When You Miss Your Cruise Ship 

Never missed a cruise ship but I can say I miss being on a cruise

I tend to book excursions with the cruise line, unless I have been to the port before and know my way around. On one occasion, we were on a cruise line excursion that started late and finished late. It was comforting to know that the cruise ship had to wait for us, and it did. They raised the gang plank right behind us and left right away.

Haven’t missed any...and wouldn’t want to either. Ship excursions are a little more but piece of mind is “priceless”.

Always do excursions through the cruise line. Always! Never missed the ship, always back to the ship 1 hour before all aboard time.

This is the EXACT reason why i only book my excursions through the cruise line I’m on!!

I always book through the cruise line. If not I make sure I don’t venture too far from port and I’m back on board 1-2hrs before we are supposed to.

We always book through the cruise line. We're older now so don't go exploring like we used to. We had a close call when returning from the Mayan ruins to the Carnival Dream in April 2018. The Carnival sponsored excursion ran very late. Because of age, disabilities, and a lack of transportation from bus drop off to ship (about 1/2 mile), some guests arrived back at the ship after the sail time. Yes, the Captain waited the extra for them. We just finished our 6th cruise and have 2 more booked. From now on will travel with copies of all those important documents and contact info.

We always book through the cruise line, always buy travel insurance, always carry our passports and carry our credit cards with a $5k emergency fund. Our plan is to go straight home if we miss.

we never get off ship without our passport, even if it's a cruise excursion. they make waterproof items for passports just like they do for phones and other items. We also keep a copy of our passports in email that could be accessed at an embassy. We always carry a credit card as well for ER's

The possibility of missing the ship is one reason we buy travel insurance. Travel insurance will provide assistance in booking travel, finding hotels, and paying for the expenses of getting home or back to the ship.

We once missed Embarkation at the beginning of our Canada / New England cruise. Our airline was late arriving into Montreal. We stayed overnight in Montreal, and caught a train to Quebec City next day. All at our own expense. -

There is also the risk the cruise line could cancel the next port due to weather or mechanical issues and that could cause the wayward passenger to miss the ship a second time.

I know people who say they prefer to explore on their own or do a private excursion. We only did that once and i was so nervous. Will always book a cruise line excursion unless we are just walking in the pier area and have the ship in sight. It is worth the extra $ to do a ship excursion for the peace of mind that they won't leave us behind

I refuse to go on a tour if they do not guarantee return to ship. With that being said my husband and I choose between the cruise line and Costco. Costco for the most part is a little cheaper and they have a good selection and the best is they offer return to ship, otherwise they will pay for lodging, food and or travel to the next port as long as it's not your fault you missed the ship. It's nice to have options because we all know how expensive tours can be when booking through the cruise line, however, its worth the price when you don't have to worry about missing the ship. To all my fellow cruisers out there who have a Costco membership check them out. My husband and I have done a few tours with them and we have had no issues so far.

I always book my excursions through the cruise line too.... I’ll spend the extra money to avoid this scenario and guarantee that I enjoy every second of the cruise I paid for.

There should have been a number in your daily paperwork for each location that is for the harbormaster at each port. If you believe you are not going to get back in time, you should call them and they will sometimes, depending on when you believe you will arrive, hold the ship for an extended time.

So, back in Spring of 2017 wife & I booked a week @ Bluebeard's Castle St. Thomas 🇻🇮 for mid Nov 2017. Well Irma happened in Sept 2017, so we received deposit refund & put that towards cruise of same departure week. As it happens the Eurodam's itinerary changed to include St. Thomas. We're on STT Nov 16, 2017 & rent a Jeep to drive around & self explore as nearly all excursions had been removed due to recovery process leaving only snorkeling, SCUBA, and kayaking/paddleboarding but its was forecasted to be very rainy, so Jeep it was. We had an wonderful adventure that was also humbling to see the VI community coming together to get back to a new normal. Anyway many roads were washed out or had detours so it a bit difficult to trying to work our back to WICO to drop off Jeep. Finally made it back to WICO, but couldn't find rental drop off, just pick up. Dropped off my wife to head to Eurodam and let them know I'm on my way. Finally find drop off. Run along fence line separating me from the ship just 20ft away, make it to the gangway where an older gentleman had arrived just a moment after me, so I politely let him go ahead of me, officially becoming the last passenger aboard. Which is a good thing bc there's no inexpensive flight between Cyril E. King & Charlotte/Douglass cause I know had I not made it, my wife would've taken to car from Fort Lauderdale lot and driven back to Charlotte without me, cause that's what she told me when I got back to our stateroom. 😄😂🤣

