DH Has Funny Newbie Question

[engle]

So we're discussing Castaway Cay and DH says "What if when it's time to get on the ship and we just don't well...get on. What happens?"

Can anyone appease this man's sense of what he would call humor??

 

[engle]

No, really...what happens??

 

[DAggiesRWe]

So we're discussing Castaway Cay and DH says "What if when it's time to get on the ship and we just don't well...get on. What happens?"

Can anyone appease this man's sense of what he would call humor??

I asked this question of a CM (not as a joke, I was wondering if anyone had ever been left behind), and I got a couple of ears full (pun intended).

He may think it is a joke, but I guarantee the CMs will not. They will know precisely who didn't get back on the ship and run a search of the island for you (to make sure you aren't hurt or trapped somewhere). They will also run a missing persons drill on board (paging you to contact guest services) to make sure that you didn't just manage to sneak back on or they didn't scan you in properly. This is time consuming for the CMs and takes them away from their other duties. If they were to find you hiding on the island, at best you would get a stern lecture (this means harsh words, not the back of the boat), at worst you get charged for all the OT they had to pay the CMs to find you.

If by some miracle you were able to stay behind, you are stuck explaining to the island crew (about a dozen or so hearty souls who's job is to prepare the island for the next cruise) how you managed to get left behind. Then you will have to pay for the cost of keeping you on the island until the next ship comes (as much as 4 days) or arranging a private charter to get you back home.

Just to add to the problems you would face, keep in mind that your passport or other proof of citizenship is on your original ship. There will be a whole lot of joy to face trying to reenter the US with a KTTW card as your only identification. Those customs agents may look bored , but see how excited they can be when you don't have documentation.

While stuck on the island, you won't have any of the entertainment opportunities, service, food or beverages that were there when the ship was there (they don't even have Internet or telephone service once the ship leaves, just a satellite phone). Your KTTW card is worthless on the island (the island system plugs into the ship system while in port and doesn't work when the ship leaves). If you have ever done one of the "behind the scenes" tours, you know that once you pass the sign that says "Cast members only beyond this point", that's where the magic ends. The DCL equivalent on Castaway Cay is "Once the ship sails, the magic ends."

I hope that throws a little ice water on your hubby's little fantasy.

Incidently, the CM said that they knew of only one instance where they had someone not return from CC, but they were quickly found on board. It was just that their card didn't scan properly when they got back on the ship.

Now, at any of the other ports of call all bets are off and if you miss the ship, it is up to you to get to the next port to try to rejoin the cruise or to figure out how you are going to get home.

 

[Cruise]

Not to mention, there's apparently a really nasty insect problem on CC once the sun goes down. This is the main reason given for no plans for an overnight resort on the island.

 

[yndygo]

Which is also iirc why the family that gets CC to themselves for the 2008 Million Dreams reward is staying the night "on a yacht offshore" - nighttime is not a good time on CC!!!

 

[JimV]

Umm -- yup -- it was me.

I was just getting on the ship when I realized I had left something behind so I got out of line, ran back and got back to my family just as they were going on board. Somehow my card was not scanned (it wasn't a mis-scan, I got through without scanning). So I am then cleaning up in the room and leave.

No one is in the room.

We do a few things and my son goes back to the room. He said the phone was ringing when he got there. And it was Brent, the cruise director on the phone. Evan thought this was cool. He was asked if I was on the ship. He said yes. Brent asked him where I was and Evan told him that I was reading somewhere on board -- I was then paged. I found the nearest cast member, told them who I was and they called to say that I had been found.

I didn't even realized I had been lost

Needless to say, Evan thought it was cool that Brent would call the room.

 

[engle]

Sorry to have mislead you all to think that this is what we were thinking!! My DH would NEVER do anything like this...he just needed to know what would happen. He was more thinking like he loses track of time and doesn't make it anywhere near ontime. Which he is not only capable of, it happens ALL the time!!

Not offense, but it always surprises me that people think the worst of others.

 

[HFC1969]

Christmas 2005.... can't remember what port..


But we sat there waiting on some lady for 20 minutes... They kept blowing the ships horn and making the announcement as to what they were doing..

I took pictures of the lady as she got on the ship.. Will post them if someone tells me how...


Anyway I talked to a porter later and they will leave you there... He was actually surprised the Captain waited as long as he did for this woman who was shopping at a locoal store and lost track of time.. Or at least that was the rumor that went around later about her..

 

[Eggleboo]

In August we were watching as the last of the die hards boarded from CC and saw this one gentlemen kind of stressing at which time he hopped on a golf cart with a cast member and were gone for about 10 to 15 minutes and came back with this nice little older lady, probably mom-in-law . I think they probably sat her down somewhere and when he returned to the ship, realized they forgot her or she wasn't with the group. I know it wasn't funny to them but to us it was a bit comical because she looked like she didn't have a care in the world and was just getting the royal chauffer service back to the Wonder!

 

[jonesing]

Sorry to have mislead you all to think that this is what we were thinking!! My DH would NEVER do anything like this...he just needed to know what would happen. He was more thinking like he loses track of time and doesn't make it anywhere near ontime. Which he is not only capable of, it happens ALL the time!!

Not offense, but it always surprises me that people think the worst of others.

To mitigate the time issue, we each had a watch and I would synch mine to the ship's clock as we were disembarking (just ask the security CM to verify the time). Also, I had an el cheapo Wally World digital watch with a stopwatch. We would specify, say 5 hours, and when the stopwatch hit 4-1/2 hours we would begin to make our way back to the ship. Since St. Thomas is US territory, we also took our cell phones as backup clocks.

This all came in handy because some crusty woman got on our shuttle bus but was berating the bus driver because he couldn't tell her what the time was "on my ship"!! It seems her ship (unlike DCL) likes to maintain "ship's time" which doesn't change with the crossing of time zones...so as to not throw off the paying passengers. Problem is, the people--our bus driver--on the island are on whatever time zone the island is and have no idea what her "ship's time" is! And she got real b--chy about it.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Pulling our of La Spezia Italy, there was an announcement a few times for a lady, we started leaving, and whilst going slowly we were getting quite away out of port, then a pilot speed boat starts following us, the Magic slowed down, and it caught us up, and a lady was transfered across into the Magic at the aft.

Not sure if she had some extra charges debited to her ship board account.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

Just for the record, I didn't think the OP was saying that her husband was actually going to try this. It was clear from the OP that this was just a hypothetical question that he had.