Fess Up! Share stories of mistakes you've made while cruising.

Hi all,

Gina Kramer, Cruise Critic's Associate Editor, here! I am compiling a list of mistakes that can ruin your cruise and would love to hear your personal accounts.

Have you ever made a mistake while cruising that taught you a valuable lesson -- whether it was your first cruise or something that simply slipped your mind?

A few of us at Cruise Critic HQ have our own, including forgetting a visa in Romania and signing up for a burger-eating challenge. (Hey, we all make mistakes!)

Please share your stories below. I'm looking forward to reading them! :D

2 come to mind. My MIL forgot her passport in NC. Thankfully she had enough time to have someone go in her house and overnight it to us in Miami (it arrived at 11am on the morning of departure).

Second one was spending a little too much time at Papas and Beers in Ensenada and not knowing what time it was. All of a sudden looking around and realizing that the bar has emptied up and you are still there holding a beer and it's 15 minutes before sail time. We made it back (yes, we were pier runners before we knew what the term meant). NEVER AGAIN!

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I'm prone to motion sickness and Dramamine (non-drowsy) seems to do the trick for me. I normally take it an hour before leaving a port and on Sea Days, first thing in the morning and again that evening. The mistake I've made is forgetting to take it on the Sea Day morning and around lunch time I'll feel like I've just gotten off a spinning ride at an amusement park. This seems so trivial though, so I can't wait to see what others (are willing to) share. :)

Heading to the muster drill as soon as they announce it.

Yes, never ride on the horse buggy after spending time at Carlos and Charlie in Cozumel! Things could get a bit messy!

Cruising with the wrong people. You should have spent PLENTY of time with someone before you travel with them, and KNOW that you can have fun. Otherwise, the whole cruise can make you wish you were at home, working!

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Christmas 2012. Booked a B2B2B on the Monarch.

Our suitcase had been packed and ready for a week. We were driving down so we didn't have to worry about how much luggage we had. Loaded up the car and headed out. 22 hours later we arrive in Port Canaveral and check in at the hotel and that's when my DW asks if I had brought in all the luggage from the car. Unfortunately I had and it was then that we realized that we had left one suitcase at home.

As it turned out is was one that had my DW's clothes in it. Dec 23'rd and off we go to Target and Wal Mart to replace clothes. Luckily for me it was my DW who had brought all the suitcases down from upstairs (except one) and it was only my job to get them from the front hall to the car.

To this day we still tease her about that before every trip. I still think that she did it in purpose just to have an excuse to go clothes shopping.

Here are two:

Cruising out of New York in Feb. Terrible mistake. Freezing cold for the first 2 days heading down to the Carribbean. Then a huge blizzard when we arrived back in NYC, the ship wouldn't even dock for several hours due to the winds. Then we had to disembark to our car which was in an uncovered parking garage on the top floor, and the ramp going down to the street was covered in ice and snow.

Second one...booking a cruiseline excursion. After we found out the local excursions were far cheaper, longer, less crowded, and just plain more fun, we never paid the big bucks for cruiseline excursions again. We always check CC and Tripadvisor for highly recommended and safe tour guides.

We sat with incredibly rude people and never thought to ask to change our table. We won't make that mistake again!

Shirley, Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Driving all the way to Tampa from NY and remembering as we're pulling into the terminal that I had left all of our passports at home. You know that feeling of seeing the ship but thinking you won't be able to get on...Thankfully we were allowed on but I don't want to feel that again.

Mine was on my first cruise. I didn't realize that you were to give the cabin steward their tip the last night, I figured I would give it to him the next morning before I left for the ship. Well, much to my surprise, when I returned to my cabin that night, I had no towels or pillows. That was a hard lesson to learn, had to dry off with the sheet (thank goodness he did leave those on the bed).

Hi all,

 

Gina Kramer, Cruise Critic's Associate Editor, here! I am compiling a list of mistakes that can ruin your cruise and would love to hear your personal accounts.

 

Have you ever made a mistake while cruising that taught you a valuable lesson -- whether it was your first cruise or something that simply slipped your mind?

 

A few of us at Cruise Critic HQ have our own, including forgetting a visa in Romania and signing up for a burger-eating challenge. (Hey, we all make mistakes!)

 

Please share your stories below. I'm looking forward to reading them! :D

Yes taking 8 suitcases on our first cruise that included everything including the duct tape.:eek: I now have us down to 4 LOL:D This of course was before they started charging for bags on the airlines!

