Next Batter Up----Pier Runners

[K12Guy]

6 hours ago, Bo1953 said:

I Am the straggler in the family... LOL

 

One of us has to be, or no one would ever be ahead. They really should be thanking us, right?

 

I have to admit I enjoy watching as folks get out of vehicles and saunter down the pier, as if they are the most important people in the world. Just once I would enjoy watching the gang plank pulled back as they reached it......

 

[workingstiff]

Okay I’ll play. How about the mystery runner that was invisible?

 

We were on CCL Jewel (I know but the sail dates and port calls checked our boxes) for a 12 day/10 port med cruise with the famous or infamous John Heald as cruise director. I never pay much attention to the CD but John does have a healthy case of that dry British sense of humor. Turns out some people we met had booked that cruise specifically because John was the CD.

 

We had assigned late seating for dinner and two of our table mates were a lovely couple from North Carolina. As they were wrapping up boarding after our first port stop, the CD was paging 3-4 passengers to see if they were on the ship prior to departure. The DH half (named Phil) of the NC couple was one of the names called. We asked them about this at dinner but they assured us they had been back on the ship with plenty of time to spare and couldn’t figure out why they were looking for just him.

 

This actually went on 2 more times after port calls, looking for the hubby to check in but not the wife. Going through the official announcement script with the number for anyone who knew of Phil’s whereabouts to contact the Bridge and report in, etc. Then it happened a fourth time!

 

And the fourth time was priceless. Instead of going through the official language of the looking for missing passengers script, the CD Mr.  Heald simply said; “Hey Phil it’s John, ring me up would you? I believe you have the number.” …. Classic!

 

Nobody could figure out why Phil’s ship card was not registering that he was back on board when he swiped it at the dock. His wife’s card was registering just fine. Turns out he had been using the Fun Card to swipe and lock the safe as they were leaving the ship each day. (Despite instructions right on the safe door to not use that card, but rather a credit card.)

 

Somehow this had altered the magnetic strip on the card so that when he swiped it at the dock to exit and enter the ship it would work just fine at dockside but somehow the information would not make it to the official database that was being checked for missing passengers. This was 2014 so I’m sure the technology has fixed this glitch.

 

Also the lovely couple from North Carolina received a bottle of bubbly and some chocolate treats courtesy of Mr. Heald. And Phil, well he became a legend, you might say a Celebrity on that cruise and I don’t think he had to pay for a drink for the last week of the cruise. All he had to do was tell the story and the drinks appeared.

 

And a good time was had by all. The end.

[K12Guy]

7 minutes ago, workingstiff said:

Okay I’ll play. How about the mystery runner that was invisible?

 

We were on CCL Jewel (I know but the sail dates and port calls checked our boxes) for a 12 day/10 port med cruise with the famous or infamous John Heald as cruise director. I never pay much attention to the CD but John does have a healthy case of that dry British sense of humor. Turns out some people we met had booked that cruise specifically because John was the CD.

 

We had assigned late seating for dinner and two of our table mates were a lovely couple from North Carolina. As they were wrapping up boarding after our first port stop, the CD was paging 3-4 passengers to see if they were on the ship prior to departure. The DH half (named Phil) of the NC couple was one of the names called. We asked them about this at dinner but they assured us they had been back on the ship with plenty of time to spare and couldn’t figure out why they were looking for just him.

 

This actually went on 2 more times after port calls, looking for the hubby to check in but not the wife. Going through the official announcement script with the number for anyone who knew of Phil’s whereabouts to contact the Bridge and report in, etc. Then it happened a fourth time!

 

And the fourth time was priceless. Instead of going through the official language of the looking for missing passengers script, the CD Mr.  Heald simply said; “Hey Phil it’s John, ring me up would you? I believe you have the number.” …. Classic!

 

Nobody could figure out why Phil’s ship card was not registering that he was back on board when he swiped it at the dock. His wife’s card was registering just fine. Turns out he had been using the Fun Card to swipe and lock the safe as they were leaving the ship each day. (Despite instructions right on the safe door to not use that card, but rather a credit card.)

 

Somehow this had altered the magnetic strip on the card so that when he swiped it at the dock to exit and enter the ship it would work just fine at dockside but somehow the information would not make it to the official database that was being checked for missing passengers. This was 2014 so I’m sure the technology has fixed this glitch.

 

Also the lovely couple from North Carolina received a bottle of bubbly and some chocolate treats courtesy of Mr. Heald. And Phil, well he became a legend, you might say a Celebrity on that cruise and I don’t think he had to pay for a drink for the last week of the cruise. All he had to do was tell the story and the drinks appeared.

 

And a good time was had by all. The end.

 

And, now we know, the REST of the story. Nicely done!

