Reasons why you might miss your ship:
You didn't get onboard on time. Duh!
But really- ships have a back aboard time that is about an hour before they actually leave port and you didn't make that time.
You were on local time vs. the ships time.
The ship doesn't change time from port to port but many of the ports are on a different time zone so make sure you understand where you're at, what time zone you're in, and what the ship time is.
Your shore excursion was not guaranteed to get you back to the ship on time.
There are two ways you can guarantee that you make it to your ship on time.
Purchase your shore excursion through the cruise line - these guarantee to get you back on time or the ship will wait for your excursion to return if you are running late.
Make sure that the company that you have bought you short excursions from is a reputable company that guarantees to get you back to the ship on time.
How do you know if it's a reputable company that guarantees you back to the ship on time? Ask your travel agent!
You did not schedule a taxi to pick you up.
Another common reason why you would miss the ship is you did not schedule a taxi to pick you up from a resort, restaurant, or a beach that you visited. You have to prepare for late arrival of a taxi or you have to prepare that they may not show up at all. Have alternate options.
You did not check the ships itinerary that they provided to you.
The ship may not have the same aboard time for every port, or they may have last minute changes to the itinerary. They will provide this information to you, so be sure to check the itinerary!
In the recent video that has gone viral of the couple who missed their ship, this appears to be the case. They are not alone, as this has happened a lot. In the meantime, the crew has been on the intercom system calling out their name trying to find them. They've been looking in their cabin and all over the ship for them- they want to make sure that they haven't missed them for some reason.
They start this process an hour before they're actually going to leave right after the back on board time. So, in this case the couple waving at the ship to stop on the pier are actually an hour and 45 minutes late. And the captain did actually wait 45 minutes for them.
If it had been due to an emergency, they could have called and he would have waited until they got there. He may have even waited if it wasn't an emergency! So, that's why you take the cruise planner with you and make that phone call. They will let you know what to do from there and they may say too bad!
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