This couple, on their “Dream Cruise” missed the boat, when the ship sailed 2 hours early.
Couple Outraged After Being Stranded in Cuba ~ Norwegian Sky
https://youtu.be/XPrkBFdPZlc
Turns out, it wasn’t so cut and dried?
The ship advised the passengers on MULTIPLE occasions, via multiple sources, that the be back on board departure time was changed.
Our outraged heroes didn’t get the email, the memo, the news brief, the sign on the gang plank, etc.
The video gives some advice about cruises and YOUR, the client’s, responsibilities.
I’ve been on one (1) cruise - with Carnival.
I’m a total noob.
But, even so, I KNEW intuitively that it’s MY responsibility to double and triple check the times for whatever event, and especially for when to be back on board the boat.
I was aware that booking an excursion through the boat’s system provided some protections. While booking through a 3rd party held some risks.
I like “knowing” how things work, so, I found this youtu.be useful.
???
ralph
3 Likes
During a total of more than 1,600 days and 87 cruises aboard assorted ships from over a dozen lines, we have, (with the exception of a few river cruises with included sightseeing), taken less than five cruise-sponsored excursions. So I’m going to say we’ve done over 1,200 independent excursions of one sort or another. We are always checking times before leaving a ship and always prudent about being back at the pier way before embarkation time - and we have never missed the ship.
Accidents can, of course, happen but we try to eliminate carelessness from the equasion.
Jeff
3 Likes
Looking back, we’ve been in a lot of countries, continents, islands, haven’t missed the boat yet!
Did miss a train in Barcelona, Spain once, thought it was 8:30 AM, however as went back from dinner, realized, too late, it was for 8:30 PM, and it was gone… We took a cab to the train station, cab dropped up off and left, then we discovered it was Closed!! And no cabs! No cell phones, no Uber/Lyft… But flagging a cab a block away, he refused as it was out of his Zone… So he left, but came back a bit later and did take us, for a double fare, hoping he didn’t get caught… It was 20 Euro to get there, but 40 to get back to our hotel… Glad to pay the price… Next morning another cab to the train station, instead of the non-stop hi speed train, we had to do a run to Madrid, transfer to the Bilbao train…
The original agent wasn’t all that helpful, but we should have double checked the tickets… The next agent was really good, understood what we had to get there, sorted out the alternate routing… We speak no Spanish, maybe a little Mexican tidbits, and the Spanish agents pride themselves on only Spanish, Castilian, maybe, nothing that we knew in any case…
A bit of a headache to find another way to get to Bibao in time for our museum reservations, but we made it! Another adventure…
1 Like
Did miss a train in Barcelona, Spain once…
Reminds me: a few years ago, it took us more than 2 hours to get through customs at Dublin airport, and then we had to take a bus through morning rush hour to Dublin Heuston station to catch our train to Tralee. We got to the train station with 3 minutes to spare, and my jet-lagged brain couldn’t figure out how to buy tickets from the machine. A local guy saw our predicament, walked us through the process, and we made it onto the train literally as it began to pull away from the station.
PS: The Dingle Peninsula is absolutely wonderful, as are its people. Cannot wait to go back.
2 Likes
Some people are just clueless.
I tend to be more paranoid. Once after arriving in Europe I was looking at our return trip even though it wasn’t for another 10 days and noticed the times didn’t seem possible. Connecting through Heathrow but changing terminals seemed to only give us an hour or maybe less despite my reading of allowing more time than that. Also around that time was the good old spring ahead/fall back clock change.
I called US Airways (I think it was prior to the AA merger) and the lady said I was wrong. I then checked again and sent an email to someone in the travel business and they said I was correct. Apparently US Airways computers had the wrong time for the BA flight. I called a 2nd time and had to argue a bit and the lady investigated and finally said I was correct and I could be put on a later flight that gave us a realistic chance of making the connection (which we did).
If I had blindly taken the original flights we would never had make the connection and wouldn’t be assured of having seats on the next flight or in the same class of service.
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