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Experienced cruiser mistake


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While I’m not a Diamond member yet, I feel I have some cruising experience.  Yesterday, however, I made a huge cruising mistake.  I thought I’d share my mistake so others can learn from it.  It would be fun to hear if anyone else has made other mistakes.  

 

We were in St. Marteen and booked Billy Bones Snorkeling charter.  I’ve been talking up this tour and my family is really excited for this excursion.  We walk off the ship, down the pier when I pull out my confirmation for where to go and notice the date.  It says March 27th!  What?  That’s next week!  I booked the correct day of the week but the wrong week.  That week is a week after our cruise. 

 

Quick phone one call and they are fully booked.   In fact all the snorkeling tours are fully booked since for the first time post hurricane there are 6 ships in port according to the several boating companies we asked.  

 

Now what? Too late to do any research on a Plan B but I do remember many people talking about the beach just off the pier.  We ended up walking to Great Bay beach and turned it into a fantastic beach day.  Beach chairs, lunch, trampoline, jet skis, beach massage, hair braids and a trip to the Yoda Guy.  I would have thought a beach day would cost less than a snorkeling tour but my family can spend money on food and Star Wars stuff!  

 

I only put a deposit down via PayPal and I already emailed the company.  I should be getting a refund of my deposit shortly.  

 

I still can’t believe I did this.  While I received a confirmation months ago I didn’t actually look at it.  I printed out all my cruise documents however once again didn’t actually look at it. All I can say is that things have been super stressed and crazy over the past few months. With everything on my plate, mixing up dates is one of my fears and I can’t tell you the number of times, I check school calendar against the cruise dates and triple check my airplane dates.  I guess if I’m going to mess up a date, booking a refundable shore excursion a week later is not too bad. 

 

Ok that’s my cruising mistake, anyone else have one? 

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We've only taken one cruise (back in Jan-Feb), so our (my) mistake list is short....

When we first saw the cruise planner, I booked VOOM.  I misunderstood how it worked with people/devices, so I bought the package for two devices...then bought the package for both of us.

It wasn't until I bought the VOOM package for our upcoming October cruise that I realized one person/two devices is all we need.   We paid twice as much as we should have the first time.

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I have done many a mistake. Incorrect dates, misspelled names on plane tickets, forgotten travel documents. Most inconvenient and embarrassing was taking a taxi to the wrong HIE in Vancouver and getting into an argument with the hotel clerk about their error and only upon showing her my phone e-mail confirmation did she point out to me that I had the wrong HIE. After a hefty apology she arranged for their shuttle to take me to the correct hotel. The key, as I have told my children over and over, learn from your mistakes. Double, triple check EVERYTHING!!

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My first cruise out of POM, I did not know Budget did not have a shuttle from POM to MIA airport location.  I was able to convince an Alamo shuttle to take me there w/ a tip. 

On our first RCCL cruise, we had the unlimited drink package.   During our stay in Labadee, my wife accepted a drink in a souvenir cup. 

A few years ago, one of our relatives left their passport in their checked luggage.  Luckily, the luggage arrived outside of their stateroom before the gangway closed. 

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1 hour ago, melski94 said:

Ok that’s my cruising mistake, anyone else have one? 

Last year when we got to the night-before hotel in Baltimore, the reception desk attendant could not find our reservation.  I pulled out our confirmation and I had booked for Saturday night (the date that the cruise actually departed) vs Friday night, which was the night before.  Luckily they had room so it turned out to be a benign mistake but it's easy to do !!

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A couple of hints on my mistakes.  Never put your credit card or sea pass card in your pocket next to your cell phone.  It tends to erase the magnetic coding.

Take a picture of the location sign in the terminal where you parked your car.  That way when you get back after a trip you can find it.  That one would have saved me a couple hours wandering around the terminal clicking my key remote only to finally discover that I was in the wrong terminal. 

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16 minutes ago, craig403 said:

A couple of hints on my mistakes.  Never put your credit card or sea pass card in your pocket next to your cell phone.  It tends to erase the magnetic coding.

Sunscreen has a magical way of cleaning the print off of the SeaPass cards, too..so be careful with that!

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3 hours ago, craig403 said:

Take a picture of the location sign in the terminal where you parked your car. 

LMAO.

We went to Italy for 2 weeks as a family of 5.  Hubby drops us all off at the curb and parks the car.  2 weeks later we return and he can't remember which aisle he parked the car.  At 10 pm with a 90 min ride ahead of us, he is walking up and down every aisle with us in tow spread out in other aisles hitting the lock button on the Fob.  

I now not only make him take a pic, but also text me the row and number of where we parked to my phone if he loses his phone.  

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5 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

Sunscreen has a magical way of cleaning the print off of the SeaPass cards, too..so be careful with that!

I was also told that the handgel will also damage the magnetic strip somehow, not sure if it’s true but was someone in guest services who told me whilst I was getting another replacement card

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Post cruise arrived at the rental car facility to discover I never reserved a car.  The perils of managing multiple bookings as I had made it for another cruise and totally neglected to book one for that cruise.

Having left the printing of my SetSail pass to the last minute I was blocked by Royal IT and their wonderful website.  Now I create PDF copies of all SetSail passes well before so I can print them whenever.

Forgetting that I booked a hotel for a distant cruise only to book another hotel as it got closer  Day before both of my hotel apps alerts me "It's time to check in!".  Wait, what?  Thankfully I could cancel up to 6pm day of arrival.    

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2 minutes ago, twangster said:

Post cruise arrived at the rental car facility to discover I never reserved a car.  The perils of managing multiple bookings as I had made it for another cruise and totally neglected to book one for that cruise.

