Anyone else have any "frightening" pre cruise stories?

[ryano]

Actually, without an ID she wouldn't even have been able to fly home. It's good it didn't come to that!

 

She did have a backup state issued photo ID in her big purse that was at the hotel but Im glad it didnt come to that to!. I have one of those to use as a ID as I leave my DL in my vehicle at all times with my insurance card......here they look just like our DL but have Identification listed on them instead of Drivers License.

 

this has been an interesting thread. some "frightening" stories on here for sure! :eek:

[Familygoboston]

Our family motto is "it isn't an adventure until peril is involved"...two things come to mind; DH had his chest opened and heart rebuilt in March and we were due to cruise in Alaska in June...fortunately he was young and a quick healer!

Same cruise with my folks, 2 kids and DH, we had a 10 day trip in the bush planned after the cruise, and had wayyy too much luggage. (all the dressy stuff for the cruise and all the outdoor hiking clothes for the rest of the trip) To keep on track we started counting pieces everytime we had to move them. After collecting our luggage at baggage claim, we counted, 12 pieces, good to go to customs! Except after we arrived at the hotel I realized that I had unzipped my backpack off the front of my rollerbag, and counted what had been one bag as two and my moms bag of shoes and hiking boots was missing! Luckily, the airlines located it, and said that we didn't even need to go back to the airport to claim it, they were just going to tag it for our ship and send it along! It was at her door after we arrived onboard!

Moms friends traveled from Ft Myers to Miami ro meet a cruise, but someone left a bag with the passports in it at home:o, so they just tried to race back and forth,(2 + hours each way) but when they got home they realized the ship had sailed, so they contacted RCI who helped them find a pretty inexpensive flight to the Bahamas to meet the ship (but they missed a sea day!) , and they still had to drive to Miami, so the car would be there when they returned!

[temple1]

I am the guilty party in our (or really my) near miss of a Monarch cruise last summer.

 

Sister and I drove down to Port Canaveral from SC, about a 9 - 10 hour drive. Arrived at our precruise hotel in the late afternoon. About 9 that night a sudden realization dawned on me - I FORGOT MY PASSPORT!!!

 

:eek:

 

Panic sets in - we'd had a few beers, but trust me - after about 15 minutes of panic any alcohol was out of my system. I had to drive back home, in my sister's vehicle. I had just crossed the causeway from to get onto I-95 when I realized I could call my nephew to drive to my house, wake up the house sitter and get my passport and meet me halfway on the Interstate. Sister convinced me it would be easier to just have them drive down to Coco Beach and meet us at the hotel.

 

It was a very long night! He and his wife arrived at about 9 am the morning of our cruise. We let them have our room, arranged a late check out for them with the hotel and I gave them some cash for their time, effort and gas.

 

By the time we boarded the ship - I was exhausted having barely slept that night. It took the rest of the day to stop shaking.

 

Funny thing - with everything going on before leaving home - I never made it to the bank to get change. The first night I went by the casino to get some change and I played one of the slots for a few minutes. For the first time ever I won real money! Enough to replenish my funds for my tip to my nephew and a few $$ left over. ;)

[bus man]

We went to get back on the ship after looking around at the shops for a bit and when we had to show our sea pass cards to the port authority my husband did not have his! I was freaking out I did not know where he lost it and he was too drunk to tell me and he kind of thought it was funny.

 

You're a lot nicer than I am. If my spouse pulled a stunt like that, I would be sorely tempted to just say "you made your bed, you lie in it" and leave without her! :D (It's stories like this that make me glad that neither of us care for alcoholic beverages!)

 

My story isn't nearly as frightening as the others here, but it did give me a few minutes of heartburn. Five years ago I sailed with my father, who was taking a once-in-a-lifetime cruise. Turned out he'd brought a photocopy of his birth certificate, instead of a properly certified or notarized one. The agent had to have the supervisor come over and hash out whether or not he'd be allowed to board. But after a few breathless moments, he was given the all-clear.

