Does any one know who will conduct an investigation of the incident on the Dawn?

[jimbug]

You guys need to remember something - had the rogue wave not occurred, the storm the Dawn went through would have been barely mentioned on these boards. Perhaps returning cruisers might have said something about it in their reviews, but it certainly wouldn't have taken over the boards as it has now. Ships do go through storms all the time...while they are not pleasant, they are not huge deals in the scheme of things. Without the rogue wave, this one would barely have been a blip on our radar screen of cruise info.

 

As for the rogue wave, everyone needs to understand that rogue waves can happen with OR without a storm. They are very rare, and occur when a multitude of waves happen to be at the right place/right time to combine frequencies and such. (At least, that's the "simplest" definition I can type without going into a long discussion via my meteorologist husband). That rogue wave that hit the Dawn likely had nothing at all to do with the storm the ship had just encountered. There is no way the Captain or NCL or anyone else, for that matter, is at fault for the wave. There is no way it could have been foreseen or predicted...it could have happened coming from the calmest waters.

 

Just keep things in perspective. I realize things were very scary for those onboard the Dawn, but without the wave, it would have been "just a storm."

[JenX]

That rogue wave that hit the Dawn likely had nothing at all to do with the storm the ship had just encountered.

 

LMFAO!!:D

[zygmund]

It seems that many of you Cruisers have blind faith in the Captain. I've been on the Splendour of the Seas and had Itineraries changed due to bad weather. The Captain kept waiting for instructions from the Miami Office as to how to proceed. Nobody has explained the ships searchlight aimed foward all night. Without the rugue wave, running in such seas causing children to scream all night long is not operating the ship in a safe and secure manner as far as I am concerned.

[shoreguy]

Forget the big wave for a moment. Why but passengers in 25 to 40 foot seas at all? It just seems like an risk not worth taking.

 

 

They do it every other week or so all fall winter and spring. It is the Atlantic ocean not the inside passage.

[woodz]

Quote: "Forget the big wave for a moment. Why but passengers in 25 to 40 foot seas at all? It just seems like an risk not worth taking."

 

We were on the Star when it was going out to Fanning Island in Feb. of it's first year. We had huge waves (18 plus feet) I had read obout it on CC before we went and we made sure we had our patches. Are you saying that the captain risked our lives?

 

Out of our 14 cruises we have had good weather and bad. Be glad you are safe. I didn't notice that any pax's demanded an investigation during our extra long, violent hurricane season this year.

 

There are certain risks you need to understand when you travel. I used to be afraid to fly but I was able to overcome the fright with the thought that the Captain doesn't want to crash and wants to get home safe just as much as I do. You are being well compensated for an "act of nature".

Learn and live better for the experience.

[ECCruise]

Seems there is a widespread flaw in thinking here that seems to be all over these boards, namely, "the Captain would do nothing that would endanger the ship, the passengers or the crew." If that were the case, it is nice to know that there has never been a case of a Captain (or an Airline Pilot, or a truck driver or an engineer) doing anything that that would endanger life or property. There have never been train accidents where engineers have made mistakes about rail crossings, the Exxon Valdez never happened, never any fatalities on the highway due to wrong judgements made by truck or bus drivers, etc., etc.

 

So either these posters who 100% back NCL and their actions either live in a dream world, OR, have a big political ax to grind (see all the posts regarding "personal responsibility" and "here come the lawsuits").

 

Give it some time. Let an investigation, if it is needed, happen. Don't assume that there will be lawsuits. Let the issues sort themselves out in good time. THAT is the American way.

[AstridSJ]

This is a quote from a webpage from a major news media

 

 

The storm-battered ship Norwegian Dawn was coming back to New York through gale-force winds to make a scheduled TV shoot for "The Apprentice" -- a product placement that cost the cruise company more than $1 million, sources said Tuesday.

Donald Trump confirmed that the ship -- slammed by a 70-foot "freak wave" during the storm -- was slated to be shot in New York early Sunday morning for an episode of his show.

 

"We would love to have had them, but obviously they weren't able to make it," Trump told The Post.

 

Norwegian Cruise Line admitted the ship's return had been pushed up a week before departure -- from 10 a.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. -- but attributed the change to "operational reasons" and refused to elaborate.

