Bus Etiquette

[ORV]

A couple of observations. Re #4, you can bet if I'm sitting one or two rows in front of the rear exit I will use it instead of waiting for the front to clear. Usually the seats back of the rear exit will clear out faster than the front as there are generally less of them. I don't really agree with your opinion on the way this should work. A little courtesy on all parties goes a long way. I don't really see anyone being entitled to specific ways this should work. 

 

Many times a driver or guide will tell you to take all of your belongings on a stop as you may not be back on the same bus. In this instance all bets are off on you being able to get the same seat you had before. It might even be a different bus layout. 

 

As far as couples sitting on opposite sides, if there's enough seats I see no problem, otherwise they should sit together. 

 

The front seats should definitely be saved for those with mobility issues, the problem here is some people's definition of their issues. This is a bit of a sticky subject and one that annoys me. I've seen people walking all over the ship with no assistance and doing great, the minute they get on the bus or to the airport they suddenly are "mobility challenged" and need a wheelchair. Yeah, like I said sticky subject, but there are people with genuine needs. 

[Noxequifans]

On one occasion a couple two rows ahead reclined their seats causing an issue for the people behind them. These folks in turn reclined their seats causing a very tight situation for us. When we did the same the people behind us complained to the tour guide. Finally the guide persuaded the initial culprits to place their sears upright. 

 

Part of this this problem is that on some busses seat rows are added to fit the number of passengers. Of course, the first instigators could have cared less.

[RJB]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

A couple of observations. Re #4, you can bet if I'm sitting one or two rows in front of the rear exit I will use it instead of waiting for the front to clear. Usually the seats back of the rear exit will clear out faster than the front as there are generally less of them. I don't really agree with your opinion on the way this should work. A little courtesy on all parties goes a long way. I don't really see anyone being entitled to specific ways this should work. 

 

Many times a driver or guide will tell you to take all of your belongings on a stop as you may not be back on the same bus. In this instance all bets are off on you being able to get the same seat you had before. It might even be a different bus layout. 

 

As far as couples sitting on opposite sides, if there's enough seats I see no problem, otherwise they should sit together. 

 

The front seats should definitely be saved for those with mobility issues, the problem here is some people's definition of their issues. This is a bit of a sticky subject and one that annoys me. I've seen people walking all over the ship with no assistance and doing great, the minute they get on the bus or to the airport they suddenly are "mobility challenged" and need a wheelchair. Yeah, like I said sticky subject, but there are people with genuine needs. 

Have never been on a tour where we did not have the same bus for the entire tour. 

[Shawnino]

There is a time and place to take tours on a large bus.

The time is never.

The place is left for the reader to calculate on his own.

 

[pinotlover]

Shawnino;

 

98% agree with you. The other 2% one either has to sit on the ship or do O tours. Our cruise to N Russia, Murmansk, Slovensky Islands, Arckangel comes to mind. Even if one got their Russian visas still really no local tours to sign up for.

 

What I’ve learned is if one does sign up for an O tour, they take what it gives you. May be a great tour or a bad one. Complaining does no good. My biggest complaint isn’t bad manners on the buses, we don’t care where we sit, it’s people signing up for tours they are not physically able to do thus slowing tours down to a crawl and/ or completely missing some of the featured sights. Those same people will repeatedly sign up for those levels of tours knowing they are disrupting the tours. Complaining to them, Destination Services, or the CD will get you no where. When one signs up for an O cruise, they are signing up for a lowest common denominator event where lowest can be lower than most can imagine. A box of chocolate.

 

Two cruises booked for the coming months, zero O tours. Yes, things can happen on a private tour, but we’ll play the odds.

[RJB]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

Shawnino;

 

98% agree with you. The other 2% one either has to sit on the ship or do O tours. Our cruise to N Russia, Murmansk, Slovensky Islands, Arckangel comes to mind. Even if one got their Russian visas still really no local tours to sign up for.

