missing the ship!!!!!

[WeRockChalkKU]

Years and years ago his aunt (in her late 60's) went on a cruise and missed the ship - her husband was already on board and tried to tell them that his wife wasn't on board. This was way before todays computer tallies that tell who is and isn't on board. Anyway, dear Aunt Virginia managed to get a small boat to bring her out to the ship but the only way to get her on board was via a rope ladder. I guess it must have been quite a sight to see the portly woman hauling herself up the ladder with all her shopping bags in tow. Aunt Virginia thought it was quite the adventure and loved to retell the story. Too bad this was before everyone had video cameras.

[WeRockChalkKU]

In 2/2005 on the Island Princess 15 day Hawaiian cruise - (5 days at sea, 5 days in the islands and then 5 days at sea) After we got to one of the first islands, the cruise director flew to Maui which was to be our last port before we did our 5 at sea days back to LA. The weather changed and we didn't get to sail to Maui and instead started back to the mainland. This meant that the cruise director was left in Maui and wasn't able to rejoin our cruise. I don't know when he got back on ship but certainly not for our cruise. I think it also screwed up some of the show performers getting on and off the ship. Guess it happens to the best of them.

 

 

Another time we were sailing to Tortola and the ship stopped closer to Virgin Gorda to let some passengers off for a cruiseline shore excursion there. We had to ferry back to met the ship in Tortola at the end of the day. We made it. However, some of the ships dancers didn't - they weren't on the official ships excursion and spent the day at the beach partying. The ship didn't sail on time as they had to wait for the dancers to get back on board. I bet they were in a bunch of trouble for that.

[laragc]

But I've seen people standing on the dock in Nassau as we pulled away. Luckly this was just a little 3 nighter out of Ft. Lauderdale so I'm sure they just caught a puddle jumper back to the mainland.

 

But - because I like to explore on my own (usually in at least two ports, we get a local driver and tell him to show us what the locals would like us to see about their lives on the islands so we see great stuff but may go fairly far afield), I ALWAYS buy really good travel insurance - I like CSA Travel Protection Freestyle Deluxe but go to insuremytrip.com for about 150 choices. If you miss your trip or get stranded, at least they will usually help you out with scheduling, etc. They might not pay for it, but they will help (depends on if you loose track of time or you have a breakdown or something like that). Also, I ALWAYS carry a copy of my passport (or the passport itself if possible), just in case.

[cruise7]

anymore stories

[NorcalGuy]

On our first cruise in Tahiti we took a ship sponsored excursion that took us to a Motu for a Picnic. The weather was really rough. Seems we were in the tail end of a Typhoon. Anyway we got to the Motu and everyone got out of the dug out. We noticed that there was another couple already on the Motu and asked them how they got there. They said they had hired a private tour that dropped them off and were waiting for them to come back and pick them up. Well my DH and I headed out to investigate the Motu but the weather was getting worse. He turned around to see the dug out leaving without us. He yelled and I yelled and we both ran across coral to get their attention. Fortunately they say us and came back. When we got to them and asked why they would leave us, they said they had taken a head count and it was correct. You guessed it.. . . .the couple that was waiting for the private tour to pick them up took our place and didn't say a word. We were really lucky. Someone may or may not have figured out where we were and it probbly would have been days, or a week until someone came back.

SHAME SHAME on those two people that took your places on the return trip and didn't say anything. What nerve and so disrespectful. In my opinion, that is a criminal act. Like you say, besides missing the ship you could have been stranded there for day!

[ronrythm]

Cozumel: Time for everyone to be back aboard, 30 minutes to sailing time, Page for Mr. James Smith of cabin 1234 and Mr John Doe of cabin 1235, please call the Purser's desk. 5 minutes later same call. And every 5 minutes until sailing time. At sailing time exactly, the last line is thrown off, the horn sounds, the bow and stern thrusters churn and we slowly move away from the dock. Good bye Senor Frog's and Carlos & Charlie's. What's this, two figures, running down the dock (erratically,) waving and screaming. All of us on deck wave back, "see you back in Galveston." See the picture below. The ship stops moving just as the two people reach the end of the dock. We can see them, pleading and talikng with a dock official, who is talking into a radio. The ship moves back againt the dock. and the two men jump on board through the open door.

