are going on our first cruise to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary and 40th birthdays. We are leaving the kids at home and have arranged with my mum and my sister to take a week each to come stay with them. Naturally I arranged and paid for their flights to my city myself since they are doing us such a huge favour.

 

After a lot of back and forth working out the best times, I booked their flights in January and ticked that task off my (extensive) list. Job done! Phew!

 

Then a few weeks back I booked new flights for my sister to fly in this weekend to help me celebrate my 40th birthday (this saturday). Again, very easy and no dramas.

 

Well.....no dramas until yesterday when I scrolled through my emails to check what time I need to go to the airport on Friday. I scrolled too far and zoomed past the emails for the July bookings for both my mum and my sister .... hang on! What the heck??? :eek:

 

Somewhere in all the searching for flight itineraries I had managed to get the departure and arrival airports mixed up!!! They were both leaving from the arrival city and then departing from the arrival city! Oh my goodness!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad I picked that up two months before the cruise and not when I went to the airport to pick up my mum the day before I left! Holy moly! That would have been a disaster!

Edited April 29, 2014 by Katgoesonholiday

[euro cruiser]

My first cruise was my last for about 20 years because we had one of the nicest cabins on a really cheap, old ship. Lesson learned, it's like real estate. Much better to have the cheapest cabin on a nice ship than the other way around.

[margeecruiser]

Few years ago. Experienced cruiser with a brand new iPad. Total electronic idiot. Got an app for a night light feature, including a clock. Didn't realize the clock would cause the iPad to try to roam to find the time where I was. Total cost $187 before I found out what I had done. About day 2 of the cruise. Could have been worse -- it was a 7 day cruise

 

Margee

 

P.S. Love the night light app, just disable the automatic clock and set the time manually as you go through different time zones.

[hpecorari]

Back in October was on the Sun and went to the Chef's Table dinner. Didn't even think of leaving a tip....it just slipped my mind. Which, in and of itself is strange as I always tip at specialty restaurants we go to. After a few days I realized I hadn't tipped. I felt really bad about it and didn't know how to go about trying to find 'who' to leave the tip with. I ended up going to guest services and left them an envelope with the tip and explained the situation to them. They said they'd make sure those who were there received it. I felt better afterwards. It didn't ruin my trip but I did feel real bad about it for a few days.

 

Otherwise, I've been very lucky and happy!

 

Harriet

[Clydesmom7865]

One other thing I learned on my first cruise or for traveling for anything longer than 7 days:

 

You can NEVER have too much underwear and socks but you can have TOO many pairs of shoes. Brought 9 pairs the first time and wore 3.

 

Biggest mistake wasn't for a cruise but a land tour to Israel for 16 days. It was a 10:45 pm flight out of Atlanta and I was puttering around the house in my Crocs doing last minute stuff with the intention of tossing them in my suitcase and wearing sneakers on the flight. Was SO excited to head to the airport zipped the suitcase and drove off. It wasn't until I was going through security that I realized I was still wearing the crocs and had no sneakers. I suffered through many tours in those awful rubber shoes including a face plant that almost knocked my teeth out in Haifa and a day long walking tour in Jerusalem that our group lovingly referred to as the Death March.

 

Never again: any shoes for the trip are either on my feet or in the suitcase!

[wwcruisers]

Clydesmom, your story of the man (or woman, in this case) who had no shoes reminded me of why I now ALWAYS pack a bathing suit in my carry-on. :cool:

 

Several years ago, we flew cross-country to sail the brand-new Freedom of the Seas to the Caribbean. Well, we don't call that trip the "lost luggage cruise" for nothing. Bottom line, we made it to Miami in time, but our luggage did not. We picked up a few necessities (like underwear and toothpaste) on our mad-dash cab ride across Miami -- figuring that we'd just get anything else we needed on the ship. To my horror, we quickly learned that there were NO ladies' bathing suits for sale anywhere onboard! :eek:

 

Thankfully, our luggage caught up with us half-way through the cruise, so all was not lost. But, I will never again fly to any cruise port without a bathing suit in my carry-on! :o

[NMLady]

Hi all,

 

Gina Kramer, Cruise Critic's Associate Editor, here! I am compiling a list of mistakes that can ruin your cruise and would love to hear your personal accounts.

 

Have you ever made a mistake while cruising that taught you a valuable lesson -- whether it was your first cruise or something that simply slipped your mind?

 

A few of us at Cruise Critic HQ have our own, including forgetting a visa in Romania and signing up for a burger-eating challenge. (Hey, we all make mistakes!)

 

Please share your stories below. I'm looking forward to reading them! :D

 

Our mistake:

The first two cruises hubby and I took we spent each day together, mostly arguing, since we don't enjoy the same shipboard things. Not a relaxing vacation.

 

Our solution:

Then we developed a routine that works for us. On port days we usually spend port time together after previously agreeing to what we'll do. A few times we do separate activities.