 

What I’ve learned is if one does sign up for an O tour, they take what it gives you. May be a great tour or a bad one. Complaining does no good. My biggest complaint isn’t bad manners on the buses, we don’t care where we sit, it’s people signing up for tours they are not physically able to do thus slowing tours down to a crawl and/ or completely missing some of the featured sights. Those same people will repeatedly sign up for those levels of tours knowing they are disrupting the tours. Complaining to them, Destination Services, or the CD will get you no where. When one signs up for an O cruise, they are signing up for a lowest common denominator event where lowest can be lower than most can imagine. A box of chocolate.

 

Two cruises booked for the coming months, zero O tours. Yes, things can happen on a private tour, but we’ll play the odds.

I think you are being a bit harsh on your fellow passengers.  For the most part O gets a pretty high end group and we see very few low end people.   In the past few years we have taken many O Life tours and most were real good.  Better than we expected.  That being said we would prefer to take smaller private tours.  Most cruises we split it including a private 2 full day tour in Havana which was just for four of us.  Could not have done on the O tours what we did on our own private tour.  And the cost was about 75% less.  After that we did 2 O Life tours in next 2 cities which also were good.  Both ways serve a good purpose for us.  

[pinotlover]

RJB;

 

Just for definition sake , is a once highly respected doctor and Yale grad that consistently signs up for high activity tours, with lots of walking, that can’t walk 50 yards without stopping to rest, and walking is actually a shuffle a “high end person”? Or did something change sometime after he retired about 20 years ago? O offered tours that meet his physical abilities, he and his wife just chose to do those that did not. High end or low end? Over the years I could relay multiple of these stories. 

 

I believe the sadest part part is that O chooses to do nothing about this matter. I’ve seen groups of cruisers bending the ear of the CD complaining about certain guests over and over. Results? Next day they’re back on whatever tour they opt to disrupt.

 

Like you, I’ve been on O shore tours that went wonderfully and were great. Also been on horrible ones. For the money, I now avoid them.

[RJB]

3 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

RJB;

 

Just for definition sake , is a once highly respected doctor and Yale grad that consistently signs up for high activity tours, with lots of walking, that can’t walk 50 yards without stopping to rest, and walking is actually a shuffle a “high end person”? Or did something change sometime after he retired about 20 years ago? O offered tours that meet his physical abilities, he and his wife just chose to do those that did not. High end or low end? Over the years I could relay multiple of these stories. 

 

I believe the sadest part part is that O chooses to do nothing about this matter. I’ve seen groups of cruisers bending the ear of the CD complaining about certain guests over and over. Results? Next day they’re back on whatever tour they opt to disrupt.

 

Like you, I’ve been on O shore tours that went wonderfully and were great. Also been on horrible ones. For the money, I now avoid them.

I do agree with your post.   What you speak about shows a lack of respect for his fellow passengers and I would publicly call them out in front of the whole bus.  I got angry at a tour guide for waiting about one half hour for a man who was late.  Should have been left there to get back to ship on his own.  We will have to do the best that we can.

[Mura]

I agree that in general I think people who hold up a whole group should be left behind.  I can accept 5-10 minutes (assuming peope aren't consistently late at each stop) -- there can be traffic, you can get lost.  Plenty of reasons for being a little late.

 

But consistently late?  No.  And late by half an hour?  Especially no.  I do think that leaving the transgressors behind is fair.  Bearing in mind that we often don't have our passports with us ... Passports may not be necessary, of course.

 

There have been lots of complaints also about people who can't keep up. I really haven't seen that as a rule -- occasionally, yes.  One exception is a ship's tour we had in Malta last November where the guide zoomed through a walking tour of an old Arab town (a walk we personally thought wasn't worth the time, but that's another story).  Our group was largely older and a majority could NOT keep up with his pace.  He kept on trying to hurry them up, but it just wasn't possible,  Still, we saw everything we were supposed to see.  This particular tour wasn't supposed to be a "walking tour" but with the itinerary, it pretty much was!  We didn't expect as much walking as was on this tour and I'm sure we weren't alone.  (It did not show three little men in the description, maybe not even two.)

