Stranded: The Absurd Reasons People Miss Their Cruise Ships

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]There is a massive multi-ton steel vessel blowing a deafening horn, yet a grown adult is still standing on the pier arguing over a $5 souvenir.

[00:00:09]Why?

[00:00:10]When people go on vacation, their normal sense of time and consequence completely evaporates.

[00:00:16]These documented examples explore exactly what happens when cruise passengers become convinced the physical world will simply wait for them.

[00:00:25]One, Arthur, a 62-year-old logistics manager from Ohio, was a victim of what psychologists call the digital obedience trap. Though on a 4,000 passenger mega ship, it just looks like aggressive stubbornness.

[00:00:39]The daily planner delivered to his cabin on Tuesday night explicitly stated in bold highlighted text, "Ship time remains on Eastern Standard Time. Do not change your watches to local time."

[00:00:51]The cruise director announced it over the public address system three separate times.

[00:00:56]But Arthur believed his smartphone was the ultimate infallible arbiter of reality.

[00:01:01]When he and his wife Brenda stepped off the gangway in Cozumel, Mexico, his phone automatically synced to the local cellular network, instantly falling exactly 1 hour behind ship time.

[00:01:12]Ever wonder why a man who spent 40 years successfully navigating complex corporate [music] supply chains suddenly loses the ability to comprehend basic geographical instructions?

[00:01:22]It is pure vacation brain.

[00:01:24]The phenomenon where the removal of normal daily responsibilities causes perfectly intelligent adults to become convinced they possess a flawless mastery of their leisure environment.

[00:01:35]Arthur looked at his phone, looked at his mechanical wristwatch, and confidently declared to Brenda that the cruise director was a For the next 6 hours, Arthur existed in a completely different temporal dimension than the vessel containing his passport and cholesterol medication.

[00:01:51]He was so confident in his digital reality that while sitting at a portside restaurant, he actively interrupted a panicked family from Texas who were rushing back to the ship, smugly informing them they had plenty of time because it was only 2:45 p.m.

[00:02:06]At exactly 3:45 p.m. ship time, which was 2:45 p.m. Arthur time, the massive vessel began its departure sequence. The ship blew its horn, a sound so loud it physically rattled the silverware on Arthur's table.

[00:02:21]Brenda looked up worried, noting that the crew seemed to be pulling in the thick mooring ropes.

[00:02:26]Arthur calmly wiped a dollop of sour cream from his chin, took another unhurried bite of his steak fajita, and patiently explained to his wife that maritime law required captains [music] to test their equipment mid-afternoon.

[00:02:39]The contrast between Arthur's immense chewing self-satisfaction >> [music] >> and the reality of 80,000 tons of steel slowly drifting away from the concrete pier is truly a thing of beauty.

[00:02:50]He finally marched up to the port security gate at exactly 4:30 p.m. local time, expecting a relaxed stroll up the gangway.

[00:02:58]Instead, he found a locked chain-link fence and an exasperated Mexican port agent holding a clipboard.

[00:03:05]The agent pointed at the empty berth and politely explained that the ship had sailed 45 minutes ago.

[00:03:11]Arthur, >> [music] >> completely unfazed by the undeniable visual evidence of the empty ocean in front of him, tapped the glass screen of his phone, looked the port agent dead in the eye, and calmly asked where the designated waiting area was for the complimentary shuttle boats.

[00:03:26]When the exasperated agent explained that the ship was currently doing 20 knots toward Jamaica and there were no shuttles, Arthur scoffed, pulled out his printed itinerary, >> [music] >> smoothed it out against the chain-link fence, and confidently pointed to his reservation, stating that since he had prepaid for the ultimate all-inclusive beverage package through Sunday, >> [music] >> the cruise line was legally obligated to dispatch a dinghy to come fetch him before the dinner service started.

[00:03:52]Two.

[00:03:54]Susan, a retired dental hygienist from Calgary, found herself in the Nassau Straw Market with exactly 1 hour until all aboard time.

[00:04:02]She was heading straight back to the pier when a hand-carved wooden sea turtle caught her eye.

[00:04:07]The vendor wanted $25. Susan offered 15.

[00:04:11]Thus began an epic slow-motion battle of wills that completely decoupled a grown woman from the concept of linear time.

[00:04:19]This is a textbook example of sunk-cost thinking.

