All aboard! How close have you cut it?

Fess up, NCLers on Cruise Critic! Were you a runner? Are you the most "play it safe" person in world?

I have OCD, never even close. :cool:

Always aim to be back around a hour before unless on a ship trip x

Never even close to being late on any of my cruises and I've been on over 35 cruises. I pay attention to what time I have to be back and I always wear a watch set to the correct time.

Always aim to be back around a hour before unless on a ship trip x

Me too, usually. But a few years ago we arrived at the pier 1 hour 15 min. AFTER the scheduled sailing time. But at that time we were on a ship excursion (we were on a bus with about 50 fellow cruisers that got stuck in traffic on the way back to the pier due to a traffic accident) - so the ship waited for us... :)

The closest I cut it was 15 minutes before the last tenders at Half Moon Cay - ship didn't leave on time anyway because well, too many people were still on the island, despite the loudspeakers saying ship leaving at 3pm.

Otherwise, I'm back onboard hours before ship sailing.

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In Cozumel coming back from Mr. Sanchos we had our cab break down on the trip back. The second cab finally arived and proceeded to take us to the wrong dock. He started to take us to the correct dock and that cab too broke down.....We were runners for sure. All the way down the main street, down the dock, just in time to stop the gangway from being pulled in. We were cheered (heckled) along the entire length of the pier as people watched us run. We made it on board and now look back at that run as a great memory of the trip (albeit a scary one). I think what made it the most fun was we had all purchased (6 adults) those Mexican wrestler masks with our NFL teams on them and were actually wearing them in the cab, so we were still wearing them as we ran....must have been a confusing sight for some :):)

6&8

I'm too OCD...back on board 90 minutes before sail time.

Can't deal with stress. Always back EARLY!

We made it on board and now look back at that run as a great memory of the trip (albeit a scary one). I think what made it the most fun was we had all purchased (6 adults) those Mexican wrestler masks with our NFL teams on them and were actually wearing them in the cab, so we were still wearing them as we ran....must have been a confusing sight for some :):)

 

6&8

That's a fantastic story!

We pretty much have a "one hour before all-aboard" rule, but sometimes decide to have one more cocktail or head into one more shop if they are RIGHT by the cruise pier and cut it closer to 30 minutes. Did 20 minutes once because of some lines at a shop, and had to practice calm, deep breaths.

We were on a Med cruise and I was sick (severe asthma attack), so stayed onboard for the day. DH went on the ship's tour which was excessively delayed coming back. I didn't know what was going on and he wasn't back and wasn't back. The people in the next cabin were waiting for one of their people as well who was on the same tour and I overheard them discussing it on the balcony. Of course, I was very concerned. But it seems they had checked with the excursion deck and the excursion desk told them what was going on. Luckily, the ship waited and they got back about an hour and a half late. It was three busloads of passengers on that tour. At least we were in the Med. Worst case scenario, I figured he and all the others on the tour could take a train or bus to the next port. Lucky the ship had the flexibility to wait.

Didn't run, but it was close! Went to Atlantis to gamble after our formal dinner (we were there until 2am)...in all our finery!!! Well, we won some money and were TRYING to cash out at the cage...and they were sooooooooo slooooow......it was 10 mins. to "all aboard"...and we didn't even have a cab yet! There was another couple waiting on a taxi, and we saw a limo...so we split the cost, told the driver to hightail it...and made it just in time. Here we show up in a limo, in our evening clothes....too funny! They were just getting ready to pull up the gangplank!!!

I once stepped onto the gangplank about 1 minute before the ship was due to sail away, but again, it was in the Med. (It was also RCI, not NCL, but still....) I had planned to be back about an hour before sailaway, but there were train problems. Ah, Trenitalia....

