[Opinionated Blowhard]

The Coral Adventurer cruise ship ended up leaving the woman on the island, but returned several hours later to find her after she was discovered not to be on board.

She was on the island alone for a couple hours because she did not return to ship when she was supposed to because she "decided to take rest."

This is not the cruise line's fault. Its sad that it happened but they did what they were supposed to do. Its not their job to round up every single person before they leave a location.

[packrat35]

This is not the cruise line’s fault. Its sad that it happened but they did what they were supposed to do. Its not their job to round up every single person before they leave a location.

Actually it is. That is why the cruise ship went back.

[GingisK]

Its not their job to round up every single person before they leave a location.

It is. I remember lifeboat drills on a military ship carrying families across the Atlantic in 1956. They held roll-calls, calling out every name and looking each in the eye during the answer.

[Bigg Red]

I have been on 3 cruises. Not with this line. Each passenger is issued a stateroom card key, which is also to be used to log off and onto the ship. Makes it a lot simpler to keep tabs on who is onboard.

[SJackson]

This is not the cruise line's fault. Its sad that it happened but they did what they were supposed to do. Its not their job to round up every single person before they leave a location.

Partially correct. People do miss departures, and this is a tourist island with hotels with restaurants where a passenger could overstay a meal or shopping.

However it is the tour providers responsibility. They do keep track of the number of tourists. If one was missing they should have known when boarding the return transportation and mentioned they were missing a passenger. Not that unusual, but had the cruise line known that, particularly when discovering her age, at the very least the line could have notified their port agent and/or local authorities. From the little information provided this might not have saved her life. And she should have told the guide she was stopping, no way of knowing if they did, in which case they likely would have gone back to find her. All kinds of disclaimers in the cruise contract and the tour disclosures, but the cruise line has the deep pockets in this instance.

[citizen]

The article reports “she was hiking with a group of people.”

Did she not know any of them or they her? You would think even random people would notice they had an aged person among them and look out for her.