So who has had a disaster experience while on a cruise?

[Cruzin-K]

Well, I don't think my "disaster" comes even close to the 9/11 stories. My heart goes out to people who were in the Twin Towers and Pentagon that awful day. :( I was in Saudi Arabia working and it was after work, around 4 in the afternoon when we heard about it. My whole office just stood around the snowy TV in the conference room watching everything unfold. It was very hard to be stuck there for another week before I could fly home (to Germany, my home at the time)

 

My cruise disaster was on Carnival (of course). It was my 40th birthday cruise. The cabin next door had a pipe burst which affected my cabin in the form of a rain shower from the ceiling, onto my computer, and drenching the carpet. It was damp for the next three days. That same cruise passengers couldn't get off the ship in Barbados for quite a while after arriving - some sort of customs clearance issue with the port. All excursions were delayed and the crowd waiting to get off went up the stairs all the way to Deck 4 - quite the fire hazard. My excursions that day were rushed and still got back to the ship late. Room service one morning didn't arrive at all and the next day, maybe because I complained, they arrived a half hour early -when I was in the shower :eek: It was one of those cruises where it was one thing after another that went wrong. Nothing was a major disaster but overall, my big 4-0 kinda stunk.

[JAMESCC]

I was along with everyone on board almost killed on my first cruise ever on the "Crown Princess". Listed almost over so far we almost capsized! Oh what fun that was! JC

[lovesublime]

Badger, thanks for posting that. I missed it the first time you shared your story. Now, just after reading your harrowing tale, I'm exhausted and about to break down sobbing. I feel like I was there.

[Robin7]

My 'disaster' isn't really a disaster, but it's one of my favorite stories from cruising:

 

1993, Regal Princess to Alaska. 19 of us, a cruise with my husband's family, including his grandparents.

 

Formal night. I was wearing a beautiful, very expensive, ivory dress.

 

Back then, Princess served the side dishes at the table. The assistant waiter would go from guest to guest and, using a spoon and fork as tongs (they were not hooked together), give you as much or as little of the side dish as you wanted. That fateful night he offered me some gorgeous glazed carrots. I nodded and said, "Yes, please." He proceeded to serve the carrots to my lap! They hit right above my napkin and then bounced into my covered lap, unfortunately staining my beautiful dress. As far as I knew, we'd never heard the assistant steward say anything in English. When those carrots hit my dress, he very clearly, very loudly, said, "Oh. My. God."

 

The captain for our area (do they even have those any more?) rushed over and assured me that my dress would be cleaned. I went back to our stateroom and changed into my other formal outfit, leaving the dress out where our steward could find it. Later that evening when we returned to our stateroom, it was still there. I shrugged and figured it would be taken care of in the morning and forgot about it.

 

The next morning, the phone rang. It was quite early. I grabbed it and answered it in a haze from being in a deep, deep sleep. A deep voice says, "Good morning! I understand we had an accident last night." Me in my best Mickey Mouse voice, "WE DID?!?!?!?!?" :eek: I could not imagine what had happened. Abandoning ship flashed through my mind, and I smacked my husband and yelled at him to get up and get dressed. Then the voice continued, "Yes. In the dining room. I'm here to pick up your dress." Ooooooooooooh! I was never so glad to have a stained dress!!! :D

 

Now you have to know that this was our third cruise, our third time on a ship with engine problems, the second time we had to miss a port during a trip, and I was beginning to think that I was a jinx. So it was entirely possible that we DID have an accident the night before! ;)

 

Robin

[Gilgo Surfer]

This one time, my watch was slow and I missed last call.:)

Edited June 19, 2010 by Gilgo Surfer

[madforcruising]

I was on with my entire family (all adults) when we hit a reef in St Maarten, had to abandon ship around 11 PM all 3000 passengers waited on the pier all night finally around 7AM we were put on a bus and taken to a resort; A NUDEST RESORT. RCI was great under the circumstances and we re-took the same cruise the next year.

 

 

Wasn´t that the best solution for a ships load of cruisers that had to leave in their jammies;):p:D

[madforcruising]

I came home from a cruise the same day you left. I cannot imagine being away from home and finding out about 9/11.

 

Oh my gosh. I can't even imagine. What port were you in that day? I was at sea when we "declared war" on Iraq, but that's obviously totally different. Wow.

 

 

I´ve been on a TA on 09/11. We were in the middle of the Atlantic with no more ports of call until reaching our final destination Boston.