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 hour ago, K12Guy said:

 

One of us has to be, or no one would ever be ahead. They really should be thanking us, right?

 

I have to admit I enjoy watching as folks get out of vehicles and saunter down the pier, as if they are the most important people in the world. Just once I would enjoy watching the gang plank pulled back as they reached it......

 

That is what everyone was hoping for on the Jewel in Katakolon. Some of the passengers were yelling to pull the gangway in as the family was sauntering while clearly being told to rush, and it only increased when they put “the little gargoyle” (points for the reference) down to walk.

 

edit to note: NO ONE called the kidlet that. It is a movie quote.

Edited May 7, 2020 by WrittenOnYourHeart

[BEAV]

Embarrassed to say we were part of the "run of shame" crowd once. 

 

Connie Spring Transatlantic 2006 Bayonne-Dover. Just an 8 night crossing with 1 port stop in LeHavre. Being railroaders, we decided to take the train into Paris for the day. We'd planned our return trip back to LeHavre to arrive at least 90 minutes before "all aboard". We actually took an earlier train back than originally expected, giving us 2 hours "wiggle room". 

 

The train left Paris on time, made a station stop in the suburbs, and then sat. And sat, and sat, and sat. Since we don't speak French, we couldn't make out the announcements. But after each announcement, there was a collective "sigh" heard from the other passengers in our coach. Sighs and groans are universally understood! It's not looking good, folks. But what the devil is going on?

 

Now freaking out, I set out walking the very long train, hoping I'd recognize someone...anyone...from the cruise. About 4 cars ahead of us I found some gents that looked familiar. Sure enough, they were aboard Connie, too. They had also combed the train and located a number of entertainers all seated in yet a different coach. Turns out the reason we were sitting dead in our tracks (pardon the pun) was due to a train going the other direction had broke down and was blocking all rail traffic. Someone from the Entertainment staff had a cell phone (2006) that worked globally and they had called Miami with a "heads up" what was going on. Celebrity was making arrangements to hold the ship, not only for those of us on the train, but more importantly, a number of their own bus tours were being delayed in a major traffic jam leaving Paris!

 

What was to be a 2-hour train ride stretched to 5. Upon arrival in LeHavre, we of course hustled into a cab and made a bee-line for dear Connie. The gangway was removed within only a minute or two after we boarded. We later found out there had been over 100 people from the ship aboard our train. There were others aboard the train behind us that didn't make it. 

 

Thankfully those Celebrity bus tours were delayed as well. I can't imagine the Captain holding for 20-year old dancers. We were just very, very lucky. 

 

Whew! 

[Denny01]

This is a fun, escapist thread! in Key West, a brother/sister missed the ship. they didn’t have passports so couldn’t get to our next port and had to rent a car to drive to the Jacksonville arrival port (yup, Carnival). the family said it cost them a pretty penny.....I think I would have just left them with the charge. Having lived in KW and make that port of call a number of times, I have a feeling those young people missed the ship because they had been ‘smoking’ some fun stuff.

 

I haven’t seen anyone mention it, but the Line is charged a penalty for anyone missing the ship (not sure of foreign ports) and they pass that onto the people who miss it, and a Line can get in trouble over too many ‘left behinds’.

 

Our daughter was married in St Thomas, and her husband and best man decided to go and do some fun at Magen’s Bay....and when they caught a taxi back to cross the island during rush hr and were in bumper to bumper. When the got close, she jumped out, pulled her idiot husband who thought all was gone ‘just fine’, and ran to the ship and just made it........they divorced in a few years. I was hoping she would have left him in the taxi with his ‘good buddy’ realizing she’d married and idiot. 

 

Den

[Denny01]

I forgot to mention the people who flew out of Chicago to San Diego for a Panama Canal Cruise in January and they flew the day of the cruise.....I’ll repeat that: they flew the day of the cruise.....In January....from Chicago.   The few hundred they saved was eaten up about 10 times over flying to Mexico City then to our very small port in Southeast Mexico to rejoin us 3 days later. And of course that group spent the entire cruise reiterating their ‘experience’ to everyone sitting within 100ft of them throughout the Entire Cruise! I made sure I wasn’t near them at any time because I may, just happened to ask: What the Heck Were You Thinking Flying out of Chicago in January on the DAY OF THE CRUISE (yes, it’s all in Caps because I would have yelled it!!).

 

I don’t’ care what the itinerary is, we get to the departure ports days prior. It’s funny, people say. ‘Oh, you live in Florida so you can zip over and jump on the cruise’.....I point out we live over a 9 hr drive from Ft Lauderdale...but we Are in the same state.....kind of. 

 

Den

[Pinboy]

22 minutes ago, Denny01 said:

This is a fun, escapist thread! i

Just trying to " lighten the load " ( never mind of what ) of reading, and reading, and , and, of the same three ( expletive deleted ) subjects every ( expletive deleted ) day .

