Left Behind

[realaud]

So, my sister and I just got off the NCL Star Lisbon/Lisbon 11/1-12. We took a ship excursion from Cadiz to Seville. The tour itself, was enjoyable and Seville is beautiful.  The last part of the tour was time on our own with instructions to meet back at a certain point at a certain time.  We were back at the meeting point early but did not see anyone we recognized from our tour (nor anyone wearing the tour # badges), but figured we were early, and everyone would trickle in eventually.  We waited and waited until the meet time came and went, and still no one was there.  One of us took several strolls around the area and we still did not see our group.  Personally, I would not know what the tour guide looked like if I tripped over him, but I did know several people from the bus ride to be able to pick them out of a crowd. 

 

Finally, we decided that either there was a miscommunication, or we missed the group and we tried to head back to where the bus was supposed to be.  We got a map from the tourist center, and we could not find our way out of the maze.  Even Google maps was no help (I thought we were just going around in circles). Finally, we just gave up and called an Uber (thank goodness Uber was available in Seville). After a 198-euro uber ride, we got on board and went immediately to the excursion desk to a) report ourselves back in and b) put in an incident report about it.  I don't know if there will be any compensation, either in the form of a partial tour refund or partial or complete Uber refund, but it supposedly has to go to the higher ups for resolution.

 

Later, in the casino, one of the people who was on the bus (who I had been playing with since the trip start), told me that they waited for us and looked for us and she urged the guide to give us more time, as they knew my sister had mobility problems. Finally, they had to leave, and she said the guide was devastated because he never had "lost" anyone before. If they were there and looking for us, they must have been in a parallel universe.

 

All's well that ends well, I guess, because we arrived back to the ship safe and didn't make the boat late for departure; but I don't think I'll be taking any more "on your own" trips anymore.

[cruiseny4life]

First, I'm so glad you were able to get back on the ship! Even if it cost $200 Euro (I know $ is not Euro). 

 

Anyway....do you think your time showing device was not on the correct ship/local time for the tour? That's the only thing I can think of that would happen. Or, did people on the excursion report the tour left early? 

[Two Wheels Only]

3 minutes ago, cruiseny4life said:

Anyway....do you think your time showing device was not on the correct ship/local time for the tour? That's the only thing I can think of that would happen. Or, did people on the excursion report the tour left early?

 

That's what I was thinking. Was there a change in the scheduled departure time and the OP never got the message? Was there confusion with reading military time (1600 isn't 6pm, for ex.)?

[shof515]

What i do for me is: when the tour guide say be back at this spot in 1-2 hours or so, i don't rely on my time showing device. Instead, i use the timer feature in my device clock app. I set the timer for about 10 minutes before the time the guide says to be back. For an 2 hour explore on your own, my timer will be set to like 1 hour 50 minutes 

[laudergayle]

19 minutes ago, realaud said:

All's well that ends well,

But certainly a scary feeling being abandoned.  Glad you had Uber and 200 EU.  Hope the rest of your cruise made up for this mishap.

[IAcruising]

25 minutes ago, realaud said:

The last part of the tour was time on our own with instructions to meet back at a certain point at a certain time. 

 

It had to be one of these two things you missed. Man, that's a nightmare scenario. Pleased to hear it worked out.

 

[yakcruiser]

You two are real travelers! You didn't panic, you improvised and adapted and when you got off the ship you gave us an honest accounting of what happened without the usual "I will never cruise NCL again" commentary. And you chose to still have good memories of Seville. And the best part was this story had a happy ending.

[lepidoptera]

That is a scary feeling not being able to find your your guide.I feel NCL and all cruiseline tours I’ve been are a little bit harder to keep track of the guide just because of how big the group is. They also don’t tend to have a clear sign/prop or whatever to keep the people in the correct group.

 

Glad you were able to figure it out even if it was $$$$ at least you didn’t miss the ship. 

[graphicguy]

Just curious….given the other people on your tour found the bus/guide, do you know if you were in the wrong meeting spot?  You mentioned  you felt you were lost.

