Don't be late! Don't miss the ship!

[pe4all]

The husband dropped the children off and went back outside to wait for his wife. He was in discussion with the deck guy in the golf caddy. You could see he was trying to call her on a cell phone.

The husband should have gotten back on the ship to be with the kids. I know it sounds harsh, but his wife is an adult - she caused the problem, and should have been able to find the solution. The husband's place should have been taking care of his kids - not letting them sail away "alone." Don't care if other family members may or may not have been on the ship. Once that gang-plank started to go up, he should have gotten back on.

[renata102]

I must admit I have never noticed the port agent information in the dailies. I will be sure to take a photo of this information before we leave the ship at each port now. Not that I think we would ever need it, we are always back in plenty of time, but doesn't hurt to be prepared.

 

I was just on a cruise. I took a picture of it at every port

 

In the past I would take the daily with me.

 

Better safe then sorry

[biker@sea]

Week after week Breakaway left folks behind in Bermuda last season.

Some on the dock.

 

Here = http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2250440

 

.

[20YearsBetweenCruises]

If I watched a ship sail away with my child on it, I would be adding up the minibar and room service costs (my son is almost 30), so I would be breaking down, as well.

 

 

This made me LOL [emoji1][emoji1][emoji1][emoji1]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[phoenix1181]

I'm always amazed at the number of people who form, and express, such strong opinions about things they know almost nothing about!

 

I hope the family is now happily reunited!

[bobstheboy]

I am critical of anyone leaving very young children on board. I have had three children and have seven grand children and our holidays were family holidays and we all took part in activities. My sons and daughter enjoy their family holidays and spend the time as a family.

 

My views are not the views of some and if they are happy to leave their children with strangers whilst they go ashore doing their own thing that is their decision.

[oceanjuli]

No excuse for this woman. I witnessed this whole thing live. Thank you to the OP for videoing it! We were wishing we had photographed/videoed it ourselves!

 

She was 45 minutes PAST THE ALL ABOARD TIME! All aboard time was 5:30 p.m. She showed up at 6:15 p.m. She should have had her a*** on the ship by 4 p.m. IMO.

 

Again, no excuse for her. Totally irresponsible. Yes, I make mistakes and I'm not perfect but I would NEVER make this mistake!

[cruisejunkie76]

I assume that some other Family members were onboard.

Otherwise the cruise line would have been forced to debark the poor Kids as children are not allowed to sail alone by law and the cruiseline would have had no other choice to give the Kids to the local authorities.

 

Is the Age of the Kids known?

[Sissaaaaaa]

I never left mine on the ship alone when they were minors. People just don't think.

[beerman2]

Can only imagine the "Discussion" the husband and wife had. Very unfortunate the kids had to go through this.

 

Totally irresponsible adult! But as the saying goes " You can't fix stupid"!

[oceanjuli]

of course she is at fault. It is not hard to read the Daily's and see this information clearly published. All aboard times (which are earlier than set sail times) are clearly published in the dailies AND at the gangway.

 

Even in extreme circumstances where delays can occur this is a situation which can still be mitigated.

 

If the staff KNOWS the kids are onboard and the parents aren't (and they DO know) they will be paging the parents, but without any communication from them how long do they hold a ship? 5 minutes? 20? 2 hours? Then people learn the ship will just wait and you end up with this sort of stuff every single port stop.

 

I have empathy; this was, at minimum, an expensive mistake to make and I am sure the parents feel awful. But I will not be surprised to learn they were at a beach or a bar and just not paying attention.

 

I fully agree! I believe her kids were teens and I do and did feel badly for them. But her? NO SYMPATHY!

[Burgmeister]

We have a daughter and conisder a family vacation to be just that - a family vacation. We always go ashore together having decided, as a family, what we would like to do ashore. If that means I don't get to do something that I would like to because one of the party doesn't wish to do that, so be it.

 

Doesn't make me a better parent than anyone that goes on a family vacation and leaves their kids on board, just makes me a different parent.

 

At least doing it my way, if one of us misses the ship, we all miss the ship!

 

Edit: I shall pay more attention to the port agents on our next cruise!

Edited April 26, 2016 by Burgmeister

[LrgPizza]

Didn't someone say the dad and kids got onto the ship together, then he left them and got back off to go retrieve mom? I thought the whole family was together off the ship before something happened with mom, then the dad panicked or something at the thought of leaving without her, so he got back off the ship. I'm sure I read that in this post, but I'm not going through it all again.

 

Regardless, the fact that this happened on a Thursday and the ship didn't port again for mom/dad to catch up until a Sunday sucks for all involved. Mom is a moron. Dad is also a moron.

[Sissaaaaaa]

It is selfish of the parents to go off on an excursion without their kids on a family vacation. If u are concerned about toddlers being cranky how about not going on the excursion. I can't believe people go on family vacations and leave their kids in the care of someone else. Including your children on your family vacation makes this never happen.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I agree with you 100%. Not only selfish, but irresponsible to leave them on the ship without a family member. Leave them home if you don't want them with you. Anything could happen ... not just missing the ship due to drinking, but a car accident, anything.

