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Do you ever have nightmares about missing your ship's departure time? Imagine watching the cruise ship depart port while you are stuck in traffic in a foreign country with only a few dollars in your pocket and the clothes on your back. Sounds horrible, right? Unfortunately this happens more often than not. Whether it's due to a time miscommunication, traffic, or some other setback, sometimes passengers get left behind. Now, hopefully this will never happen to you, however it is incredibly good to know what to do if it does happen so you are prepared.
First off, let's review some precautionary measures you can take ahead of time to avoid this happening at all.
This includes your passport, credit cards, drivers license, insurance cards, etc. ANYTHING that you potentially might need if you are stranded, keep a photographed copy of it with you at all times. Now, you cannot always use photos for legal identification but at least you have them in case of an emergency. If you aren't comfortable saving these photos to your phone, put them in a private dropbox folder or a locked app such as LastPass so only you will be able to access them if needed.
In your cabin every single day of your cruise, you are going to get a little piece of paper delivered that will tell you what's going on that day. If your cruise line doesn't do paper anymore, you'll find all of this information on the cruise app. On port days, you'll find all of the information about the port in this newsletter such as the information for the port agent, the phone number and address of the port itself, and maybe even the US Embassy information if you are in another country. It is worth taking a photo or screenshot of this information so you have it at your fingertips if necessary.
Some other pieces of information you'll want to make sure to bring with you off the ship include the cruise line's customer service phone number, your travel agent's phone number, etc. Keep all of this information with you digitally as well as write it on paper and put it in a safe pocket (in case your mobile device dies.) You'll also want to make sure you have the physical copies of all of your documentation (passport, ID, etc.)
So, let's say you do all of this, you get off the ship and for whatever reason you do not make it back on time. First thing to do is to take a breath and relax; this is a situation you can figure out. Panicking will not help.
Step 1: Call your travel agent or your travel agency's phone number. *And this is one of the reasons why we highly recommend working with an agent; they know all the steps to take from here on out and can guide you through the process. They will be able to make some calls for you as well and jumpstart the process of getting you back on track.
Step 2: Call the cruise line. Get customer service on the phone and they can connect you with the ship and give you some next steps to take as well.
Step 3: Find the port agent. At each port there is an agent who is responsible for dealing with situations like this. Find them! They often will know if someone is not on the ship and they may already have your luggage. They might have contacted the people you are traveling with and a family member or friend might be waiting with them. A lot of times if someone does not get back on a ship, the cruise staff will go into your stateroom, empty your safe, and bring all of your stuff off the ship.
Step 4: Make your travel arrangements. From this point on, you are responsible for getting from this port either home or to meet the ship at its next destination.
Step 5: If your things have not been returned to you, you'll need to figure out how to have your items returned to you by the cruise line. You might need to have them shipped to you or you might be able to pick them up at the final port on the last day of the cruise.
These are all of the steps you need to take to be prepared to disembark from the cruise ship as well as what you should do if you get left behind. Here are a few other safety tips we would highly recommend:
1. Bring a watch! Yes, a wrist watch. They may be considered old fashioned in today's day and age, but a wrist watch does not run out of batteries nearly as fast as your smartphone does. (Apple watches do not count!) This way you can either run a timer on your person as to when you need to start heading back to the ship or mark the ship time (this is especially important if the local time is different from the ship time due to a time change.)
2. Get back EARLY! Don't cut corners or try to limit your travel time back to the ship. Give yourself PLENTY of time to return safely to port and include the extra time it will take you to physically get your body onto the ship.
Remember, it is YOUR responsibility to make sure you return to port on time. We hope this type of situation never happens to you! But if it does, be safe, and be prepared.
Thanks for joining us! We will see you in our next post. :)