Missed scheduled tour - what would you have done?

[mysparky]

This topic could possibly incite a riot, but I hope that it doesn’t get to that. Although we had a great time on our recent FOS trip, we ran into one problem that really bothered me and I’m wondering what all you loyal cruisers think. Here’s the story…

We had signed up for an ATV excursion on Cozumel through Island Marketing. This was not a ship-sponsored excursion. Our instructions from Island Marketing said to meet them at Carlos & Charlie’s at 10:30 local time. As usual, the Cruise Compass reminded all passengers that while on the island, we should remain on ship time.

Prior to the cruise, I thought the difference between ship time and local time in Cozumel was 1 hour. However, when we received our Cruise Compass the night before Cozumel, it indicated that there was a 2 hour difference (please note: Cozumel is 2 hours behind ship time). We had breakfast that morning with another couple, who also indicated that they didn’t realize it was a 2 hr difference.

Anyway…we got off the ship, took a taxi to the meeting point and proceeded to shop until 12:20 ship time, which was supposedly 10:20 local time. Well, wouldn’t you know…the Cruise Compass was INCORRECT! Cozumel was only 1 hour behind (apparently the change took place around 4/3 or so) and so we missed our tour by 1 hour!

I was very lucky in the fact that we were dealing with a great company AND they had another tour available at 12:30 local time AND they had room on it. It took a few phone calls to arrange everything, and I had a tough time finding a pay phone that worked, but in the end, it all worked out. It was very frustrating, though, and it took about another 45 mins to get everything arranged. We missed the extra time we would have had on the beach as part of the tour, but we did get to do the ATV tour and about 30 mins of snorkeling.

In retrospect, seems like we should have asked a local as soon as we got off the ship to confirm the time, but those thoughts often come to you only after you’ve run into a problem.

My question…what would have been the right course of action upon returning to the ship? Was my expectation that the ship was correct an erroneous expectation on my part? Had we not been able to make it onto another tour, I may have asked Guest Relations if they would be willing to do anything for us, but I'm not so sure that I would have been justified in making that request.

Anyone else run into this type of thing?

[bigdaddyvoges]

No, this will not start a riot, but I believe you went about this situation perfectly. I can assure you the compass mistake was an honest mistake. There is no reason why RCI would want to screw over thousands of passengers. Talking to the Guest Relations desk would have gotten you nowhere, so just take this as a learning experience for your next wonderful cruise. Take care.

 

Bob

[Sue L]

I am glad everything worked out and the misinformation didn't cause you to miss your ship, THEN you would have something to be upset about.:D

[SUZCRUZ]

No, this will not start a riot, but I believe you went about this situation perfectly. I can assure you the compass mistake was an honest mistake. There is no reason why RCI would want to screw over thousands of passengers. Talking to the Guest Relations desk would have gotten you nowhere, so just take this as a learning experience for your next wonderful cruise. Take care.

 

Bob

 

 

Had you expected the Guest Relations to compensate you for their mistake, probably would have caused a verbal riot.

I totally agree with above post.:)

[Ladyvdr]

We all make mistakes. Luckily you did not really miss out on anything. It could happen to anyone. At least, as stated above, you did not miss the ship.

[terri23]

Yes i always check The World Clock website so I know the time differences before each trip. Your expectation that you could rely on the compass time was reasonable, but bottom line it's always better to rely on yourself. I would have told guest services of the problem caused by the compass misinformation and, if they had sent me some strawberries or wine to make up for the mistake, I would have dug right in ;)

[HorrorFan]

Wow, good thinking on your part in getting the afternoon spot for your excusion. If it had been me, and I had missed the excursion because of mis-information on RCI's part, I almost certainly would have expected some sort of restitution from RCI for lost money. After all, you should be able to trust thier info, especially pertaining to ship and local times. If you can't trust them for that, who can you trust?

However, you made your trip with only minor inconvenience, so good for you.

[jerin]

With all of the different countries going to daylight savings (or not) at different times this time of year, it can be confusing for anyone, including the person typing up the Compass.

 

It's easy enough to ask the time in a shop in port, where they live in that time zone and know what time it is for sure. Or we ask someone on the street. I try to learn a little bit of the local language, though sometimes asking the time is about the extent. If I can't understand their answer, most people will just show me their watch. We usually ask a local pretty soon after we get off the ship, figuring that they know the local time best. We can then compare with the time on our watches (ship's time).

[Mark_K]

Interesting post, glad it worked out for you.

 

Had it been me (which is not to say you should have done the same), if I thought there was a one hour difference and the Compass said two, I would have been on the Internet checking. I don't like being wrong about things and will verify them before I believe them.

 

As far as getting any recompense had it not worked out, I expect their response would have been, sorry, but no. And depending on my mood, I may have asked (demanded?) to see a manager and let him earn his pay dealing with me, and see if anything came of it.

[moknits]

In my experience, unfortunately, Guest Services has never been too helpful about anything - however legitimate the complaint/concern has been. That said, I don't think it would have hurt to tell them about it - best case scenario they give you a little something, like strawberries or wine as someone about suggested. Worst case scenario, they're aware and they maybe fix the compass for the following week.

 

Some people are complainers, and will complain no matter what the situation, other people are less so. Sounds to me like you're in the second category, and that's ok. If you're uncomfortable complaining, you shouldn't ruin your vacation doing something that makes you uncomfortable.

 

And at least you warned your fellow CruiseCritics to be aware of this potential issue - I just checked local time for Bermuda, where we'll be next week. (One hour ahead.) So, thanks!