Yikes!! Tony, I don’t know how you made it through investigating this scenario without having a full on panic attack. Thanks so much for delving into this subject so deeply. Hopefully none of us will need the information, but will be prepared if we do. Thanks again!

It would depend on where you missed the boat. Of course, the primary objective is to NOT miss the boat. = ) My wife and I were on the inaugural cruise for the Carnival Horizon. Our first port was Livorno. We were in a group of 6 that had chartered a private tour company. We had a great time touring around and had left Florence 4 hours before we were supposed to board the ship. If I remember correctly, the trip from Florence back to the port was an hour. On the trip back there was a bad traffic accident. We could see the flashing lights just over a kilometer up to the left. We could also see an off ramp half a kilometer to the right but we could not get to it because we were in the left lane and everyone was stopped. Nobody was moving. We had our "fun times" sheet from Carnival and were calling the emergency numbers that they published (I think it was to the port authority in Livorno). No one answered for a long time. Our driver finally reached someone but they refused to help and kept hanging up on him. We were trying to contact Carnival via other means but could not get in touch with anyone on the ship. After 4 hours, the police made their way through the middle of everyone (forced cars to move to each side) and made everyone get off on the exit that was just ahead of us. We finally made contact with the ship but they said they had already left. We told them that one of the people in our party needed medication that was in her room. They said someone would meet us at the port. When we finally made it, it was dark and no one was there. We were stuck. Our driver talked to his manager and gave us two options. He said he could take us to the train station, show us which train to get on for Rome (the next stop) or take us to a hotel, get us his company's rates and drive us to Rome the next day (for free). We chose option 2. We got to the hotel and checked in (luckily everyone had, or had a copy of their passport. We were hungry but the hotel's kitchen was closed. They called a local restaurant and gave us walking directions to it. When we got there, we realized that the staff had stayed after hours (the restaurant was actually closed) and made sure we had something to eat. We all had pizza and it was freaking delicious. The next morning our driver loaded us up (he stayed at the hotel with us) and we started the road trip to Rome. We took some amazingly scenic routes and stopped at a few places for some pictures. We had a great trip. We did have an excursion booked in Rome WITH THE SAME tour company. Knowing our situation, they cancelled the excursion for us and didn't charge us anything. When we got to the ship (mid day), security had us stand to the side while someone from management came to get us. They wanted us to sign a form indicating that we missed the ship. I don't recall the exact wording but it implied that we purposely missed the ship. We were not happy and refused. After a heated discussion, they checked us in and we made our way back to our rooms and enjoyed a near empty ship for the day. We tried to talk to the Cruise Director, his boss ... no one would meet with us. Individually, a couple of us found them and talked to them but they weren't listening. We didn't want anything other than for Carnival to review their information and validate that the numbers/contacts they give out actually help you. Sure, we missed Rome but we figured it will still be there if we wanted to come back and besides, we had a great adventure. We even became friends with another couple in the group and will be cruising with them next September. It wasn't Carnival's fault that we missed the ship. It wasn't our fault that we missed the ship. It just happened (we found out later that no one died in the crash (we initially heard they did) so that was good news too).

Moral of the story? Don’t miss the boat👍

Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming.

On my cruise, when I went into Ensenada, I didn't take an excursion, just took a shuttle into town, walked through the shops, and then went back to the ship. I brought my passport with me, along with my credit card and ID, and I went back to the ship about five hours before we were due to leave. I was a bit anxious about the possibility of missing the ship so I erred way on the conservative side. I wasn't interested in any of what they had for excursions, though, with the exception of one I just couldn't afford. I suppose it can be said that impeded my ability to really enjoy the port visit but to be honest, I was most interested in taking a cruise, rather than in any of the destinations. That will change if I ever take a cruise to a place I've really wanted to see and have money to afford whatever excursion might tempt me.