[00:04:22]Susan had already invested 12 minutes negotiating the price of this >> [music] >> decorative mahogany reptile. So, walking away without it felt like a profound, unacceptable personal defeat.

[00:04:34]The vendor dropped his price to 22.

[00:04:37]Susan held firm at 15.

[00:04:39]At 4:15 p.m. the ship blew its first warning horn. It is a massive, bone-rattling blast that echoes off the concrete buildings, specifically engineered by maritime architects to trigger a deeply primal sense of panic in wandering tourists.

[00:04:55]Susan heard it. Briefly glanced over the vendor's shoulder toward [music] the massive smoke stack towering above the market. And then looked right back at the stall owner to sternly inform him that $17 was her absolute final offer.

[00:05:08]She stayed rooted to the cracked asphalt for another 22 minutes, locked in a tense, unblinking standoff over a financial difference of less than the cost of a shipboard cappuccino.

[00:05:19]The vendor, worn down by her terrifying Canadian persistence, finally sighed and handed over the wooden turtle for $17 just as the ship blew its final departure blast.

[00:05:30]Susan triumphantly marched back to the cruise terminal. The turtle tucked under her arm like the sacred spoils of a great war. Only to arrive at the edge of the pier and watch the metal gangway being hoisted away from the white hull.

[00:05:43]She stood there in her floral sundress, gripping her hard-won souvenir, Having successfully saved exactly $8, money she would now need to put toward a $900 last-minute flight to Miami.

[00:05:55]Three. Kevin and Diane, a highly successful corporate litigator and real estate broker from Connecticut, approached their European cruise the same way they approached their daily lives, with the absolute certainty that any mistake could simply be negotiated away with a large enough stack of cash.

[00:06:12]Psychologists call this the transactional reality distortion field.

[00:06:16]The deeply ingrained belief held by very wealthy individuals that schedules, rules, and even physical laws are merely suggestions if you are willing to pay a premium fee.

[00:06:26]When the couple lingered entirely too long at a private vineyard in Tuscany, they arrived at the port of Naples at 6:15 p.m. for a strictly enforced 5:30 p.m. departure.

[00:06:36]Most passengers in this scenario would experience profound panic, immediately contact guest services, and begin looking up train schedules to the next port of call in Rome.

[00:06:47]Kevin, however, simply looked out at the Bay of Naples, spotted the 130,000-ton cruise ship roughly a mile offshore, and pulled out his wallet.

[00:06:56]He marched over to a nearby civilian marina, and found a local Italian fisherman who was quietly hosing down a bright red rigid inflatable speedboat.

[00:07:06]Kevin waved a thick stack of euros in the air, slapped 1,500 of them onto the fiberglass console, pointed at the distant floating city, and yelled, "Catch that boat."

[00:07:16]Thus began one of the most spectacularly ill-advised pursuits in maritime history.

[00:07:22]The fisherman, quite happy to earn a month's salary for 20 minutes of driving, slammed the throttle forward.

[00:07:28]The tiny speedboat launched into the choppy Mediterranean waves, violently bouncing over the swells.

[00:07:34]Diane, wearing a $1,200 silk sundress and an oversized designer sun hat, clung to the metal railing for dear life, getting absolutely drenched in salty sea [music] spray.

[00:07:46]Kevin, meanwhile, was having the time of his life.

[00:07:49]He stood near the bow, squinting against the wind, clutching his platinum level cruise card like a badge of absolute authority, completely convinced he was starring in his own James Bond movie.

[00:08:00]After 15 minutes of brutal, bone-jarring navigation, the tiny speedboat pulled directly alongside the cruise ship.

[00:08:07]The scale difference was terrifying.

[00:08:10]Kevin and Diane were bobbing in a tiny rubber and fiberglass tub, staring straight up at a vertical wall of white steel that rose 15 stories into the sky.

[00:08:18][music] Hundreds of passengers on their balconies stopped drinking their sunset cocktails to point and take photos, assuming this was some sort of pre-planned entertainment.

[00:08:28]Kevin began screaming at the bridge, waving his arms and demanding that someone press the button to open a door.

[00:08:34]Then, the impossible happened.

[00:08:37]The massive cruise ship actually slowed down.

[00:08:40]The violent churning of the water subsided.

[00:08:43]Kevin turned to Diane, his face plastered with a massive, arrogant grin, completely vindicated in his worldview that money conquers all.

