This keeps happening to me, and maybe it happens to some other knights.
I would go onto the lift, and then if I'm experiencing lag, I don't get the option to choose whether to quit the expedition or advance. The timer then ends, and I'm automatically taken down to the next level if I have CE.
But I DON'T want to use my CE to continue.
It would be nice if there was an option in the settings you could toggle to send your knight to haven automatically rather than down the clockworks when the timer ends.
There's a little button under the "Advance Now" button, named "Quit Expedition". Click it, and you magically teleport to Haven! (sarcasm end)