Cruise holiday nightmare: Frustrating experience onboard ship at disembarkation | Cruise | Travel
Many cruise ships carry thousands of passengers. While this means there’s usually an exciting range of people onboard, it can create some issues.
One cruise passenger told Reddit that they’d recently returned from their first ever cruise holiday.
They said: “Disembarkation was kind of a disaster. I was travelling with a 90 year old who needed assistance getting off the boat.
“It was taking a very long time to get help. People had to wait in the theatre. Frustration was reasonable.
“However one person seemed to personally blame me for the wait because I am a healthy adult.
READ MORE: Cruise staff share ‘most bizarre’ passenger request onboard
“While looking right at me he loudly complained to his wife, who I had actually met the night before that ‘it’s taking so long since all these damn kids are asking for assistance when they really don’t need it’.”
Although the cruise guest said they “really enjoyed” their time onboard despite the incident, it would stay in their memory.
They said: “I worked in restaurants so I’m somewhat familiar with people being unreasonable, but I swear these people made a sport out of it.”
Disembarking thousands of people at port can be a major operation and passengers will sometimes have to wait.
DON’T MISS
One regular cruise guest advised: “If possible, don’t rush to disembark. I generally aim to be among the last off the ship as it makes things that much easier.
“This is less an issue, in fact much less an issue as you move upmarket and even on smaller ships.”
Another said: “So right about not rushing to disembark, unless you need to make a flight, which you should not plan on disembarkation day anyway.
“Have a nice leisurely breakfast in the dining room. Take one last walk around the ship.
“Start uploading your vacation photos to Facebook if you didn’t have wifi at sea. Perhaps, have a second breakfast.
“Relax, you’re still on vacation, make it last. I’ve never understood the mentality of people who need to be at the front of the line to get off the ship.”
One regular cruise holidaymaker said: “If I have to choose between killing a couple of hours at the airport or a couple of hours on the ship, I’m going to pick the ship every time.”
Another also had a negative experience to share about disembarking from their cruise ship.
They said: “We went on our first cruise last year. We got to our first port and we didn’t know how to exit the ship.
“We asked a couple of crew members and they pointed us in the direction of the exit but didn’t really explain anything.
“We walked down the stairs and as soon as we reached the bottom, there was the snaking line of people trying to exit.
“We were just trying to figure out where the end of the line was when this woman yelled ‘you can’t cut in line!’
“That just really put me off. My husband and I are the last people who would try and cut in line.”
