by Entertainment managers on cruise ships love to have their little joke. “Don’t worry if you’re late back to port,” they tell passengers on their first day on board. “You’ll get great pictures of us spinning as we sail out.”
This came to an end for one Norwegian Cruise Line trip last month when eight passengers, who missed their boarding time by an hour after a private trip, were left on the African island of São Tomé and Príncipe.
A missing cruise departure is no laughing matter. Your belongings are left on board and it is expensive to catch up with the ship.
Cruise ship trips are planned at least two years in advance of their sailing date. They specify the time the ship arrives and leaves the port. Disembarking passengers are asked to be back on board half an hour before departure to ensure they do not miss the boat.
It doesn’t always go according to plan. Cruise lines rarely discuss things that go wrong, but the latest story is not unique – there are cases every month where passengers miss their ships. They may have forgotten to note the time on board, were stuck in traffic or on a canceled train. Mr & Mrs Pratt were sailing the Danube with The River Cruise Line, went for a walk in Melk, Austria and returned to the pier at midday as requested. Unfortunately they didn’t change their clocks to European time so it was noon in the UK, not Austria.
They were lucky. The ship had gone but the local guide waited for them and gave them a lift to Vienna, the vessel’s next stop – unlike the group stranded on São Tomé and Príncipe, who had to travel 2,000 miles to travel to catch up with the ship in Senegal.
Why won’t the ship wait
Cruise line bosses flatly reject the suspicion that captains always leave at the appointed time, even if it means leaving people behind, to encourage passengers to buy organized tours that carry no risk.
Instead, they say, it’s about avoiding penalty fees. Dockers and pilots (a local captain who goes into the bridge when a ship goes in and out of ports) are paid to be ready at the appointed time to lead the ship out. If there is a delay, it costs money.
That sounds reasonable until you hear the cruise director, in the same breath who is joking about the missing ship, say that the captain will wait if the line’s trips are not back for the time on board.
No wonder cynics – usually British, according to one cruise line executive – believe they are afraid to buy the ship’s own cruises. These are quite expensive compared to going it alone. For example, a walking tour of Rome with Princess Cruises will set you back $130/£103 per person and the train costs around £14 one way.
Although the British are the least confident, they are also the most cautious and usually back on time, said the exec.
David Selby, former head of Thomson Cruises (now Marella Cruises), said captains would make a decision on whether to stay depending on the number of people missing, the distance to the next port and the weather.
If the ship had to go faster to reach the next port, it would use more fuel and be expensive as a result. If the next day was at sea, they might decide to stay a while.
“We try to do that right by everyone but we have to protect the itinerary and deliver the vacation that our guests booked,” Selby said.
Your ship has been launched
They had to be a pity for the American on the train coming back to Carnival Vista in Livorno after a day in Florence with his family. They all got off at Livorno where he realized he had forgotten his baseball cap and got back on the train, only to find the doors closed.
The family returned to the ship, he had to get a room for the night and go back with them in Civitavecchia, the port for Rome, which was the next stop. It was probably the most expensive baseball cap in the world.
Missing your ship in Europe is a big hassle but it’s fairly easy to get to the next port and with luck it will be in the EU. Lose your ship in South America, Asia, Australia or the Caribbean and things look very bad.
You may have to go to another country to re-enter the ship, which means jumping through endless bureaucratic hoops because your passport is on board. It will be very expensive and limiting it will probably mean losing a few days of the cruise.
The ship’s port agents are responsible for helping arrange onward travel but at the passengers’ own expense. But now and again, people take matters into their own hands.
In 2016, 65-year-old Susan Brown lost her ship in Funchal and jumped into the Atlantic to swim after it. Fortunately a local fisherman managed to rescue her.
Much more famously, a woman who lost her Fred Olsen ship in Gibraltar was taken on a pilot boat to re-enter the vessel and boarded clutching her bag of La Senza underwear she had just bought, which provided fun for other passengers.
It may not be a joke to those who miss the boat, but at least it gives the passengers on board a good laugh.
This story was first published in March 2023 and has been revised and updated.