 

I'm not denying that there are people who sign up for tours that are beyond their capabilities.  If they do so repeatedly, yes, they should be discouraged.  But that may NOT be easy to do! 

 

Mura

 

[LHT28]

I  hope I  never get  old 😉

[bob brown]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I  hope I  never get  old 😉

Careful...it sure beats the alternative...

[Rob the Cruiser]

15 hours ago, RJB said:

I do agree with your post.   What you speak about shows a lack of respect for his fellow passengers and I would publicly call them out in front of the whole bus.  I got angry at a tour guide for waiting about one half hour for a man who was late.  Should have been left there to get back to ship on his own.  We will have to do the best that we can.

 

We had couple of stragglers on our Easter Island tour. It wasn't because they were elderly or physically challenged. It was because they were "entitled" to determine what time they would return to the bus. They were constantly 20-30 minutes late. The tour guide told them we are falling behind schedule and we may miss some stops because of their actions. Their response? They laugh and said "you'll wait for us".

 

Fortunately our tour guide did have the courage to tell them that they would be left behind if they were late again. They laughed again. In response, the tour guide ordered them to stay on the bus otherwise it would be a long walk back to the pier. The rest of us responded with applause.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Rob the Cruiser
typo

[Rob the Cruiser]

1 minute ago, Rob the Cruiser said:

 

We had couple of stragglers on our Easter Island tour. It wasn't because they were elderly or physically challenged. It was because they were "entitled" to determine what time they would return to the bus. They were constantly 20-30 minutes late. The tour guide told them we are falling behind schedule and we may miss some stops because of their actions. Their response? They laughed and said "you'll wait for us".

 

Fortunately our tour guide did have the courage to tell them that they would be left behind if they were late again. They laughed again. In response, the tour guide ordered them to stay on the bus otherwise it would be a long walk back to the pier. The rest of us responded with applause.

 

[Mura]

Some people are unbelievable!!  "WE will decide when we come back and YOU will wait for us!"  Really????

Good for the guide!

 

Mura

[pinotlover]

One of my best stories is the 10 hour ( 10:00- 18:00) O tour we had. O had two buses that day running identical tours. We get on the bus and set across aisle from a couple we had done a private tour with. A couple gets on our bus and the other guy says “oh *@@*! They’ve been on two other O tours with us and have held everyone up both times! “ 

 

To make a long story short, we get to our first destination which requires a 500 meter one way stroll. We’re just meandering when they start in “ You’ve got to slow down, we can’t walk that fast!” We get to our lunch destination an hour after the other O bus and have missed the cultural show. We were supposed to get there together and the other bus is getting ready to leave to continue sightseeing.

 

The good part of this story is that the ship was overnighting at that port and the tour guide took us everywhere on the Agenda. We missed nothing. The bad news was that while the other bus returned to the ship at about 18:10, we got back at 20:30, thus turning that 10 hour tour into a 12.5 hour tour. Additionally, we had to listen to the two couples causing the problems constantly whining about being exhausted or missing their Specialties reservation. Finally, the guy across from me had enough and unloaded on them. He stood up and got right in their face and at about 6’3” and 220, his intimidation brought silence from them the rest of the bus trip.

 

Since these two couples had caused multiple problems and O opted not to address it, about 5-6 couples cancelled all their remaining O shore cruises and just diy or picked up tours at the dock.

[ORV]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 10:37 AM, pinotlover said:

One of my best stories is the 10 hour ( 10:00- 18:00) O tour we had. O had two buses that day running identical tours. We get on the bus and set across aisle from a couple we had done a private tour with. A couple gets on our bus and the other guy says “oh *@@*! They’ve been on two other O tours with us and have held everyone up both times! “ 

 

To make a long story short, we get to our first destination which requires a 500 meter one way stroll. We’re just meandering when they start in “ You’ve got to slow down, we can’t walk that fast!” We get to our lunch destination an hour after the other O bus and have missed the cultural show. We were supposed to get there together and the other bus is getting ready to leave to continue sightseeing.

