george@cruisemaster.com (George=A0Leppla) wrote:
"Brian" wrote
>>You had posted about shore excusions also.
>>We were on a Carnival cruise last month and
>>the cruise director made quite a point that if
>>we went off on our own but if we took an
>>excursion through them, we would be
>>protected.
>It is called "Sales through intimidation." "Buy f
>rom us or face dire
>consequences."
>Truth is that in 14 years of selling cruises... I
>have never had a customer tell me they
>missed the ship due to a late shore excursion.
>Yep... the cruise line will wait if a ship's
>excursion is late... but again, in 14 years, I
>don't remember anyone saying that happened
>either.
>I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but I am
>saying that offering "protection" against
>something that statistically seldom happens is
>a pretty cheap way of making a sale.
In August 2004, we were on the Enchantment of the Seas. We were on an
excursion in Cozumel to first Mayan ruins and then a beach. It ran very
late. One of the assistant cruise directors was on the excursion, and he
assured everyone that the ship would not leave without us. It did wait
for us and one other very late running excursion.
Last month we were in the Baltic on the Star Princess. I heard a rumor
of a passenger missing the ship in Talinn. That was a bad place to be
stranded because you could not just catch up at the next port in St.
Petersburg because you would need a Russian visa.
A few days later at dinner, I heard the story of the passenger's
"rescue" from a passenger who had witnessed it. It seems that the
passenger was on a ship excursion, but instead of coming back to the
ship from the bus, stopped to take more pictures and missed the ship.
The captain took mercy on her and had a lifeboat lowered to have the
crew bring her back.
And speaking about selling through intimidation--- Princess (and
probably the other lines too) try to intimidate you from using the
private tour services in St. Petersburg. They make it sound like there
will be a problem leaving the ship without a visa unless you are on one
of their tours. Truth is the Russian immigration authorities do not care
if you go on the ship's group visa or the visa of a licensed private
tour company.
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