I know, I know, so don't read 'em !!!!! 

[Bo1953]

5 minutes ago, Pinboy said:

Just trying to " lighten the load " ( never mind of what ) of reading, and reading, and , and, of the same three ( expletive deleted ) subjects every ( expletive deleted ) day .

I know, I know, so don't read 'em !!!!! 

Thank you regardless...

 

bon voyage

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, Pinboy said:

Just trying to " lighten the load " ( never mind of what ) of reading, and reading, and , and, of the same three ( expletive deleted ) subjects every ( expletive deleted ) day .

I know, I know, so don't read 'em !!!!! 

Ya done good, @Pinboy! 

[MamaFej]

In Cobh, Ireland on the Reflection last June, we saw our first pier runners. And our second. And our third, and... and...

 

As each individual cab or private van arrived, people bolted toward the ship. As it turns out, several cruise ship buses had been caught in the same traffic jams (I never learned the cause) so they were all late as well. We were in the dining room, near a window, as all this happened, so we had an excellent view. There must have been at least 200 people all together who arrived more than an hour past our scheduled departure time. 

 

 

On our Baltic cruise (Princess, 2016) the same three sets of names were called over and over at each port. I guess Princess didn't have the three strikes and you're out rule. Or maybe all three of these couples had the key card issue mentioned earlier. 

[RickT]

On our second cruise, the Millennium was docked near The Bridge of Sighs (very special, would not be allowed now), DW and I were at the back of the ship, drink in hand, waiting to enjoy a beautiful sail away from Venice.  The street vendors were packing up, the streets were almost deserted and the ship started hauling in its lines.  We noticed in the distance a woman sauntering out of the Piazza San Marco, bags in hand, sauntering towards the ship.  After the last line was pulled in the ship moved 10-15 yards from shore and the woman started waving here arms and started yelling “Hold the ship, I’m almost there”.  An officer was nearby and a few people went to him gesturing towards the woman.... he looked at his watch... shook his head and said no.

 

Later that evening we found out that the woman paid a local boat owner to take her to the pilot boat and she luckily made it on board.  We spoke with a person who said she was at their dinner table... he said he wasn’t surprised because she could never make it to dinner on time.

 

That was our lesson to never ever cut it close when returning to the ship.

[Muffinz]

We've only done the 1 cruise and didn't have a problem ourselves and we didn't notice any pier runners - probably because we were too busy drinking!

But I will admit to watching a few clips on youtube of pier runners

to me there seem to be 2 types of pier runners / walkers

1) the people who know they are late and are running / sprinting towards their ship so they can make it on board

2) the people who don't seem to care, and as their ship is still there they just leisurely stroll towards it

 

I did see one clip where a woman was frantically waving and yelling as her ship was reversing away from the pier.... I don't know what the outcome was but I'm pretty sure the woman didn't get on board

[K12Guy]

In hindsight, which is always 20 -20, right?, I recall a number of very boring cruises where the Boz (aka my wonderful bride) and I would stop by Michael's Club (now known as The Retreat Lounge) and have them give a double pour of wine to our glasses. Then we would head to the dock side of the ship, typically on six, above the tenders (aka life boats) and watch for runners.

 

How disappointing when fifteen minutes before departure the gangway was pulled, crew disappeared, and lines released and stowed. Followed by the deep resonance of the air horns that might wake the dead within several hundred miles. The ship slipped silently away, with a full contingent of humans.

 

We watched, heads hung low with disappointment, as we sipped our libations wondering now what kind of people watching we could accomplish that might possibly fill the bill. We headed for the pool. Nuff said.

[K12Guy]

5 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

only increased when they put “the little gargoyle” (points for the reference) down to walk.

Points earned.

 

Nicely done!

[Pinboy]

23 hours ago, marieps said:

We were at dinner, and heard the call of an inquiry as to whether they'd purchased a watch in Grand Cayman.   

They must have purchased one of those $125 Rolex watches ( ??? ) -- The guy selling them told them they were real and forgot to mention '' junk ".  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike981]

23 hours ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

My server explained that when a party was late 2 port stops in a row, the captain met with them and made it clear if they were late again, they would be disembarked. Period.

Good on the captain. I hate when people punish the punctuals.

[baldilocks]

On a Royal cruise to St. Maarten a few years ago, we had an interesting dock runner. She was 'running' about 10 minutes late. She was wearing a big floppy hat that kept blowing off in the wind and a big shopping bag. The hat would fly off and she would stagger (obviously a bit tipsy) down to get it leaving her bag. She would then get back to her bag at which point the hat kept taking off. This was repeated several times. You could see the crew at the gang plank becoming a bit amused at the situation. Someone then yelled from one of the balconies, 'Where are your shoes?'. She looked down and began a wobbly search of the pier holding on to her hat and trying to manage the big shopping bag...no shoes (probably left at the bar). Finally, one of the crew took pity on her and helped her aboard without the shoes.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

53 minutes ago, Mike981 said:

Good on the captain. I hate when people punish the punctuals.

