Anyone else have any "frightening" pre cruise stories?

[Gloria Mundi]

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

 

You CAN fly without ID. The airline is allowed to do extra searches to assure themselves that you are not a security risk, so you have to get there darn early and throw yourself on their mercy, but it can be done. The one time I lost my DL (about 8 years ago), I just got groped before being allowed on the plane, and the groping I got last month after refusing to go through the Nude-o-Scope was worse.

 

Great stories, though, and they make me very glad we have a few days of sightseeing scheduled in Alaska before our cruise leaves

[Sandi3667]

Nowhere near the scares others on this board have had, but my stomach was in knots for a while the morning of our cruise. In the hotel, getting our bags together, one person in our party realized they had locked their passport in a secure part of their bag....and couldn't find the keys. Searched through all the luggage, but didn't find them. This person hadn't driven, so the keys were 200 miles away, in another state. After about 20 minutes of searching everywhere, the keys were found, and passport freed.

 

The day my parents were flying to Vancouver (pre 9/11 days) for their cruise, they were told that Dad's birth certificate was just a souvenir copy from the hospital, not an offiial state document. Fortunately (for a price), they were able to get some alternate residency verification before the flight. It was their first cruise, and was just a short Alaska trip, so there was no need for a passport at the time. After that, they both got their passports.

[Nebr.cruiser]

Although this isn't as scary as some of these, it still gives me the chills when I think of it.

 

We've cruised quite a bit and had passports for years, which I stored in my top desk drawer. I try to be very organized and have a folder with all the paperwork for flights, hotels, cruise docs, passports, etc. in my carry-on bag.

 

We are just pulling out of the driveway for the 2.5 hour drive to the airport, on to Miami for an overnight and then on a 13 day Transatlantic cruise. For some reason I decided to check our documents one last time. As I pull out the passports, one seems a little different.

 

What I have in the folder is my husband's passport and an address book (also kept in the desk drawer) that is navy blue and almost identical in size instead of my passport.

 

I suppose we could possibly have gotten on the flight with my driver's license (we wouldn't have had time for anyone to get the passport to the airport, if I hadn't discovered the error until then) and maybe could have had my son overnight the passport to Miami, but it would have been a close call.

 

Needless to say, not only are the passports stored in a totally different place, but I am compulsive about checking all the docs before we head down the road.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Two weeks before my first cruise, I was awakened to my building shaking like crazy. We had a 6.6 earthquake. After realizing I may not get my electricity back that night, I threw more stuff in my suitcase (had started packing a couple of days before) and grabbed my laptop computer, and drove over to my parents' place about 6 miles away as they got their electricity back (but didn't have gas, so no hot water -- did have to warn clients at work that week to stand a distance away). One doesn't want to be alone in a dark place that will be shaking all night.

 

Couldn't really sleep for the next two weeks, so being on a ship was a help.

 

Before our last cruise at the end of the year, the only problem we had was our shuttle service screwed up. The private van was supposed to pick us up at home and drove us the 50 miles to the port (we had too much stuff as it was a two week cruise to fit in either one of our car trunks). When it didn't arrive, I called the dispatcher who told us the driver was waiting for us -- at the harbor. The urgggggg could probably be heard all the way to Chicago from LA. I was passed on to a supervisor who asked what time was our cruise sailing. I ignored that question as we didn't want to wait all afternoon just because of their mess up. I had booked a morning pickup, and especially as it was raining, we wanted to be on our way.

 

Finally another van was found, we were picked up an hour late, and this driver hauled you know what to get us to the port.

 

So you would think this was the last of the story? Ha. When we got off the ship and went over to the shuttle pick up area, the guy representating Prime Time Shuttle looked at his list and said he couldn't find our name. Yep, our driver had gone to our house to pick us up. This poor curbside rep was dealing with a lot of muckups including the one affecting us. He finally found us a van and called his office to tell them he was giving it to us. I was standing right next to him and I swear this woman was arguing with this guy that we were supposed to be at our house right now for our pickup.

[Gloria Mundi]

What I have in the folder is my husband's passport and an address book (also kept in the desk drawer) that is navy blue and almost identical in size instead of my passport.

 

<snip>Needless to say, not only are the passports stored in a totally different place, but I am compulsive about checking all the docs before we head down the road.

