Cruise line excursions: does the ship ALWAYS wait for you?

[Artemis908]

We have an excursion planned through the cruise line and it's all aboard at 12:30, the excursion ends at 12:30. Boy does that sound like it's cutting it close. Allure is already operating slowly because of their mechanical problems, I am guessing there isn't much wiggle room with time.

 

I remember when I took a Mediterranean cruise once we were late and past the all aboard time. The cruise line kept on calling our tour guide and asking where she was and then we were rushed onto the ship because we were so late. But the cruise ship didn't leave without us.

 

Is this always the case?

[gerif]

No, sometimes it's not possible to wait although they will try. However, if you are on a ship sponsored excursion they will take responsibility for getting you to the next port and covering hotel and meal expenses. Needless to say, they try not to have this happen.

[jcl410]

Unless something goes horribly wrong (bus broken down with no replacement, etc that makes you HOURS late) , you will be perfectly safe taking a ship's tour. The ship's crew wouldn't offer an excursion that would come back too late.

 

We took an RCI tour in Cozumel to Chichin Itza(sp) which was scheduled to return at sailing time. The trip included a round trip to the mainland, and multi hour bus rides. We got back to Cozumel a little late, but there wasn't any problem. Of course there was also zero time for last minute shopping prior to boarding.

 

It's long excursions like this that I always stick to the ship's excursions.

 

Aloha,

 

John

[WeLuvVacation]

100% they will not leave without you on a RCCL sponsored shore excursion lest they foot the bill for 30 - 40 cruisers to the next port or home port as the case may be. And you know they do not want to foot that bill.

[cruisinfanatic]

100% they will not leave without you on a RCCL sponsored shore excursion lest they foot the bill for 30 - 40 cruisers to the next port or home port as the case may be. And you know they do not want to foot that bill.

I agree. NO chance the ship would leave without you

[Snit13]

Can't speak for Royal but Celebrity waited about 1 1/2 hours for us in Patagonia when our bus was delayed due to a private tour bus blocking the only exit road. Always book ship tours when there is a possiblity of not being back on time.

[lbjen]

I'm assuming that the excursion end time is based on the old departure time, and they just haven't updated it on the booking. I'm sure they will adjust the excursion to fit the adjusted sail time.

[chengkp75]

100% they will not leave without you on a RCCL sponsored shore excursion lest they foot the bill for 30 - 40 cruisers to the next port or home port as the case may be. And you know they do not want to foot that bill.

 

I agree. NO chance the ship would leave without you

 

This isn't 100% correct. As noted above, they will try to wait for you, but if the next port has daylight or tidal restrictions where waiting too long at the previous port would preclude getting into the next port in a timely fashion, they will proceed and fly those guests on the excursion to the next port. It has happened, and will happen.

[Merion_Mom]

The possibility that they will not wait for you is almost infitesimally small, but it does exist, as explained above.

 

I have been on ships that waited HOURS for an excursion to return.

 

I have been on two excursions that were an hour to an hour and a half late returning. We had planned, and were on ship's excursion because of that risk. The ship waited. We were cheered at our arrival. :) There were staff on the pier waiting to "run us in" like the last few steps of a marathon.

 

:)

Edited September 3, 2017 by Merion_Mom

[ONECRUISER]

I agree. NO chance the ship would leave without you

Can't remember how long ago it was, been on Cruise Critic since 1998 when it was AOL. But do remember at least once a Royal sponsored tour being late, ship left and they flew them to next port.

[ONECRUISER]

Unless something goes horribly wrong (bus broken down with no replacement, etc that makes you HOURS late) , you will be perfectly safe taking a ship's tour. The ship's crew wouldn't offer an excursion that would come back too late.

 

We took an RCI tour in Cozumel to Chichin Itza(sp) which was scheduled to return at sailing time. The trip included a round trip to the mainland, and multi hour bus rides. We got back to Cozumel a little late, but there wasn't any problem. Of course there was also zero time for last minute shopping prior to boarding.

 

It's long excursions like this that I always stick to the ship's excursions.

 

Aloha,

 

John

Yes, can see an issue with these long tours like in Mexico. I did 3 yrs ago on Ship sponsored tour with my kids. We got back just in time for ship to sail...

[reallyitsmema]

The ship will wait if it can. We were on Oasis in Cozumel and one of the buses coming back from Tulum broke down. They had to get another bus to pick up those passengers and get them to the ferry to get back to Cozumel. They were communicating with the ship so they knew the last ferry was being delayed for the people on the broken down bus which ended up causing around 160 passengers to be an hour and a half late getting back to the ship. The Captain explained what had happened at the Captain's Corner later in the week when someone asked why we were so late leaving.

[Norway2]

I question this as well. We have a 5 hour tour in Nassau The ship leaves at 1:00 now with the propeller problem. It supposedly starts at 8:00 am according to the Web site. I'm thinking of cancelling because of this. I don't want to miss any time on the ship. What do you all think?

[caribill]

I question this as well. We have a 5 hour tour in Nassau The ship leaves at 1:00 now with the propeller problem. It supposedly starts at 8:00 am according to the Web site. I'm thinking of cancelling because of this. I don't want to miss any time on the ship. What do you all think?

 

I think you will be fine. If the excursion does not get back until the (currently) scheduled time of 1:00 pm or even a little later, the ship will be there for you.

