Cruise ship excursions have to start leaving late comers behind.

[whogo]

We were delayed 20 minutes by a tourist who then showed off the t-shirt that wanted buying. Absolutely clueless. If my math is correct, Haljo1935 waited three times for late passengers for a total of 1.25 hours. I'd have been livid even I had made it to the attractions.

 

I have also been understandably delayed by injury and unexpectedly long lines at toilets.

[57redbird]

It always seems to be the same couple of people who hold up departures both on HAL & private excursions.....what don't they understand about telling time?

[OlsSalt]

3 minutes ago, 57redbird said:

It always seems to be the same couple of people who hold up departures both on HAL & private excursions.....what don't they understand about telling time?

 

Old saying: punish what you want less of, and reward what you want more of. 

 

What role should/could the waiting passengers play? Talk to the guide; dirty looks; noisy grumbles;  shout out the departure time; seethe in silence?

[rothbury]

Just to be clear.  I have experienced late departures because of inconsiderate people so I'm not trying to sound like I am defending late arrivals.

However, I have a question that doesn't seem to have been addressed.  We are taking a cruise in a couple of months and it includes a stop in Belize which is a tender port.  Can somebody who is familiar with the procedure tell me, if you are on a HAL excursion, and it involves a tender, how do they handle getting the excursion group off the ship and on to a tender so that you aren't the late arrival?  We all know how the lines for tender waits can be long.  I'm just curious.    

[3rdGenCunarder]

If it's a morning tour, people on tours will assemble in one area (in my experience, the theater) and people going independently will assemble elsewhere. The ship will get the tour groups off in time to meet the vendor ashore.

 

For tours that depart a few hours after the ship arrives at the anchorage, groups may be instructed to meet ashore.

[Haljo1935]

30 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

If it's a morning tour, people on tours will assemble in one area (in my experience, the theater) and people going independently will assemble elsewhere. The ship will get the tour groups off in time to meet the vendor ashore.

 

For tours that depart a few hours after the ship arrives at the anchorage, groups may be instructed to meet ashore.

@rothbury this has been my experience as recently as Nov, Dec and this month, so I believe safe to say this is the process HAL is still using.

[rothbury]

Thanks to both of you!  Had a feeling HAL had it covered.  Ours is a morning tour so I guess they'll give us instructions on when and where to meet. 

[TiogaCruiser]

7 hours ago, richwmn said:

Call the front desk. they are in contact with the tour leaders. In October of 22 I bought a shore excursion using the app the night before it was to go. The instructions said to meet at the World Stage. I looked around for people and found no one. I called the front desk and they contacted the tour leader and found the meeting place had been moved to the terminal, but they didn't notify me. Although I went to the terminal as quickly as I could, they still left, and I am ok with that.

 

Rich, did you get a refund? I hope so.

[CGinMTL]

Times are changing and there are more " just me" mentality.

When you wait. You teach people to be late.

Also, the 2 times does not help

Meeting time should be the only one " published".

Most reasonable people will target to arrive 10 to 15 min before the meeting time 

The people that are always late, they look at the departure time 

They also think their time is too precious to waste 15 min by arriving at the " meeting time".

.

Same is true with "all aboard" time.

This is the only time that should be published.

Departure time should be " internal". As it is of no concern to pax 

[richwmn]

1 hour ago, TiogaCruiser said:

Rich, did you get a refund? I hope so.

I paid for it with an excursion credit, which was refunded. Unfortunately it was so late in the cruise that there weren't any replacement excursions to book.

[loveapug]

Our story about being late back to a bus.  We were in Cartagena Columbia on a HAL tour, with multiple stops. Tour guide gave out white labels with his name on it and asked us to wear them during the tour. We typically are back early to the bus. First stop: back early. Second stop-  we were outside of a cathedral- remained in the plaza, surrounded by merchants and others seeking money, and we were carefully watching the guide- maybe no more than 20 feet away from him. Then we could not see the guide, and multiple groups were in motion. Long story short: We were desperately trying to find our group.  Very lost for about 20 minutes. The other guides in the area helped us (we were so obviously lost) and contacted our guide who was able to find us and direct us back to the bus. The labels on our shirts were lifesavers!  We did the "walk of shame" on the bus, but everyone was kind. We were so relieved to not be left behind in Cartagena.