[00:08:52]Roughly 10 ft above the waterline, a small, square steel panel, the pilot door, hissed and swung open.

[00:09:01]Two ship's officers in pristine white uniforms appeared in the doorway.

[00:09:06]Kevin reached for his soaked wallet, expecting a rope ladder to be thrown down so he could heroically climb aboard and perhaps tip the officers for their trouble.

[00:09:14]He was already rehearsing the incredible story he would tell his friends at the country club.

[00:09:19]But maritime security protocols, specifically the international ISPS code, do not care about your net worth, and they absolutely forbid large commercial vessels from accepting unauthorized passengers from random civilian speedboats in open water.

[00:09:33]The officers did not throw go a ladder.

[00:09:36]Instead, one of them picked up a heavy-duty megaphone while the other leaned out over the open ocean and lowered a bright yellow plastic mop bucket attached to a thick nylon rope.

[00:09:46]The megaphone crackled to life, the officer's voice booming over the sound of the ocean, politely instructing Kevin that he was legally barred from boarding.

[00:09:54]The bucket descended until it bumped against the fiberglass console of the speedboat.

[00:09:59]Inside the bucket were Kevin and Diane's two American passports wrapped securely in a Ziploc bag.

[00:10:05]The officer on the megaphone cheerfully advised the soaked couple to take a train to Rome, wished them a pleasant evening, hauled the empty yellow bucket back up, and immediately slammed the steel door shut.

[00:10:16]The cruise ship's massive engines instantly roared back to life, churning the water into a violent, frothy maelstrom that sent the tiny speedboat spinning wildly in its wake, leaving Kevin standing perfectly still, drenched [music] in Mediterranean seawater, 1,500 euros poorer, holding a Ziploc bag.

[00:10:35]Four, Greg, a software architect from Seattle, suffered from optimization paralysis, treating physical reality like code that executes perfectly, completely ignoring the unpredictable variables of human crowds.

[00:10:49]When his Alaskan cruise docked in Juneau, he consulted a color-coded spreadsheet on his smartphone.

[00:10:54]He calculated that the Mount Roberts Tramway took exactly 6 minutes to descend.

[00:10:59]According to his math, leaving the Alpine Observation Deck at 4:21 p.m. for a 4:30 p.m. all aboard time gave him a comfortable 3-minute buffer.

[00:11:09]It was a triumph of theoretical efficiency.

[00:11:12]What his algorithm completely failed to calculate was the existence of 200 elderly passengers clutching discount coupons, all moving with the urgency of glaciers.

[00:11:22]When Greg arrived at the upper terminal, the queue snaked around the gift shop twice.

[00:11:27]He frantically approached the glass ticket window, shoved his smartphone against the Plexiglas, and demanded priority boarding from the baffled operator because his spreadsheet proved he mathematically deserved [music] it.

[00:11:38]The operator just stared at him blankly and pointed to a hand-painted sign that read, "No skip line."

[00:11:44]At 4:45 p.m., Greg finally crammed into a descending cable car.

[00:11:49]Because the tram is suspended 2,000 ft in the air directly over the harbor, he had the unique privilege of spending his entire 6-minute ride pressed against the glass, enjoying a breathtaking panoramic view of his massive floating hotel gracefully hauling up its ropes and shrinking into the frigid waters of the Gastineau Channel.

[00:12:08]Five. There is a psychological vulnerability known as gamification manipulation, where the promise of a completely worthless prize effortlessly overrides a person's basic risk assessment.

[00:12:19]Patricia and Robert, two highly competitive retired teachers from Vancouver, fell victim to this during a stop in Lisbon, Portugal.

[00:12:27]The cruise director had organized a casual self-guided port scavenger hunt.

[00:12:32]The grand prize for completing the list was a thin canvas tote bag worth approximately [music] $3.

[00:12:39]Patricia, however, approached this crumpled sheet of paper like it was a high-stakes military dossier.

[00:12:45]By 2:30 p.m., they had successfully photographed a blue-tiled wall, a local bakery, and a yellow tram.

[00:12:52]They only needed one final item to achieve total victory.

[00:12:56]A photograph of a very specific, obscure historical monument depicting a bronze seagull.

[00:13:03]The all aboard time was 4:30 p.m.

