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 were late back after a cruise excursion in Alaska, luckily it was a ship organised excursion. They had announced on board that they were waiting for a few latecomers so there were loads of people on their balconies watching for us. They cheered when we arrived. Massively embarrassing.
until the next stop, when another party were late and we became the cheerers. Par for the course.

How is 15:30/5:30 confusing? They're completely different times. I've not been on a cruise but I'm pretty sure they'd make it abundantly clear what times things happened at.

Some countries don't use 24hr time as a regular thing.
America apparently calls it "military time" and it's not standard use. Giving the time as 15:30 might cause confusion for a lot of people.

We’ve been on a couple of cruises, we’ve never left at the time advertised and I wondered if that is to build in a little bit of buffer for late comers. Although I guess it also takes time to get the ship ready to leave too

Yes us too!!

They do but there is still a lot of confusion as ship time isn’t always the same time as the place the ship is docked in.

Around a third of the ports I’ve been to (I have been to a lot) I needed to show my passport.

I love that episode and on opening the thread Hyacinth was my first thought too!
Where she somehow manages to get through to the Captain onboard via telephone (as you do 😁) and he tells her she needs to catch up with the ship.
"My good man, I might have excellent standing at my candle lit suppers, but I am yet to reach the heights where I can walk on water!" 😂

@SugarPuffSandwiches It's my favourite episode! Especially when Richard makes her get out of the car to push it out of the muddy field! 🤣🤣

Also the weather. Fairly recently a ship had to leave port to get to deep water and leave those on shore behind. It came back to pick them up when it was safe. I assume port staff would have looked after them.

Thank you i came here for this comment 🤣

People who go off on a trip and don’t leave enough time to get themselves back for the specified time are just thick as shit 🤣 it’s made abundantly clear if it will not wait for you.

This happened to my in-laws! Their transport didn’t turn up so they were late back. They had to pay for a taxi to get to the next place (luckily accessible over land)

Last year I was on a booked excursion, which was marginally late back.
That is, I am not sure how long it is between the Return Time, and Departure Time, but I believe we were passed the return time. As a booked excursion, they waited for us; that is our coach driver / or guide was definitely keeping the boat informed of where we were (stuck in traffic). Obviously, we were quickly herded in, and the ship departed. I believe the ship did depart a few minutes late. But that is the advantage of a booked excursion.
We DID have a coach break down (different day), and a new coach was provided. On this occasion we were not late, but it cut short the rest of the excursion.

Is this really true? Surely the crew don’t search through your cabin to find your passports?

I hate people being late and keeping others late. We were in France on a bus trip. An organised trip into the centre of the city. Dropped off told to be back at 9pm. All but 4 of the party were back on time 2 couples weren't. We were trapped on the coach for 2hrs until they sauntered back at 11pm. The tour guide only let us off in small batches for a stretch of legs. She had their mobile numbers but they didn't pick up and didn't ring her. When they eventually came back they said the most insincere apology and said they'd lost track of time.
Coach driver did have a deadline as if it got too late he'd have been out of hours for driving back to hotel / the following day.

Never been on a coach trip since.

Wish they had a laughing react 😆 emoji

totally get you!

I get anxious just READING about it!

Easy to say, but I imagine things don’t always go to plan on some random Caribbean island that you’ve never visited before. It’s not like you’re popping to your local shopping mall on the regular, on-time no. 6 bus like you always do. You might not want to do the cruise’s organised tours as they’re well-known for being massively overpriced. You might organise your own taxi to some remote beach and the driver fails to come back for you, your phone doesn’t work cos you’re abroad, you can’t find another taxi cos it’s an island with about 5 taxis, the bus schedule is unreliable etc. So many reasons that could make you late. It’s not cos most “people are stupid”. It’s not that simple

I hate people being late, we ended up being 2.5 hours late back on a boat trip because 2 ladies failed to get back on time, they had to go looking for them in a landrover and we missed the tide. Officially they should have been left but the captain felt bad (uk day trip) wouldn’t have been that bad if it weren’t that we were due it at 11.30pm as it was, consequently 2am we arrived in port, 15 minutes from my house, some had hour+ journeys and kids with them

They do - all the crew have access to the safes in the rooms so they’ll open your safe to get your passport/phone/any daily medication, only the vital stuff. Then they give it to the customs officers at the port

Although I do wonder what happens if they can’t find your passport 🤔

This is why, despite the price, I always do the cruise trips.

You are told if you need to take your passport off ship. Personally, we carry a photocopy of our passports at all times off ship, just in case.

The unexpected can happen. People get lost, cars break down. Which is why I only go on the shops excursions,at least they wait for you.