What happens if you are late for your cruise

[roadtowhoknowswhere]

DD has just returned from a cruise around the Caribbean.
On the second to last day 6 people were not back in time. Told to be back at 3.30pm.
DD said that they were running down the pier at 5pm and the ship had already pulled away.
Just wondering what will happen to those people. Do they get taken to the next place or what.

We always got back to the cafe with a view of the dock ahead of the deadline so we could have a snigger at the late passengers. I know. It’s childish but we enjoyed it.

This happened to Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping up Appearances in a Christmas special called Sea Fever! It's on BBCi player at the moment. Very, very funny! But yes, she and Richard had to fly to Copenhagen to meet their ship.

We keep our passports in the safe in our cabin, can they get into these without the combination?

I presume they could if need be.

"Pier Runners"
Weirdly addictive watching people running for a ship 😂

I did see some footage of a late crew member who basically did a impressive running jump from the dock to the still open door and was pulled in by his colleagues.
What was even more amusing was he chucked his backpack in first so if he had missed the door he wouldn't have had his stuff.
(I assume his crewmates would have chucked it back for him)

Better that the cruise leaves a few behind than the entire ship has to reschedule its times. I was on a coach trip (I know, I'm classy me) where the coach had to wait for a bunch of people to come back to the coach before it could leave, which meant we were VERY late leaving. Thus potentially ruining a coachful of people's evening arrangements.

I am always astonished at how many people think everyone else just has to wait for them.

The ship sails and those people will need to get to the next port and rejoin the ship there.

I had this with a hospital appointment, they called to say they were putting an extra clinic on in 2 days time, they'd put a letter in the post but may not get it on time, so they called me to say my appointment was 5.30

I didn't think anything of it, because it was an extra clinic, and I've had an appointment at 7pm on an extra clinic before

Got the letter that day at 1pm, opened it to find my appointment was actually 15.30! Quickly changed plans and went to my appointment on time 😂 good job post wasn't delayed!

same with people who misbehave. They are removed from the ship and must make their own way back at their expense. A colleague told me of a wedding party on a cruise he was on. Someone got giddy/drunk and dangled the groom over the side of the ship. They were disembarked (St.Lucia) and had to make their own way back.

If you’re on an organised excursion booked on the ship, or through the ship organiser at the time of booking your trip, and it is late back then they have to wait or they have to get you to the next port at no expense to you.

If you go off on your own at a port and are late back, then they don’t need to wait and you have to get yourself to the next port at your own expense. The return time is usually a bit before departure time so sometimes people can still get back before it’s left, but they will leave when planned.

Yes, thank you, I couldn't remember

Just don’t be late. You get all day to do excursions it’s not difficult to get back early.

Any cruise I’ve ever been on issues a cruise card to allow you to disembark and re embark the ship. Our passports were in our cabin safe but only because we put them there. I don’t imagine ship staff trying to hunt our passports down in order to leave them behind for us if we missed the ship.

Always take passports off the shop with you for this reason, and often you have passport control at destination anyway.

If you don't catch the shop back up, your belongings will be packed and stored at the final port for you to collect.

I’ve only been on a couple of cruises but the ones I was on you went through passport control boarding at Southampton and that was it. Not required anywhere else at all. And we were expressly told not required ashore. Ours stayed in the safe until we disembarked. Personally I feel the risk of passports being lost or stolen whilst strolling around ashore is greater than the risk of being late for the ship.

my mum and dad were on a cruise where a woman was removed for climbing on a lifeboat to sunbathe. How bloody stupid are some people

@MissSophiaGracehow? I probably did take my passport with me but many don’t. I certainly never handed it to anyone.
@MonsteraDeliciosano don’t recall having to show my passport at any port, just the cruise ID coming back on.

Or do they go into your room and rifle through your stuff? That would take some time!

We were on a 12 day cruise, on day 7 the captain said finally, this is the first day everyone is on board when they should be....

In many European countries you’re supposed to have your passport accesible for checking by the police if you don’t have a national identity card. You are supposed to carry it around with you.

There’s whole tiktok accounts dedicated to filming people running up to try and get on as the boat is pulling away. Some make it to huge cheers.

This happened on the latest cruise I was on, an overnighter and a couple decided to go to a city on the second day. Why on earth they did this goodness only knows but traffic issues meant they missed the departure. Fortunately (for them) the next port of call was only 3 hours by train and they caught up. I am so risk averse that I would rather pay double and have the certainty that the ship would wait!!

Same. And the pp are right people often leave their passports on board.

We’re always back on board VERY early, who needs this stress!