[liberiben]

Our first ever cruise was a 3 nighter and we had a great time. We booked

a 5 nighter right after we got back for the following spring. We get to the port and they would not accept the DW hospital cert. of birth this time.

It was Memorial Day and they said nothing could be done. We had to wait nearly 2 hours to get our luggage back and then the walk of shame. We have passpots now. RCI was very good about it, even though it was our mistake. We got about 50% of the cost back in the form of coupons.

If you see someone making the WALK, be kind.

This almost happened to us, but we had someone break a window in our house and fax a copy to the front desk. Now when we cruise and I see people turned away I feel so bad for them, because I know we almost were.

[awboater]

Our second cruise...

 

It was 10 days after Sep 11, 2001. I was not sure if my vacation would be canceled by my employer, and we were not even sure we would be able to fly as the airlines were grounded for several days after the 11th. We were worried that we might have to drive 1,400 miles to get to the cruise port. But luckily the airlines resumed operation a few days before we had to leave.

 

Even then, it was anything but normal as it took a few days for the airlines to get their schedules in sync again. Luckily we had booked with a great Travel Agent that we were in communication with about 10 times in those 10 days.

 

We booked the cruise many months in advance, and we had decided to fly a day prior, as our first cruise a year before was kind of a hectic process to fly with a layover and board the ship all in one day.

 

Good thing too as when we flew in, the government was in the midst of changing a lot of security procedures at the airports and well, this was a transition period for that - meaning everything was in chaos. That day prior booking sure helped our nerves.

 

Then when we boarded the ship the next day, that process was also in the midst of change by the port authority. It took an extra amount of time for the previous passengers to clear customs, and I think it was 3pm or so before we could even start the check-in process.

 

We ended up doing a lot of waiting in line.

 

I remember we went to San Juan and St. Thomas, and everyone had to present themselves to Customs prior to the ship being cleared to disembark for the day. There was a lot of confusion then as well.

 

While we were on the cruise, the government decided to deploy the National Guard at the airports. It sure was surreal seeing soldiers carrying M-16s in the airports on our way home.

 

But I have to say, everyone was patient and courteous during that period; both passengers and staff - in the airports and on the cruise. Many of you may remember that overflow of kindness during the month or so after 9/11, which sadly has long since disappeared.

[MikeNJ1109]

About 6 or 7 years ago, we were scheduled to take the Mariner out of Pt. Canaveral the beginning of December... it was a Sunday departure at the time, and as normal we had booked a Saturday afternoon flight to MCO (we live in NJ and were flying CO out of EWR).

 

Well, as fate would have it the weather forcast a week prior to the cruise predicted a *Major* blizzard for the entire NY/NJ area. We immediately called CO and changed our flight for the day before (Friday) ... a 4PM flight ... which cost us a pretty penny in change fees, but always better safe than sorry.

 

Of course, weather being the way it is, the snow ended up starting on Friday afternoon ... and it was a true winter storm in all respects. We were in our cab on the way to the airport at 1PM for what normally would be a 20 minute ride to EWR, but we were stuck in traffic the entire way ... to the point where we knew that we would not make the 4PM flight. I called CO, and the initial agent I got was sympathetic to a point ... before mentioning that the "new" change fees for a later flight would be a total of $1000. After my heart started up again, I said "thank you" and called back to CO ...

 

... the new agent I spoke with asked me to hang on ... and I hear her typing frantically in the background. She eventually came back on the phone and said, "The flight you were originally on (the 4PM) flight originates in Boston, and that flight we expect to be cancelled due to the weather. I've been able to reaccomidate you you on a 9:00PM flight coming in from LAX, which will get you to MCO at midnight. And oh, no change fee." (the last bit of information made us very happY).

 

While we were thrilled with the results, considering the awful weather, what made us even happier was that the inbound flight from LAX and our outbound to MCO ended up being one of only two flights to get off the ground from EWR that night due to the weather. We were able to work out the extra night at the airport hotel, and had an extremely wonderful very relaxing cruise ...