 

Or, were you off on the meeting time?

 

Just a  note that may help in the future, I always “drop a pin” where any meeting places are.

[Anoynmous Phoenix]

@cruiseny4life

 

In case you want to use it again you get € by pressing on the Alt Key at the same time as 0128.

 

 

[realaud]

2 hours ago, cruiseny4life said:

First, I'm so glad you were able to get back on the ship! Even if it cost $200 Euro (I know $ is not Euro). 

 

Anyway....do you think your time showing device was not on the correct ship/local time for the tour? That's the only thing I can think of that would happen. Or, did people on the excursion report the tour left early? 

We made sure we were on ship's time, which in this case was local time. The woman I spoke with later told the meet was on time and they waited as long as they could for us.

Edited November 16, 2023 by realaud
Spelling error

[realaud]

We were, apparently,  in the right vicinity at the right time, just not the exact spot I guess. It's also the fact that the old town is just a maze. The landmark where we were to meet was the square in front of the Cathedral, which I hard to miss--you can see the bell tower from everywhere.

[realaud]

2 hours ago, shof515 said:

What i do for me is: when the tour guide say be back at this spot in 1-2 hours or so, i don't rely on my time showing device. Instead, i use the timer feature in my device clock app. I set the timer for about 10 minutes before the time the guide says to be back. For an 2 hour explore on your own, my timer will be set to like 1 hour 50 minutes 

I also set a timer, as the guide told us the the time AND how long. Part of the problem, I think, was that part of the tour was a walking tour with a local and she was the one who told us the spot to be at. I guess it was literally to be that exact spot, not a bench 5 feet away.

[realaud]

1 hour ago, yakcruiser said:

You two are real travelers! You didn't panic, you improvised and adapted and when you got off the ship you gave us an honest accounting of what happened without the usual "I will never cruise NCL again" commentary. And you chose to still have good memories of Seville. And the best part was this story had a happy ending.

The scariest thing was that we didn't take our passports off the ship, and I was worried that if we missed the ship departure, we wouldn't be able to get out of Spain.

[realaud]

I usually download the cruise document to my cloud drive. I know somewhere buried in there is a way to contact the ship. I was hoping if we could contact the ship, they could either tell us where the guide was or tell the guide where we were. I guess I downloaded them to my computer at home and not the cloud.

[yakcruiser]

14 minutes ago, realaud said:

The scariest thing was that we didn't take our passports off the ship, and I was worried that if we missed the ship departure, we wouldn't be able to get out of Spain.

That would have been scary. Usually when somebody misses the ship they send someone into your room and try and locate your passports and they leave them with the ship's agent onshore. The agent is listed on the bottom of the freestyle daily. I know this sounds primitive, but I always cut out that number and stick it in my wallet before I venture out. The agent acts as the cruise lines local representative and can coordinate with the ship in cases of emergency. And I do agree that some of those old European cities can be mazes.

[realaud]

27 minutes ago, yakcruiser said:

That would have been scary. Usually when somebody misses the ship they send someone into your room and try and locate your passports and they leave them with the ship's agent onshore. The agent is listed on the bottom of the freestyle daily. I know this sounds primitive, but I always cut out that number and stick it in my wallet before I venture out. The agent acts as the cruise lines local representative and can coordinate with the ship in cases of emergency. And I do agree that some of those old European cities can be mazes.

I actually did take a photo of the port agent info, wasn't sure if they would contact the ship in that instance, but I was going to try, but then we decided on the uber.

[julig22]

At an officer q&A once they did stress the importance of taking the ship contact info with you - take a picture! And if you are delayed and in danger of missing all aboard - CALL!!!!!! They can advise you on what to do, possibly hold the ship and so forth. If they don't know why you aren't there, they're more apt to leave you behind.

Glad you made it back - I've had my share of similar panicked moments. I've been known to take pictures of the bus, the guide and the meeting place if they turn me loose anyplace bigger than a square block!