 

I happened to walk into the Internet cafe onboard about when the news came on of the first plane hitting the tower. At that time being in the middle of nowhere we had no TV reception. The Internet was the onlky source of information and besides me there were just two more people at the time following the news. I couldn´t believe what I saw at first. I then went to inform some friends onboard about what happened.

It took a while and some inquiring of the passengers until someone on the ship acknowledged the situation with an announcement. But I´m sure they were as much in shock as everybody else, not knowing how to handle the situation in the beginning. Later on they opened up the internet for all and those with relatives in the Boston / New York / DC area where given free phone calls as well.

Internet of course was hard to come by from then on. Mind you this was at a time without any WiFi onboard and all we had was the few terminals in the cafe to use. There were lines 24/7. I got up at 3am sometimes just to get to a computer and there were still lines.

 

Of course nobody knew what would happen once we arrive in Boston.

 

Debarkation was not a good experience, with all the added security and the ship arriving to the US for the first time after the european season we didn´t debark until 3pm. There was also a lot of confusion about where to go after being off the ship. They kept telling us no flights out of Boston and to go to the Boston Sheraton, which RCI booked Hotel rooms for everybody at. (RCI paid for those). Now waiting for debarkation we saw the planes coming into Boston airport all morning.

 

At the Sheraton Hotel they had set up a couple of RCI agents with laptops to rearrange flights (and with couple I really mean two!:eek:).

 

It took me a while waiting in a loooooong line to get there and was told numerous times along the way to check-in and come back later, which I didn´t as I thought the line wouldn´t be shorter later. Once I got to the front I was first told they couldn´t help me as I booked the Air/Sea package with RCI Europe and they would only help US folks:eek::mad:, but a few words from me later;) they took action to look into it, just to tell me - "What are you doing here? You should be checking in at the airport right now for your flight!":eek:

So off I ran to find my luggage, which was I happend to find out now they had lost - but I found it for them sitting in front of the Hotel sitting on the side walk unattended.:rolleyes:

Off I went in a taxi to the airport, checking in with plenty of time as my flight was delayed to past midnight and gave plenty of time to handsearch my checked luggage, strip search myself and send my carry on through the scanner like 10 times. They sent it through, opened it, looked for what it´s in there and send it through again to look what stuff looks like on their screens. I got the impression the were still learning how to look at things. BTW taxi costs were reimburrsed by RCI later, as I had transfers booked.

 

I don´t blame anyone for the rather unpleasant situation as I think they all tried their best to handle a one of a kind situation nobody was prepared for. It was not something I want to experience again and the vacation mood onboard changed for sure, but I still was able to make enjoy my vacation overall.

 

09/11 was a desaster for sure, but even with the after effects of it impacting part of my cruise - it was not a desaster for me. The way many others were affected by this in no way compare to some inconvenience I had to go through.

[lkdrymom]

My first cruise ever was on the Celebrity Zenith to Bermuda. We left out of NYC on 9/8/01. We arrived in Bermuda a half day late due to out running Hurricane Erin. On Tuesday we went to Horseshoe Bay. That has to be the most beautiful spot on the Earth. Saw alot of people huddled by the radio. I found out that something bad had happened in NYC. When we got back to the ship there were millitary all over the place. The news was on but the pictures were blacked out. We received very little info. Ended up leaving early and they took us to Baltimore. Celebrity sent buses up from Florida to take us to to areas in the NYC area. We opted for Newark airport and caught a cab home. They gave the entire ship 25% towards a future cruise.

[AFS1970]

This one time, my watch was slow and I missed last call.

 

Stop it, you are frightening us.

[guyver]

I consider this a disaster:

One week before our cruise to Mex Riviera, I had my teeth cleaned. I have a crown in front tooth (lost tooth in the 80's riding bike in empty pool). I felt that it was loose, so I told the dentist. He said no, its ok. I said again, it feels loose, he said no, it's cemented.

 

One week later, I was snorkeling somewhere in the middle of P.V... I come up from the water and my friend says, dude, what happened to your tooth? I said, wuff toof? Oh no, it was GONE!!!!!!!!! I dove down and could not find it! I went into panic mode, wondering how I would survive a week on a ship with no toof! I got out and searched for a dentist, but it was siesta time, so everyone was closed! I panicked even more, knowing that I would be auditioning for the talent show, as Elvis, with jumpsuit and all, but with no TOOF! I started knocking on dentist office doors, finally someone answered. I explained to them the situation... and they fixed it! But, the dammnn tooth was the size of a CHIKLET! I guess that was better than no tooth!