 

That night at the show someone asks the cruise director about the incident. "I hope they enjoyed that 'one more drink' at Carlos & Charlie's because the port official charged us $1,000.00 to redock and they each have $500.00 on their Sign & Sail.":D

[Cruisin' Chick]

On our last cruise we took a Princess-booked excursion and were glad we did. The actual departure time had been moved up an hour and the weather conditions weren't so ideal which cause our trip to take longer. The ship ended up waiting for about ten of us on this excursion. I understand that our names were announced on the PA system.

 

Some years ago while on a Baja California cruise, we were up on the deck just a short time before sail away time in Ensenada. We noticed that a taxi pulled up at the pier and three college-aged kids got out. They ran for the ship, the middle one propped up by the other two. We were laughing to each other that those kids are going to be spending the next morning praying to the porcelain gods.

[JulieU89]

Due to the snowstorm that hit Detroit on Jan 21, 2005, we missed the Grandeur of the Seas. You can read about it on my blog with pictures...too long of an experience to repost here!

http://www.julieu.com/cruises/0501Royal.html

 

BTW-We learned to ALWAYS fly in a day early AND to ALWAYS buy travel insurance. We were all refunded the missing days on the boat and all our expenses in New Orleans.;)

[Elequieu]

Splinter, we were on the Island's first cruise to Hawaii in Oct, 05. Time to castoff was past and three people were being paged. We finally left, I think, a half hour late. The next day we sat behind a lady in the lounge who said they had been in a rental car back in the mountains and had locked their keys in the car. Their cell phone did not work and they did miss the ship. I think we would have broken a window to get back to the ship on time. Luckily it was not the last island before heading home. Also, on Norwegian Coastal Voyages, a young man underestimated by about two minutes his arrival back at the ship after a 30 minute stop and we watched him standing there with a most forlorn look on his face. I spoke to the concierge about it and she said he could take a bus to get to the next port. Can you imagine the tortuous route around the fjords?

[Daniel1313]

Hey Julieu89,

How did you end up getting on the ship???

[Coral]

Due to the snowstorm that hit Detroit on Jan 21, 2005, we missed the Grandeur of the Seas. You can read about it on my blog with pictures...too long of an experience to repost here!

http://www.julieu.com/cruises/0501Royal.html

 

BTW-We learned to ALWAYS fly in a day early AND to ALWAYS buy travel insurance. We were all refunded the missing days on the boat and all our expenses in New Orleans.;)

 

Julie - great blog! Everyone should read it.....

[GranJean]

... whatever it's name is ... was the scene of a 'missing person' in January of 1995. We were on the Costa Classica and had stopped at Carnival's island for a BBQ and an afternoon in the sand.

The ship was scheduled to sail in the late afternoon and we all (-1) reluctantly tendered back to the ship. While enjoying our pre sunset drink on the fan-tail, we ntoiced that the PA was continously paging for a 'certain gentleman' and that crew members were circulating in the common areas asking for this same gentleman. Soon the ship's horn was blowing every minute or so and two boats from the shore crew were motoring back and forth along the long beach and calling out the 'certain gentleman's' name.

Just at dusk, a few hours after our scheduled sailing time, a running figure appeared from the palms behind the shore waving a shirt over its head. It was indeed the 'certain gentleman' who was soon on board, courtesy of the shore crew's vessel.

Word was he had 'gone for a hike' and 'fallen asleep'. This was the last full day of the cruise so we didn't see the 'certain gentleman' again before docking in Miami the next day.

