Norwegian Breakaway leaves parents in Bahamas

[RedSox68]

I thought NCL was more than generous to the parents.

On one of our DCL cruises to St. Thomas, two passengers names kept being called over the intercom to check with guest services. This went on for an hour. Dozens of us gathered on the top deck to see if anyone was running for this ship. Well an hour past our scheduled departure time, we see a man get off with all their luggage and an officer -- looking very disheveled and obviously very upset. However, we were still waiting. Well lo and behold, here come these two women strolling arm in arm down the dock just lit up! Barely walking a straight line, they made it to the gangplank and we left -- 90 minutes late. This caused us to be an hour late to Castaway Cay.

Now unfortunately, because they kept announcing the passengers' names AND cabin number, we found out from a steward the next morning that they had tons of messages slipped under their doors by angry passengers who were not happy about losing time at CC.

When we asked why the ship just didn't leave, we were told it was because they found out that one of the women had a baby in child care with no other relative onboard and they could not depart under those circumstances.

 

[RedSox68]

She sure did have enough shopping bags though -- hope they kept her comfortable that night!

 

[cruisehopeful]

Now unfortunately, because they kept announcing the passengers' names AND cabin number, we found out from a steward the next morning that they had tons of messages slipped under their doors by angry passengers who were not happy about losing time at CC.

No idea why, but I think that is hilarious. I'd probably think it was less funny if it happened to me.

I think NCL went over and above in dealing with this passenger.

There was a time when my husband and I were having lunch in Triton's and he was paged on the loud speaker. He immediately ran to guest services to see what was up and they said they didn't have a record of him reboarding the ship that day. Apparently, when we walked back on from our port stop, he didn't have his key card scanned.

 

[RedSox68]

No idea why, but I think that is hilarious. I'd probably think it was less funny if it happened to me.

I think NCL went over and above in dealing with this passenger.

There was a time when my husband and I were having lunch in Triton's and he was paged on the loud speaker. He immediately ran to guest services to see what was up and they said they didn't have a record of him reboarding the ship that day. Apparently, when we walked back on from our port stop, he didn't have his key card scanned.

Thank goodness they were diligent though. How in the world did they keep track before key card scanning was around

Apparently some of the notes commented "it must be nice to be so special that you could keep a whole cruise ship waiting" -- words to that affect.

EDITED TO ADD: PP is right -- I just noticed that the one article is not very flattering to NCL and makes it sound like they left the kids stranded onboard with no family.

 

[MSPeeler]

My nightmare

I will be back on board 2 hours before the deadline lol

 

[jiminyC_fan]

No sympathy from me. We all know the time to board.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Nothing to do with this story...but. Many years ago I was on a cruise with my husband, daughter who had just graduated from high school and her friend. We were in Sorrento and got off to take the hydrofoil to Capri with a guy we had met. The kids stayed on th ship and we didn't take our passports. We came back in plenty of time to catch the ship but as we came around the corner to the pier, the ship wasn't there! There were six people like us waiting on the Pier including the ship doctor and his girlfriend.. Seems the waves got too high and the ship had to move to Naples. They were waiting for us and had a van waiting to take us to Naples where the ship was. It was a scary moment. The girls who stayed on the ship were sick from the high waves. It's always a good story to tell now.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

When we asked why the ship just didn't leave, we were told it was because they found out that one of the women had a baby in child care with no other relative onboard and they could not depart under those circumstances.

I can't even wrap my head around this one. What would make her think it was a good idea to get drunk off her butt while being the sole caregiver of a baby she had left on the ship? Even if she had made it back to the ship, how is she going to take care of the baby if she is loaded?

As for the original story, it sucks she missed the ship, but they can't be expected to hold it for her. This is one of the many reasons I would never leave my toddler son on the ship while I got off. Even if I knew the proper time to get back, things could somehow go wrong. It is a risk that I personally am unwilling to take, even though I know lots of people do it with no issues or delays.

 

[DL1957]

I know there are lots of advantages to taking a shore excursion other than Disney including cost in many cases however we almost always book DCL excursions or plan to be back on-board 2 hours before the ship sails. We were on a DCL excursion to Rome and there were some uncooperative people in our group which caused us to get back almost an hour late however since it was a DCL excursion the ship was waiting for us. When the last person from our group of 40 boarded we set sail. A taxi with 4 people drove up when we were heading out of the port and could not believe that we did not come back for them. Unfortunately there are a lot of people that take cruises that think the world should cater to them and don't care of others are inconvenienced due to their actions. There was a time in Venice when a friend of ours was on the DCL ship and they had to wait 2 hours due to young children being left on the ship. The parents strolled up 2 hours late and did not think anything of if. Well they had a personal meeting with the Captain and could not leave their children in the kids club anytime the ship was in port even if they were on the ship.

