kearney

I don't see any options that would have avoided angry customers. Cancelling would have been the best. People would eventually get over having a cruise cancelled once they calmed down and realized why. The people who were actually on the ship, who were traumatized will live with that for a very long time.

 

The best option given that we now know the storm grew larger and became even more powerful than anticipated. If the storm had become less severe and smaller.... we would be saying that they should not have cancelled. The benefit of being able to monday morning quarterback.

Thanks POA thats what I figured. There's an article posted saying RC notified the Coast Guard of the damaged Azipod. So they knowingly lied saying the damages were only cosmetic. Obviously there was no way we could make it to Bahamas and back traveling less than 10 knots, so that was a convenient way to end the trip.

 

Yeh the damages were so serious that only a few hours the USCG allowed the ship to go on. If you read the millions of posts you will find many that corrects the story.

I recognize that bow. Didn't someone earlier in one of these threads insist that was the bow of a freighter? :confused:

 

No, actually someone tried to pass off youtube video as being from the Anthem when it was not. Shot was clearly from something other than a cruise ship... it was pretty funny actually

Cheng is the acronym for Chief Engineer, KP stands for Kings Point, the US Merchant Marine Academy, and 75 is my year of graduation.

 

Did you know a Pete Creagan at Merch Marine Academy. He grew up with my husband. He thinks he was there around the same time.

Actually, changing a propeller in the water is not that uncommon. When Freedom lost a bearing in one pod, in order to reduce drag, since the propeller had to be locked from rotating (to keep from totally destroying the bearing), divers came and removed the blades and the hub presents little resistance or drag. It is just as easy to re-install propeller blades in the water.

 

I'm not saying this is easy, there are about 2 diving companies in the world that will do this, and it takes time to stage the equipment and a good day to just remove the blades.

 

Anthem did not renew blades or propellers. An early article "quoted" a USCG spokesman as saying the "pod was replaced". You don't, over the life of the vessel, replace a pod. That is a major undertaking in a drydock.

 

One of my ships had a stern thruster that was leaking oil. We had the manufacturer's rep come onboard, with a crew of divers, who took the propeller completely off this thruster while in port, and when we needed to get underway, they would lash everything down tight inside the thruster tunnel, and away we would go. It took them a week, and 5 port calls to complete the totally underwater repair.

 

The fact that the ship is underway, essentially on time. Does that suggest the issues were 'relatively minor' or can we now include the USCG in this conspiracy to put passengers lives at risk?

That is not true. The storm was upgraded to hurricane force on Saturday. All of the meteorologists on ABC NYC are confirming that.

 

From what I read they were forecasting winds in the 75-80 mph, which is low end of hurricane scale... cat 1. So yes a hurricane....But it sounds like the winds they had were actually closer to a cat 4... The question is not if a storm was predicted.... there is always a storm.... the question is did they go out knowing they were sailing into a cat 4 level storm? So far it sounds like yes there were going to be hurricane force winds... est cat 1... but what they experienced as an unexpected cat 4.... or there abouts. There is a lot of circular arguments... Did the weather folks miss the forecast and underestimate the seriousness of the storm? See now I can turn this all around and blame the weather folks for once again missing a storm. But I am not doing that.... Stuff happens. Ships sail in bad weather all the time.... cant be avoided or nothing would ever move. You have to make a judgement call. Sometimes it goes against you. I can not believe a captain would risk the lives of his passengers and crew period. Makes no sense. Perhaps there is an opportunity to improve wind forecasting to provide a more timely forecast of increasing winds... assuming ships have not already departed

This seems to support the case that this was something that would have been difficult for the captain to anticipate accurately... since its strength seems to have been unexpected. It seems that it could easily have gone the other way and become a nonevent. Thanks

Kudos to all of you who have been posting your honest observations and accounts from the ship.:) I'm sorry for your experience and your cruise being cut short, and I truly hope you can make sweet lemonade out of the rest of your trip.

 

 

 

You must be talking about my relatives. My last name is MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK!:D:rolleyes::D

 

 

 

 

I don't think that article said anything different than what knowledgeable professionals (including my husband) have been saying...the storm exploded. Everyone knew there would be some rough weather, but 100 + m.p.h. winds weren't forecast, and the storm blew up quickly. It's really no different than a hurricane changing tracks or intensity. In severe weather, people make decisions based on the best information available to them at the time. Unfortunately, weather forecasting isn't an exact science and sometimes conditions are worse than expected. In the case of this Anthem cruise, they were much worse.

 

I know peoples' emotions run high in situations like these, but I really question the motives of people claiming the captain deliberately and intentionally put the passengers, crew, and ship in harm's way.:(

 

I have a question.... if the weather folks knew this was going to be terrible and if it was a hurricane... why no name? Seems to me if this was something everyone should have known about... it would be a named storm. (I am using my husband's cc account... so dont blame him if this is a dumb question)... just wonderin

Excuse me.....don't read well??? You must be new to cruising....as I said in my post which you quoted, USED TO BE......those jackets were indeed kept there until they started doing Muster without them. Long about 2008 or so. You used to have to take them out of the closet, put them on and go downstairs to your station to do the drill.