On sea days we usually breakfast together but then spend the rest of the day apart, me to read and do a few activities, he to do Trivia and to socialize. We meet for drinks about 5:30pm then dinner at a sharing table.

Works for us. Now our cruises are delightful.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Got half way to the airport before realizing the laptop bag with my computer, wallet and PASSPORT were at home on the sofa. :eek:

 

Had to break major laws to head home and get it and make my flight out. Learned ALWAYS check for the passport before pulling out of the driveway.

 

I'll second that; I very luckily and obsessively kept checking my purse, where both our passports are for trips, as we pulled out of our driveway. The small blue book I had grabbed thinking it was one of our passports was actually a small blue address book almost exactly the same size and shape as a passport. At that time it was kept in the same drawer; no more!

 

We had a 2.5 hour drive to the airport for long and involved flights to JFK for an overseas flight. We'd never have been able to get the missing passport in time.

[Kartgv]

Several come to mind....

 

Probably the most common mistake is flying in to your departure city on the day on sailing. We had a 6:00pm sailing out of San Juan, left San Diego airport at 6:30am - or at least that's when we boarded the plane. We then sat on the tarmac for 1 1/2 hours because thunder storms in our connection city (Houston) wouldn't allow us to land. Eventually we took off, then circled Houston for an hour before we could land, literally raced through the airport to make our connection (which was also luckily delayed), then sat again on a runway due to weather. We eventually landed in San Juan at 6:00pm. The only saving factor was that we had booked the flight through the cruise line, including transportation from the airport to the port. There were over 30 people on our Houston>San Juan flight who were on our cruise, so they held the ship. We all entered the ship through a door cut into a plywood fence, no welcome champagne for us! We were escorted straight to muster drill, sweaty and exhausted, with our carry on bags in tow. Somehow our bags even made it onto the ship with us. Never again have we arrived at our departure port any less than 1 day before sailing.

 

Another one - never assume that no one can see in your cabin window, even when it's a porthole on a lower deck. Came out of the shower in the soup-can sized bathroom one day to dress in the bedroom - saw a deck hand's face in our porthole, cleaning the window from a scaffold. He waved and went back to window cleaning while I quickly gathered my clothes and scrambled back into the bathroom.

 

A couple of people have mentioned "Know your travel companions". On one of our first cruises, we went with another couple - my best friend and my cousin, who had been dating for about 6 months. We booked adjacent cabins, table for 4, thought it would be great. Unfortunately they had a huge argument about the 2nd night into the cruise and weren't speaking the rest of the 2 weeks on board. Our beds were only separated by a very thin wall so we could hear every word of their fights and they could hear every sound of our 'not fighting'. Each night at dinner, one or the other would show up, but never both together. Very uncomfortable time for all!

[SeagoingMom]

Well, I forgot to bring any underwear one trip. Every port stop was a search. Did you know it's very hard to find underwear in small tourist stops? My husband's solution to turn them inside out every other day didn't help :)

Hmm, didn't your husband even hint at the concept of your dispensing with underwear altogether? :rolleyes: I know, I'll bet he's an engineer...

[ontheweb]

Our first cruise was for our 25th anniversary, and was in the Western Mediterranean. One of the ports was Livorno for Florence. I convinced DW, who is the world's finest elementary art teacher, that we could get there on our own. I then managed to get us on a train heading the wrong way! She figured it out, and we got off the train in the middle of nowhere. After waiting a long time, we got a train back. We did have enough time to get to Pisa, but not Florence.

 

Ten years later for our 35th anniversary, we decided to take another cruise (our 8th) with Livorno for Florence as a port. This time we took the expensive ship's Florence on your own tour, plus DW booked timed tickets online in advance to the 2 major museums in Florence. It was money well spent.

[sparky-elpaso]

Not on a cruise but getting there. Our first cruise in Alaska. Trying to get the best prices I booked us on 3 different airlines (we hadn't flown a lot at that time). :eek:

 

Fortunately I had built in plenty of time between flights so we didn't run in to any problems having enough time to pick up our luggage and go thru check-in again .... and again.

[marco]

This happened a LONG time ago, when ships still had masquerade parties or "fancy dress balls'. Well, the game plan was that after dinner you went and changed into a costume and then went to the lounge in which the event was taking place. We didn't know that and we went to dinner in our costumes. Keep in mind this was "once upon a time" when every night that was not "formal" was still jacket and tie for men after 6PM. We made the best of it, though felt somewhat embarrassed, but the matre d' comped us a bottle of wine and we all had a good laugh over it. And no, we did not win the best costume award later in the evening.

[Clydesmom7865]

Several come to mind....

Another one - never assume that no one can see in your cabin window, even when it's a porthole on a lower deck. Came out of the shower in the soup-can sized bathroom one day to dress in the bedroom - saw a deck hand's face in our porthole, cleaning the window from a scaffold. He waved and went back to window cleaning while I quickly gathered my clothes and scrambled back into the bathroom.