[Sissaaaaaa]

I was just on a cruise. I took a picture of it at every port

 

In the past I would take the daily with me.

 

Better safe then sorry

 

That's a really good idea.

[Burgmeister]

I wonder whether teh family involved will put a cruise review on here :D

 

Would make for great reading!

[oceanjuli]

I wonder whether teh family involved will put a cruise review on here :D

 

Would make for great reading!

 

She'll probably blame the cruise line. She was loaded down with shopping bags when she approached the ship. Probably spent the day drinking and shopping irresponsibly. My guess is that if she is that irresponsible with her time, she is probably not willing to take responsibility for her actions. I felt really bad for her kids . . .

[oceanjuli]

Ha Ha! I just noticed I'm in the video! One of the cruisers on their balconies!!!

[Tommy3putts]

I'm very interested to find out how this ended. This would be my worst nightmare. I like others have no sympathy for the woman. My sympathy is with the other passengers who were forced to wait for her causing the delayed departure.

 

There was a great post last year on the RCI board from the perspective of a gentleman who missed the ship. That thread is a must read.

[chipis]

 

Speechless....

 

 

Nothing on the news about this incident?

[Laszlo]

Didn't someone say the dad and kids got onto the ship together, then he left them and got back off to go retrieve mom? I thought the whole family was together off the ship before something happened with mom, then the dad panicked or something at the thought of leaving without her, so he got back off the ship. I'm sure I read that in this post, but I'm not going through it all again.

 

Regardless, the fact that this happened on a Thursday and the ship didn't port again for mom/dad to catch up until a Sunday sucks for all involved. Mom is a moron. Dad is also a moron.

 

I wouldn't go as far as calling them morons because no one here knows what really happened. For all we know Mom could have had a medical issue? I'm sure thats not the case but the point is nobody knows for sure

[blackwing]

We may never find out, but I'm wondering why the wife was alone. Was the family together all day in port, then she said she wanted to shop and told her husband and kids to go ahead? Or had they been apart the whole day? If they were together most of the day, seems like a really poor decision by both of them to split up so close to sail away time.

 

There have been a few times where my family went back to the ship and I stayed behind on a wifi connection to do work and catch up on email. But I would never cut it so close to sail away.

 

I would hope that he dropped the kids off with other family members and not just dumped them alone in the kids club. Because the kids club always asks where you will be, and what would he say? "I'll be on the dock waiting for my tardy wife?"

[Marine Mom]

Didn't someone say the dad and kids got onto the ship together, then he left them and got back off to go retrieve mom? I thought the whole family was together off the ship before something happened with mom, then the dad panicked or something at the thought of leaving without her, so he got back off the ship. I'm sure I read that in this post, but I'm not going through it all again.

 

Regardless, the fact that this happened on a Thursday and the ship didn't port again for mom/dad to catch up until a Sunday sucks for all involved. Mom is a moron. Dad is also a moron.

 

Agree 100%. I could never understand how anyone is late to get back to the ship and if so, your fault if you miss the boat!

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I wouldn't go as far as calling them morons because no one here knows what really happened. For all we know Mom could have had a medical issue? I'm sure thats not the case but the point is nobody knows for sure

 

 

I agree!

 

On the surface, it appears this was just an irresponsible act by the mother and she's being judged for it. But, we have no idea of the circumstances and it could be that she didn't do the selfish things people are accusing her of. We'll never know. We don't know if there was other family on the ship to care for the children, but I'm in the camp of guessing there were since the father got off the ship. I can't imagine a parent of such young children leaving them to fend for themselves--I know, it could happen, just not something in my realm of thinking.

 

What's remarkable to me is all the judgment expressed about parents who leave their children on the ship while they go into the port. There's a children's club on the ship and if you've ever had a child who loved the kids' club, then you'd understand! When my daughter was young, her first words upon waking were, "Can I go to camp?!" She LOVED it! She would have been thrilled if I'd left her in camp while we went off the ship. We didn't because I planned our excursions to include the whole family, and on the way back to the ship, I'd always hear, "When we get on the ship, can I go to camp?!" Despite that I've never left her on the ship, I certainly don't judge the parents who go on excursions without their children leaving them in the care of responsible adults who are trained to care for children. There's nothing selfish or irresponsible about that. The irresponsibility is in not managing your time and getting back to the ship before it sales.

 

I also don't understand going on vacation and not taking your kids. I never did that. But, I don't judge people who do it. It's their family and their choice. They're not selfish, they just have ideas that are different from mine.

 

:cool:

Edited April 26, 2016 by Quilting_Cruiser
typo

[Barb Nahoumi]

My sympathies are with the children, and I do hope that there were other friends or family

members on board with them,

 

I have never cruised with children, only started when our kids were grown. We did do plenty of land vacations with them, and what we did we did together.

 

When port stops are short, it's always a good idea to book ship trips. These get back in plenty of time. If they're late the ship will wait. For those who wander on their own, you're on your own if you are late returning.

 

While on the Gem last week, we saw a young family with a toddler in stroller run for the ship. They were way past the all aboard time, but a few minutes before sailaway. They made it by the skin of their teeth.