[oakridger]

I needed a way to contact shore excursions on my last cruise in fall 2022.  On our San Francisco stop the tour start time got changed to 30 minutes earlier than what was published when I signed up.  The morning of the tour I casually looked at my phone while getting ready to go down to meet and saw the time change!  I had no way to contact the Shore Ex because their phone hours were off.  I felt terrible for missing the tour and I really hope that they weren't waiting for me, or any others caught in the time change.  I mentioned it in my survey but didn't pursue it.  Next cruise I will be more proactive. Shore excursions really need to have longer hours at the very least for phone contact.

 

~Nancy

[TiogaCruiser]

11 minutes ago, oakridger said:

Shore excursions really need to have longer hours at the very least for phone contact.

 

~Nancy

Agreed.

And I’m wondering if this is a change: on our 2022 cruise we noticed in the navigator that we had cleared the wait list and were charged for a shorex. (No notification received- we just saw the charge and acted on it.). As shorex was closed and we were then double booked for the port with another HAL tour ( iIRC for the next morning) we went to the front desk and they were able to fix it for us by canceling the “second choice” shorex and refunding the charge, without us having to go through Shorex. So at least now FD can do some Shorex stuff.

[kazu]

15 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Old saying: punish what you want less of, and reward what you want more of. 

 

What role should/could the waiting passengers play? Talk to the guide; dirty looks; noisy grumbles;  shout out the departure time; seethe in silence?

 

It might be more difficult on HAL tours but on a private tour, it’s very simple.  Speak to the offending party.  If it is to no avail and they do it again, take a vote among the group and advise the offending party that they will be eliminated from any other private tours and left behind if it happens again on the current one.  Usually speaking to them is more than sufficient.  Most fellow travellers on private tours I have been on are seasoned and very timely.  I think I have only had to speak to one couple once and that was more than sufficient.

[SargassoPirate]

Answer me this:  How many trains and airplanes wait for that last ticketed passenger to show up?

[bobcan]

We were on a bus tour in the UK several years ago and the guide informed all passengers that the bus would be leaving to continue to our next stop at 10:25 and would not wait for stragglers. At 10:30 the bus left minus 2 people, at our next stop 2 more, then 2 more at the next. Guaranteed at our last stop everyone was back on the bus with 10 minutes to spare.

[ECCruise]

39 minutes ago, bobcan said:

We were on a bus tour in the UK several years ago and the guide informed all passengers that the bus would be leaving to continue to our next stop at 10:25 and would not wait for stragglers. At 10:30 the bus left minus 2 people, at our next stop 2 more, then 2 more at the next. Guaranteed at our last stop everyone was back on the bus with 10 minutes to spare.

Honestly, that is really the only way to handle it. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

11 hours ago, oakridger said:

Shore excursions really need to have longer hours at the very least for phone contact.

 

~Nancy

 

Yes! On my last cruise, I couldn't believe how short their hours were. It's a customer SERVICE job, HAL!!

 

If they can't staff the desk, then they should have a direct text line through Navigator, with staff members taking shifts to check it and reply. Yes, they would get nuisance texts from people who are too lazy to look things up for themselves, but it would be a great help for people with issues they can't solve on their own. 

[CGinMTL]

Shore ex should be " on duty " every port day until the tours leave.

It is the peak period of their job 

[Boatdrill]

11 hours ago, oakridger said:

The morning of the tour I casually looked at my phone while getting ready to go down to meet and saw the time change!  I had no way to contact the Shore Ex because their phone hours were off. 

What happened to you is ridiculous and completely avoidable.

Shore Ex should NOT assume people will look at phones (if they have them) for updates. 

Either they send a note to your room the day before your tour, and/or call you in your room and leave a voice mail advising you of the change.  

