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I missed the ship! Close Call (part 1)


whereisDannyBlack

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Missing the ship! This is what all of us Cruisers and Crew all fear.

You will hear in this blog one of the best close call missing the ship experience ever!

Lets start out with a little background info about the ship. If it says back on board at 4:30 it means you need to be back at least in the line to get on ship at that time, and at 5:00 the ship will sail away.

If your missing on the ship they will go into your room and find your passport and give it to the dock agent, and will help you figure out what to do next. On Carnival I have seen people miss the ship and have to pay for their own transportation to the next port, or back home. Usually the captain will let you on on the next port but will have to have a "chat" with you...

One of the crew's favorite things to do is to go out on the deck and watch the late guests run and sometimes miss the ship. We even make bets and its sad, but also funny.

After reading the post, I would love to hear some of your stories of your close calls in the comments section.

My close call... this is a great story!

In Cozumel, I was asked to join the golf pro and production singer in a round of golf 40 mins (boat ride) away from the island of Cozumel. We jumped on a tender (smaller boat) that was taking guests to the main land for excursions at no cost. They told us to be back at the dock to re board the tender no later than 3:30 because back on board the cruise was 4:30. We had a great day at a beautiful golf coarse. We arrived at the dock around 3:20 and noticed that no other guests were around and the boat was not around. After a few minutes we asked someone what happened to the tender, and they told us that it left an hour earlier because it was hot and all the guests were back early. So we sat there going... ummmmm uh oh!

They told us a dock 2 miles down the beach might have a boat to take us back. So we ran as fast as we can down the beach with our golf clubs, hot, exhausted and mile down the beach we realized how we don't have time to make it. So now we are in the middle of the beach at 3:45 looking to the water (cruise ship out of site) going, we are so fired. (it is not a good thing to miss the ship as crew) We saw a guy with a boat on the beach and asked him if he would take us to Cozumel, and negotiated as much as we can, and he said he can get someone. He radioed a friend and we sat and waited and waited, and about 10 nerve wrecking minutes later he came to the beach, and we had to run out to the boat, in chest deep water, with our clubs over our heads. Climbed in the small boat and had them take us in a tiny boat through the ocean, with LARGE waves crashing and soaking us.

We realized that we might make it, and we had our hopes up. Then we could see the ship in the distance, and still did not realize how far away we were from it we were more excited that we would actually make it. Finally it was 4:20 and we were about 10 minutes away, and bad news, they told us they had to drop us off at a dock that would be a 15 minute cab ride away from the port.. We said, "out of the question, we know the captain, radio him and he will allow us on the dock." They did not have the correct frequencies, and so we talked them in to dropping us off at a dock close by the ship at a private resort. We arrived, (paid the guy a painful $300) and jumped on the dock, with a security guard telling us we couldn't. It was 4:30 (back on board time) so we ran past the guard ignoring him... Now we are running again another mile to the ship and scared to arrive seeing the ship pulling away. We were all so exhausted that it almost felt hopeless. Finally we arrived at the ship at 4:50 with the crew pulling the last ramps away and luckily without hesitation the security was nice and let us on. So after a shower and a couple hours sleep it was back to work as usual. Wow, what a scary close call.

Stay tuned for next weeks blog where I actually missed the ship... and what happened next!

Also check out my website www.thedannyblack.com & like my page facebook.com/thedannyblackpage

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Cool story. I remember being on the Grand Princess in 1999 in San Juan. As we sailed out, I was watching the pilot boat approach. Usually you just see the pilot and maybe someone else get off the ship, but there were several people getting on the ship before the pilot got off. Found out later these were passengers who arrived late at the pier, and managed to get on the pilot boat for $25 each. Heck, if I would have known, I would have paid that LOL.

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Thankfully, We have ALWAYS been back well in advance of the posted debarkation time. We too have fun watching folks run FULL SPEED down the dock in the hopes of not missing it. Especially in Cozumel where the dock is SOOO long, you could have a heart attack running to catch the ship! One situation does come to mind. We were leaving Bermuda on the Norwegian Dreamward (Now called the "Dream"). About 1/2 mile from dock, the ship slowed to almost a stop. We thought something was wrong with the vessel. 5 minutes later, a tug boat came along the Portside where 2 passengers that missed the sail away boarded the ship. Reminded me of the "I Love Lucy" episode where Lucy missed the sailing of the S.S. Constellation and had to hire a helicopter to take her to the ship!!!

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