 

As someone else suggested, the tour might be cut short a little to get back earlier than 1 PM.

[sanger727]

The correct answer is that the ship will wait if they can. There have been instances brought up on here if times when the ship did not wait. That being said, any excursion the ship is selling, will only be offered if they can make it work. I wouldn't not book a cruise line excursion because the timing is tight. That's the only reason to buy a cruise line excursion. But, if there's an extreme delay, a point will come where they HAVE to leave to make it to the next port. And they would rather fly 30-40 people to the next port than have 3,000-4,000 people miss the port.

 

Normal traffic delays or an excursion runs long, you won't have any issues. They can wait for that. But if the only road that leads to the cruise port gets flooded out and impassable; or you need a ferry and they are unable to run due to bad weather; it's certainly possible that they could leave you.

 

 

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[cb at sea]

In the OP's case, the excursion will end in time for you to get back to the ship. No worries. There have, however, been cases where the unexpected happens, and the ship will leave. The cruise line will get you to the next port, or home, whichever is more realistic, should that happen.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

In the OP's case, the excursion will end in time for you to get back to the ship. No worries. There have, however, been cases where the unexpected happens, and the ship will leave. The cruise line will get you to the next port, or home, whichever is more realistic, should that happen.

 

Yep. A few years ago, there was a case where one of the helicopter-based sled dog excursions in Alaska got stranded at the mushers' camp because weather moved in and prevented the helicopters from getting back. Cruisers were lodged at the camp until the helicopters could get back to get them, and obviously the ships had to sail to their next destination as they could not overnight. I spoke with someone on HAL who was on my whale watching cruise and was telling me about it. (There may have been other cruise line excursions stranded also...I only know this case.) Those booked through HAL had their stay at the mushers' camp and transit either by train to the next port or by boat towards Glacier Bay (there were 2 HAL ships in port that day) all covered and arranged by HAL. Those who happened to be cruising HAL but did "their own thing" had to deal with the tour company to get all of that arranged.

[BND]

We've waited about 1/2 hour to depart for excursions to return, but we've never been on an excursion that was late getting back. Cozumel seems to have this happen a lot. There is at least one excursion across to the mainland gets back at departure time or just before. We've stood on our balcony and watched people stream off the ferry and onto the pier. It's not the main ferry terminal in town, but the one right at the pier itself. I'm not sure what excursion is it, but it always gets back just at or just after all aboard time. I've seen several reports of ships not waiting for excursions due to factors out of their control, so it can happen, but it's not common. Of course, there's always the people in Cozumel who stay til the last minute and they're the ones you see running. Those getting off the ferry seem to just walk because they've been told the ship is waiting for them.

[rafinmd]

This was HAL but I was once on a cruise where the ship couldn't wait until a tour (not mine) came back. It was a small port and the pilots said we HAD to get away before the tide changed. I watched as the shorex manager got off and we sailed away. About 3 miles from the dock we dropped anchor and sent a tender back for the returnees.

 

 

They'll do anything they safely can to get you back to the ship.

 

 

Roy

[spookwife]

no. that being said they WILL shoulder the entire burden of getting you to the next port call or home at their expense.

[bean24]

I actually got hurt on a ships excursion with NCL, they waited an hour just for me to get back to the port. They were waiting with a wheelchair and immediately untied and pulled away

 

 

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[travelplus]

People bash me all you want but taking the ships tour is worth the money as if you did it on your own the money saved would be wasted if your independent tour was delayed. In a plaxe like Dublin with 9 hours we go on our own with a taxi to and from port but in a remote place its best to do a ship sponsored tour unless all you want to do is shop for 90 minutes near the port. Its up to you.

[KansasK]

We were in Belize and my husband was on a dive excursion. When the time to be back was well passed, I went to the dive center and asked about it and they called and said the excursion was not back yet. Early dinner started and I went back to wait in the cabin. About 30 minutes later, I could tell the ship was moving. This was a bad moment for me, but soon after that my husband arrived at the cabin. :) He said they usually drop them off at the pier, but this time drove them to the ship. He said no one else was boarding and they were waiting to take up the gangway. We were both glad that this was glad this was a ship's excursion.

[Almighty188]

On 9/3/2017 at 6:59 PM, ONECRUISER said:

Can't remember how long ago it was, been on Cruise Critic since 1998 when it was AOL. But do remember at least once a Royal sponsored tour being late, ship left and they flew them to next port.

Do they just fly the people to the next port or do they also provide hotel and food as well since I thought a ship travels very slow so the people who fly to the next port will probably be waiting days.  Cruise Critic started on AOL?  That's interesting.   I was one of the forum hosts on PC-Link which was part of all the various online services for different computer platforms that later became AOL in 1991.

[bowler15547]

A few years back I was on a ships excursion in the Dominican Republic. Earlier in the day crossed a little stream to get to a secluded beach on the one side of the island. On the way, back the heavens opened up and that small stream turned into a raging river. The bus could not get back across the river. We waited for about two hours to see if the river would go down. The locals found a small boat somewhere and dove into river to tie a rope to it and a tree. They pulled us over five at a time to a waiting bus at the other side of the river. We were about three hours late getting back to the ship and it was still there. There were about 150 people on the excursion and by the time everyone got back we were about five hours late.