 

I can't tell you the number of times I stepped on the straps of someone's life vest. Also, people who put them on in their staterooms had trouble navigating the stairs. Now they keep them at muster stations. Safer for the drill... which happens each cruise. However, I think it would be wise to let people know where they are kept at muster station. Under an emergency situation your crew member may not be at the muster station soon enough. Just a thought.

My husband and I tried MYD and we were usually seated at a table for two, except for one night when were were asked if we minded sharing.

 

I think if you make reservations you generally get in a bit faster, we never had to wait more than 30 seconds.

 

If there are shows you are interested in you can make reservations for the shows on the website (assuming you made travel arrangements with Royal directly... not sure you can do so otherwise). One you do that then make MTD reservations... allow 2 hours.. although it generally took less time.

 

Observation .... if you go with fixed seating, it is difficult to see the shows if you go to the late seating... early seating is better if you plan to see shows... just an observation

We were on the Oct 31 cruise. Our first on Oasis. I expected it to feel crowded, but it was not as bad as I expected. I think this was due to a few extra steps we took before leaving.

1) we booked dinner the first night at one of the specialty restaurants. People forget about them until they are on the cruise. The first night or two in the dining room can be a bit crazy

2) we made our reservations for various shows and then made MTD dinner reservations. We never had to wait more than about 30 seconds to be seated for dinner.

 

The windjammer is crazy on every ship we have been on. We tried eating some of our lunches at some of the other options or came a bit early or a bit late to the windjammer. We also ate some of our breakfasts at Johnny Rockets and in the main dining room. I do not like the windjammer to be honest. I think people tend to gravitate there out of habit from previous cruises. There are other options. We had dinner one night at the solarium bistro and it was empty... only 20% full... it was fabulous.

 

We ended up with a cabin near the rear elevators. Surprisingly quiet.... this put Central Park, the Boardwalk, Royal Promenade and dining room all within easy reach of an elevator ride. My husband had knee surgery recently so easy access was important. The only real hikes were to the Opal Theater and the Solarium.

 

We are not sun people, so if deck 15 was crowded, I can not say. I found the freedom class to be more of a problem from a crowd standpoint. I think it has to do with the Oasis having more elevators and larger elevators. Never saw the gym on this trip. My husband was not up to working out, so we did not check this out nor the spa. I love the different feels of the various parts of the ship.

Any word from passengers boarding and leaving on the Oasis??

 

I noticed she is still in port (webcam) What time is she scheduled to leave? Was she delayed just because of getting back late? Or are there investigations to be done?

 

We were about an hour late due to the rescue efforts

Captain told us that security was alerted to a domestic disturbance by people near the cabin. When they arrived a woman answered the door and the man headed out the balcony. They alerted the bridge that there was a potential man overboard situation. Bridge slowed down the ship. Meanwhile guy jumped off ship landing on the area supporting the life boat. A member of the beverage staff was in the area and was the one who grabbed the guy and tried to hold onto him (frankly risking his own life) when the guy fell the bridge hit a button which established where he went overboard and they began the rescue efforts while also sending message to coast guard and a general alert to any ships in the area. Alas we had six to seven foot sees, it was dark and it was raining. Difficult task in daylight with clear sky's. My husband and I did not realize what was going on until 8am. We noticed on tha tv that we were not heading in the right direction, but it never occurred to us that we were circling. The incident occurred around 1am, and we were still circling at 8am. Soon the coast guard released the Oasis. The oasis teem searched for some 7+ hours. Captain noted that the currents were very strong in this area. I believe they now keep life vests near muster areas. Too many people tripping over the belts and in case of emergency it is a long way to go to get your life vest before going to muster station. Although in this case it might have been helpful to have a vest tossed overboard with it's blinking light. Not sure it would have been anywhere near the victim..but it might have provided some visual assistance

I have not been on this class ship before. I burn just thinking about the sun, but I like to sit and read. On other ships I have found chairs in the shade... near Windjammer, in the Solarium and also on deck 5 (the muster deck on some class of ships). Looking at photos, it looks like there is little shade anywhere near the pools and the Solarium looks very sunny as well... any ideas?

Regarding up coming Oasis cruise. Looks like most of storm will be further north by sailing time. I think the question will be how hard was Nassau hit. The port cam suggests that other more easterly areas took the brunt of the storm. So you might luck out as far as itinerary. You might have your friends pack sea sickness meds. These should be taken before you get symptoms. Down side is drowsiness. I have tried wrist bands designed for this purpose and they worked for me. I have never tried a patch. I was on a hurricane cruise once with RC and the captain tried to out run it going around Cuba. He was successful, but it was quiet a ride.

We are on Oasis at the end of the month.

Enjoyed your review. This will be our first cruise on Oasis. I can appreciate the comments about Ocean views. The Radiance class, which is a smaller ship, always impressed me with the ocean views all around the ship including the elevator areas, various restaurants, bars etc. I noticed the lack of views .... at least from the deck plans. It will be interesting to see if I notice this once on board. My husband injured his leg and has trouble walking, so we sprung for a balcony cabin, should he feel he needs to take a break from walking. One reason I like the speciallty restaurants is the view of the ocean, we are going to try the Solarium bistro... I am going to miss the Viking Lounge... one of our favorite places to sit an look out at the ocean.... How was the solarium area during cocktail hour? I am hoping it will be a nice alternative t the Viking lounge... which on the Oasis is now where the suites have their special dining/bar area. Thank you for the information.