 

I read a post on FlyerTalk about some high-powered executive who got to the airport for an internaitonal flight and realized he had the passport of Mrs. High-powered Exec. Oops. It's one reason our expired passports are stored separately from the current ones and the last thing I do as we pull out of the garage is do a passport check.

[phoenix1181]

Several years ago, we flew to Fort Lauderdale on Friday morning for a Saturday departure out of Miami. Everything was booked with RCCL and we were met at the gate & followed the Rep to baggage claim. Once we got our luggage, we were told the van would be along shortly. An hour later, it finally arrived & wasn’t large enough to hold everyone!!

 

I don’t remember what hotel we were staying at but there are several in Miami & our van driver didn't have a clue where he was going or what routes to take. (We drove by Miami Airport about 5 times as he dropped off passengers) By the time we got to our hotel, it was almost 6:00 pm & we should have been settled in at least 3 hours earlier. (our flight landed around noon)

 

Check-in was easy but when we got to our room, DH realized he didn’t have his wallet! I called the airline & both airports and, as expected, his wallet hadn’t been turned in. I spent the evening calling our bank & credit card companies to cancel cards (no easy trick when you don’t have card numbers) & contacting the credit bureaus because he was still carrying a driver’s license with his social security number on it! :eek:

 

Fortunately, I had his Passport & my own credit cards so we were able to cruise but what was supposed to be a quiet, restful, start to our vacation was anything but. When we got home, there was a message from the airline. A flight attendant had found his wallet on the plane & turned it in when she got back to Boston.

[mapsmith]

Oh I'm sure you will find several . our first cruise being a rookie we had flights for the day of the cruise and I found out at 5pm the night before ours had been cancelled due to lack of pilots to fly it. :eek::eek:

 

 

This is a good cautionary tale for the present times when airplanes are full. If you are flying towards the end of the month, there is a possibility that the flights may be cancelled for Steve's reason. The Pilots and Flight Crews may have already exceeded the allowable hours to fly. And there may be flight cancellations even though the planes are ready and available (and booked) simply because they do not have any Flight crews.

 

Just another reason to fly in early, particularly towards the end of the month, when this will occur more frequently.

[GlendaleCruiser]

Wow. There are some things about your post that bother me. First, the term "stewardess" has not been used for...um...many years! They are "flight attendants". Second, I don't understand your term "extra" pilot. Flight crews have exactly the number of flight personnel needed for a particular flight. Often, a flight crew will travel on an aircraft as a courtesy. Third, the tourist areas of Belize are quite safe, and many Americans own real property there....the prices can be quite high! Fourth, the weather is never a guarantee. Anyone can tell you that! Fifth - it sounds like you haven't travelled outside the US very often. Just saying.

 

 

It's not a "courtesy". Flight crews fly to their next destination all the time on board their company's flights. Many people live in one city and are based in another city.

It's called flying "deadhead". It means that you are non-paying seat, and you are on the flight to get to your work destination.

[GlendaleCruiser]

I swear--every time I started reading these threads I go and check that my passport is in its proper place--at least once a week!:eek:

 

I don't dare move it to a "safer" place because I'd never remember where that was....................:rolleyes:

[mr green]

This did not happen to me, but a good friend of mine missed his flight to Los Angeles, [due to a flight cancellation] for his Mexican cruise.

Since he was Air/Sea, the cruise line flew him to Cabo San Lucas, and put him up in a hotel overnight. He was on the third floor, but when he opened the drapes to his balcony, he found a vagrant, asleep in a chair!!!

 

john

[Bigoldhag]

last week, we were scheduled to leave on the Gem 9/11. we arrived in ny city on the afternoon of 9/10 so we decided to visit times square since it was my first time ever in nyc. we strolled around for a while, had dinner in what i thought was a "safe place" (Planet Hollywood) and returned to our hotel for the night. in bed by 11 to be ready for our cruise the next morning, i woke up at 1:30 in the morning sick! i was so sick that i had to be taken to a hospital emergency room with food poisoning. i stayed in the er all night after being rehydrated and given meds for severe food poisoning. i made it to the ship before sailing and didn't leave my room for three days, i lost over 10 pounds on that cruise.

