The Day We Almost Missed The Ship!!

So, it was our first cruise as a party of nine, three family generations all together on one of the biggest ships in the world, the beautiful Independence of the Seas. We were having a fabulous time, but were a bit ‘city’d out, so looking forward to some beach time in Sardinia.

Being a Travel Agent gave me the automatic role of group leader so it was down to me to make the arrangements. I cleverly opted for the local bus at 1 euro per person rather than the $9 US per person for the cruise shuttle. Tickets purchased from the local store, bus stop found and we were on the beach in 20 minutes. Could not have been easier!

At 3 o’clock we thought we should head back as had to be all aboard by 4.30, so packed away our things and headed for the bus stop. But where was the bus stop? You would assume across the road from where we got off, but no! Up and down the road we went and could not find a bus stop, so went to a local café. This is when we found out that if you don’t speak Italian in Sardinia, you could be in trouble as virtually no English spoken. Through sign language we were directed to the stop where we alighted from the bus and waited. A bus came and again with sign language we worked out the bus was on a circuit and would end up back at the port. We had plenty of time so a 10 minute detour would be no problem and we could see a little of the area.

30 minutes later we were still headed in the wrong direction and starting to feel a little edgy, then we drove into a very quiet residential area, the driver pulled over, turned off his engine and out came his sandwiches and newspaper! We were mortified as it was now 4pm. I went to the driver and asked if he could get us a taxi. It was a Sunday afternoon in the middle of nowhere, that wasn’t going to happen and we were all starting to panic!

At that point, 2 young local lads got on the bus and they understood a little English and when they heard our plight went to the driver and had a heated, loud and excitable exchange. A phone call was made and the bus fired into life!

The next 20 minutes I can only describe as the ride of our lives. It felt like we were on the magic bus from Harry Potter, bags were flying from one side of the bus to the other, we whizzed past perplexed passengers waiting at bus stops, the one time we did stop, the passenger had to jump while we were still moving!

We got back in time…just! The lovely plants and canopy normally at the gangway were gone. We did the walk of shame up the ramp with the crew muttering ‘last passengers aboard! Before we were in the lift the ship was underway.

Moral of this story, if you want to be a cheapskate, make sure you have all eventualities covered, and take the cruise compass with you which has the ship agent telephone number!

Dee