[00:13:06]Instead of asking a local guide, Robert insisted on using a fragmented, outdated tourist blog he had saved on his tablet.

[00:13:13]This led them completely away from the safety of the waterfront and deep into the winding, vertically punishing residential labyrinth of Lisbon's Alfama neighborhood.

[00:13:23]At 3:45 p.m., they were dripping with sweat and hopelessly lost in a maze of unmarked cobblestone alleys, but Patricia flatly refused to surrender.

[00:13:33]It is genuinely fascinating how the human brain will risk a $3,000 vacation just to secure a cheap piece of promotional merchandise.

[00:13:40]At 4:10 p.m. they finally found the tiny bronze seagull hidden in a forgotten courtyard.

[00:13:46]Patricia aggressively posed in front of it, demanding Robert take three different photos to ensure the lighting was acceptable for the cruise director's judgment.

[00:13:54]Triumphant, they turned around to walk back to the ship, only to realize that navigating down a confusing, multi-level medieval neighborhood is vastly different than walking up one.

[00:14:05]They spent the next 20 minutes speed walking into dead ends, startling local residents, and arguing violently about which way was north.

[00:14:13]They finally burst out onto the main waterfront promenade at exactly 4:38 p.m., completely exhausted, just in time to watch the massive metal gangway being hydraulically pulled into the ship's hull.

[00:14:25]Patricia rushed to the very edge of the concrete pier, completely ignoring the terrifying reality that her floating hotel was currently drifting away toward Spain.

[00:14:34]She didn't wait for help or call out to the dock workers.

[00:14:37]Instead, she desperately held her digital camera high in the air, pointing the glowing screen toward the departing vessel, trying to visually prove to the entertainment staff on the upper decks that she had in fact found the bronze seagull [music] and rightfully earned her tote bag.

[00:14:53]Six. We all know that one person who would genuinely rather walk into traffic than admit they lost a pointless argument. Frank, a retired mechanic from Florida, achieved the incredibly rare feat of getting left behind while standing exactly 50 ft from his cabin balcony.

[00:15:10]He arrived at the security checkpoint in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a comfortable 30 minutes before departure.

[00:15:17]The problem was not time, it was ego.

[00:15:20]Frank had purchased a massive decorative wooden machete in the old city.

[00:15:25]The port security officer politely informed him that 4-ft blades, even souvenir ones, were strictly prohibited on board.

[00:15:34]Frank was given a simple choice.

[00:15:36]Surrender the machete and board the ship, or keep the machete and stay in Puerto Rico.

[00:15:42]Frank possessed that specific type of stubbornness where conceding an argument feels physically painful.

[00:15:48]He declared loudly that he was an American citizen, that the machete was duller than a butter knife, and that he would not be bullied by maritime bureaucracy.

[00:15:57]He crossed his arms, planted his feet on the concrete, and demanded to speak to the captain. The security officer, entirely unfazed by the tantrum, just shrugged and stepped back.

[00:16:08]For 25 minutes, Frank stood on the pier locked in a silent standoff with a security team that had completely stopped caring about him.

[00:16:17]He was so deeply invested in winning the argument that he completely ignored the massive ship next to him blasting its departure horn.

[00:16:24]It wasn't until the gangway was physically lifted by a crane and the mooring rope splashed into the water that the reality of the situation breached his stubbornness.

[00:16:33]He suddenly rushed forward offering to throw the machete into the ocean, but the metal barrier was already locked.

[00:16:39]Frank watched his cruise ship sail away to St. Thomas leaving him alone on the dock proudly clutching a $20 wooden sword.

[00:16:48]Seven. There is a unique psychological flaw found primarily in highly agreeable introverts.

[00:16:54]The paralyzing fear of causing mild social offense, even when physical survival is on the line.

[00:17:01]Martin, a 45-year-old solo traveler from Minnesota, experienced this catastrophic politeness in Roatan, Honduras.

[00:17:09]He had taken a taxi to a remote public beach intending to quietly read a historical biography.

[00:17:15]Instead, [music] he accidentally set up his rented lounge chair roughly 6 ft away from a massive, highly enthusiastic local family celebrating a 50th birthday.

[00:17:24]Within 20 minutes, the patriarch of the family, a booming man named Carlos, handed Martin a plastic cup of homemade rum punch.

[00:17:32]Martin, trapped by his deeply ingrained [music] Midwestern inability to decline hospitality, accepted it.