[vacation luvver]

My friend and I were flying from Newark to Seattle three days before our Alaskan cruise when, all of a sudden, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and turned it on. I went ballistic (but very quietly, since none of the flight attendants seemed to have noticed). She knew that we weren't allowed to turn our cell phones on. It wasn't her first time on a plane. Plus, I had reminded her before we boarded the plane, and the flight attendant had announced when we were supposed to turn our cell phones off. She said that she was just checking for messages. Maybe she thought that as long as she didn't make a call, it was okay. I told her that she shouldn't have done it. Checking for messages was an unnecessary risk, because even if she had gotten one, she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it (meaning that she couldn't call the person back right away), so she shouldn't have done it.

 

After the flight, I really let her have it, because I don't know what would have happened if a flight attendant had seen her turn her cell phone on. Would they have landed at the nearest airport and thrown her off the plane? Would she have been arrested when we landed at Seattle? I honestly don't know. Maybe she just would have gotten a warning, but I don't know what would have happened. And I didn't want to take a chance.

 

I have my doubts that she caused a problem when she turned her cell phone on, but that doesn't matter, because she disobeyed the rules, and you're not supposed to disobey the rules when on a plane. Does anyone know what would have happened to her if a flight attendant had seen her turn her cell phone on?

[superduper123]

I swear--every time I started reading these threads I go and check that my passport is in its proper place--at least once a week!:eek:

 

I don't dare move it to a "safer" place because I'd never remember where that was....................:rolleyes:

I'm doing the same!

[Nebr.cruiser]

My friend and I were flying from Newark to Seattle three days before our Alaskan cruise when, all of a sudden, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and turned it on. I went ballistic (but very quietly, since none of the flight attendants seemed to have noticed). She knew that we weren't allowed to turn our cell phones on. It wasn't her first time on a plane. Plus, I had reminded her before we boarded the plane, and the flight attendant had announced when we were supposed to turn our cell phones off. She said that she was just checking for messages. Maybe she thought that as long as she didn't make a call, it was okay. I told her that she shouldn't have done it. Checking for messages was an unnecessary risk, because even if she had gotten one, she wouldn't have been able to do anything about it (meaning that she couldn't call the person back right away), so she shouldn't have done it.

 

After the flight, I really let her have it, because I don't know what would have happened if a flight attendant had seen her turn her cell phone on. Would they have landed at the nearest airport and thrown her off the plane? Would she have been arrested when we landed at Seattle? I honestly don't know. Maybe she just would have gotten a warning, but I don't know what would have happened. And I didn't want to take a chance.

 

I have my doubts that she caused a problem when she turned her cell phone on, but that doesn't matter, because she disobeyed the rules, and you're not supposed to disobey the rules when on a plane. Does anyone know what would have happened to her if a flight attendant had seen her turn her cell phone on?

 

I don't really know for sure, what they'll do, (probably just ask her to stop) but, we were on a flight where a young man in business class (where we were) started trying to use his phone a half hour or so before landing. The flight attendents repeatedly asked him not to.

 

He acted, to say the least, arrogant, spoiled and privileged and did do some arguing with them, in the 'look who I am, I'm so important, I'm in business class (there wasn't a first class on this plane) vein, then simmered down somewhat.

 

Just before we landed he hauled out the phone and started calling again. He refused to stop. The flight attendents stood near him but did not engage him again (we were making our descent and taxiing.)

 

The moral or happy ending (to almost everyone on the plane) to this story is that he was met by security who came on the plane, cuffed him, and dragged him off, still protesting. There was some clapping and cheering from those of us who'd been watching the scenario.

 

Hopefully Daddy didn't come to this spoiled brat's rescue.

[johneeo]

After the flight, I really let her have it, because I don't know what would have happened if a flight attendant had seen her turn her cell phone on.

 

Mind your own business and let the cards fall where they may.:eek:

[casino-queen]

My first cruise was in 2003 out of Puerto Rico, where my daughter was stationed. After the cruise, she dropped me off at the airport in San Juan. The terminal was being remodeled, so I had to literally drag my four pieces of luggage to the opposite end of it. I got in line to check in, and noticed that everyone else had a yellow sticker on theirs. After finding someone who spoke English, I discovered that I was supposed to go through customs first, which was way back where I came in to begin with. So I dragged my luggage about a mile, and stood in line for that. Then I dragged it back to the other end of the terminal. I got back in line and after waiting for about fifteen minutes I happened to notice that everyone in front of me and behind me had crutches or a walker, etc. A lady finally told me that I was in the handicap line and I had to get in a different line. So I did, and fifteen minutes later I was nearing the front of the line when my stomach started cramping up and I knew that I had better find a bathroom FAST! So I got back out of line, and had to drag my luggage into the stall with me. Thank goodness there wasn't a line for that! Finally made it back in time to check my luggage and board the plane but by that time I was a nervous wreck.