Personally, I feel much more comfortable taking my passport anytime I'm off the ship. Having copies of my cards and a list of phone numbers--as Tony pointed out--is also a great idea, just in case your phone dies or gets stolen.

Great story, Tony! People who think the all aboard time excludes them can end up learning an expensive lesson.

We missed our starting point in Vancouver BC because of flight delays and caught up in Ketchikan. Little did we know that there was an $800 fine because of something called the Jones Act. NCL would not let us on until we signed something stating we would pay it. Ultimately, they didn’t pass the fine to us but it was stressful.

Never missed a ship. Always take tours arranged through the cruise ship. That way they always have to wait and I never go anywhere outside of the United States without my passport that includes driving to Niagara Falls Canada which is 15 minutes from my house

Thanks for sharing this valuable information. Although I always book excursions through the cruise line, I worry about missing the ship. Luckily every time I was late getting back on the ship, it resulted from everyone trying to board at the same time. This caused long lines, delayed boarding but of course the ship had to wait.

You give great tips! I never thought of some of those. Thanks 😊🛳💖⚓️👍🏼

Never missed the boat 🚣‍♀️!! Thank goodness!! 👌

Not late for a cruise but ill the night before. My 1st cruise in 2014 from Perth to Sydney Australia - I picked up a tummy bug at the hotel on the night prior to boarding - I spent much of the early morning in the bathroom, the serious symptoms had passed by boarding time but as I had a raised temperature I was not permitted to board the ship. As the first port of call, Port Hedland, was 3 days away I returned to the hotel, sought medical advice, fully. recovered and flew out to meet the ship. Fortunately the extra expense was covered by travel insurance - but the experience of exclusion from boarding was traumatic at the time - Roger

I'm glad to have found this video as I am currently planning a trip to Mexico and never even put any thought into this. But I am now currently making much-needed adjustments to my budget to allow for this unfortunate event. Just because if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck. Lol. thank You so much for this video and all your content. You ad Jenny are awesome !!!

I will pay the little extra to book through the cruise line, in order to enjoy my shore excursion and have that sense of security. Thanks Tony for the insight video!🌻🤗

Thanks for the info. We're booked on a MIA-Key West-Cozumel-MIA cruise and plan to scuba dive in both ports. There's no scuba excursion in Key West, so we're booking on our own and the times are really tight. If the dive boat breaks down we're almost sure to miss the ship. So I checked out flying to Cozumel, which would be more than the cruise itself, but it would be reasonable to rent a car to drive back to MIA and we could still have some vacation on the way. The one thing I wasn't sure about was our luggage in the cabin and it was great to hear from you that the Line will handle it. The one problem is that we'd like to pick it up at the Port of Miami from the ship, so we'd have to contact the Line and work that out with them. Once on a European cruise I needed to contact the ship and it took a while, but finally found that ships do seem to have phone numbers (they're just kinda secret). Bon voyage!

The ship operates on ship time. Ship and shore time ARE NOT always the same. Wear a watch that you keep set according to ship time. Don't rely on your phone in a foreign country where it isn't getting service. If you're going far from the port, it's worth it to spend the extra money to book through the cruise line so you have the security of knowing if you get back late, the ship will be there or they pay to get you to the next port.

Thank you for posting this: Great video.

Wise advice Thanks for sharing

I always tell people that missing the cruise ship is one of the worst things that you can do. My rule for cruising is if the ship leaves at 4 pm, then I am onboard at 2 pm, unless I am on a cruise line excursion.

I've never missed a cruise ship and doubt that would ever happen as I am always cautious. My self imposed rule is to always be back two hours before the ship deadline. If they say be back at 4pm, I'm there by 2pm at the latest. As a just in case measure, I make sure at least one of my credit cards have a zero balance before all trips. That way if the unimaginable happens, I've got something to use in an emergency. And I take a cute booklet I make myself that has all my travel plans, a copy of my license and passport, plus emergency contact numbers and email addresses. I have one in the room safe, one I keep with me in my beach bag, and my sons and my Dad have a copy before I go on vacation. An ounce of prevention... :o)

Tony, thank you for another great video! I never have come close, I am so paranoid... Because of videos like your I feel prepared... Thanks again...

