Beware! Princess Shore Excursions Policy of Waiting

[LARGIN]

Wow, that's awful!

 

This is the 1st I've read of a color copy of your passport. I had a black & white copy & had it laminated. Does it have to be color? And can it be laminated? Or does this depend on the country?

 

Black and white will work.. What I did was scan the original on my computer and made photo quality color copies. I did not laminate because I wanted them to be able to fold into a small wallet.

[Moondawgie]

What a nightmare! I visited Caracas and was scared enough WITHOUT this experience. Did you see those armed (machine gun) police? Did they give you the talk about leaving all valuables/jewlery on the ship? You're lucky to have it behind you. Thanks for the warning and all those valuable lessons we learned from it.

[Casshew]

I may never leave the ship again :eek:

[mr green]

This should be a lesson to all. NEVER loose sight of your group! john

[ccrain]

Why would you take a color copy of your passport and not the real thing?

 

When the wife and I leave the ship, we are equipped to get back to the States without ever seeing the ship again. Passports, two separate credit cards (one each), medical cards, trip insurance cards and bribing cash.

[Coral]

Out of curiosity - did you have travel insurance?

 

I have been extremely late getting back to the ship on shore excursions and the ship has always waited for me. Their policy is to wait but unfortuantely they didn't know you hadn't returned due to some bad errors (not swipping card, no head count, etc..)

[cusyl]

Thanks for posting that. We have never taken a copy of our passport, but I had tought about it...Will have one made tomorrow.

[coiran]

Have never been to Belize - but - if you had already been brought back to the port - why didn't you just walk back to the ship? Where did you go?

Ron

[Sea&SkiCruiser]

Why weren't you able to open your safe and retrieve your documents/credit cards before you departed the ship? Is there a problem with the safes that we should be aware of?

[AkSusan]

Why would you take a color copy of your passport and not the real thing?

 

The reason I take a copy is that in case it would get stolen or lost, a copy is alot less valuable than your permanent and much easier to replace.

 

Susan :)

[AkSusan]

I not only take a copy I leave a copy with a relative or friend so in case the real and the copy are lost at least something could be available to be faxed to an Embassy.

 

Susan :)

[mii]

I not only take a copy I leave a copy with a relative or friend so in case the real and the copy are lost at least something could be available to be faxed to an Embassy.

 

Susan :)

 

Susan is right. I also leave a copy of our passports with my sister just in case something comes up.

 

Marilyn

[dlynne9]

12 princess cruises and this your first post?

 

I read these boards for years before I made a post. Some people do not post unless they feel they have something constructive to offer or something important to relate.

[Coral]

I also often leave my passport in my cabin and take a copy with me.

 

I have friends who have worked in American Embassies across the world and they are the ones who told me to always carry a copy when I was in Italy and to keep the real passport at their house. I have always just followed this advice when on cruises.

[Pam in CA]

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. It must have been frightening and upsetting.

 

Two things stand out: one is a failure on the part of the tour operator (sub-contracted by Princess); the other is that I've been on several Princess excursions when we waited an extra long time for someone to return to the bus and the tour guide has said, "We'll give them X minutes more but then we have to get going."

 

I can't tell you the number of times people have left the tour on their own and decided to go off and do something else without telling the tour guide. We've waited and waited and waited... but the people never show up or finally somone else says, "They're going to XYZ and will go back on their own." Other times, I've seen people board our bus who were not on it originally. I have no idea how they were accounted for but there they were. My guess is that tour guides are instructed to wait a reasonable amount of time (most bend over backwards to the extreme) and then leave.

 

It sounds like a freak occurance that you lost sight of your group. It's up to the tour guide to make sure everyone is there and is following. I usually try to stay as close to the tour guide as possible.

 

I'm sure your cruise insurance will repay you your out-of-pocket expenses.

[hillslife]

Sounds like an awful experience. We don't always take a copy of our passport either...good lesson.

 

On our last cruise the scanner was not working and they were manually entering the system for each person and checking us out and did the same thing on return. Needless to say, it was a hugh line....but at least they knew who was there....and more importantly, who was not!!!

 

Scarry situation....thanks for the tips.

[spongerob]

That is quite a story, and lots of good lessons are contained within it. First, sorry this happened, and second, I'm glad your back to tell us about it. Sometimes I think we all forget that we are visiting places via cruise ship where the rules might change if we happen to be stranded. And what we might encounter...ooof.