 

But a source close to the show said Norwegian paid Trump's producers a seven-figure sum for the ship to appear in the show -- a big marketing coup. "They wanted to be on 'The Apprentice' because it's such a hot show," the source said.

 

Shaken passengers returned to New York a day late Monday morning, telling horror stories of the all-night storm and freak wave that struck on the way from the Bahamas

[greenie]

If you read the reports, they were stuck in bad weather for ALMOST 14 hours of this cruise. The rough seas started Friday by guest accounts. Regardless of the Rogue wave, I don't see any evidence that the Skipper was planning to work around this storm.

 

I'm set to sail on the Dawn(deck 9) on 5/01. I'm obviously concerned by the news here. Freak waves happen, but the fact that Stuebing would not work out a better storm plan is just plain crazy. Your passenger's experience(and safety) are paramount on a successful cruise. Avoiding rough seas and keeping the propellers in the water to me is a sign of a good captain. The Dawn had the hell beaten out of hit for a almost half a day before this rogue wave made an appearance. To me, that makes me pensive about the pilot!

 

For my first cruise experience, I took the Carnival Victory up to Halifax and Sydney. The north Atlantic is notorious for rough seas that have entombed even some of the great liners. On our last day at sea, Hurrican Juan was directly in our path. Like a great captain, he planned an alernate route and took us around the storm(at high speed) and made it to NY on time. My wife and slept through the whole ordeal and didn't find out about it until the cruise director told us the next morning.

 

I don't know the exact situation with the weather, so excuse my anxiety as it has me speculating. The coast guard was quoted as saying they knew about the stormy conditions and had been following the storm for quite some time. Couple that with the fact that the Dawn's arrival in NY was moved up to make way for a special event on board, and I'm very skeptical at this point. In many ways (so long as my room isn't cancelled), I'm hoping the recent proximity to my sail date has the captain and crew on notice to check the doppler every once and a while. Hopefully we'll have smooth sailing!!

 

I understand what you're saying, DragonLips, and you have some good points. (AND you sound reasonable, which is a pleasure ;) ) I can understand your concern regarding the possibility of going through a storm on your (and my!) upcoming cruise. I guess I just have an awful lot of faith in the Captains of these vessels--perhaps it's because I grew up in a boating family. Perhaps it's wrong in every case to HAVE such faith. But I do. I believe the Captain knew what he was doing. The Coast Guard report backs that up, and I have faith in them, too.

 

I hope you and DW don't worry too much. I think you are right--everyone will be on their "best navigational behavior" now, so we'll be safer than ever! :)

 

Hope you guys will stop by The Star Bar on 5/2 at 10:30am-11:30am for our Cruise Critics Meet & Greet! We can all reassure each other. :D

[gemsm]

Forget the big wave for a moment. Why but passengers in 25 to 40 foot seas at all? It just seems like an risk not worth taking.

 

Happens all the time...Anyone who has ever done a Western Carribean cruise can tell you that. That is the normal sea size in the Florida Straits but usually you are going faster and the stabilizers aren't retracted so you don't notice it as much. It wasn't the size of the seas that caused an issue it was the fact that the waves were much closer together than normal that made it feel rougher than "rough seas"

[greenie]

It seems that many of you Cruisers have blind faith in the Captain. I've been on the Splendour of the Seas and had Itineraries changed due to bad weather. The Captain kept waiting for instructions from the Miami Office as to how to proceed. Nobody has explained the ships searchlight aimed foward all night. Without the rugue wave, running in such seas causing children to scream all night long is not operating the ship in a safe and secure manner as far as I am concerned.

 

 

Why does having a searchlight aimed forward at night during a heavy storm seem odd to you? There are waves to be visually assessed, possibly other ships out there which you would like to be double sure are aware of you, etc etc. When I pilot a motorboat at night and it's windy with a cloud cover, you betcha I have my brightest most far-reaching light aimed forward. Why would it be any different for a big ship? :confused:

[ECCruise]

Why does having a searchlight aimed forward at night during a heavy storm seem odd to you? There are waves to be visually assessed, possibly other ships out there which you would like to be double sure are aware of you, etc etc. When I pilot a motorboat at night and it's windy with a cloud cover, you betcha I have my brightest most far-reaching light aimed forward. Why would it be any different for a big ship? :confused:

 

Maybe cause it is rarely if ever seen. Have been on 18 cruises including some real wild nights in the Aegean, the Gulf of Lyon, the Pacific and never once saw forward search light.