[B and C Blake]

Exactly 1 month before our 1st cruise my DH woke me up at 4:30am. Come here you have to see this.

Go out into the kitchen and water was pouring through a hole in ceiling.

The waterline for our ice maker sprung a leak. 8'X6' section had to be pulled down along with insulation and be replaced. 2.5 weeks to be repaired because the spackle had to dry 100% between coats.

 

Tuesday the week before we had that weird earthquake here in VA. We live approx 40 miles from the epi-center. OK no damage.

Irene starts tearing up our destination islands. OK no problem where ever we go it will be our first time going.

Late Thursday night Richmond airport starts cancelling flights for Saturday. Friday I am stationed on the PC all day refreshing pages checking flight statuses. At 2am Saturday with nothing new posted I go to bed.

 

Get up at 4am Saturday start checking again. Our flight is still on along with 1 other flight 99% flights cancelled.

 

Leave for the airport get there and still flight is on but the airport is empty.

 

As our flight left the airport closed!

 

The best part about the whole flights cancelled was that the original booking we had had stopped the flights we had. If that did not happen back in January we would never had made our cruise. That airline had all flights cancelled even those going south.

 

Post cruise .. when we got home we had no house damage from Irene but our electric had been out 5 or 6 days still cannot get exact time frame. I lost everything in my fridge! Had we been home we would have been ordered to vacate for fire safety reasons.

 

We survived an earthquake and hurricane all in 1 week but still made our cruise:D

[LynnTTT]

Never fly in the morning of departure. Too many things can go wrong. Fly or drive to the port the night before. If you can afford the money and the time, take a day or two and relax before the cruise.

 

Set two alarm clocks/cell phone alarms and leave a wake-up call at the hotel desk.

 

Make a copy of the ID page of your passport and put one copy inside every peace of luggage..

 

NEVER EVER take more luggage than you can handle. Twp pieces per person. That's it.

In your carry-on, keep 1/2 of your medicines and half of your partners. And Vise versa. And 1 bathing suit and one set of underwear. And maybe a pair of shorts and top. Just in case your luggage is really delayed.

 

Most importantly- don't expect perfection. Go with the flow- boring dinner companions, less than perfect service, etc. You've already paid for it all- why waste time trying to find ways to be unhappy!!

[GlendaleCruiser]

Make a copy of the ID page of your passport and put one copy inside every peace of luggage..

[/unquote]

 

I would never do that. If you lose your luggage, someone has all your passport information.

 

I DO put my itinerary in there and what day I'm where so my luggage can catch up to me if lost.

 

I make a copy and leave at home in a locked box for my daughter in case she needs to fax/send it to me. I wear my passport in an "under the clothes" money belt made for it. Keep my credit cards and the majority of my cash there, too.

[donaldsc]

Just this last cruise, flew in to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday for a Saturday departure on Oasis. Between my mom, two sisters, one b-in-law and one niece we had about a dozen pieces of luggage. Several hours after we got to the hotel, my sister noticed one of my b-i-l's bags was missing. Unfortunately, it was the one in which he had packed all his medications (don't get me started -- you NEVER pack medications).

 

After a couple of panicked hours trying to track down the limo company that had taken us from the airport and learning they did not have the bag, he and I took a trip back to the airport (while my sister took my niece to the pool like we'd been promising her all day she could do once we got to sunny Florida). On the way over to the airport, kept trying to calm him down with all the things we could do if the bag in fact did not get on the plane in Newark -- call his pharmacist, call his doctor, etc. to get a weeks worth of precriptions which we could then fill at the nearby CVS before we boarded, but he was still a nervous wreck (aren't men supposed to be good in a crisis?). Fortunately, the minute we entered the airport baggage area he spotted his bag sitting in the unclaimed luggage office and the vacation was saved.