[00:17:39]This was the fatal error.

[00:17:41]By 2:30 p.m., Martin had been completely absorbed into the family unit like a bewildered hostage.

[00:17:47]He was fed grilled lobster, forced to wear a decorative sombrero, and somehow roped into judging a highly competitive sandcastle contest between three aggressive cousins.

[00:17:57]The all aboard time for his cruise was 4:00 p.m. At 3:15 p.m., Martin knew he desperately needed to leave. He picked up his canvas beach bag and began to quietly formulate an exit strategy.

[00:18:10]But every time he tried to politely excuse himself, Carlos would loudly declare him an honorary brother, physically pushing him back into a lawn chair, and hand him another violently strong beverage. Instead of simply walking away, Martin convinced himself that leaving abruptly would be deeply disrespectful to the local culture.

[00:18:28]It is genuinely astonishing how the human brain will prioritize the temporary feelings of absolute strangers over the very real threat of being stranded in Central America with nothing but a wet swimsuit and a library book.

[00:18:41]At 3:40 p.m., the family brought out a massive sheet cake, and Carlos handed Martin a sleeping toddler to hold while they cut the first slice.

[00:18:49]Martin sat there, sweating profusely, staring at the horizon where his massive ship was anchored, completely immobilized by the weight of a foreign child and his own agonizing courtesy.

[00:19:00]At 3:55 p.m., he finally managed to transfer the toddler to an aunt, mumbled a chaotic apology, and sprinted blindly toward the main road.

[00:19:10]He flagged down a battered taxi, frantically throwing $50 at the driver.

[00:19:15]They careened through the streets of Roatan, Martin clutching his chest in the backseat, smelling strongly of rum and sunscreen.

[00:19:23]He arrived at the port gate at exactly 4:22 p.m., sprinting onto the pier just in time to watch a harbor pilot boat gracefully guide his 4,000 passenger vessel out of the bay.

[00:19:34]He stood on the concrete dock, entirely alone, technically safe from social awkwardness, but facing the profoundly uncomfortable reality of having to explain to an embassy official that he missed his international departure because he didn't want to be rude at a barbecue.

[00:19:50]Eight.

[00:19:51]You would naturally assume that being physically on board the ship 30 minutes before departure guarantees absolute safety, but for Brenda, a retired real estate agent from Texas, extreme proximity to safety was the exact cause of her downfall.

[00:20:05]She suffered from what crew members quietly refer to as VIP delusion.

[00:20:10]Brenda had sailed with this specific cruise line 14 times, accumulating over 100 nights at sea, achieving a premium loyalty status that granted her early boarding, free laundry, and a specialized pin.

[00:20:23]However, she genuinely believed this tier status granted her the unquestionable authority of a decorated naval admiral.

[00:20:31]The ship was docked in St. Martin with an all aboard time of 4:30 p.m.

[00:20:37]At 4:15 p.m., Brenda was safely on board, standing comfortably on her midship balcony.

[00:20:43]She looked down at the concrete pier and realized that a tiny pharmacy located directly outside the security gate sold a very specific brand of French face cream she liked.

[00:20:53]In Brenda's mind, the massive billion-dollar vessel below her simply would not function without her physical presence.

[00:21:01]At 4:22 p.m., she casually strolled down to deck four, scanned her platinum loyalty card, and walked down the gangway.

[00:21:09]The security officer, actively holding a walkie-talkie and preparing to unhook the ropes, warned her that departure was imminent.

[00:21:17]Brenda scoffed, patted the officer on the shoulder, and confidently instructed him to tell the captain to hold the boat for 5 minutes.

[00:21:26]She speed-walked to the pharmacy, spent 6 minutes aggressively debating the exchange rate with a deeply confused cashier, and confidently strolled back to the security checkpoint at 4:34 p.m.

[00:21:38]She found a locked chain-link gate and a completely empty stretch of concrete.

[00:21:43]The metal gangway was already retracted.

[00:21:46]She stood there, holding a tiny plastic shopping bag containing a $20 jar of moisturizer, staring in absolute silent disbelief as the captain, who did not know who Brenda was, did not care about her laundry perks, and was operating under international maritime schedules, smoothly navigated 80,000 tons of steel toward the horizon.