Granted, that may mean they have to deliver over 100 notes to rooms, or make many phone calls. It doesn't matter. It's their job to communicate with you in the most reliable manner, which is as close to "in person" as possible. The dopey Navigator App doesn't cut it.   

 

 

      

[OlsSalt]

Old way, not that long ago, was a drop box at least at the Shorex Desk and hard copy reservation forms.

 

Once we submitted a shore excursion request on the hard copy form after hours the night before in that drop box, only hoping on the outside chance it would work. But the next morning the tickets had been delivered to our cabin.

 

I assumed the shorex persons were all working the midnight oil, in order to deliver that level of  last minute service.  I was impressed.  But it is a business, and they make their money delivering their product.  

 

Of course now they make money being able to ignore last minute cancellation requests too.   Fair enough - they had to contract for the service up front so they do deserve to have those costs covered by the cancellation policies - I believe that is 48 hours now?

 

However, one big issue is complaints about the cost of onboard shore excursions versus private company offerings often arranged online. Yet the prior level of onboard shorex personal service and cabin delivery of individual  tickets and notices,  did add to their fixed costs, compared to the ease of online private group reservations.

 

Let's hope they take some of these suggestions to heart and continue to work on their online reservation and communications model. And still offer the after-hours drop box at their shorex desk. 

[jljcruise]

Regarding late people at tour stops ... This fall on the Oosterdam for both our Rome and Florence tours, the tour guides had us sign a clipboard list with names and phone numbers so they could contact us if needed. While that was happening, the guide went up the aisle with a business card or handwritten note with their name and phone number and asked us all to take a quick photo of it (or write the info down) so that we could contact them if lost or late. Those without phones could find another guide or a local to call for them. It seemed to work as we had no unaccounted-for late people on those tours (unlike some other tours). 

[cruisinsince75]

On 1/10/2024 at 12:16 PM, kazu said:

I agree with the OP - ok to wait for 5 minutes if it’s outside in the terminal but not an endless amount of time.

 

DD DH and I had a tour one cruise a number of years ago and arrived 5 minutes late.  They were gone and apologized.  No worries - we were the ones late.  It was a valid reason but irrelevant and I had no issue.

 

they should leave on time but what I abhorred was if we had a stop and a meet time there was always that one couple who were late.  More than once found shopping.

 

At least on a private tour you can tell the person (or couple) that if they are not going to be respectful of others’ time, they will not be permitted on any others and left behind if it happens again (only happened once in decades - most on private tours are VERY respectful of meet times).

 

One of the many reasons I prefer them 😉 

 

Happened to us on a couple of private tours I had arranged.  Same group of people on our Pisa/Florence tour and again on our Rome tour the next day.  It is called no respect for others.  We missed our walking tour in Florence because they got back to our bus so late.  I warned them the first time in Pisa.  However, they did it again in Rome.  We left them outside of St. Peters and they had to find their own way back to the ship.  

[syesmar]

7 hours ago, cruisinsince75 said:

…It is called no respect for others.  We missed our walking tour in Florence because they got back to our bus so late.  I warned them the first time in Pisa.  However, they did it again in Rome.  We left them outside of St. Peters and they had to find their own way back to the ship.  

I’m curious what their response / behavior was to you fellow travelers that they caused to miss the walking tour? Somehow, “oopsie! I’m sorry, how ‘bout that time!” just wouldn’t have cut it. Absolutely inexcusable. Good for you that they had to find their way back after St. Peter’s!

Edited January 13 by syesmar

[SD Lover]

On 1/10/2024 at 9:33 AM, OlsSalt said:

Navigator allows no direct communications with the shore excursion staff.

 

That was a problem we had when we last minute decided to not go on some paid-for excursions, due to being under the weather. We knew we would lose the payments, but we were sorry we could not communicate with the staff at the dock on the Navigator to tell them not to wait for us. 

Actually, you could have called either Guest Services or the Shore Excursion office if you're not going to make the tour.  (Guest Services could have then called the Shore Excursion office.)  Shore Excursion staff all have walkie talkies and/or cell phones so they can communicate between themselves.