 

Michael and Silke

[NCollierville]

Short of a long story... we booked a cruise out of Aruba with Crown Cruise line march 2000. Crown was to fly us on a "private charter" to Aruba. There were plane problems, Spring break.. no extra planes to charter to get 118 of us from Tampa to Aruba. The ship held 800 passengers. So we were a sizeable group. We sat in the airport ALL day waiting to hear from Crown and no one ever came from Crown, the airport was unsupportive to any of our questions. Finally late that night 2 buses came to take us to hotels. We grabbed the first bus and were taken to some Podunk place without a restaurant. We walked 1/4 mile down the lagoon at night to a restaurant for the next 2 days to eat a decent meal. Bought breakfast, individual packaged cinnamon rolls, from the 7/11 across the street from the "Podunk Place". We missed the first 3 days of a 7 day cruise. Finally got on the ship late into the 3rd nite. Crown and I negotiated a cruise for 3 as a settlement for our inconvenience. Then very shortly after that they were shut down in the middle of a cruise.

 

ps the 2nd bus went to a 4 star hotel with pools, restaurants, and room service all picked up by Crown Cruise. I think most of the older passengers went there and we were glad they did not have to endure what we did.

[will773]

Last year we were going on the Navigator leaving from Miami. I booked a deal with park sleep and fly and when we arrived in Miami at about 1am after driving 13 hours to get there we found they did not have a room for us. But they had already charged my credit card for the room so I did not understand why they did not have our room. This was spring break in Miami at 1:30am. I had to find a new hotel (the lady at the previous hotel was very rude to me I was in tears I did not know what to do!). We found a hotel but they did not have the park sleep and fly deal so we also had to pay for our room, and parking at the port in addition to the money that had already been taken out of my account for the room we did not get. So that was almost $300 I was not counting on having to spend. We enjoyed our cruise and after we got off I called parksleep and fly and they refunded me there fee and the manager at Marriott said they did have be reservation but it was booked for a different day which was why my card was charged like I was a no show! I wrote a letter to Bill Marriott and got $200 in Marriott gift checks and all of the money was refunded for the hotel we did not use. So we got to use one of our checks on our precruise hotel next time. This time I booked with priceline and will call a week or so before and confimr they have me a room for the correct day!

 

Now my husband is having dreams of the ship flipping over and I had a dream that I was bascially locked out of the promenade deck and there were emergency exits only so I could not get back in....I just want this cruise to get here!

 

OMG I just had that dream the other day!

[KM615]

In 2007 we almost had a near miss experience for our cruise/land tour of Alaska. We woke up at 3:00 a.m. and arrived at Chicago O’Hare by 5:00. The plane was to take off at 7:10 a.m. We watched as the pilots and crew arrived and we sat and sat. It was finally announced that during the routine airplane check the brake light was not working. So, a mechanic was needed and since it was a Sunday mechanics were on-call. So we sat some more and waited for a mechanic. After seemingly forever, we were able to board. We were nervous since we had a connecting flight in Salt Lake City at 10:30 a.m. for Anchorage. In flight they started to announce the names of the connecting flights that were now impossible to make. We were one of them. We landed in Salt Lake City and had missed the connecting flight by 7 minutes. Since we were the only ones on the delayed Chicago flight heading from Salt Lake City to Anchorage, they did not hold the plane.

 

So, the next available flight to Anchorage was 10 hours later. We sat and sat and sat in the Salt Lake City Airport. It was a long 10 hours. When it was time for that flight to take off, we were batting a 1000. We had another delayed flight. After yet another hour wait, we finally boarded the airplane. The entire trip we felt like we were in a flying sardine can. It was so cramped and crowded. Additionally, we were on a flight filled with Alaskan teenagers returning home from a week’s youth’s conference. As with most teenagers they were full of energy and were quite excited about everything they saw and experienced. Nobody rested on the flight including us. We arrived in Anchorage at 1:30 a.m. By now we were up beyond 24 hours.