 

Here's the funny part. One of the things he was most panicked about on the way over in the cab was that he could not remember the name of any of his medications, and therefore could not imagine how he could even begin to get replacement prescriptions. Literally, the whole cab ride over he kept trying to remember them and couldn't. When we got to the airport, he put his hand on the handle of his suitcase, looked me in the eye, and proceeded to rattle off the generic names of every one of his seven different pills. Talk about nerves robbing you of the ability to think!

 

It is a good idea to keep a list of all your meds and the names and phone numbers of your doctors in your wallet. I do.

 

DON

[jeenie]

We were going on a cruise with our daughter and hubby and 2 grandsons. I was the one to ask each time we moved ahead in line. "you have all the bags?" We got through security, stopped to get our pictures taken, and board the ship. I ask hubby, give me the camera, I want a picture before we get to our rooms. Camera? We are in the lobby. He goes back through the line, panic...I left my camera. I wait it out. Fuming! Then I heard my husbands name being annouced over and over on the intercom. I thought they might have kept him lol...serves him right. Well you know what an unattended bag does. Whhheww...not so much. I always put our name inside the camera case. They asked my husband his name etc. They had the camera roped off ...you can only imagine. They let him take the camera..and he tried to board the ship...only to find he didnt leave the ship so they were confused. I could see him with security, I couldnt do a thing. Throughout the cruise..we could hear people talking about someone leaving their camera and tying up the check in. All was well...and we ended up purchasing a new camera in one of the ports. Lesson learned...dont let hubby hold any bags..and put your name inside the case.

[teachtocruis]

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.

 

 

We had a similar experience on our first cruise. We did not have passports "yet". I am a naturalized citizen so I had my big paper with me to prove my USA citizenship and a copy of hubby's birth certificate. I just had not even given any thought to it. We were cruising out of Miami and home is California. By the time we realized our error it was the Saturday before we were to leave on a Monday. Needless to say I did not sleep for 2 days. Hubby had decided that I should go anyway if they did not let him on as this was a cruise for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. We handed the copy to the agent without any comments. She didn't even blink. This was before 9-11 so I think that may have been in our favor.

We now have passports and I check and re-check and then check again before we leave home.

[tbmrt]

Our friends were meeting us for a short cruise on the Sky....We decided we wanted more than a few days so booked a short cruise on the Dawn beforehand. I resarched it, all set with excursions, totally excited....

 

Before leaving in the wee hours to drive/stay overnight in Miami precruise I did a last minute check on CC and saw something from someone onboard the Dawn saying that it was was floating without power, had mechanical problems, etc.!!!! A big mess with people complaining, etc.

 

I called NCL, travel agent, etc to find out if my Dawn cruise would be cancelled...no one knew yet.

 

Decided to drive to Miami anyway....In the car I get a phone call telling me yes, the cruise was cancelled!!! I was on the phone for 4 hours trying to get another short cruise that would permit us to connect with the Sky cruise afterward....Not an easy thing to do last minute!

 

I finally found a 4 night RC cruise, unfortunately to the same ports as the Sky....but still had a great time on both cruises!

 

NCL did refund our money and we booked another cruise!

Barbara

[nickimom]

:eek:

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.

 

Forgive me liljay6915, but I LAUGHED reading this! I will have to take my blood pressure again,m as I am sure this messed up the reading. I'm glad you have the sense/hope whatever to follow the man, keep your head down and not stop walking,. the next thing would ahve been a full tilt run in your wedding gown. sounds like a movie, and I wounder if you got a bit tipsy after that. or maybe really sober! I'm gladd it worked out.

[rpclmc]

Make a copy of the ID page of your passport and put one copy inside every peace of luggage..

[/unquote]

 

I would never do that. If you lose your luggage, someone has all your passport information.

 

I DO put my itinerary in there and what day I'm where so my luggage can catch up to me if lost.

 

I make a copy and leave at home in a locked box for my daughter in case she needs to fax/send it to me. I wear my passport in an "under the clothes" money belt made for it. Keep my credit cards and the majority of my cash there, too.

 

I agree, never, ever put your id in your checked luggage. I always take several copies of my id's (passport and driver's license) and any credit cards I take with me. I leave a copy at home, leave a copy with my sister in law (who has a fax machine and scanner at home), put a copy somewhere in my carry on, if I were to leave or lose my wallet, I would have my copies with me.

 

I also put my business card inside my luggage. Had never thought of putting my schedule in my checked luggage; great idea.