 

This is too funny!!:D How about some before and after photos?:D:D

[knittinggirl]

On our first cruise, we were 8 hours late getting back to port on the last day, due to fog in Key West. We missed our flights, they rescheduled, and on the way to the gate, our bus broke down in the airport. We were too late getting to the gate. The last flight of the day was gone. RCI put us with a suite in the Hilton and supplied food vouchers!

 

For this cruise, we'd booked our air via RCI as well as getting Cruise Insurance through RCI.

[cereo]

Don't worry, there's got to be a morning after.

 

Now THAT was hilarious!! Um, is my age showing?:o

Oh no, the tune is stuck in my head again...it took me something lile 4 years to get it out last time!!

[cruisebunnies]

Last year we were on Mariner and we (there was 4 of us) had reservations at Chops. Around 4:30 I was coming back to my room and my boyfriend is standing outside our room while there is staff all over and the rooms across from us were flooded. As I get closer to my room, my BF tells me we cant go into ours yet. while it was not flooded, the carpet was drenched and the bathrooms were soaked. So here I am getting disappointed that we are going to miss our dinner reservations when one of the head cabin managers comes over to me and tells me not to worry he will take care of everything. Our room stewart shows up with cleaning supplies in hand, sanatizes the bathroom so I can get ready, while other crew is trying to mop up the water. I ask about moving our reservations to the next hour and the staff look at me with a smile and tell me not to worry we will be seated as soon as we are ready. When we finally make it up to the restuarant we are treated like gold. They comped our bill and brought us a nice bottle of wine to make up for it. This was so nice considering the only thing I asked for was to move our reservations up an hour. I love RCCL!!! They really do go above and beyond.

 

The sinking of the Titanic was a disaster.Unless the ship you are on sinks there are only inconveniences.

[BillOh]

Since air traffic had been stalled, we had to rent a car in FL and drive back to Maine after we left the ship.

 

This thread got me wondering about that. I didn't cruise for the first time until 2006, but I traveled heavily by air since the 80s. I was wondering how hard it was to rent a car one way with so many people stuck away from home. Many times rental car companies don't want to rent to one way customers. I wondered how many cruisers had to find busses or pay for expensive rental cars to get home.

 

To keep with the "disaster theme" I'm pretty lucky, in 4 cruises my biggest disaster was on our 2nd cruise. RCI had scheduled Majesty and Sovereign into Coco Cay the same day. Not knowing this, we ate breakfast in the WJ and let people who had early excursions have the early tenders thinking we would stroll over around 9 or 10am. Well the two ships caused a tender shortage and every one leaving for the island was full until after noon. We didn't get ashore until 12:45 and only caught a short bit of the BBQ lunch. That is my biggest cruising disaster :)

Edited June 23, 2010 by BillOh

[katz]

The only disasters I have experienced is on day seven or twelve, when they make me get off the ship. I found that the kicking and screaming does not make them feel sorry for you, and the tranquilizer gun hurts.

[misskelsey]

The only disasters I have experienced is on day seven or twelve, when they make me get off the ship. I found that the kicking and screaming does not make them feel sorry for you, and the tranquilizer gun hurts.

 

 

LOL! I feel the same way.

[iicurious]

the closest I can come to a disaster was being on a cruise with Carnivel when Wilma decided to pay a visit. I got to spend 6 days at sea going in circles. My lovely trip was only suppose to be 5 days but an extra day was added on as tornadoes had hit the port of Tampa the night before and they had to re- dredge the channel. Figured if I could make it through that cruise without getting sea sick I could handle anything. I can still here the cruise director in my nightmares saying it wasnt about the destination, the fun ship was the destination....:eek:

[Maybaybie10]

This thread got me wondering about that. I didn't cruise for the first time until 2006, but I traveled heavily by air since the 80s. I was wondering how hard it was to rent a car one way with so many people stuck away from home. Many times rental car companies don't want to rent to one way customers. I wondered how many cruisers had to find busses or pay for expensive rental cars to get home.