 

Upon arriving at our hotel, we were greeted with written instructions about the cruise tour. The long and short of it was we were to be in the lobby by 6:00 a.m. and our luggage placed outside of the room much earlier. It was a horrible start to the cruise. Thankfully, we were on the land portion first and were able to catnap on the train. Needless to say we learned our lesson. We now leave at least 1 day prior to our cruise.

[Attapooch]

The night before our latest cruise on the Explorer, the shimmering, translucent specter of Dutch Schultz appeared before my wife and I at the foot of our bed.

 

He gave us the following advice:

 

1.) Don't be cheapskates and try to smuggle booze onboard. Just buy the damn booze at the bar and be happy you don't have to worry about driving.

2.) Don't start the millionth topic about smuggling booze on ships. Look where it got him.

 

All in all, that was pretty scary.

[Goes Cruising]

I don't know if I would call it frightening. Probably more annoying, but last Fall we cruised out of Baltimore on the Enchantment.

 

Five of us drove into Baltimore 1 day pre-cruise, so we could sight see Baltimore. Top on our list was G&M Restaurant for some GREAT CRABCAKES!

 

Unfortunately, parking was at capacity, so my sister dropped us all off and parked her truck across the street.

 

Even more unfortunately, she did not take note of the signage, and her and I had to take a little side trip to get her truck out of the impound lot that it had been towed to.

 

$300 later, we were reunited with the truck. Oh well. :(

[CeeAngel]

Five of us drove into Baltimore 1 day pre-cruise, so we could sight see Baltimore. Top on our list was G&M Restaurant for some GREAT CRABCAKES!

Unfortunately, parking was at capacity, so my sister dropped us all off and parked her truck across the street.

Even more unfortunately, she did not take note of the signage, and her and I had to take a little side trip to get her truck out of the impound lot that it had been towed to.

$300 later, we were reunited with the truck. Oh well. :(

 

LOL...as soon as you mentioned the parking I knew where this story was going.:p Many many crabcake lovers have fallen prey to the parking at G&M's....Fortunately, I was warned before my first trip there.

[Jimnbigd]

...We had skipped breakfast because we thought we were going to be eating at 11:30 for lunch -- we were starved when we boarded!

 

It is always a good idea to take some non-perishable wrapped food, like cereal bars, just in case.

[frito58]

Actually a friend of our daugthers, her parents booked an Alaskan cruise for their 25th wedding anniversary , not real sure why they flew the day of as we live in Ohio , yea they missed it. Flight delays caused them to miss the cruise . I never did hear whether caught up with it or missed the entire thing.

[frito58]

I don't know if I would call it frightening. Probably more annoying, but last Fall we cruised out of Baltimore on the Enchantment.

 

Five of us drove into Baltimore 1 day pre-cruise, so we could sight see Baltimore. Top on our list was G&M Restaurant for some GREAT CRABCAKES!

 

Unfortunately, parking was at capacity, so my sister dropped us all off and parked her truck across the street.

 

Even more unfortunately, she did not take note of the signage, and her and I had to take a little side trip to get her truck out of the impound lot that it had been towed to.

 

$300 later, we were reunited with the truck. Oh well. :(

 

Wow that sux what a lousy way to start a vacation :(:(

[liljay6915]