Like Stephanie, I tend use cruise ships excursions unless staying very local. We have been on a dozen or so cruises and on two occasions people have been left behind. As luck would have it one couple were left at the port for Rome and the next port was Livorno a couple of hundred miles up the Italian coast. UK based cruise line and all EU citizens. The other occasion was in Istanbul - in that case it was an overnight stay and I am guessing they thought it was a 4-5pm departure when it was 2.00pm. They were lucky again, the next port was Izmir down the coast and still in Turkey. Both countries had railway systems and of course the ports were capital cities so great connections. On one short cruise we docked at the port for Bruges a short rail journey away from the town of chocolate and beer. Many took the shuttle bus and caught the local train, then there was a rail strike and several hundred were stranded. The cruise ship waited for them. Here is a cheeky thought. The two cruises in Rome and Turkey were all in inclusive, the one to Belgium was a short one with people buying their drinks as they went. I wonder if that was the reason they waited?????? Only joking, from my limited experience cruise ships do their level best to wait. My view is that I like to be safely tucked up on board with a beer in my hand watching the sail away. We cant charge about as we used to do, Mrs G suffers from arthritis and I have a touch in both feet , luckily I am ambidextrous and can hold a beer in either hand with no pain - except for the next morning.

I have never missed or even came to missing the ship and feel sorry for anyone who does. It would be very frighting to be left behind This is good information.

I’m almost guilty of missing my cruise ship. Was very young (early 20s) on a vacation that I could barely afford to begin with.. took the public bus to the beach in Aruba and planned to take the 3:30 bus to be back onboard before the ship left at 5.. thought it was fine cause buses are on time where I live.. except the bus didn’t turn up at 3:30.. we kept waiting and waiting (not sure why we didn’t think to just go grab a cab) bus finally shows at like 4:15 and we start making our way towards town but there was so many stops. It’s like 4:45 and we can see the ship, but it’s still far away and we don’t know how many stops are left. By the time we make it to port it’s literally less than 5 min before departure and we still had to make it through security and down to the ship. Thank god a ship sponsored excursion had their bus break down and they were waiting on them to make it back. When we arrived they had cold towels and free champagne for us. It all turned out ok, but I’ll never forget that lesson.. because I spent an hour thinking/ panicking about how I didn’t have a credit card or a passport or anyone at home to rescue me and realized I could have ended up homeless on Aruba.

I once missed the nightly theatre show because I napped too long in my cabin but I guess that pales in comparison to missing the ship on embarkation day or at the port.

Thank you for the video, I carry the passport card, which is wallet sized, while it might not get you on an airplane, it might help you at the embassy. I have come close, twice, to missing the cruise ship. It happened to me because I was visiting friends in a port. Friends seem to underestimate the time to get you back to the ship. They may know where the ship is docked, but it is not somewhere that they have been.

This is an older post (3 years now), so maybe no one will read this story, but my friend and I DID miss a cruise ship once. We had rented a car in Mazatlan to drive into the hills. Unfortunately, we did not allow for the traffic jams coming back to Mazatlan, nor for the long taxi ride from the car rental agency back to the port. We jumped out of the taxi and were not allowed to enter the port, as the gangplank had been pulled. To shorten the story, we were fined by the port authority, driven to the bus station and watched as we were made to buy a ticket for the overnight bus to Puerto Vallarta. We found a taqueria for dinner, then a beer bar, and idled away the hours until our bus departed. Neither of us really slept, but we did arrive in Puerto Vallarta in the morning, where we were nicely greeted by concerned guest service employees. This reception was not the same as the one given to a ship crewmember who had also missed the ship and took the bus down with us. He was having a very different type of conversation with a security officer. I would not care to do it again, but it could have been much worse and more expensive, especially if we had not carried our passports.

