Candy

We're planning on going on a western Caribbean cruise this Thanksgiving. It's our first cruise and one of my concerns is what do you do when you get left behind? What's the ship policy about this? Anyone?

Sue

You are basically on your own. They have no responsibility for you if you miss the ship's sailing. So it's best to watch you timeline and get back by the time they specify or you'll be paying out of your own pocket to fly to the next destination to catch up with them.

linda

I personally saw this happen to a few people in Cozumel. They had been to Carlos and Charlie's and were boozing it up and forgot to check the time. Don't push it- plan on being back 45 min before it sails

Reggie

When we were leaving Cozumel, the ship was perhaps a 1/2 mile from the dock when we noticed that we were completely coming to a stop. Soon enough, a tug boat of some kind came up to the side of our ship....low and behold, two Carlos & Charlie's revelers were hoisted on board......wonder how often this happens in Coz??!!!???

Diedre

I notice when I went on Western Carribean cruise, they make announcement to keep your watch set on ship's time due to time difference.

Bill M

Hello:<BR><BR>I have never been left behind at a port of call, but once missed the Norway altogether. (Cancelled flight- no help from Delta.) Norway rep at the MIAMI airport went with us to the Delta counter and pleaded with them to help us out. Since we were desperado, we'd bought last minute ($$$)plane tickets on our own to get to Fla, so had never used the tick's we got thru NCL. After a lot of hemming and hawing Delta agreed to let us fly to St. Maarten (two days later) at no cost- we took BWIA to Antigua then LIAT to St. M. The extra plane tickets and the hotels we stayed in were on us, of course, but we missed 2 full days at sea. NCL sent a van to pick us up in ST. M and took us to the dock for the tender. Then NCL left one of my bags on the pier, and eventually flew it to meet another ship in Cozumel(??) Never figured out why. NCL did nothing else to help us, but at least they were nice enough to stand with us and help us talk Delta Smelta into flying us. We paid extra to fly, and 3 nights in hotels, not to mention the horror of trying to find a place in Miami, when there was a big boat show in town. First nite was total flea-bag (no offense to fleas!) for $40--CASH--you can only imagine. Things got better for night 2 on Ocean Drive. Then the place in St M was OK- a Best Western!! But it was a lot more running around than we had intended to do.<BR><BR>Oh well. It was kinda fun anyway!<BR><BR>Bill

Sandy

That's one of the reasons people advocate using ship-sponsored excursions - the tours always allow for enough time to re-board, and if for some reason there is a delay the ship will be held for return of that group(when you leave the ship your id card is checked into the computer when you off board so they will know who hasn't made it back and the tour booking computer knows who's booked onto what tours.) The people who get into trouble are the ones who strike out on their own, lose track of time, cut the return time too close and encounter unforseen problems (rental car breaks down, heavy traffic, etc.) and either come close to or entirely miss the ship. In that case, if you miss the ship you alone are responsible to get yourself to the next port of call ($$$) - the cruise line has no obligations to you in that regard. A good rule of thumb is if you are going off ship independently, check your watch frequently and plan to be back to re-board 1 hr. before sail away, the gangways are usually pulled up 1/2 hr. before sail away. Also, some ships stay on ship's time and don't change to local time, but sure you have a handle on the time differences if that is the case (it will be clearly stated in your cruise newspaper and usually broadcast by the Cruise Director upon port arrival). If you are at a port that uses the ship's tenders, be sure you know when the last tender will return you to the ship (usually 1/2 hr. before sail away). Bon Voyage!