 

:)

 

Well interestingly enough, shortly (a few days) after 911 the rental companies put a stop to the one-way rentals due to the fact that the terrorists had rented cars in Maine (what a terrible way to finally get our little state mentioned on the news) and dropped the cars in Boston to board their flights. Once my Mom (who was at home in Maine) realized that we wouldn't be able to fly home, she immediately rented us a car before we had even made any contact with her. She later told me when I contacted her via the free e-mail RCI provided. Luckily since she had it already rented, we were allowed to drive it from FL to Boston where we had left our car before we boarded our flight to Florida. As I understand it there were a lot of people stranded as they were not allowing one-way rentals for a long time after 911- not sure what the policy is today. We were lucky and it also goes to show that it doesn't matter how old you are, your Mom will always worry and always try and take care of you! :)

[tazdeb]

I was in St. Paul on 9/11 and they would not let me rent a one way to Chicago so I took the round trip rate, drove it to Ohare and paid the $150 drop charge......it was worth it to be with my family.

[aqhacruiser]

A friend of mine was on a Carnival ship out of NYC on 9/11. They were in Halifax that morning and she said people were running down the street yelling that NY was attacked. They ducked into a store where people had gathered around a TV to see what was going on and then everyone headed back to the ship. She said the people in Halifax were wonderful that day and were helping others find cabs, buses whatever they needed to get back to the ship. They were leaving port and then there had been a bomb threat so had to wait until the ship was inspected before they sailed. They could not return to NY and were kept out at sea a few days and she said Carnival was absolutely wonderful. They let everyone make calls for free, free internet, free alcohol, they did everything they could to help people reach family members to be sure they were ok, etc. Finally they were allowed to dock in Boston where buses were waiting to drive them back to NYC and other areas as the ship could still not return to NYC.

Halifax played a key role that day in that many airplanes had to land there as ATC had to get all the planes down asap. People were met at the airports that day by locals who took them into their homes, helped them find places to stay, gave them phones, food, money whatever they needed for a few days until they were able to fly out again or find other transportation to get home. It wasn't widely reported as there were so many things going on at that time but Halifax did a really good job that day.

[okimot]

It was our silver wedding and we had docked at Pireaus in Greece. My wife had sprained her ankle so we went to see the doctor when we got back onto the ship. He asked if we had seen the Tv. When we got back to the cabin, my wife tried to say I had the wrong channel as it was being shown on most of them on the TV on the stateroom.

[MysteryMe]

There was the time we paid to have our luggage transferred from our hotel to the ship, and it didn't get transferred. All we had was the clothes on our backs, our cameras, and the stuff we needed to board the ship (passports, ID, credit card). Our stuff was air-freighted to us and reached us on the 6th night of our 7 night cruise. Didn't even bother to unpack anything...

 

We do things differently now.... :o

[BunkerVA]

I am a survivor of the 9/11 attack on the WTC. I was 52 floors up in Tower 2. Made it out with a 1/2 hour to spare before the building came down. 298 of my colleagues never made it out.

 

 

Carol

 

I don't even have words to convey how truly sorry I am for you, your friends and colleagues... I'm so thankful you are here to cruise with us! :)

 

I don't think there are many who could forget where they were on 9/11. I was in the DMV getting my new driver's license. I had just gotten married on 8/6 on Carnival's Imagination. (My biggest cruise disaster...not the marriage (LOL), the wedding...) I was leaving the DMV and listening to a radio station that had a pretty irreverent (and, in my opinion, hysterical) group of hosts in the morning and one of them managed to get their mother on the phone in Lower Manhattan. I was driving down the road thinking "wow, guys. This just isn't funny. Seriously screwed up." and then I got home and realized it was true. We lived in an area with a high military and CIA presence. My mother got through from Canada and wanted me to get in the car and drive home immediately. Of course, the border was closed (not to mention 800 miles away) so I stayed where I was, but I do remember the overwhelming desire to be with my family. My husband was interviewing with Southwest Airlines that day in Nashville.

[Adri204]

I was supposed to fly the day of 9/11 and I got a phone call from my mom who I was flying with to get on the phone. It was still early early in Alaska and we turned on the TV. I was at a friends house and anyway I will never forget that. We had to postpone our trip for a week. It was such a shocking time. I had no trouble postponing our trip in fact that was a good thing as it was better to be at home for it.

 

Adri

[klfhngr]

This is too funny!!:D How about some before and after photos?:D:D

 

Lol, not sure if I still have any, lol! I'll look! Don't laugh at my huge chopper, lol!!!