Having left the printing of my SetSail pass to the last minute I was blocked by Royal IT and their wonderful website.  Now I create PDF copies of all SetSail passes well before so I can print them whenever.

Forgetting that I booked a hotel for a distance cruise only to book another hotel as it got closer  Day before both of my hotel apps alerts me "It's time to check in!".  Wait, what?  Thankfully I could cancel up to 6pm day of arrival.    

Sounds like the bot needs to update and refresh his operating system.

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19 minutes ago, brb700 said:

Last year we were booked on a 7 nighter on Allure. Were D+ but we showed up on Saturday to find out it was a Sunday departure. Had to find a room for the night.

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While that's awful, I'm so so happy for you that it wasn't you guys showing up on Sunday to find it out it was a Saturday departure! 

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I'm relatively new at this and haven't made a serious boo-boo yet, but given time I probably will. This thread is very beneficial for me to see the problem areas which should hopefully help avoid the pitfalls. Keep them coming!

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I can't think of them all now but I know I've done a million mistakes because I travel a lot for work.  Even though I'm OCD about plans I also get overwhelmed with life.  One year I showed up at the Hershey Hotel because that is always where that yearly conference is but they changed it that year to the Hershey Lodge and I never read the paperwork. 

 

Now you all have me crazy to triple check our plans.  Between all of us we have 6 cruises booked this year and I'm doing most of the reservations and planning. 

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This has never happened to me but I am always in constant fear that I will go to the wrong airport.  Living in northern Virginia, I am about equidistant between Dulles and National airports.  National is my airport of choice and we will always choose to leave from there if it works (itin choices and price) but I always have this sick feeling in my stomach on the way to the airport and have to stop and look at my paperwork to be SURE that I'm going to the right one.  Every once in a while Dulles is the better choice for one reason or another...so I have anxiety about showing up at the wrong airport and not having time to get to the right one !

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We got some free time in one of the shore excursions to eat our lunch , I calculate we have around 1 hour as it was 1 and we were suppose to meet again at 2 PM . we went to eat in one of the restaurants and we rushed the waiter , rushed eating , all to be able and go to the meeting point at time,

When we arrived the meeting point and saw no one there I have checked again and I saw that its only 1 PM , for some reason we thought we are an hour later. well better to be early than late  ? 

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Up to now our only mistake was to think that Princess was a premium cruise line.... to my defense, it's portraited like that in Germany. But we experienced something funny when waiting for our shuttle from Alamo to Caribbean Princess. When staff made a list of who needed to go to what ship, one couple said Allure. This was in Fort Lauderdale, mind you. The look on their faces when they were told they had to go to Miami for Allure - priceless ? Luckily for them, their car wasn't processed so they could take it to drive to Miami - and they were still early enough to make it.

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40 minutes ago, Neaxan said:

Up to now our only mistake was to think that Princess was a premium cruise line.... to my defense, it's portraited like that in Germany. But we experienced something funny when waiting for our shuttle from Alamo to Caribbean Princess. When staff made a list of who needed to go to what ship, one couple said Allure. This was in Fort Lauderdale, mind you. The look on their faces when they were told they had to go to Miami for Allure - priceless ? Luckily for them, their car wasn't processed so they could take it to drive to Miami - and they were still early enough to make it.

I can total see that with Allure changing departure ports a few months ago.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

We wanted to rent a car on Cozumel to drive around for the day and see some of the off-the-beaten-path sites, like the Mayan ruins and the north shore beaches.  After a taxi ride to town, then a walk through town to the "rentadora", at the desk I realized that I didn't bring my driver's license or auto insurance card with me.  It was back in the cabin safe!  (I had my seapass and passport...why would I need a driver's license?!?)  Luckily, the woman rented us the car with the promise that we'd drive STRAIGHT to the cruise terminal and get the license.  I guess the Cozumel police can occasionally pull you over, and there are hassles if you don't have a license.

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On 3/22/2019 at 9:17 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

This has never happened to me but I am always in constant fear that I will go to the wrong airport.  Living in northern Virginia, I am about equidistant between Dulles and National airports.  National is my airport of choice and we will always choose to leave from there if it works (itin choices and price) but I always have this sick feeling in my stomach on the way to the airport and have to stop and look at my paperwork to be SURE that I'm going to the right one.  Every once in a while Dulles is the better choice for one reason or another...so I have anxiety about showing up at the wrong airport and not having time to get to the right one !

We live an hour north of the Indy airport and 3.5 hours south of O'Hare...sometimes it's actually cheaper for us to drive to Chicago than fly out of Indy...so I always feel a bit sickish too when we leave home, just in case THIS is the time that I forgot we booked O'Hare and needed to leave WAYYY earlier!  LOL

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On 3/21/2019 at 11:44 AM, AshleyDillo said:

Sunscreen has a magical way of cleaning the print off of the SeaPass cards, too..so be careful with that!

Yes....lol   We went through two on our last cruise.    I just hit up the guest services desk on an off hour with no line and got new ones....twice!   

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On 3/22/2019 at 9:17 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

This has never happened to me but I am always in constant fear that I will go to the wrong airport.  Living in northern Virginia, I am about equidistant between Dulles and National airports.  National is my airport of choice and we will always choose to leave from there if it works (itin choices and price) but I always have this sick feeling in my stomach on the way to the airport and have to stop and look at my paperwork to be SURE that I'm going to the right one.  Every once in a while Dulles is the better choice for one reason or another...so I have anxiety about showing up at the wrong airport and not having time to get to the right one !

Having lived in N. VA when Maj. hubby was stationed at Naval Observatory/Crystal City, I know that if you made it to one and it turned out that you were wrong it would take you 2 days to drive to the other! ?

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