Missing guests. The nightmare

Most things that come up during my experience as a Program Director are usually fixable and solvable.

But there is one thing that is not that easy to deal with. Lost or missing guests. As a PD, I am responsible for the guests and I take that responsibility seriously – as do all my peers at Viking River Cruises.

Losing guests is one of our worst scenarios. Yes, at the end of the day, if guests get lost, they have mine and the ships number to call.

I also appreciate that these are people who have raised children and grand children and who are perfectly capable of finding their way.

However, more often then not, guests do not have airtime. They may be much older and could have issues that would make it more difficult to get themselves back to the ship unaccompanied.

Making on the spot decisions

In most cases, if guests do not arrive at an assigned pick up and are not on the coach, I make a judgment call. I generally know who the guests are.

If the ship is not moving on and is close by or in the town, I am not too concerned and will delay our departure slightly, if possible.

Most times those guests come running along to a chorus of sarcastic applause from their fellow guests.

The situation, however, can get more serious if the guests are identified as having walking issues or perhaps health issues.

In my last post, I spoke of the Trier incident. The two missing guests I had identified as two very sweet ladies with both walking and health issues.

I had my 4 motor-coaches loaded up and ready to go with guests already having been waiting on the buses 10 mins while I did a count and a recount. After some investigation and questions of those who had been traveling on the same bus, I knew exactly who these guests were.

Dealing with the situation of missing guests

This is the moment to make a decision.

a.Do you send three of the motor coaches on and hold one behind?

b. Do you step off the motor coach and go in search of them yourself and send the coaches unaccompanied to the ship?

c. Do you wait and hope they will eventually turn up?

This is your dilemma and there is really no applicable answer in such a dynamic situation. On this day, in Trier, I was faced with the fact that I had to present an important port talk for the following day as we would all be disembarking the vessel for Paris the next day. This was information that the guests had to have.

What are the options?

I did consider just delivering my port talk to each bus and killing time while we waited. However, not only would that take 15 mins per bus, the guests waiting in the last bus would wait 45 mins before I got to them.

And each bus would be waiting the equivalent time until I was done. That was a dumb idea. So, definitely not an option.

I could send the three buses on and wait with the 4th? However I have an issue with that.

First up it means that I send 3 coaches unaccompanied other than the driver, which is not a bad option as our drivers are really experienced and would be quite capable of driving the guests to the ship.

But, to be honest, I have a philosophy of “all for one and one for all”.

To punish the bus on which the two missing guests were on would be unfair and would create a great deal of resentment from those guests waiting on the coach while their fellow guests went back to the ship.

So, I would either make all 4 buses wait or none at all. Which led me to the final conclusion. I called the Hotel manager, first and checked if the ladies may have called (they had not).

I informed him of the situation, advising him that we would have to reschedule the port talk for after dinner. I would get off and send all 4 buses and I would go in search of the guests, hopefully find them and return by taxi to the ship.

When you realize that the missing guests are people you would be naturally concerned for

I was concerned. Knowing these two ladies, I realized that they needed to be found. It could not be a case of leaving them with the responsibility of finding their way back to the ship. I had one last idea.

I asked the lead driver to have her drivers follow her bus slowly as she did a U-turn and headed in the opposite direction that we were supposed to go, passing by the Porta Nigra gate (the meeting spot).

My hope that 4 well branded Viking motor coaches would stand out and be seen by the two ladies if they were in the vicinity.

So, off the bus I got. My Viking lollipop in hand, ready to go searching. As I walked up towards the Porta Nigra gate, I watched as the 4 Viking buses turned around and drove slowly by me on the road.

It’s a weird feeling watching the buses go past, knowing that you should be on one of them. But, that was how it was. I prayed this would not become a drama search for the next few hours.

In the distance I saw the second coach stop with hazard light blinking. Please God, I thought to myself. I hastened my pace and broke out into a jog and then a run as I tried to get closer to see.

I saw the doors open. Yes! Two female figures started to climb up into the bus. Our missing guests! I was so relieved.

Happily I got to one of the coaches on time, had the driver call the other coach and confirm it was indeed our missing ladies. It was. We could all go back to the ship. It ended well.

Find more posts and articles about Viking cruises in the Program Directors Blog

Dealing with a potentially serious situation

It is not always that you get a fortunate reprieve such as Trier. Two seasons ago, in Miltenberg, I had a missing guest.

A single gentlemen with health issues who called the ship, very confused and was unintelligible except for making the fact known that he was lost and that he could not find the motor coaches.

In this case, I was really worried. Again, I had 4 Viking coaches with everyone on board except this gentleman.

Getting off and leaving the coaches was not an option this time. I asked each bus load of guests to watch out for the gentleman, describing his appearance.

We worked as a team.  Together with the other 3 coaches, we drove around Miltenberg for 20 mins as a convoy, looking for him. No luck at all. He could be anywhere.

We drove back to the meeting point in the hope he had found his way there.  Nope. He was nowhere to be seen. I was desperate.

We had to go. However, I would be leaving a guest who genuinely was so confused that he may be lost for a long while.

I felt that I needed to really do something a little more dramatic. As the buses gave up their search, I called the Miltenberg police, described the man and sat anxiously for 10 mins while we drove away from the town.

My phone rang. The police had found the man and put him in a taxi. Thank you, Miltenberg police!

Has it never happened that I left guests behind?

Yes, once. Last season I was in Heidelberg. There was a marathon on in the town. It was chaos.

Our coaches had just 5 mins to park and load and had to leave to make way for other coaches. I had a guide count 2 buses. I counted the other two.

Normally, I would double check counts on all buses but there was not time.The guide said all good. I was happy with my count! Super smooth!

Off we went. 25 mins later my phone rang. It was a couple who were in Heidelberg. Guests stranded.

I had warned guests the night before if they missed the coaches they would have an expensive ride to Rudesheim.

The 2 people were totally cool. They referred to it is an adventure. Okay, I thought. My numbers were right for sure. Maybe the guide miscounted. Not good, but we will live.

The situation takes a turn for the worse

30 mins into the ride, I get a call from the ship. A gentleman and his wife, a different couple, were at the castle. Are you kidding me?!

I had no idea why they would be there.  I get their number. I call them. I explain how they must get back.

Then my phone rings 5 mins later. Another 3 people are standing at the meeting point! What the….!!!!?????

Yes, it was a complete disaster. 7 guests left behind. All late or confused about when and where to meet.

Turns out, the guide had not counted the other bus, she had just counted her group on one bus. Murphy’s law was that the 7 belonged to the motor coach that was not counted.

Perfect…NOT!  I was livid. However, to be fair, blaming someone else for the screw up is not the job. I ultimately carry the responsibility.

All 7 guests came back to Rudesheim by train and got there before the ship did. It worked out okay but it taught me a valuable lesson.

I now ask the coach drivers to count as well, just in case that rushed situation ever happened again.

Thankfully we are in Europe and missing a ship is usually a cab or a train ride away. On Ocean, that’s a different story.

I have many recollections of seeing guests frantically waving at the ship when it is too late.

You cannot just pull a 100 000 ton ship back to the quay. You snooze, you lose. Those guests may have a real headache with being stranded not just in a town but what could be another country or, worse, another continent. Usually without a passport and just a beach bag.

Moral of the story: If you’re 5 minutes early to a meeting point, you are actually 10 mins late.

Always get to meeting points at minimum 15 mins ahead of time. For your peace of mind…..and especially mine or that of my fellow program directors!

Aside from lost guests, what other things happen? Plenty. Never a dull moment as you will discover in the Cruise 8th – 16th August – the backstory that build bridges