2 years ago I almost didnt make it onboard, and it was out wedding cruise....long story but heres the short version. When you get married through the cruise they have a company (Royal Romance, my thought on them are a completely different story) that does all of the leg work in the other country for you (in our case Jamaica). We were asked to send 2 offical copies of our birth certificates to them one for their office and one for Jamaica so they could get our marriage license. We sent them out thinking nothing of it because we both have passports. Two days before we are getting ready to leave DH realises he has lost his passport, can't find it anywhere. So we call the company to see if we can get one of the Birth Certificates back. They said of corse, and our wedding planner would bring it to the dock. So we arrive and there is a wedding planner that we have never spoken with before their to greet us. He has no idea about DH's birth certificate. After a million calls, no one can help us. Everyone else decided to get on the boat (30 ppl in our group). So there I am sitting in the terminal wedding dress in hand crying uncontrollably, listening to the party on the boat and the captin say that they were getting ready to leave:(. Finally someone in a suit from RCCL comes out tells us to follow him keep our head down and not stop walking. We went out of the turminal around the back and onto the ship with all of the luggage. The man then leaves us in a room finally comes back with two keys and walks out never saying anything else to us. We are then escorted by securety to out stateroom.

When we finally find our family they are all drunk by the pool thinking we got left behind and they were going to enjoy our wedding for us.

It was so nerve racking.

 

Needless to say I now hold onto DH's passport.

[Ttowntreasures]

Two years ago, hubby, I and our friends were off for a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean. Made airline reservations thru RCI. United from Oklahoma to Miami. Airplane landed in Chicago w/hydraulic problem. They had to fly in another plane, take the part off (?) and put on our plane to send us on our way. Made the mechanical adjustments, but that part wouldn't work either. Needless to say, we missed the ship.

Finally made it into Miami, wonderful RCI rep. met us there. They put us up in the airport hotel for two nights, with a small meal voucher (not enough to cover meals). The next flight to St. Maarten available was on American the following Monday. By that time, we felt like Tom Hans in the "terminal" movie as we just wandered around aimlessly, looking in the shops, etc.

Monday comes, buzzed ourselves down to the American terminal - can't wait to get on the flight. Light show "boarding" and we anxiously get in line. Just before we make it to the counter - light says "delayed, mechanical problem". Soooooooooooo, after about an hour we finally board for the island. Arrived Monday evening - pouring rain - they put us in the beautiful hotel right on the beach. Tuesday we finally got to the ship, but since we didn't board in the U.S., it was like they thought we were pirates!

After that everytime we got on the ship we went through h*ll. AARGH!

RCI did give us on board credit which was great, but we missed 3 days of our cruise.

[Goes Cruising]

LOL...as soon as you mentioned the parking I knew where this story was going.:p Many many crabcake lovers have fallen prey to the parking at G&M's....Fortunately, I was warned before my first trip there.

 

They were good, but are hands down the most expensive crab cakes I have ever eaten!

[retiredgram]

Living it right now. Had back surgery one week ago and sailing in 2 weeks. Hoping I'll be as good as doctor thinks I'll be.

DH had back surgery middle of Dec. and we sailed middle of Jan. Doctor had said he would be able to cruise and he sure was right. Just watch what type activities you do. Make it a rest and relaxation cruise. Happy cruising.

[Pam]

My husband and I had taken our children and grandchildren on a trip to Nassau, which was hectic, so we decided on a 4-night cruise on Majesty over Thanksgiving week. This was way before Majesty was stretched and refurbished; my 15-year-old grandson was four.

 

We had booked a "B" category for ourselves, "C" categories for one daughter and son-in-law, one son and daughter-in-law, and one for the two unmarried sons. For the other daughter and her family, we booked (and paid an enormous price for) what they laughingly called the "Royal Family Suite". For that "suite", they had taken some storage space behind the elevators and rigged up two bedrooms, two tiny bathrooms (which they guaranteed us had a bathtub in one; they lied), and a miniscule "sitting room". But that was the only category on that deck that they would allow four people in, in those days. Anyway, we spent a pretty penny.

 

Before we left home, the daughter with no children got mad at us and refused to go on the trip; at least she did give us the tickets back, which would turn out to be very important. I don't think we had any kind of trip insurance, but that wouldn't cover daughter being mad at Dad anyway.

