How long will a RCL ship wait for you?

[mayamiyazono]

Hello all, how long will a ship wait for the people who ONLY booked shore excursions with the cruise ship - not for people who booked independently. What's the longest you seen them wait? Are they garunteed to rot and wait for people or after a certain time like an hour do they pay your expenses to the next port and leave you? Thank you

[WisconsinFan]

They will wait to take care of their passengers and situations with their excursions. We were on a cruise once and couldn't understand why we hadn't sailed at about 2 hours past all aboard, and no paging for passengers. Learned later that they had a guest suffer a medical emergency while on one of their tours and they were working with family and port agents. So, in my experience two or three hours.

[xxHadleyxx]

There is no one answer to this. Many variables, such as distance to next port, how many people are not back from the excursion, costs to get those people to the next port of call, etc all play into a decision.

 

Personally, we've been on a ship wihch waited abotu 90 minutes when there was a traffic accident which tied up people returning from Rome---I think there were at least 4 full excursion busses which were not back yet (plus lots of private groups who were lucky and able to make it as the ship waited on its own excursions)---but we had an easy trip up to the next port overnight and could easily make up lost time (plus it was a LOT of people--several hundred who would have been missing the ship had we gone ahead and left)

[crosby99]

I think if you booked with the cruise line it would have to be exceptional reasons for them not to wait.

We were given a police escort in Jamaica though

[GUT2407]

Hello all, how long will a ship wait for the people who ONLY booked shore excursions with the cruise ship - not for people who booked independently. What's the longest you seen them wait? Are they garunteed to rot and wait for people or after a certain time like an hour do they pay your expenses to the next port and leave you? Thank you

 

It can vary dramatically depending on other demands for the dock, sea conditions, tides, pilots demands at the next port etc.

[spookwife]

Hello all, how long will a ship wait for the people who ONLY booked shore excursions with the cruise ship - not for people who booked independently. What's the longest you seen them wait? Are they garunteed to rot and wait for people or after a certain time like an hour do they pay your expenses to the next port and leave you? Thank you

 

they can only wait as long as they have permission to stay, or to accommodate the weather/tides.

 

if they are forced to haul anchor before the ship sponsored excursion returns the cruise line is responsible to get you to the next port and cover expenses.

[reallyitsmema]

Hello all, how long will a ship wait for the people who ONLY booked shore excursions with the cruise ship - not for people who booked independently. What's the longest you seen them wait? Are they garunteed to rot and wait for people or after a certain time like an hour do they pay your expenses to the next port and leave you? Thank you

 

No standard as to how long they will wait, really depends on the circumstances.

 

We waited in Cozumel for almost two hours because one of the buses that had taken people to Tulum had broken down. The last ferry coming from the mainland was held for the busload of people, so because that ferry was held, hundreds of others who had gotten to the ferry in time, were late getting back too.

[easyboy]

they can only wait as long as they have permission to stay, or to accommodate the weather/tides.

 

if they are forced to haul anchor before the ship sponsored excursion returns the cruise line is responsible to get you to the next port and cover expenses.

Exactly. There are also constraints for the ship to do an extended wait.

[Corby114]

On a repositioning cruise from Bayonne,New Jersey to Miami on Royal Caribbean's Explorer Of The Seas in 2006 we were on a beach break excursion in Nassau, our last stop. While on the excursion the weather turned bad and we were told to leave the beach for our safety. We stayed at a cabana during the storm. My wife told me that my son left his shoes on the beach so when the rain lessened I walked over to get them. When I walked to the beach I observed a man on a jet ski driving in circles. The weather cleared and we were told that we would return to the ship because the weather wasn' going to get any better.When we got on the small boat for the ride back to the pier I saw a family crying. When we returned we found out that two young people were riding a jet ski and were hit by a speedboat. The twenty year old male passenger was killed and his nineteen year old girlfriend was critically injured. The ship left two hours late so that the family could fly back to Miami.The injured woman was transported by air ambulance to Miami for treatment.

[rbschultz]

Hello all, how long will a ship wait for the people who ONLY booked shore excursions with the cruise ship - not for people who booked independently. What's the longest you seen them wait? Are they garunteed to rot and wait for people or after a certain time like an hour do they pay your expenses to the next port and leave you? Thank you

 

Somewhere around 7 years ago I did Dunns River Falls in Jamaica booked through Royal. On the way back we hit a massive amount of traffic (1 lane road with an accident blocking both directions). We were about 2 hours late back to the ship. They waited because it was a group of people whom were all booked through Royal. So they'll wait a while as long as you're booked through Royal.

[Snit13]

On Celebrity Infinity excursion on Antarctic cruise we did ship tour and 2 bus loads of passengers were delayed about 2 hours due to road blockage by a private tour driver. Ship waited as 2 officers were also on the excursion with us. Passengers were on balconies waiting for our return and we got quite an ovation when we got off bus to return to ship.

 

When in certain areas of the world we always book ship excursions even though they are more expensive becaure of the security of them waiting for us.

At times we book privately when we feel comfortable with the time frame of being back to ship.

[chengkp75]

Somewhere around 7 years ago I did Dunns River Falls in Jamaica booked through Royal. On the way back we hit a massive amount of traffic (1 lane road with an accident blocking both directions). We were about 2 hours late back to the ship. They waited because it was a group of people whom were all booked through Royal. So they'll wait a while as long as you're booked through Royal.

 

Actually, not necessarily. As stated by others, the cruise line will do a cost/benefit analysis and see what is less expensive, burning more fuel to get to the next port faster, having to pay thousands of passengers compensation for possible lost time in the next port, or getting the few passengers a hotel and flight. Also, there are some stone hard constraints if ports have tidal restrictions and the like. So, long and short of it: if you book an excursion through the line, they will wait as long as economical, and then be responsible for cost to forward you to next port.

[villager70]

Oasis left 6 in Nassau on 10-29- cruise but waited for 4 , thirty minutes in Cozumel. Cozumel group had a small child in stroller which could have made difference. Bob