 

I learned this one the hard way on my last cruise. 14 days very port intensive and a lot of activities scheduled off ship. I decided to jump in the shower as we sailed into port early one morning and be able to be ready the second they released the gangway. I exited the bathroom to discover not only were we docked (YAY!) but we had neighbors and I greeted (BUCK NAKED) :eek: a lovely couple having breakfast on their balcony (fully dressed) :o on the Equinox next door. The husband cheerfully waved as I scrambled for the bathroom and for a towel to wrap around myself to be able to close the drapes.

[gooch47]

We went to the port only to discover our ship wasn't there.

 

No, we didn't miss it. We were a day early. Still not sure how that happened.

[jpsykes]

The wife and I were taking a bus from London to Harwich to catch a RCL transatlantic with a bunch of cruise critic members we met on the roll call. We realized we had forgotten our passports and left them in our London hotel.

 

While I was calling the hotel there were 2 couples on the bus that were traveling with a 3rd couple who had not left London yet - each couple got on their phone and called their friend and his hotel until they got in touch with him.

 

The hotel found our passports and agreed to give them to our new best friend who stopped and got them and brought them to us in Harwich.

 

I had to force all three couples to let me at least buy them a drink.

 

Aren't roll calls great!

[Bankshot]

During lunch in the MDR we were seated at a table with two other couples who were engaged in conversation when we arrived. We sat down and said hello. They looked our way and went back to their discussion. They never acknowledged we were at the table and never said one word to us throughout lunch. After lunch when we were leaving the table I told them "It's been nice not meeting you".

[2ndhoney]

This past January we went on a South American cruise. My husband learned a lesson at the end of it, but a lot happened before it.....

 

We left 3 hours late because of a blizzard in NY where we were flying out of.

 

After a very long and bumpy flight to Buenos Aires we get off the plane and go to get the bags - half of the plane is standing around watching the empty carousel go round. Got in line and found out, even though the flight left 3 hours late from NY our bags never made the flight for half the plane. Filed a claim, they said "we will send it to your hotel tomorrow". Thankfully we came in on Friday and our ship had an overnight in port and did not leave port until Monday. Also thankfully, we had a change of clothes with us.

 

Saturday we did a private city tour. Got back to hotel - no luggage. Called airport, they said to come and get it. $100 cab ride later, no luggage. They said "tomorrow!".:(

 

Sunday - called airline again - response was "Hopefully it arrives today", we explain we are checking out of hotel and checking onto the ship. They say 'no problem'. Husband called airline, said we are on 2 week cruise with no luggage - we need to shop. They said ok, gave us a claim number. We speed shopped at the mall down the street, bought a new suitcase, and some clothes. Got to ship, checked in, called airline again who said "Oh, we delivered your bags to the hotel but they were refused since you had checked out". We spent another $100 to get to airport where there were no bags to be had.:mad:

 

Monday - called airline again, yes, we have your bags. Spent $100 again to get out there and finally get our bags. Get back onto ship 4 hours before we set sail.;)

 

We finally relax and enjoy the cruise.:D

 

End of cruise - we got off the ship with some CC members to do a Valparaiso tour and then on to Santiago and airport. Walking through Valparaiso my husband stops and says "I think I left my keys (car and house) in the nightstand".:eek: I actually started to laugh. We called the ship, sorry, call back later...... Got to airport, called brother-in-law to please go to our house the next day when we arrive and leave us a house key somewhere (he did).

 

Got home ok, I did tell him that next time we go away to not bring his keys (we have a car service bring us to the airport and pick us up). I will take my house key (I keep it safety pinned in a bag that I leave in the cabin).

 

So, hubby's lesson is.... when I ask, did you check everywhere before we leave the cabin, I do not mean did you open the drawers and glance inside. He knows now to actually take things out of the drawer and make sure, or else just leave whatever it is in the suitcase that goes under the bed.:)

 

I was calm about all this really, because crying was not going to help (a few cocktails did!).

[travlnblueberries]

My first cruise I made the mistake of looking at the water as we were pulling away from the port. Needless to say,watching that swirling water did a number on me. I just about ran over a room steward as I ran down the hallway, and leaped over my room steward to get into the bathroom.

 

Next would be leaving the battery charger in the wall of the hotel.

 

Lastly,nearly missing the ship because we sailed in on the same day.(had to because of Dh work schedule).

 

Lessons learned....

Never look down into the swirling water

Never charge the batteries in the hotel room.

Never sail in on the same day.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Hi Gina,

 

On my first cruise, I booked an inside cabin. After a very long travel day, I woke up the next morning.... noticed it was dark, and went back to sleep. What I didn't realize... the room was dark because I was in an inside cabin :). I awoke again later that afternoon, and realized I missed a 1/2 day of my cruise !

 

Thankfully, it wasn't anything major, but as I look back to 20+ years ago, it always brings a chuckle. By the way... I've never booked an inside cabin since :)

 

You must have really needed that long sleep ;) It probably did you good. :)