One Vlogger I enjoy is Don's Family Vacations, who focuses a lot on tips for cruisers. I don't enjoy traditional large ship cruising, but I enjoy his tips anyway. He's kind, engaging, and the information about the Cruise Ships is interesting.
He stresses in several of his vlogs that the Cruise Ship always leaves on time. If you attend an off-ship excursion, be sure to arrive back at the dock before they take in the gangway and cast off. They will leave you behind.
This is from Cruise Critic:
Far be it from us to take joy from another's misery, but we admit there's something inherently amusing about passengers sprinting the length of the dock -- often to the mocking cheers of those already onboard -- when they realize they're late getting back to their cruise ship. Usually these aptly named "pier runners" are lucky. They throw themselves across the gangway, and the doors close behind them. Others, however, aren't so fortunate. Mistakes happen, in spite of the best-laid plans; if you find yourself still on dry land while your ship is sailing off into the sunset, it's not the end of the world. Check out our tips and advice for how to avoid missing your ship, how to prepare in case you do miss it and what to do if your cruise ship leaves you behind.Sometimes I go on Youtube to watch short vlogs of people running to catch the ship, always in vain. I look at the pier runners as the ship steams away, thinking about their predicament of being in a foreign country without resource. It must be scary to arrive from your excursion to an empty, deserted pier! Cruise Critic did say,
What must those people with unfortunate timing think? How awful to be left behind. According to Don of Don's Family Vacations, they must somehow get home using their own money and resources. Once the passenger has missed the ship, the Cruise Line is not responsible for them any longer.I laughed along with the observers in these videos, until I remember that once, I'd been a pier runner too!
My husband and I took a cruise that wasn't a cruise. We traveled as passengers aboard an icebreaker/ferry/cargo ship in Upper Quebec and Labrador. (Relais Nordik). At that time, there were few roads connecting the villages that dotted the shoreline of this large Province, and the boat acted as ferry, mail boat, grocery delivery, and human transportation from one port to another. In between the towns after Sept-Iles, there was only tundra.
Back in the 1990s when we were aboard, conditions were primitive. The sole aim of the ship was to transport cargo and passengers, not to cater to people boarding the boat as a cruiser. We slept in a quadruple bunk room, ate with the crew, and played cards or watched the scenery because there were no on-board activities. Now, the Ship has nicer cabins for people who want to take the route as a cruising passenger, they suggest shore excursions, and provide dinner seatings with set tables and everything! It's still rough and tumble though. The ship is still mainly a ferry. Due to variable and potentially rough conditions, the cruise line disclaims a specific return time shorter than a 36-48 hour window, lol.
The run went from Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon, and included Anticosti Island
I collect shells. At one stop, we walked the beach and I noticed that Canada grows some giant scallops! The shells cast up on the beach were 3 to 4 inches across. I got absorbed looking at all the shells on the beach. I saw some species I'd never been able to collect, and there were other species I wasn't familiar with. Time passed.
Gradually I noticed that it was quiet. Too quiet. Everyone had left! Oh no!
I ran as fast as my short legs could go, and I saw the ship with engines on and lines casting off. The crew was trying to take in the gangway but my husband was standing on it and wouldn't let them. I got up there and ran up the ramp and they withdrew the gangway and we were off. That was a close one!
They said that on this route, if we're left behind, we're supposed to knock on doors of the few homes until one of the homeowners takes pity on you and lets you sleep there till the ship is on the return route. When the ship returns you can get back on and resume your journey. Depending on where the ship left you behind, it may be 2-4 days until it returns.
As I hustled up to the ship I was wondering what I would do if I was left behind. I had a nasty knot in my stomach and I was breathing hard, and it wasn't just from the running! I was almost left behind to dwell in a unfamiliar land
It makes me wonder even more about the people who will be left behind when the real ship sails. The real ship I'm talking about is the Ship of State, the Church. Paul said in Romans 11:25,
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,
The term 'full number' is from the Greek pleroo, and means full number, completeness. The word was usually used in reference to a ship and its full number of crew. Admiralty law at the time banned any ship from sailing until the full number of necessary sailors were staffed to man it.
What will it feel like to be left behind for those people in the world who aren't saved, and have some familiarity with Christianity? Maybe they've heard someone give the Gospel, or know of the rapture and left behind from the books or movies. The devastating feeling the cruiser has in the pit of their stomach when they've been left behind at the pier will be magnified a million-fold. You've been left behind on earth. There will be no running to catch the ship, for it will disappear in the blink of an eye. One moment here, the next...gone.
There is a solution that will ensure your participation in the rapture. When it sails will it have you in it? The solution is to repent of your sins. Ask Jesus to forgive them, and lay your life down at His feet. Once you trust in Jesus as the Savior King, then He will consider you not an enemy any more but a sheep in his fold.
Don't be a pier runner.
Here are some fictionalized versions of what the rapture might look like.