 

We all checked in at different desks, we had the youngest son with us to see if he could take the vacant cabin since we had paid for it, and the two boys were never the best of buddies. While we were talking to the lady, she glanced at her screen, and said "hmm, I wonder if those people know each other, they just checked two families into the Royal Family Suite". Son said "DAD! That's (sister's) suite!" RCCL had given a grandmother and her two grandchildren from Iowa or one of the mid-western states a "complimentary upgrade" from their lower deck, inside cabin, into our daughter's Royal Family Suite. They got there first, consumed the gift basket from our TA, and barricaded themselves in the suite; it took security to forcibly remove them. Further, they had given away that inside cabin, so there was only one place to put them; the mini-suite that we had available from daughter not going. We were able to sell RCCL the cabin back, and they even paid for the airline tickets; it totally ruined our first day, with all the stress, but at least there was a cabin. The people glared at us the entire time, for taking "their" suite away from them.

 

The people in the purser's office couldn't have been nicer, they recognized us everywhere and always made sure we were okay. RCCL, on the other hand, couldn't have cared less.

[Gracefamily]

On our last cruise out of Tampa my husband and I flew in a day early. Enjoyed a wonderful relaxing evening and good nights rest. When we woke up the next morning the hotel was without electricity (NO SHOWER!!!!) and our room was on the 10th floor:eek: Just as we were checking out - after lugging our luggage down all 10 flights -- power was restored:p

[mr green]

Two days before we left home for a cruise we went to the theater. The following evening I got ready for an evening of playing bridge, when I discovered that my wallet was missing. I went to the theater, but nothing had been turned in, but the gentleman asked me where I had been sitting, and there it was on the floor.:)

Number two, was our arrival to Copenhargen, [spelling?], where I was asked for my Visa, when boarding the ship, but, I did not have it, I had not used it in two days, but I carry a spare, so no problem getting on board with, 'Don't Leave Home without it!].

On the ship there was a message to call my daughter, in turn to call Visa. To cut a long story short, we had eaten at Mac Donald's, and paid in cash, but my CC had fallen out. I make a point of calling Visa, informing them of any travel plans, the card had been used in Vancouver, when I should have been in Europe, so a red flag was raised straight away. All it cost me were two telephone calls.:)

 

john

[paul929207]

Last spring, we flew from Greenville, SC to Cape Town for a cruise on the Ocean Princess. There were real bad thunderstorms in the southeastern US. Flight kept getting delayed. Finally, took a later flight that left before earlier one. Got to Atlanta with plenty of time for flight to Johannesburg. Left late, so instead of 2 hours to make connection for Cape Town, we pulled to gate with 40 minutes to go. We had to go thru immigration, baggage claim, customs, walk from international to domestic terminal, checkin, security and find the plane.

 

We picked up a skycap early in the process to help us along. Got to check in and they said we missed the flight even though we still had ten minutes. Then they said our bags would not make it, so the skycap said he would carry them to the plane. Security got upset because we were carrying things in checked luggage that could not go thru there. Skycap convinced them to look other way. Boarded plane 3 minutes after scheduled departure. Door closed immediately.

 

Got to Cape Town and they were having thunderstorms too. We came into land then suddenly the pilot picked up speed and pulled up. We had to come around for a second try.

[Taxguy77]

We used Celebrity CruiseAir for our flight to Miami. I did not like the routing (change planes in Atlanta) nor the airline, so we paid for a deviation and got a non-stop flight. It was delayed an hour and in Miami the representative showed us to the place to wait for the shuttle bus to the port. After waiting quite a while, she brought another couple. Finally we got on the bus and went through check-in after they had closed most of it, room cards were made on board and we missed the fire drill. We were next to the last people to board only because even with my cane, I could walk faster than the other man's wheelchair! Four days later I received a note to go to the office, my credit was out. Turned out they needed an impression of the card.

Our next cruise was a TA from Lisbon and flight was a no-brainer. We took that as we had never been to Portugal so the only question was how long pre-cruise to book a hotel. Picked at least one day too few.