 

Clearly there were many breakdowns in procedure. All I can say is, after having been on a tour where two people decided to leave mid-stream in a place our escort thought was unwise, your escort was probably punished severely once the whole deal was discovered. If that's any concellation.

 

I hope this ends well for you, and maybe, one day you might be able to laugh at the adversity you've been through.

[MaryPoppinz]

Wow! I think I have an ulcer from reading this post. There's a lot to learn from it.

 

I never leave the port city without my (original) passport, DL, credit card, the port agent information and some cash. I've never left a ship that had swipe-cards without swiping, but I wouldn't have given it a minute's thought if the equipment was down....until now.

[sandij]

So sorry to hear about your misadventure, must have been scary. We were in Paris a couple years ago on a Princess cruise and a Princess tour and a woman was missing when we got back on the bus to go to the next stop. Our guide did a head count and got a description of the lady. We waited for a while and then proceded to our lunch cruise we had booked. The guide left us all there and went back to town to search for the missing lady, she found her waiting on the wrong corner. Just be aware of where you are and always be sure of where you are supposed to be and when.

[Sandy R]

So sorry you had such a terrible experience. As someone previously said... everything had to go wrong for the worst to occur. Traveling always has unexpected events arise. By keeping our wits about us and making good decisions, we usually avert danger. Threads like this one are a wake-up call for all of us.

 

As far as bringing a copy of our passport with us when in port... that copy won't get you on a flight, it will only expedite the process in obtaining a new passport. There was a thread a few years ago on this board that was somewhat similar to this thread. There were several couples involved and most had copies of their passports. They had to wait for new passsports to be issued but the hitch was, because they weren't in a place where their passports could be issued, they had to travel a distance to get them. Their experiences on the way were frightful!

 

After reading that previous thread, my DH has a money belt and always carries our passports with us when we're in port... along with a credit card and some money.

 

I carry the Princess Patter for the day, which always has the Port Agent contact mobile #... and the phone # to reach our trip insurance carrier (we always purchase trip insurance).

 

Sandy

[PescadoAmarillo]

I'm sure your cruise insurance will repay you your out-of-pocket expenses.

 

I've often wondered about this. We generally (almost always) buy travel insurance. If we didn't make it back to the ship in time due to our own lateness, would that qualify as a reimbursable trip interruption event with most policies?

[Snurp]

Have never been to Belize - but - if you had already been brought back to the port - why didn't you just walk back to the ship? Where did you go?

 

Ron

 

We where on Isle Margarite, Venezula when we where left. Caracas is on then mainland of Venezula. I much rather would have rather been in Belize as they are much friendlier to Americans. President Chavez has a very bad disdain for the US after comments made by some of our well known citizens concerning his assasination and the failed coup against his party. This attitude was very evident amongst the majority of people once we reached the Capital. There is good and bad in everything. The country is beautiful once you get past the poverty. There was no evidence of middle class, you are either very rich or very poor.

We could not just walk back to the ship as it was anchored in the harbor. Tenders were being run. The last tender had been held for our group, but no head count was made prior to its leaving. The amount of people on our tour was counted several times as we made many stops, not by the chapparone, but the tour guide. The tour was 30 minutes late getting back. We were at the port (it is small), just could not figure out where we had to go to get on the tender, and they did not wait long. There was alot of people in the area as several other cruise ships where there also making getting through the crowds difficult. Two ship were docked, the others were anchored. There were no signs and no officers anywhere to be seen a the port. We had on our cruise tour sticker still.

If it where a matter of walking to the ship, we would not have missed it. For a brief instant however, I thought about swimming to it.

[coiran]

When dis Isla Margarita become a tender port - we have been there three times with Princess and always docked.

Ron

[PescadoAmarillo]

When dis Isla Margarita become a tender port - we have been there three times with Princess and always docked.

Ron

Depending on the number of ships in port, it can be a tender port for some of them. We tendered in from the Sun Princess.

[Charliesmom]

There is another issue which I think should be brought to the attention of the Chairman of the Board of Carnival Corporation and to the attention of the President of Princess Cruises - and that is the lack of assistance from the port agent. That man had the power to inform the ship that you were there and he did not! His lack of action was unconscionable. I am sure that Princess pays his company big bucks to be Port Agent.

 

I would also point out to the President of the company that the "chaperone" of the tour did not do HER job either. Add that to the technical problems and you were left in a strange country with almost no resources or identification.

 

If I were President of Princess Cruises, I would want to retain you as a happy and satisfied customer.

 

My advice: write a letter to the head person. You have nothing to lose.

 

Roberta