What happened at Coco Cay?

What happened at coco cay?

Also how did you find the entertainment? and the Food?

We are going Feb 16th and would any info on the ship. Thanks

This is a reply from another thread so as not to hijack the original thread which was asking about refurbishments on Monarch.

The answer is that on 12/2, Monarch anchored off of Coco Cay on a beautiful, mostly sunny day. The water was the smoothest I've seen in the four times I've been there. While I was standing on the beach watching my twi year old and four year old walking through the water it got cold and windy over a period of 5-10 minutes tops.

We saw the approaching cloud cover and decided to call it a day. It was kind of S.S. Minnow lore.

The tender ride back to the ship wasn't all that bad, but the swells peaked at 6-8 feet and the tender was pitching so much that the gangway was damned near hitting the top of the doorway. Thus the problem became getting off of the tender and onto the ship.

After the normal "sideways" approach during which 1/4 of the passengers were off-loaded, the tender changed from the forward hatch to the rear hatch used for the crew entrance (when docked) to try and use the ship to deflect some of the wind and avoid the heavier swells. The tender also took a straight on approach, then the crew formed a human chain from the deck of the tender into the ship. We were eventually able to get off, and the remaining passengers were retrieved from the island in the same fashion, though some tenders took 2 hours to load, transport and unload.

The passengers got wet from sea spray and a bunch were terrified, mostly because of unfamiliarity with the sea-worthiness of the tenders.

Long story short, the weather got real ugly, real quick without any substantial warning. The crew did their damndest to get everyone back aboard and did an amazing job, from an operations standpoint.

Two things they could have done differently, which have no bearing on the physical retrieval of the passengers, but would have calmed everyone, may have kept the little boy from shrieking "I'm going to die" and kept others from breaking out the lifejackets - literally: 1) When the tender pushed back to change hatches, they could have opened the rear door before they closed the front door. Psychologically, it sucked to see us floating away and them closing the door on us; 2) Put a crew member on the tender to explain what was happening. The contractor on the walkie talkie couldn't care less about how the passengers were feeling.

Kudos to Captain Karin and the crew. They played a great hand with the cards they were dealt.

They ceased tender ops for about 1 1/2 hours near noon I was in line to head back, they had a tender fully loaded that sat at the dock for that time, after they resumed, we were on the second tender. We departed near 2 PM. The exit from the cove at Coco Cay was really nerve wracking and the ride to the ship increadibly rough. Several waves came over the bow with such force you would think you were in the water, not on a tender. One wave hit with such force it swept the perscription glasses right off my face and out to sea!!! I really felt bad for the handycapped man tied off on the bow, he really took a beating!!! It took over an hour to get to the ship, tied off ( they almost had in several times but the lines would slack so badly with all the swells it was quite a monumental effort by the crew to get the tender secured to the ship) and unloaded. After getting dried off and changed I watched as the rest returned, one tender tried for over an hour and a half, different hatches on both sides of the ship and eventually they had to return to the island and wait to try again. I want to thank the NCL Gem, (rumor says they left guests on their island overnight) they suspended their attempts to get their passengers and moved the Gem in position to block some of the waves and wind to allow Monarch to finish tender ops. I can't verify but rumors around the ship were several passengers were injured, one diabetic shock from lack of sugar while on one tender and another guest who had to be removed by stretcher. The OP is right the start of the day was super nice, the weather moved in fast and hard. My concern is they have so much electronics on board, why didn't they see this coming, and why did no one warn guests on the island. Not one RCI crew member ever warned anyone they may want to head back, they just kept the music going and served the barbaque as if there was nothing to be concerned about. The crew on the tenders and on board who were trying to secure them, they did a great job, they put themselves at serious risk with only one concern, that all passengers got back as safe as possible!!! I do question the decision to make the stop with that type of weather due before noon.

I seem to remember hearing/seeing somewhere about RCCL buliding a pier at CoCo Cay. Can someone confirm this? It sure would have made a difference on the OP cruise. We're going on the Dec 12th Monarch cruise and stopping at CoCo Cay, hope our weather isn't as bad as thiers were.

You may be thinking of Labadee.

I was on the Gem on 12/02 and saw it..

The Monarch needed to have the Gem block the tide and wind so RCL could tender over 700 of their guests back to the vessel. Wind and waves picked up late morning which caused the mishap..

I was on the Monarch and was lucky enough to still be on the ship when they cancelled the trips to Coco Cay.

Watching from my balcony. some of the tenders looked like the crab boats from the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch", rising up and then diving bow first into the waves.

The captain said that they were well aware of the bad weather moving in but that it arrived sooner than expected.

Some passengers wouldn't buy that. They were surprised that with all of the ship's modern technology, they weren't better prepared.

Welcome to the tropics, folks.......:rolleyes:

Welcome to the tropics' date=' folks.......:rolleyes:[/quote']

 

 

Agreed, I am glad that in the end everone was ok.

 

But, for people to say why didn't they catch it, no matter how good your electronics are, out in the ocean a storm like that can pop up in a matter of minutes.