 

The good part of this story is that the ship was overnighting at that port and the tour guide took us everywhere on the Agenda. We missed nothing. The bad news was that while the other bus returned to the ship at about 18:10, we got back at 20:30, thus turning that 10 hour tour into a 12.5 hour tour. Additionally, we had to listen to the two couples causing the problems constantly whining about being exhausted or missing their Specialties reservation. Finally, the guy across from me had enough and unloaded on them. He stood up and got right in their face and at about 6’3” and 220, his intimidation brought silence from them the rest of the bus trip.

 

Since these two couples had caused multiple problems and O opted not to address it, about 5-6 couples cancelled all their remaining O shore cruises and just diy or picked up tours at the dock.

 

No biggie but you might want to double check your military time calculations. 

[pinotlover]

 

 

ORV;

 

My military time was correct, my math was bad. It was a scheduled 8 hour tour that turned into a 10.5 hour one!  Need to have the grandkids check my math!!

[Go-Bucks!]

On 11/27/2018 at 11:37 AM, pinotlover said:

One of my best stories is the 10 hour ( 10:00- 18:00) O tour we had. O had two buses that day running identical tours. We get on the bus and set across aisle from a couple we had done a private tour with. A couple gets on our bus and the other guy says “oh *@@*! They’ve been on two other O tours with us and have held everyone up both times! “ 

 

To make a long story short, we get to our first destination which requires a 500 meter one way stroll. We’re just meandering when they start in “ You’ve got to slow down, we can’t walk that fast!” We get to our lunch destination an hour after the other O bus and have missed the cultural show. We were supposed to get there together and the other bus is getting ready to leave to continue sightseeing.

 

The good part of this story is that the ship was overnighting at that port and the tour guide took us everywhere on the Agenda. We missed nothing. The bad news was that while the other bus returned to the ship at about 18:10, we got back at 20:30, thus turning that 10 hour tour into a 12.5 hour tour. Additionally, we had to listen to the two couples causing the problems constantly whining about being exhausted or missing their Specialties reservation. Finally, the guy across from me had enough and unloaded on them. He stood up and got right in their face and at about 6’3” and 220, his intimidation brought silence from them the rest of the bus trip.

 

Since these two couples had caused multiple problems and O opted not to address it, about 5-6 couples cancelled all their remaining O shore cruises and just diy or picked up tours at the dock.

 

Happens on ALL cruiseline tours AND on some private tours....you can't predict when or where rude folks will show up! 

[Mura]

True enough!  But we have been pretty lucky in that these things have rarely happened.  Very occasionally on ship's tours and almost never on private tours.

 

I do remember one private tour I set up in Central America where we were all unhappy.  One of the couples totally blew up (and I have to say that I understand why they did but I won't go into the details now since they were rather lengthy).  I was just glad that they didn't blame ME as the person who arranged the tour.

 

But if people feel entitled or are just totally selfish, it's hard to know that before hand!

 

Mura

 

 

 

[Classiccruiser777]

And then there are those that don’t wash their hands after visiting the restroom...

[Go-Bucks!]

13 minutes ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

And then there are those that don’t wash their hands after visiting the restroom...

 

Sadly, I see that all the time.  Yuck!!

[Mura]

Agreed, that doesn't just apply to bus passengers.  Too many on the ship don't bother with basic sanitation.

 

Mura

[jeanine]

I used to be a tour manager for a well known tour operator, at the beginning of the day after my announcements, I would ask the group if they knew the difference between a tourist and a hitchhiker? Answer: 5 minutes! 

[Paulchili]

2 hours ago, jeanine said:

I used to be a tour manager for a well known tour operator, at the beginning of the day after my announcements, I would ask the group if they knew the difference between a tourist and a hitchhiker? Answer: 5 minutes! 

An advice I wish more tour guides would follow.

Not many things (on a tour) are more aggravating than being back to the bus on time only to wait for some entitled person(s) keeping an entire bus sitting and waiting.

[lais]

And there is always that one person who farts.