[itsnotjustme]

Glad you devised a viable plan and reached the ship.  Seville is a good haul from Cadiz.

 

Between you having people walk around and look, and the tour group looking for you, it is highly likely you were not in the right place at the right time. 

 

Given the above, and that everyone else reached the correct place and time, I would not expect compensation from NCL.

 

The advice on taking the daily program is sound - we always take it.

[Asawi]

I am so relieved and also impressed you were able to sort It out!

What I try to remember to do is take  pictures of meeting place, bus, guide... I said "try to remember"... It gives me some peace of mind when there are several groups, buses, same looking buildings... I have had some slight moments of panic when realizing not being 100% sure of where/who to find. 

Seville is a labyrinth and being in the wrong place there is something I can definitely see happening! I rode a bicycle around there last year and frequently lost my direction. Figuring out what corner I was actually in was not always straightforward! Without Google maps "my position" I'd probably still be trying to find my way home! 😁

 

[realaud]

10 hours ago, itsnotjustme said:

Glad you devised a viable plan and reached the ship.  Seville is a good haul from Cadiz.

 

Between you having people walk around and look, and the tour group looking for you, it is highly likely you were not in the right place at the right time. 

 

Given the above, and that everyone else reached the correct place and time, I would not expect compensation from NCL.

 

The advice on taking the daily program is sound - we always take it.

I am aware that we were probably not where everyone else was. The best I can figure is that we were in the right place, but not in the exact spot where everyone was supposed to meet.  We were early so we went to the center of the square to sit on a bench, but we had a view of the general area where we the guide was supposed to show up.  I guess we misjudged our line of sight, because we saw no one from our bus, and it was probably compounded by the fact that there was a long line to the entrance of the Alcazar which may have obscured our group.

 

I have no expectation of compensation from NCL, but it would be a nice gesture, if it was to come.

[graphicguy]

15 hours ago, realaud said:

 

 

Sorry this happened to you.  Just came from an EU cruise.  Easy to get twisted around sometimes.

 

You have to do as you did and get to the meeting spot early.  As the meeting time approaches, and you see no one from your group, it's time to go searching.  Assuming the group was relatively large, they should have been easy to find everyone else since they were in the right spot?

 

But, aside from a costly Uber ride, all's well that ends well.

[DCGuy64]

I know it's too late now, but asking the tour guide for his/her phone number would have been a good idea. We were on a few excursions last week and were given the tour guide's cell phone #. (Everyone seems to have one nowadays) A phone call or text would've cost a lot less than 198 Euros. Glad to hear it all ended well, though.

[graphicguy]

Just now, DCGuy64 said:

I know it's too late now, but asking the tour guide for his/her phone number would have been a good idea. We were on a few excursions last week and were given the tour guide's cell phone #. (Everyone seems to have one nowadays) A phone call or text would've cost a lot less than 198 Euros. Glad to hear it all ended well, though.

Great idea.  I've done that several times.  

 

In addition to dropping a pin to the meeting spot's location my my phone, I also take a picture of the meeting spot.

[9tee2Sea]

I remember my very first trip to seville.  I was 19, traveling for a school submersion class in spanish ( 6 weeks in spain).  We got to the hotel late afternoon.  I decided to take a walk and explore the area.  well, needless to say, I got lost ( al the old buildings look alike).  The teacher had told us , that if we walk about, take a business card from the hotel desk, and in case of getting lost, show it to someone and ask how to get there.  Well, being a young know it all...I didn't.  I got very lost. Didn't know the name of the hotel.  I walked and walked until midnight trying to find it ( safer times back in the late 70's).  I finally got into a cab and asked to take me to a hotel that was close to a mortuary ( that was the only thing I could remember about the location).  After a few drive arounds, finally found it.  Boy, did the teacher show me off on the bus the next day as an example of what NOT to do.  I guess that was the moment i realized i have a very bad sense of direction ( to this day I cant tell North from South and East from West).