What happens if you miss the ship?

[younginspirit]

Has anyone known somebody that has known somebody who has missed the ship either initially or on the islands? What are the options at that point? My DH wants to know...

 

[Hygiene99]

well, there have been several posts that deal with that matter,
the one i remeber most is ,, mother father, and child
missed the ship , but had one small child in the club
the magic did leave and then turned around to go get them
people where not very happy i guess the man was on the dock acting like superman ..
how ever if u do miss the ship u can meet up with it at the next port if u r able to do so....
when we sailed some people did not arrive at the port until
5;10 we saw them running from p .lot... they did hold the ship i guess they will do that if u have disney flights and something goes wrong... other wise u on your own....
dont really know any one who has missed the ship and caught up with it at the next port of call...... peter

 

[Werner Weiss]

The particular case that Hygiene99 mentions (about turning back because the family had a small child on the ship) is a rare exception.

Normally, cruise ships sail when scheduled, and they keep going. It's the passenger's responsibility to be at the port on time. And it's the passenger's responsibility to travel to the next port to join or rejoin the cruise if they get to the ship too late. (If the cruise line arranged the flight and that flight fails to get the passenger to to port in time for boarding before the ship sails, then the cruise line pays for the tavel to the next port.)

But consider this... If you miss the sailing of the Eastern itinerary Disney Magic on Saturday, your first chance to join the cruise is on Tuesday in St. Maarten. You've just missed half the cruise.

The captain should delay sailing if a Disney bus is late arriving a Port Canaveral or a ship-sponsored shore excursion is late returning (both highly unlikely). The captain may choose to delay sailing if a substantial number of passengers are not on the ship at the time scheduled sailing time -- for example, if airports in the Midwest or East Coast are closed in the morning, and many flghts are delayed until the afternoon.

Bottom line: Allow plenty of time to make it to the ship. Fly to Florida on the day before sailing. At ports, be back on the ship at least an hour before the scheduled departure. Then you won't have to worry about what your options are.

 

[dianna-tn]

Our family was on the Disney Magic in June when the ship turned around in St. Thomas. We were approx 1-2 hours out when we all felt the ship turn around. There was some questions as to why we were turning around, but then we learned that there was child left on board without the parents. The captain tried to make up as much time as he could, although we lost time at castaway cay due to this situation. I thought it very inconsiderate of this family for delaying all of us. I guess since the child was on board Disney had no choice but to turn around and go back for the parents. The cruise director and staff made several funny remarks about this situation. I believe my understanding was that this was the first time disney had ever turned around for someone missing the boat. Several crew members stated that this family may have to incur some cost for missing the boat due to the cost of re-docking the ship and other expenses. I don't know if this is true or not. You know how rumors go.
Hope this helps, and have a great trip. We did!

 

[bennett]

We were on the cruise where they turned around to go back to get someone. It was strange-when we were boarding on that particular island-I had asked-does anyone ever miss the ship and the man said all the time---then next thing we knew (about 1 hour later) we were going back. It was a man, women and child-I don't think the man was acting like superman-when we arrived at the dock the guy was down on his hands and knees pointing to himself saying "it was me"--I am sure they were very embarrassed-the women wouldn't even look at the boat at that point. There were hundreds of people on the side of the ship watching-the captain came to our table the next night-we asked alot of questions--he said the only reason they went back was one of this couples children was in the nursery--and no they wouldn't be charged anything--there were tons of rumors on ship saying they would be charged a fee because the ship had to turn around. The man thought the ship left the island the same time it did the day prior--can you imagine!!!!!

 

[Melrosgirl]

I'll never understand how people can go ashore and leave their kids in the kids' clubs. Makes no sense to me at all. Every cruise I"ve been on I've taken my child with me on excursions. Yes she may be bored and yes, I have to pay for her to be on the excursion, but at least if I were to miss the boat, she's with me. <confused>

Those people who missed the boat for the above reason should be embarrassed.

Best advice: only take excursions that are Disney run/approved. That way Disney knows what, if anything, happens to an excursion tour group. If you have children with you, take them ashore with you.

 

[MarkRG]

I have a few tidbits about such things -

• When transportation to the port is thru Disney, they have lists of who's arriving from where(airport or resorts) and can easily keep track of everyone and there have been mentions of the ship departing late for a Disney busload of people arriving. They do keep in contact there.
  
• On excursions, if they are thru Disney, they also have someone do roll call before they escort you to the tour group operator. In that case, they also know where you should be, and havn't heard of such personally, but from what I have heard they would hold up departure if they knew a full group was on the way a bit late.

You're on your own to get back ontime if you book excursions personally.