Important info...just in case. Good to know for someone in your group to be able to assist if this happens. Thanks

Thank you for this video. Going on my first cruise in 35 days!! So excited. Ill be in cozmuel and I booked something in cancun so I had to cancel it, I wasnt even thinking straight. My husband had to call and explain I dont think things through, We would have missed the cruise. 😂😂

Those flights from SXM to SJU that you looked up all have a connection. The earliest one gets to San Juan at 4:40pm. You might miss the ship again! 😂

Great info. Thanks for posting.

great info, sometimes Travel insurance might help too. sometimes.

That is the biggest concern that we have when we cruise. More than the ship sinking..seriously! We are always with a ship tour so that if its running late (and they have) we are covered to board late. If we get off the ship not going on a tour and just want to walk around and do some shopping we carry our passport card, credit card and cash with us...Just In Case!. I'm curious to read comments to see if anyone has experienced this scenario. As always Tony, great subject for cruisers!! Thanks for sharing.

I would poop my pants if I missed the ship because I have a serious fear of flying so I will NEVER cut it close. Not ever will I cut too close.

Love the welcome aboard!!

Never missed a ship. Always go back to the pier at least 2 hours early and then shop or drink at the pier for another hour. I don’t always book through the cruise lines but won’t do any excursions that aren’t scheduled to come back with 2 hours to spare.

great reality check.

I love your videos :)

Hey, a couple of additional comments. I know you've mentioned Ship Time before, but I think it'd be really important to mention it here again. It's probably a reason some people get back late. Also, I think people should checkout U.S. gov issued Passport Cards. They're good for land and sea entry, but not air. So I think you're right about carrying your passport book in a foreign port, but if it got lifted and you still had your Passport Card in your safe, you wouldn't have to panic about getting a duplicate book to get home.

I came here because of your recent video. I almost missed the ship juneau. I took a city bus to the glacier. I had to run 3 miles to get to the bus stop and it pulled up as I got to the bus stop. It was the last possible bus I could take to get to the ship on time.

Never missed the ship, but I did come back with 45 minutes to spare once. The town was really close to the ship so I wasn't really too worried, but I vow not to cut it that close any more.

oooohhh! missing the cruise ship will cut into my casino bank roll😕

Last March 2020, we were on the NCL Getaway in Costa Maya & 8 people were left behind. The crew left their money & passports behind for them.

Great information tony. September 22-29th carnival freedom going soon

We missed the ship in Alaska, we crossed several time zones and got confused on the time. We were 15 minutes late and the ship was still right there hadn’t pulled away yet. But they wouldn’t let us back on. The cruise people got our passports out of our safe in the cabin and brought it to us but we couldn’t get on the ship. The cruise line had someone on the dock to assist us in booking air fare. We had to travel back to Seattle then to Canada to catch up to the next port. Total cost for me and my husband was about $1500. I was so pissed! It seemed unreasonable that they couldn’t just let us into the little side door or something. I will never travel that cruise line again. Thankfully we had the resources to cover everything.

We've seen them run passengers out to the ship a couple times too

Just be responsible and manage your port time and you will be fine. Be careful booking excursions outside the cruise line. Me? Been on 24 cruises. No issues

This is my worst nightmare! I’m going on my 1st cruise next year and this is terrifying! 😥 (takes out notebook 📓)

Great video! This is my biggest fear! We we're late coming back from an excursion in March (40 minutes)Thank goodness we had booked through Royal. All I kept thinking was what will we do if the ship leaves!

Rule one purchase the trip through the cruise line, rule 2 DON'T be late (maybe that should be rule one).

Good info (Is that the Kramer shirt?)

Great info Tony. Hope it never happens to me!😏

I’m just the type that would miss the ship, but after 4 cruises I haven’t. Good travel buddies or children I was responsible for were strong motivators.

What to do? Easy learn when the ship tells you to be back by a certain time it actually applies to you and that your not special.

Great info and advice! Just hope I never have to use it! Lol

Not that bad. Put big boy pants on and get a hotel and flight. Go to next port or fly home. Snow storm in Philly made us miss ship. Flew to St Kitts and had great 2 days and then boarded ship. Think of all those frequent flyer miles your gettin from your credit card.

