On horn blowing.....When we left Jamaica recently the ship delayed its departure by about 15 minutes so that some late stragglers didn't miss the ship. Much to the amusement of the passengers leaning out of their balconies, and to the total embarrassment of the stragglers the captain sounded the horn several times as they were sprinting down the pier clutching a variety of bags, presents etc. I wonder how long ships will wait and how many people have actually arrived back too late and missed the ship?
I'm glad to hear that he was giving them a hard time. I've not had too many captains wait for more than a few minutes for stragglers. I think the main reason is they (the cruise line) get charged more. I've seen too many miss the ship and have to beg the pilot boat or harbor boat to take them to meet the ship. Then they have to get on board, while both vessels are moving. There's a post with videos by Cassanova Frankenstein,here. You need to take a look.
I looked at that....amazing that the ship actually went back in to pick them up!!! Following that video there were some interesting links to other vidoes. Felt sea sick just watching the "cruise from hell"!! Anyone had an experience like that?
Not quite that bad, because in the "Cruise from hell" she lost her engines. I have been in some pretty rough seas, though.
In fact, on the Royal two years ago. The first 2 days at sea, had we not been upgraded to the 8th deck, we couldn't have gotten out on the balcony at all. We were originally on deck 6, and the waves/spray were hitting that deck all day. We had to miss St. Barts because it was too rough to tender. Thankfully, the rest of the cruise calmed down after the 3rd day.
Why is it that of all the ports, Cozumel seems to be the one that many of us are standing on the balcony watching passengers make that looong trek from start to finish with cheers and whistles from onlookers ! Although, on our last cruise in Curacao,we could see passengers making their way from the very far right in front of what looks like a resort running to make it as the ship sounded its horn..I have only been in a similiar position and that was Cozumel and I know the reason why !
On all my Royal Caribbean cruises there has been a television channel dedicated to the loacation of the ship. The first screen is a picture of the globe, the next picture is one of the area (caribbean), and the next is a more detailed location. However, there isn't the very close gps location that you would get in say a cars gps system. Therefore, you wouldn't get the name of the islands around you. On my last cruise we were coming into Coco Cay and there were several smaller islands around it. The only way to tell which island was which was to look for the massive amount of beach chairs on the island. Hopefully this helps.
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