In some interesting piece of cruise news, a video has gone viral on social media where a giant fake hand from a cruise ship waves “goodbye” to two people who missed boarding their ship on time and were watching the ship moving away without taking them.

This happened to two passengers from Freedom of the Seas who had a cruise deal with the Royal Caribbean. They missed the ship and had to watch the cruise ship moving away from the pier. This happened in Philipsburg, St. Maarten on Monday.

The “waving episode” video was posted on social media by Cruceros Puerto Rico.

From the video, it was apparent that the officers had a perfect view of the duo. But they must have been helpless as adherence to the timeline is important and understandable.

After waiting for some more time the crew must have decided to leave to be fair with other guests.

The Freedom of the Seas was scheduled to depart Philipsburg, St. Maarten at around 5:00 PM.

The ship was sailing a 7-day Southern Caribbean cruise and will return to its homeport in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 11.

Hilarious timing

The duo’s discomfiture must have trebled when they saw a crew from the bridge waving a large hand with “bye” written on it. Intentional or not, the crew member had the wrong moment to wave goodbye.

He must have been trying to wave at people watching from the other docked vessels and not at the two passengers who missed the ship.

But the attention was on them and the bridge caused the situation to go funny for sure!

The “waving hand” looked unique as well queer. A port worker happened to be with the two guests as they began walking back from Freedom of the Seas captured the waving hand on the camera.

The video posted to Facebook shows the Royal Caribbean ship pulling away from the pier in Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

A man, a likely crew member, seemed to be waving a giant fake hand with the word “bye” on it. The video also shows several other passengers on other boats noticing the couple, with one person shouting, “They missed it!”

For the guests who missed the ship, the options included boarding the ship at its next port of call in St. Kitts, 80 km south in the Eastern Caribbean.

cruise ship
Videos from the Norwegian Breakaway showed the cruise ship being hit by huge waves during the "Bomb Cyclone" in the Atlantic Ocean on Jan. 4, 2018. Getty Images/Chris Ratcliffe

Or flying to some other ports or getting back to the United States. But their belongings are still inside the ship.

Missing the cruise ship departure is no laughing matter and guests should make sure they stay on ship time and report back at the onboard time.

Cruise lines do remind passengers of the back onboard time and ship time. For newbie cruisers, this episode is a wakeup call about how missing the ship can spoil the entire cruise vacation.

Royal Caribbean did not comment.