 

[deanimal]

No sympathy here either. I wouldn't be surprised if the dad was betting on the ship not wanting to leave with the kids when he got off to look for her. I do feel sorry for the kids, who were put in a stressful situation, and the other relatives who got stuck with the responsibility and probably had to re-arrange all their plans to look after extra kids for the rest of the cruise.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

ever since watching the Mighty Ships show in Nat Geo and seeing how the lateness of cruisers negatively impacting the entire cruise, I have little sympathy for people when they do this, my thoughts are with the children though, how scary for them

So what is the official impact? I know it impacts--but who does if effect the cruise? (Curious what the show shared.)

 

[Minniesgal]

I didn't realise people left the ships and left the kids on board no way would i do that.

The father should have stayed on board and let the adult mother sort herself out

 

[FigmentSpark]

I can see a lot of women saying their husbands can fend for themselves, but I haven't seen any men say they'd leave their wives behind in favour of staying with the kids, particularly if there were other family members on board. I doubt DCL would have allowed him to leave at all if there wasn't someone to take care of the kids. I expect, he felt it was better to be with his wife and take care of her (chivalry and all), than to wonder what happened to her, alone in a port without ID and possibly with limited funds.

 

[deanimal]

I can see a lot of women saying their husbands can fend for themselves, but I haven't seen any men say they'd leave their wives behind in favour of staying with the kids, particularly if there were other family members on board. I doubt DCL would have allowed him to leave at all if there wasn't someone to take care of the kids. I expect, he felt it was better to be with his wife and take care of her (chivalry and all), than to wonder what happened to her, alone in a port without ID and possibly with limited funds.

Maybe I'm not most wives, but I would be furious if my husband left our young kids behind (even with relatives) to "rescue" me. If she had limited funds she could have returned some of those purchases and used that money. It's not rocket science to find a hotel and fend for yourself for a few days, even in a foreign country. It's not like they don't speak English or take American money. Wire some cash and FedEx the documents if she needs them and hope she learns a lesson. Sorry if I sound a bit harsh, but women who play the "damsel in distress" card to avoid taking personal responsibility really annoy me.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I wasn't implying that she played the damsel in distress, but rather that he saw his role as her husband to be ensuring her safety.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

My wife would kill me if I got off the ship without the kids to "save" her.

 

[Ofinn]

I wasn't implying that she played the damsel in distress, but rather that he saw his role as her husband to be ensuring her safety.

If my husband didn't make it back I would be worried that something bad happened to him. I'm sure that was going through the husbands mind. It's easy to say you would leave your spouse behind, but when your in a foreign country without cell service...and have no idea why the person is not there it's a tough decision to make. Since the kids were safe with the Uncle I can see why he left the ship to find out what happened to his wife. I think you have to keep in mind that the guy didn't know why his wife wasn't there.

 

[Jennifer777]

On our last cruise with dcl I think they left one person in nassau. They kept calling the name over the speaker system even into the cabins asking the person to come forward. The ship definitely left a bit late and they were still calling the person's name as we were pulling away but they eventually stopped.

This happened to us on our early March Wonder cruise! I feel like we left port at least an hour after our planned departure time waiting for the missing family to get back on board. They called their names over the intercom system at least half a dozen times and continued to call as we pulled away from the pier. Not sure if they ever showed up but you can't expect an entire ship with thousands of people on it to wait for you.

 

[phinz]

On our last cruise we heard a Cast Member calling the names of 8 or 9 people over the PA system several times while waiting to shove off in St. Thomas. We didn't leave late, or if we did it wasn't very late. I don't know if they found the passengers or not. This was the first time I'd heard people being called for.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I can see a lot of women saying their husbands can fend for themselves, but I haven't seen any men say they'd leave their wives behind in favour of staying with the kids, particularly if there were other family members on board. I doubt DCL would have allowed him to leave at all if there wasn't someone to take care of the kids. I expect, he felt it was better to be with his wife and take care of her (chivalry and all), than to wonder what happened to her, alone in a port without ID and possibly with limited funds.

DH and I were on a DCL cruise (no kids) and he was late returning in Puerto Vallarta because his wrist watch was on the wrong time zone. Security called our room and I told them I knew he was just shopping across the street and offered to go get him but security wouldn't let me off the ship. Long story short, he made it back before we sailed, but it was scary.