[00:22:06]Nine. Have you ever noticed how the collective intelligence of a friend group drops by roughly 50% the moment you cross an international border?

[00:22:15]The most spectacular port disasters usually do not stem from a single miscalculation, but rather a cascading failure of group loyalty.

[00:22:24]We call this the rescuer's trap.

[00:22:27]It happened to a group of five friends in their late 20s from Boston during a stop in Barcelona.

[00:22:32]The ship was strictly scheduled to depart at 6:00 p.m.

[00:22:36]At 2:00 Java's p.m., the group was exploring the incredibly dense maze-like alleys of the Gothic Quarter, when Sarah realized she had left her designer sunglasses at a tapas restaurant they had visited three blocks back.

[00:22:49]She told the group to wait by a specific stone fountain while she ran back to retrieve them.

[00:22:55]By 3:30 p.m., Sarah had not returned.

[00:22:58]This is where rational adults should alert the authorities or head to the ship, but instead, the group deployed the worst possible strategy, division.

[00:23:07]Mike, deciding he was the natural alpha of the group, told the remaining three to stay put while he executed a solo rescue mission.

[00:23:15]45 minutes passed.

[00:23:18]At 4:15 p.m., Emma and David, now deeply anxious and realizing that the towering medieval stone walls of the Gothic Quarter completely blocked their cell phone GPS signals, decided they couldn't just sit there.

[00:23:31]They left the fountain to go find Mike, leaving only Jason, the most easily distracted member of the group, to hold down the fort.

[00:23:39]By 5:00 p.m., Jason got bored of staring at a gargoyle, reasonably assumed everyone had just gone back to the ship without him, hailed a taxi, and left.

[00:23:48]Meanwhile, Emma and David had successfully located Mike, but none of them could find Sarah, and more importantly, they could no longer find the main road out of the labyrinth.

[00:23:59]They were engaged in a frantic, [music] sweaty power walk through identical-looking cobblestone alleys, relying entirely on Mike's profoundly flawed internal compass.

[00:24:09]At 5:15 p.m., their panic peaked when they turned a corner and walked directly into the middle of a massive, slow-moving local religious procession.

[00:24:18]They spent 20 agonizing minutes physically trapped behind a marching band and a giant wooden float, entirely unable to move forward or backward.

[00:24:27]At 5:45 p.m., the three of them finally burst out onto the main avenue of Las Ramblas, physically exhausted, dripping in sweat, and entirely devoid of hope.

[00:24:38]They flagged down a taxi, screaming at the driver in panicked English, demanding a high-speed extraction to the cruise terminal.

[00:24:45]They arrived at the port gate at exactly 6:08 p.m., hurling themselves out of the car and sprinting toward the berth.

[00:24:52]They reached the edge of the pier perfectly on time to watch the ship's massive side thrusters churning the water, pushing the enormous vessel sideways away from the dock.

[00:25:02]The gangway was already secured inside the hull.

[00:25:05]Mike, Emma, and David collapsed onto their knees on the warm concrete, devastated by the loss of their friend, their vacation, and their luggage.

[00:25:13]They sat there for 15 minutes, silently calculating the absolute financial ruin of buying three last-minute flights to France.

[00:25:21]Suddenly, Mike's phone chimed.

[00:25:24]He had finally connected to the port's public Wi-Fi network.

[00:25:27]It was a text message from Sarah, timestamped 2 hours ago. [music] It read, "Hey guys, got a bit of a sunburn looking for the restaurant, so I just took a cab back early. Saved you some loungers by the aft pool. Jason is here eating fries."

[00:25:41]Mike stared at the glowing screen in total suffocating silence, the brutal reality of the situation washing over him.

[00:25:49]The entire rescue mission, the hours of panic, the battle with the marching band, and their subsequent stranding in Spain were entirely self-inflicted.

[00:25:59]He, Emma, and David had successfully abandoned themselves in a foreign country to save a woman who was currently enjoying a frozen margarita in an air-conditioned ship that was currently sailing to Marseille.

[00:26:11]What connects these disasters is the total suspension of reality.

[00:26:15]That complete detachment from routine makes us think a casual chat at a local barbecue is worth missing an international departure.

[00:26:23]Have you ever been part of a friend group that almost stranded itself out of pure stubbornness? Share it below.

[00:26:29]Subscribe if you want more documented case studies of perfectly normal adults losing their minds in international waters.