It's important to be very careful about time zones - ships time may not be local time and it might not match what your smartphone or smart watch has automatically selected for you. Taking a US passport "card" if you have one will allow you to board a ferry boat back to the USA from places like Nassau and might make getting a replacement paper passport for air travel home slightly quicker and more certain. As far as getting an emergency passport to fly home, well it's important to note that the embassy does not consider anything an "emergency" unless you are literally bleeding to death. I got mugged about lunch time on a Friday in a foreign country and had my passport taken. I called the emergency number and told them I needed a replacement that day so I could catch my flight home the next morning. They assured me that the US Department of State doesn't consider this an emergency, at all, and it's not even close to one. Even though it was only about 2pm they said it was too late and I would have to come back on Monday with $106 in US currency (no credit cards, and the price is higher now) and a pair of US-sized passport photos, along with enough proof of my identity to satisfy them. I had a photo of my stolen passport which the hotel let me print in color, which was good enough along with a long list of US-based people who they could call. It took until late Monday afternoon to get the temporary passport. If you don't already have a US passport, they might or might not agree to issue you a new one and I expect if you aren't lily-white and if you have an accent, you might be out of luck. If you can't prove your identity to a very high standard and/or if you can't come up with the cash, they will literally push you back onto the street and let you starve to death. Forget about any idea that they will ensure you get food and a place to stay - they will not and it even says so on their website.

This is something I worried about on our cruise being that it was our first one we would try to be back to the boat to give us an hour to get there we needed to so we didn’t miss that boat.

This makes a great case for sucking up the huge costs for cruise line shore tours. It’s worth it for the peace of mind. I’d be a complete basket case if I missed the ship.

Never leave the country without a passport, and always have a credit card with you, and a plan, in case something happens...

Tony why doesn't the cruiseline just keep your pasport on all cruises and return them to you just ouside Immigration on your last day? The Security Team would keep your passport in a special secure area by Muster Station.

You forgot one IMPORTANT extra expense!!! You're gonna have to buy clean underwear!!!!! ;-)

Its easy isnt it? If you have a time to adhere to, make sure you plan for it. Unless there was an accident/emergency etc then fair enough but otherwise, tough.

Isn't there a high speed train from Miami to Orlando?

Great video! I've never missed a ship, in fact, I've always made sure I was on board at least an hour before they tell us to. Also, I was always told to keep copies of my passport and credit cards and to lock my passport in the safe. My question is if you only have the copy of the passport, can you still fly with it?

I have not, only been on one cruise 10 years ago 😳 I hope it doesn’t happen 😬

They will not let you board at another port in the U.S.

That's just a nightmare scenario. We do have extra money available on credit cards, but I'll do anything I can to not miss a cruise ship! There's no point in cutting it close! Get back to the ship early!

I would just go home and cry

I never book excursions through the cruiseline and I have never missed tge ship.

Would you get in legal trouble for not entering the USA from the cruise ship?

Hi... can you talk about what’s going on in Venice Port. And cruise ship totally changing the itinerary.

Thanks for this vlog. Can you clarify if you will be able to travel outside the US if you only have the “copy” of your passport, or do you have to still get to embassy with copy to request a temporary passport? We don’t plan to ever miss our ship but good to know the process and options, just in case. Thanks!

If the cruise changes the departure times for the ship a port where you have an excursion, does the excursion time change as well or is the excursion cancelled?

Never cruised before so let's say the ship is scheduled to leave at 5 pm. What time does the gangway get pulled into the ship and doors are closed?? Let's also say the ramp is pulled in but doors are still open and "pier runners" are seen, will the ramp be put back in place for those people??

I think getting a temporary visa very expensive

Does travel insurance help when you miss the ship?

Good reason to make sure you get back on time. Unless you have a few thousand dollars you don't know what to do with...... NOT!

I dob’t do Facebook. Don’t you want to keep your passport on you when you leave the ship at a foreign port?

Tony. I know a couple who left their children in the kids club while they went ashore. They were half hour late but the ship was waiting for a late running shore excursion. Would the ship wait for them? Would the ship leave with the children still onboard? The couple seemed unconcerned when they arrived back on the ship. There were no other family members on the ship with the children.

Being stranded in paradise mmmm at least there’s rum

I just found out that I only have one month left on my passport. What happens then if you miss in another country?