 

Agreed!

[Pinboy]

1 hour ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

Agreed!

LOL-- On one of our recent cruises there was a man and lady " sauntering "  back to the ship, without a care in the world, 10 minutes after scheduled departure , while the crew were waving at them to speed it up. As they got to the ship he raised his hand to high-five the crew. Nobody high-fived him back .

Guess who we saw in Murano that night at a table close by ?

Guess who was the loudest at his table ?

Guess who asked for their table to be changed ??? ( No hints  )

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 minute ago, Pinboy said:

LOL-- On one of our recent cruises there was a man and lady " sauntering "  back to the ship, without a care in the world, 10 minutes after scheduled departure , while the crew were waving at them to speed it up. As they got to the ship he raised his hand to high-five the crew. Nobody high-fived him back .

Guess who we saw in Murano that night at a table close by ?

Guess who was the loudest at his table ?

Guess who asked for their table to be changed ??? ( No hints  )

 

 

Ugh.

[Mr. Click]

Couple of years ago on the Millennium gonig from Hong Kong to Shanghia we stopped for a day in Inchon South Korea to visit Seoul for the day. It was a hour and a half to two hour drive depending on traffice and our guide Kevin said we would have no problem being back in time for our 7pm sailing. He had it all planned out. After a grreat day in Seoul we began the drive back and as we approached Inchon the traffic just stopped. I could see Kevin sweating bullets and kept hearing him say "FOCUS, FOCUS< FOCUS" as he checked his phone for alternate routes.  He did get us off the highway and on to local streets once we were off the bridge over the river and we did make it in time, with 45 minutes to spare. We were lucky. Others did not make including 4 crew members. The Captain did wait for two bus loads to ship's tours but other were on their own.  Kudos and a big tip for Kevin.

[K&RCurt]

Our first cruise was on HAL.  On Tortola we were headed back to the ship, according to our watches we were 40 min before all aboard.  There was NO ONE but two HAL crewmen on the pier and they were standing by the gangway.  We sprinted to get there, they laughed and said "Slow down, no worry, you still have at least half an hour, everyone else was very early!  In any case they pulled up the gangway behind us and we were away from the pier before we got back to our cabin!

 

On the another HAL cruise in St. Martin we had an Aft wrap Balcony.  They had been paging 2 names for half an hour.  Just as we pulled away from the pier two people came running down and then just stopped and stared as we sailed away.  It was a couple and I guess the guy made the arrangements for the day as the woman started hitting him with her purse as she was yelling at him!

 

Back in February in Cozumel on Carnival they had been paging one name.  We had an aft balcony for this one too.  A woman was standing on her phone just aft of the ship on the pier.  She was having an agitated conversation.  She put down her phone and went to talk to 2 security guys standing at the back of the ship.  They got on their radios and a golf cart showed up, the women hopped in and it zoomed off.  About 10 min later it came back and the woman who was on the phone hops out and proceeds to help her obviously inebriated friend / relative / whatever out of the golf cart and onto the ship!

[shipshape sam]

On 5/7/2020 at 8:36 AM, Pinboy said:

Next batter up--- Pier Runners

I " struck out " from reading the numerous pages relating to Future Cruise Credits, Refunds, and When we will be able to cruise again, and watched some You Tube videos of Pier Runners.

Perhaps we can share any experiences we had or witnessed and " How long would you wait if you were the Captain '' ?

From all of our over 50 cruises we only witnessed one couple waving " Goodbye " as we pulled away after waiting 30 minutes.

If I were the Captain , I would delay departure  no more than 15-20 minutes , unless notified that there was a problem getting back on time. 

 

 

 

Good argument for booking your excursions with Celebrity.  That is what we do unless we are familiar with the port of call and are not doing a long or distance excursion.  The potential $$$ savings is not worth me worrying about it.  

[shipshape sam]

Never seen anyone not make the ship, but would not think it is 'fun' to watch or that 'shows them'  

 

I have no doubt that some of them deserve to be  stranded for taking their time, etc, but I also could argue that I cannot believe that a delayed departure would ever effected my dinner plans, our daily 4:30 Martini at Martini Bar,  or reaching our next port of call assuming the delay is even an hour.

 

Maybe part of the decision is two fold: cost to keep dock and port workers there longer and not creating a policy and then not enforcing it, thus negating the 'tension to get back to ship on time'.

Edited May 8, 2020 by shipshape sam