On my first cruise in the early 90's aboard the RC Viking Serenade, we didn't like the orientation of the bed. So we rotated it 90 degrees so it would be directly under the window. In doing so, we messed up the way the bed was made. On the way to dinner, I asked the cabin stewart if he could remake the bed.

Later that night after the show, we climbed into our bed and discovered the cabin stewart had remaded the bed with the sheets tucked in at the center like two twin beds with the blankets and bedspread covering both beds like a regular king size bed - we called it our chastity bed.

Packing WAY too many clothes! :o

Showing up a few minutes early for dinner seating. Didn't matter. Would have been better to just hang out somewhere else.

Forgetting to reapply sunscreen on a sea day. Burnt to a crisp.

12 years ago we boarded the Radiance OTS for a Panama Canal cruise, to be followed by a cruise out to and around Hawaii. I have no idea what I was thinking, but I neglected to bring (and purposely decided not to bring) my drivers license. I guess I imagined my passport would be adequate. Every time we left the ship in port, I had to take my passport. Scuba diving, it was left on the boat while I was 100 feet below. On beaches, only one of us could go in the water at a time. Then, we spent an extra week in Hawaii afterwards, during which I could do none of the driving (hmmm...every cloud has a silver lining). I also neglected to bring my military ID. Silly me...this was right after 9/11 and getting on every military base was 10 times more difficult.

I could list many more, but this is the one fail I've never been allowed to forget.

Booking a Guarantee cabin. Unless the cabin is free or almost free, never again! CCL stuck us right under the Lido deck - horrible!

Doing an all inclusive for an early day in costa maya. Oy! We were drunk off our rear ends! Made it back to port and shopping when the guy at the jewelry store told me our ship was leaving. There was actually a line still waiting to get on but scared me to death. And the rest of the day and night was spent between bed and bathroom. Never again!!

As a lifetime asthmatic, it is crucial that I have my asthma meds with me on all cruises. Well, on a ten-night Panama Canal Cruise, I realized the first night at bedtime that I had only a few inhalations left on my inhaler. I soon ran out during the cruise and had to inhale well beyond the zero for the rest of the cruise, knowing the inhaler was empty but praying a few medicinal fumes were left.

Long story short: If you have really important prescription medications, make absolutely certain you have all you need before you step foot on the ship. On a cruise ship you may not be able to get any medications you left behind at home.

First cruise ---honeymoon cruise ---1999. Walked into the cabin. DH reaches over and pops the tabs on two Cokes so that we can toast the start of our new life together. He "assumed" that the Cokes were complimentary. Then, I noticed the card showing the price of those "free" Cokes. The look on his face was priceless. :D

First cruise..........1982. First port was Samana, DR. We were booked on a tour for a beach day on a small island that was just a short boat ride away. We had everything in a beach bag, including sunscreen. They used small boats to transport us, and DH and I decided to sit on the bow on top of the cabin of this little white boat. Decided we would be fine to wait till we got to the island to apply the sunscreen. Distances can look so deceiving on the sea! We both ended up with the worst sunburn ever on our bare legs! Thank God we were wearing hats and t-shirts! :eek:

Heading to the muster drill as soon as they announce it.

Holy shoot isn't that the truth!

We always bring a change of clothes in our carryon when we board. On our very first cruise our table mates luggage never made it on the ship! They had to wear the same clothes for a day and a half until we reached the first port! We never assume our luggage won't get lost temporarily.

First cruise I ever went to was Alaska. Didn't book any excursions before going and the ones that I really wanted were sold out but still had a great time. The next time I went to Alaska, booked helicopter glacier landing (which was the one that I really wanted to do on first cruise)but was cancelled due to weather and didn't have a back up plan but "made do". Hopefully, third time is a charm since I have glacier landing booked for this July. CC and TA help a lot with the planning.

It seemed so simple: my wife and I walked along the deck and down one flight of stairs whilst our daughter first went down a [different] flight of stairs and then along the deck below.

Down and along, or along and down - we should have ended up at the same place at the same time: the meeting point for our Kennedy Space Centre trip.

It didn't work out that way - somehow we missed each other and then spent 30 frantic minutes looking for each other. Got there in the end and made the last bus for the trip. But now we agree the exact meeting point and don't separate on the way there. Lesson learned.