Only once can we recall coming close to missing a cruise ship in a foreign port. Given that we’ve been at this game for a while, you’d think it would have been in the early years when we were cruise rookies.
Not so fast. It was on our most recent cruise, just a few weeks ago, but it’s taken us this long to admit it.
We’d spent a wonderful day in Normandy, driving a rental car and visiting the beaches. We ventured as far as Caen, about 90 minutes from the Celebrity Eclipse. The return trip was 
carefully planned and there was so much extra time we decided to take the rural route for part of the way back.
After some unexpected stoppages on one-lane country roads, we arrived in Cherbourg, where the ship was moored, at rush hour. Departure was 6 p.m. Without a GPS, or even a good map, the rental facility was something of a mystery.
When we finally found it, the ship was a 15-minute walk away, and departure was less than half an hour away.
“Go, go, go,” said the woman at National Car Rental (okay, maybe she said: “Allez! Allez! Allez!”), before adding: “Just get in the car and he will drive you.”
In the end, “he” drove us and we had time to spare. This was a pleasant surprise. We were already wondering how we’d find a way to catch up with the Eclipse on the other side of the English Channel, the next morning. It would be docked. With our belongings. Unpacked.
The photo? You don’t really think we had time for it, do you? We found this one on the web. It was the least we could do.
And just so you know, cruise ships don’t wait when you’re late.