[uksimonusa]

That's one reason I always take my cell phone ashore with me, it always displays local time and my watch stays on ship time. Seems to me it was a honest mistake on the part of the person who wrote the compass, it may just have been copied and pasted from the previous western cruise, I think you coped very well and have a great attitude

[bktx1]

about the cell phone. I am so glad that it worked out for our poster. People are fallible, so I always assume the worst to get the best, if that makes any sense.

[Forchunut1]

I would never have thought to double check with what the Compass said. I guess I have always assumed that whatever they print is correct. This is a good lesson for us all.

 

I'm glad that it worked out OK for you. I would have been unhappy to have missed the excursion. Thanks for sharing what happened and making us aware of what we should be doing.

[leoandhugh]

The basic problem was caused because all of Mexico did not go on Savings Time until a month after the US did. So there was a month when the difference was 2 hours instead of one. Living here in SanDiego along the Mexican border, this cause all kinds of delays at the border crossings, particularly for those crossing by bus.

[Crosboro]

"what would have been the right course of action"

 

If one is taking a non-cruise line sponsored excursion, it seems the best course would be to go right from the start to where the excursion was to start to make sure of the local time and when it was leaving.

[triplej2484]

I worked Shore Ex on the Pride of Hawai'i and I can tell you from experience there would be nothing done That is why the ships do not back excursions you booked elsewhere, even if the Compass (in our case Freestyle Daily) is wrong. Obviously, in Hawai'i ship and Island time were always the same.

 

And depending on my mood, I may have asked (demanded?) to see a manager and let him earn his pay dealing with me, and see if anything came of it.

 

I can also tell you from experience, not only shipboard, but customer service as a whole, this will most likely get you nowhere.

[IWORK2CRUISE]

I can't see that the OP was actually looking for some sort of compensation as much as they were venting about an unfortunate situation. Lucky for them that it worked out so well.

The change in the schedule for the US daylight savings time probably flustered many! Even here in the US if you had not upgraded your computers they would not have switched over at the right time.

I may not have thought to double check the times myself but thanks to reading posts such as this I hope to "file it away" for when I need to.

We frequently go off on our own when in different ports and it is quite important to keep on a careful track.

[triplej2484]

Also, there may be a few ships in port the originated from a different time zone and therefore have a different ship time.....so be careful who you ask if you ask on the island.

[hoganmom1]

we had an unfortunate incident in grand cayman where our shore excursion, booked through royal carribean, was cancelled. the excursion was @1pm, last tender from grand cayman to the ship was@3:30. we wasted the day away on the ship waiting for noon to tender to shore. got to shore. waited until 1 for someone to get us for our excursion. no one showed. i went and found a royal carribean employee at the port and he informed me that our excursion had been cancelled. that they had made an announcement that morning. we never heard the announcement. there was no other communication to try to inform us of the cancellation. we lost our entire day at one of my favorite ports, although of course they did refund the cost of the excursion. i learned that i should have gone to guest relations after having something go wrong. i can't even get an apology out of them after the fact. but i guess it didn't make me too upset, we just booked our next cruise on rccl for next spring! the moral of the story, if you have any inclination that your excursion might be cancelled, i would make a phone call! a little off topic, but thanks for letting me get it off of my chest.

[socalcruising]

We missed a jet boat shore excursion on this issue. THIS IS A PET PEEVE OF MINE:eek: Why can't the ship stay on local time???? We were on one cruise where we left with the U.S. and had to change for daylight savings, then switched for 2 ports for local time, then switched back to U.S. I had no idea what time it was. Boy, was I glad we were on vacation!!!:p

[snausman]

Yes i always check The World Clock website so I know the time differences before each trip. Your expectation that you could rely on the compass time was reasonable, but bottom line it's always better to rely on yourself. I would have told guest services of the problem caused by the compass misinformation and, if they had sent me some strawberries or wine to make up for the mistake, I would have dug right in ;)

 

Wow never knew about the world clock. I just google it and found it and bookmarked it. Thanks for the info.

 

Laura

[CroozeAddict]

I almost certainly would have expected some sort of restitution from RCI for lost money.

 

What? When you book excursions privately, RCI takes no responsibility what-so-ever. The OP did a good job saving the excursion ... but ... they obviously had a lot of spare time before hand ... didn't it occur to them to look at a local clock while shopping in town?:confused:

 

I really don't mean to be sarcastic but there are times when we should confirm things on our own and take responsibilty for things done privately. If it was an RCI booked excursion and the ship provided false info, then RCI should be held accountable.

 

Sorry ... just trying to keep things in perspective.

[LoneStarJeffe]

THIS IS A PET PEEVE OF MINE:eek: Why can't the ship stay on local time????

 

I believe that would make scheduling both crew work activities and passenger daily events a nightmare. There will be confusion no matter which way you try to schedule but the exposure for confusion and missing something is much higher if you start changing ship time to match local port time each day. I would rather have the confusion onshore rather than onboard. For example, when ordering breakfast the night before it is nice not having to calculate the time change based upon the port we are visiting the next day to get it when I expect it.

 

I vote to PLEASE keep ship time constant!

[mysparky]

Thanks all for your posts. I didn't realize that Mexico made the DLS switch a month after the US - no wonder there was so much confusion! We did learn a valuable lesson and that was to make sure we check local time. It really hadn't occured to us (duh) at the time, but we won't make that mistake again!

 

The other lesson that I knew, but this experience confirmed, is to make sure that you have contact information with you in case you run into a problem. I wanted to pack very light for this tour, but I still did bring the document which gave me a number to call if I ran into any problems while in Cozumel. If I hadn't had that number, we definitely would have lost out. And finally, if the company doesn't provide you with a toll-free number (like ours did), make sure that you either have a cellphone with you that works in a foreign port, or make sure that you have an international calling card with you.