We had the same problem on Sovereign in Jan. Mom and I were supposed to on the next tender to Coco Cay when the capt. suspended tendering. I was disappointed at that second because the weather didn't appear bad - just a little cloudy. About an hour later, we realized it was a good call and were grateful that mom (who is in a wheelchair) and I weren't among those trying to get back to the ship. We were on the balcony about the ship's door watching the proceedings. The waves were beating like crazy and those poor people were stuck in the tender bobbing around for about an hour before they were able to position the ship to block enough waves for them to make a transfer. Even then, they would send about 3 people then have to wait for the swell to dip before sending more.

I seem to remember hearing/seeing somewhere about RCCL buliding a pier at CoCo Cay. Can someone confirm this? It sure would have made a difference on the OP cruise. We're going on the Dec 12th Monarch cruise and stopping at CoCo Cay, hope our weather isn't as bad as thiers were.

People complain about not being able to tender to Grand Cayman. They have missed this port time and time again. We were able to get to port and had a wonderful day seeing the Sting Rays. We even went to a local bar and had a beer before getting in line to reboard the ship. We were told told that the original dock was closed and we would have to tender from another dock. The seas got rougher and rougher. When we got on the tender I was lifted by two RCI employees on to the tender. There was a drop of several feet between the swells. The sun was still shining in part of the sky, but a storm was coming in. I now understand when they say it is to dangerous to tender. I could stay in a hotel in Grand Caymen alot easier than on Labedee or CocoCay.

We are in Bay View working hurricane Ike losses. All of the monitors and technology can't always pinpoint when a system is going to arrive or exactly where. If they could hundreds of people might not have perished in this storm. I guess that is why they say don't mess with mother nature.

I seem to remember hearing/seeing somewhere about RCCL buliding a pier at CoCo Cay. Can someone confirm this? It sure would have made a difference on the OP cruise. We're going on the Dec 12th Monarch cruise and stopping at CoCo Cay, hope our weather isn't as bad as thiers were.

You are thinking of Labadee, RCI's private "island" off the coast of Haiti. Unfortunately, the water at coco cay is too shallow so even if a pier was built, no ships could dock there. It is my prediction that as the ships larger and tendering becomes more and more of a hassle that eventually the ports requiring tenders will begin to be dropped. (Just look at the itin. that had to be made for Oasis as an example.)

A few years back, I think it was around November 2002, quite a few passengers and crew were stranded over night on Coco Cay, from the Majesty. Blankets, food and medical personnel were sent from the ship to them. Alot of people posted their stories and photos here at CC, at that time. Quite the ordeal! :eek:

To be fair, the Gem also got surprised by the quick weather change. As an avid watersportman, I know wind prediction is one of the most difficult area of weather forecast. And it was all wind driven swell, I did not get the figures, but I figure it was gusting above 30knots, the way the water was spraying off the waves.

The Gem got all their passengers on board on time. We were on the second last tender and it was a ride worthy of Universal studio. The kids loved it.

We did have larger tenders than RCCL.

The captain of the Gem after getting everyone on board, positioned the Gem into the wind to protect the RCCL ship and tenders, and sent some of the NCL tenders to help out.

In the end we stayed behind an extra 60-90minutes. No one complained.

We're going on the Dec 12th Monarch cruise

Flyankfan, join the rest of us at the 12-12 Monarch Roll Call!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=823768&page=7

Storms you can prepare for. Those squalls that come up like that, a lot of times you can't. I grew up on the coast and it can be sunny and warm one minute and stormy, high seas the next. The caribbean is famous for that. Spend a week on one island and you'll see it at least once if not twice during your stay - I guarantee it.

I say kudos to the crews of both ships for doing what they could to protect the passengers the best they could. It does sound like a little communication might have comforted some, but they might have been focusing on just getting people out of those tender boats when the opportunity was there.

Think of this way, no one wants to hear what a great time you had laying on the beach soaking up some sun -- now you have a harrowing tale to tell! Seriously, I'm glad no one was seriously hurt. I think the cruise lines go to great lengths to prepare the best they can for these situations, and it sounds like they did a good job.

We had the same problem on Sovereign in Jan. Mom and I were supposed to on the next tender to Coco Cay when the capt. suspended tendering. I was disappointed at that second because the weather didn't appear bad - just a little cloudy. About an hour later, we realized it was a good call and were grateful that mom (who is in a wheelchair) and I weren't among those trying to get back to the ship. We were on the balcony about the ship's door watching the proceedings. The waves were beating like crazy and those poor people were stuck in the tender bobbing around for about an hour before they were able to position the ship to block enough waves for them to make a transfer. Even then, they would send about 3 people then have to wait for the swell to dip before sending more.

We were on SOS in Jan also when that happened. After waiting on the tender for over an hour, me and another passenger had to use the restroom, so they left us off and told us to hurry. We did, but not fast enough, captain told them to head out and my DH waved to me as he left with the tender and I was left on shore for the next one. Took forever to get them unloaded b/c of the weather then was even worse for us. Gangblank actually got bent from hitting the top of the opening. One or 2 would get off, then we would wait for the waves to die down a little, kept repeating it until we were all off. Casey (the CD) was down there talking to everyone while we were getting back on. Crew did an amazing job of keeping everyone safe and for the most part calm. I was just glad I was on the bottom of the tender and not upstairs. That had to be a real ride!!