How to leave a cruise ship mid-sail

My family and I were at sea, off the Bahamas, on the Disney Wonder recently when we received a phone call informing us that my wife's mother had passed away. We were told that there was no way to get off the ship, but I know of other people who have done so under similar circumstances. When is early disembarking allowed?
Fred Shaneybrook
Phoenix, Maryland

Passengers are taken off a ship that's at sea only in medical emergencies. In cases such as yours, a guest services representative usually works with the family to arrange a flight from the next port of call. At the time you received the sad news, however, there was little more than a day left until your ship returned to Florida. Even if the Wonder had been docked at Disney's private Castaway Cay and you had made your way to a Bahamian airport by small boat, you wouldn't have gotten home any sooner. "If a ship is in the open sea," says a Disney representative, "unless a passenger is in critical condition, it's a matter of seeing where the best place to get them off the ship is. But really, that's the nature of being at sea—you're sort of stuck."

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