Fortunately, the ship knew about the train problems, and I wasn't quite the last person on board. (We stayed another 20 minutes for a group to get back, due to similar train problems.) And, again, it was the Med. During my lengthy wait in the rural train station, I'd already scoped out the trains I'd have to take to get to our next stop--which was less than 4 hours' train ride away, once I got back to our port city. I wasn't really stressed over it. My friends who were waiting on the ship were more stressed than I was, especially since I'd told them I was planning to be back earlier. Of course, I'd been hiking seaside cliffs in Cinque Terre, so they were partly concerned Something Bad had happened to me.

In the Caribbean, where getting to the next stop would have been more challenging, it might have been a different story.

Too old! Too cheap! Too neurotic! Too out of shape to be a runner!

Our excursion ran late on our CCL cruise and we ended up being back 15 minutes after all aboard time. When we are out on our own I make sure we are back in plenty of time (missing ship's movement in the Navy was a big no-no and I carry that philosophy over to cruise ships too;)).

Always do our own excursions and always back within 30-60 minutes.

We always are back on the ship in plenty of time........except for this one time in St. Thomas. We got stuck in horrible traffic that would just not move and we were biting our nails. When we got to the dock we were running[/ as fast as we could as we heard our names being called from the ship! Oh.... and our little boy was on the ship in the kid's camp!!!!:eek:

Fess up, NCLers on Cruise Critic! Were you a runner? Are you the most "play it safe" person in world?

We were in Mexico on a ship excursion, not NCL and after the seeing the Mayan ruins we were taken to an outdoor shopping area. The driver told everyone to be back in 1 hour, most people left the area to shop. The bus driver realized that this was the day after the time change and the clocks were now an hour ahead of the time he thought it was. We stayed by the bus so we knew the issue, he had all available passengers try to round up the rest of the passengers. It was a full 50 passenger bus and all but about 5 persons were located and he LEFT them. This was not their fault and we told the bus driver that, he told us that they could get a Taxi back and didn't seem too concerned. The bus passengers went to the excursion desk and told them of the issue. The ship waited for them as I remember.

We did a private Amalphi Coast tour, and while we always plan to get back in plenty of time, we got stuck in traffic and were over an hour late. Fortunately the cruise ship tours were stuck as well and it all turned out fine. But it was quite nerve wracking...

Always aim to be back around a hour before unless on a ship trip x

That. Although when we went on the Universal Islands of Adventure Tour from Port Canaveral a few years ago we were rushed through Customs because the ship was due to leave in less than half an hour.

When i was younger and on a cruise with some friends we were the last ones to get on the tender back to the ship from Grand Cayman. They literally took the gang plank back on the tender after we walked on. At the time it seemed cool but looking back probably not a good idea haha.

That depends on who you ask. My husband and father will tell you that my dad's girlfriend and I barely made it back to the ship in Key West, but in reality we had about twenty minutes to spare. We were completely tanked (darn key lime margaritas at Kelly's!), and had to hold each other up, but we did have time to spare!

My husband, on the other hand, did get back well after the scheduled departure in Belize. He was on a ship excursion doing a jeep trek through the jungle, so his whole group was late, and then had to tender back to the ship. I was calling the front desk every ten minutes to see if he's been checked back in, and he ended up on the last tender, arriving about 40 minutes late. He had a great time though!

I will say the NCL Star looked splendid in the distance as we watched her sail away....... We laughed a lot, one of those laughs that just won't stop, to the point of tears. I'm sure we indulged in another couple more rounds. It happens....... Hi ho.

Back in 1996 went on Carnival Ecstasy and first stop was Key West. Two of my golf buddies were down in the Key West with theirs DW's on vacation. I arranged to meet my buddies at Sloppy Joe's at 10.30 Am and if I remember correctly ship was leaving at 3.00pm. Needless to say many adult beverages later I realized that I was way late and stumbled out of the bar to the tram station and was lucky enough to get a tram back to the ship. I was one of 3 people on the tram and as I was waiting for the elevator after boarding I could hear the crew pulling in the gangway. All I know is that my DW would have had my head had I missed the ship and of course my two buddies spent the rest of the day laughing that I might have missed the ship, gotta love good buddies. LOL!