Ryndam Tour Stranded Passengers

[AlaskaBound]

While waiting for the plane at Vancouver, we were speaking to a lovely couple who told us that there were 24 passengers stranded on a Ryndam tour in Alaska. Ryndam would not send a shuttle to pick them up. Princess Cruises came to their rescue.

 

I didn't get the whole story as we were called to board our plane. Does anyone know anything about this? I would sure like to hear the whole story.

 

If anyone knows what happened, please post. Thank you.

[jasl]

Localady, if you're surfing, please let us know what happened. Hope all is well with you and Bob.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

We would certainly like to know what happened and what recourse those passengers will have with HAL.

 

:)

[tomc]

Tides could have been a big factor in just how long the ship could wait, depending on where it was.

[dogladyjw]

I love HAL and would like to know too!

[jhannah]

You say "Ryndam tour," but we don't know yet whether it was really a ship's tour or an independent excursion. I can't imagine a ship's tour group being left stranded. For private tours, we all know that while they're good and often cheaper, you are truly on your own if things go badly and the ship has to leave.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:confused:

 

Where are you Ryndam passengers?

 

Inquiring minds need to know what happened.

 

:confused:

[LAFFNVEGAS]

Hi, I think Localady is on the Ryndam right now but it is her first week of her B2B. She might hear something but then not till she get back. I don't think there were any other active member of the CC Board that were on the Ryndam for the previous week.

[sail7seas]

It is impossible for me to imagine Ryndam leaving any passengers behind who were on a ship's sponsored shore excursion. Alot more needs to be known before any of us can guess what the real story is IMOMany of us who sail HAL often have seen the ship held for as long as necessary to bring all the excursions "home". We've been delayed an hour and more on a number of occassions because the Captain would not leave until the pax returned safely.

[lknick]

Not knowing anything about this specific incident and not feeling overly creative today, let me paraphrase from HALs SOPs on this matter.

 

If the tour is a ship's sponsored tour and in the master's judgement environmental condition permit, a ship will wait the return of the tour no matter how long it takes.

 

The key words are "ship's sponsored tour." If the tour arrangements are private, there is no such obligation.

[Jacqueline]

According to the ships excursion's guide I just received with my documents :

" if it is a tour that you have purc ased thru HAL, the ship will almost never leave without you.In the very rare event that the ship has to leave, we will arrange at our expense to get you to the next port of call."

[tomc]

Maybe Localady is still paddling around in a kayak trying to catch up to the ship.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:)

 

The Ryndam is due back in port on Friday.

 

Maybe by Saturday or Sunday we might find out what happened to those 24 people.

 

:)

[tomc]

I was on a -dammer once when we made a service call off Ingonish NS for a HAL shore excursion to be tendered in, later to rejoin us in Sydney. I happened to be in a position to overhear some crew members discussing the plight of a small group (possibly only two, maybe four) who had arranged a private tour at Ingonish without having informed HAL. Apparently, they assumed it would be ok to jump aboard the tender and hitch a ride to shore. Well, it wasn't ok; I think they had presented themselves at pretty much the last minute. There had been some anguished conversation and pleading while the tender chugged off to shore without them.

 

I don't know if they post to message boards and I don't know what they may have told people when they got back home ... but they should have started at Day One, with their TA, to see about making it from ship to shore. Only two people ever walked on the water and lived to tell about it.

[Stevesan]

Only two people ever walked on the water and lived to tell about it.

One of them wasn't really a person, but the Ultimate Paradox. Were you the other?:)

[tomc]

We're getting OT here, but he was a person in my belief system, as was Peter (who went down like the Titanic after a few minutes).

[Plut0]

I am not sure that this is the same problem described to you in the airport in Vancouver, but it sounded a lot like what happened to us.

 

We were on a HAL cruisetour and were scheduled to board the Veendam on July 4 in Seward. We scheduled a Kenai Fjord tour as an upgrade to the transfer to the ship. There was a busload of us (57) - as a side note, there were more people on the bus than seats so there were three in our seat - but that is a different story.

 

When we arrived in Seward, they took our carryons and told us where to go to board the boat and said that a bus would pick us up at that spot when we returned to take us to the ship. We arrived to the boat about 5-10 minutes late a there was quite a bit of July 4 traffic.

 

The Kenai Fjord trip was great (I will tell you about that when i finish my review). When we returned back to the dock (we were about 10 minutes late), there was no bus there to pick us up. We waited about 10 minutes and then asked the Kenai Fjord people about the bus, they indicated they couldnot help us a Gray Line and HAL were not connected to them and HAL/Gray line was responsibe for picking up their own people.

 

We were then working on trying to call the HAL number form the Know before you go book when we saw a bus approaching. We tried to flag him down, but he did not stop. My son tried to run after the bus and flag him down and even though people on that bus said we know that man, he is on our tour and heading to our boat, the driver would not stop.

 

We then saw another bus and flagged it down, he had room for about 1/2 the group, but not all. At this point, one people had gone in to find out how far the walk was since we could see the ship. it was a bit after 6 and we new that we were suppose to leave at 7. Some people started to walk (note that some in the group could make the walk as it was too far). Some folks tried to talk a princess bus into taking us, but they said no. There was a Kenai Fjord bus that was going to take some people to the train and while earlier he had said he could not take us, I think he felt sorry for us and agreed to take the rest of us. He also stopped along the way and picked up a few of the walkers.

 

When we arrived at the check-in point, we talked to the tranportation supervisor and told him what happened. He indicated that since the boat was late, they had sent our bus on another round. He did not realize that the second bus could not handle the number of people and said that a bus was there now, but that everyone was gone. Once he heard what happened to us, he understood why we did not wait for the third bus (which would have arrived 50 minutes after we docked). He said that he would work on coordination with Kenai Fjord so this did not happen again.

 

This event did not ruin our trip, in fact, I had forgotten about it until I read this thread since so many other things on the trip were so wonderful.

 

Anyway, I am not sure if this is the same incident, but it is what happened to us.

 

Mary

[tomc]

Thanks for the update! Nice to hear it from the passenger's mouth.

[localady]

I spoke to folks on the Ryndam that were totally confused as to how this happened. The staff had no information about anyone being stranded anywhere and assured me that under NO uncertain terms did the ship leave anyone stranded in Vancouver. I was told this by those in the know on board.:D

 

I suspect that the 24 people may have been "stranded" at the airport possibly by HAL land staff, and Princess staff got them to the Pier as both lines dock at Canada Place. I was assured that the ship didn't sail without 24 "stranded" passengers. Sorry I didn't respond earlier to this, I missed the thread in my hurry to post at .75 cents per minute:eek:

 

P.S. We had a fabulous cruise on the Ryndam and would recommend her to all!

[sail7seas]

Thanks for the accurate info Localady.....

 

 

Glad you had a good time on Ryndam. Welcome back.

[Krazy Kruizers]

:) Localady

Thanks for the up-dated information. What you said about the passengers possibly being stranded at the airport with no way to the pier makes a lot of sense.

When we were in London a few years ago, HAL was supposed to take us from our hotel to the airport. There was a taxi and underground strike. Very few buses were running. And the roads were jammed with cars. Our bus never showed up and we weren't able to get a taxi. A different HAL bus that was supposed to go to a different airport offered to take us to Heathrow. We made it with a half hour to spare before our flight to JFK.

:)