I'm sure he was dutifully embarrassed by the incident but I was impressed by Costa's tenacity is locating the passanger. We were told by the Pursor that the ship's crew and the shore crew were about to launch search parties on the island; the Captain was not sailing without the 'certain gentleman'.

My wife and I have adopted the 'certain gentleman's' name as a private cue to each other that we are looking for someone. It always brings a smile to both of us.

[JulieU89]

How did you end up getting on the ship???

 

We found a northwest agent that took pity on us. She made our stay in New Orleans an extended lay-over for our flight from Detroit to Cozumel (via New Orleans and Houston using both Northwest and Continental--quite the experience).

 

One of our friends found a lady at a terminal at another gate and told her what we had experienced. Instead of demanding some satisfaction, our friend said, "Ma'am, if you were me, what would you do?" Those must have been the magic words because that lady snapped into action and got us hooked up!

 

Others in our same situation, because tempers were running high that day, didn't find anyone to help them and ended up paying an additional $1000 to get on essentially the same flights we did.

 

Like I said in another thread...be nice to those who can help you and they will...

[A Sixth?]

I have an odd story that happened to me and a couple of friends.

We were “visiting” a cruise ship, when she was about to leave, almost becoming stow-aways I guess.

It happened in Nassau back in January 1984, I was waiting for the weather to improve while delivering a private boat to the Caribbean. The crew and myself had been downtown having a few beers when we decided to check out one of the big cruise ships docked at Prince Edward pier.

Three of four of us just strolled aboard and stated checking out the boat.

It was only because security wouldn’t let the forth guy aboard who’d been straggling behind (for what it’s worth, he was the only black guy in our group) that I along with two others exited the boat.

She sailed within minutes of us leaving.

Had my friend been not been refused entry, two crew and I would have been on our way to San Juan. As unwelcome guests

[Iamthesea]

Everyone was cheering and yelling when the Glover's showed up running down the pier. Mr. Glover left Mrs. Glover on his heels as he leaped unto the ship. She arrived about 30 seconds later. The gangway went up and off we sailed. It was fun and I have pictures to post when I have time.

 

I apologize if the Glover's are members of this board. No harm meant.

 

I call this one "Waiting on the Glover's" Here they come!

 

 

Mr. Glover heading into the ship. Mrs. Glover taking her time.

 

 

And getting an escort onto the ship

 

[NVCLVR]

On the Star on a Baltic Cruise (6/4/05), as we were ready to pull out from St.Petersberg, we heard 2 ladies being paged over and over. We were enjoying our usual evening cocktail on our balcony as we were pulling out when we spotted 2 young ladies running from a tour bus from the adjoining Costa ship (looked like they either caught the wrong tour bus or missed the Princess bus and hitched a ride on Costa's bus). Like watching a mime show..one on her knees pointing to the ship, the other's arms flailing, while the Russian immigration officials ran out to them. The entire port side of the ship was covered w/passengers hanging off the balconies watching the drama. We all wondered what would become of them...how awful to be stuck in Russia, presumably not knowing the language and ?if they had a visa....and to top it off, being the subject of hoo ha's and dinner conversation. We half expected them to catch the pilot boat out and watched, but that didn't happen. Next day, in Tallin, Estonia, we were back on the ship, hanging off the balcony rubber-necking and watching a Costa ship pulling in the other side of out dock. On our side, there was line of Princess passengers trying to board. The Costa's first gangplank was lowered and who jumped off, but the two young ladies!....Jumped right in line and back onto the Star. Funny, we never saw them again during the rest of the cruise (and, yes, we looked!)....probably hid in their cabin! Anyway, we were so happy to see the "end of the story" and didn't have to ponder "what ever happened to....". A very happy ending and how lucky for them the Costa ship was following and docked just in time...before we pulled out again!.:)

[Iamthesea]

That's a scream! I can't believe that Costa took them on in the first place with all the rules and regulations. Good for them!