[futaba951]

I'm not faulting the captain. He did a wonderful job under the conditions. The bottom line is we should not have even entered the storm.

 

When we were pulling into Charleston, there were between 10 to 15 freighter ships (some as big or larger than our ship) that were scattered about the intercoastal area. They got out of the deeper Atlantic Ocean and out of the middle of the storm. Did they have a different weather forcast than us?

 

We should have done the same thing. That's all.

 

You DID do the same thing.

[ilovecruisincelebrity]

Personally i have actually been in this kind of mess if you would like to call it that so i know pretty mush what happens when there is damage on a cruise ship. In july of 2002 i was supposed to go on the celebrity summit for a 7 night cruise so i went to the peir and i heard that we would not sail that day... well it was another 48 hours until we set sail out of Seward. The reason why we didn't leave was because the Summit had a 10 foot hole in the starboard ballest tank. THe people who have to inspest the cruise ship is the coast guard and the cruise ships insurance company

[DAWNTRUTH]

:mad: I was on the Norwegian Dawn when the supposed FREAK WAVE struck. My question is how to you call it a freak wave when the Capt. Peterstam steered us right into the middle of a tropical storm. First of all they changed our itinerary to leave for NYC earlier than we should have been because they paid Donald Trump $1 million to film the Apprentice on their ship. So we left Miami at 1:00 a.m. Friday morning. At approximately 5:30 a.m. in Northern Florida the seas were rougher than usual. At 9:30 a.m. the Captain announces that we are headed into a storm and that the seas will become rougher through out the day with high winds. (A storm we knew was out there it was seen on CNN ALL WEEK!!) And drinks are on the house!! They had to drain the pools because we were getting hit with 27 1/2 to 50 ft waves all day. By dinner time glasses and dishes were FLYING off the table. The crew members couldn't even keep their balance. We tried to go to bed but the beds were rolling all over the room draws were flying open, things were flying off shelves. In the casino a slot machine fell on a woman's leg and broken. Passengers were having panic attacks all day. It was not normal. This was my 5th cruise and I have never been brought into the eye of a storm. At about 1:00 a.m. I fell out of the bed and hit my head. At 1:30 a.m. the Captain announces that he has notified the Coast Guard of our position and that we are 100% safe. (SURE WE ARE!!) In the mean time I was on deck 5 water was tricking in through the windows the sirens and emergency lights went on. At that time I took my children and went to deck 7 to find there were hundreds of passengers on the floors with pillows and blankets just as petrified as I was. I didn't sleep all night I just sat on the floor and prayed next to my children. At approximately 6:30 a.m. Saturday things got worse that is when we got hit with 70 to 80 ft waves (PLURAL). The windows on Deck 10 got broken and flooded Deck 9 also 62 cabins. That is when they called out Alpha 9 (whatever that means). I met the families whose cabins got flooded and they were terrified!!! That is when the jaccuzzi's also flew off the ship. I have never heard of that happening before. At that point I went over to the information desk very nicely and asked one of the crew if we were going back to a port because this was terrifying. She told me I could jump off the ship and start swimming. (That was very professional) My husband was there and was ready to strangle her so she ran to the back office and was never seen again that day. In the mean time we were still get hit with high waves. At about 10:30 a.m. they told us we would be allowed a free 3 minute to call home. At that time passengers started calling the Coast Guard to notify them what was happening. At 11:30 a.m. the Captain announces that he would be turning the ship around back to Charleston, South Carolina (THANK GOD AT THAT POINT WE HAD BEEN BOUNCED AROUND FOR 30 HOURS!!!) BUT DRINKS WERE ON THE HOUSE!! DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THAT IS we were listing back and forth for 2 hours it felt like we were going to tip over!!! Finally about 2:30 p.m. Saturday we hit the calmer waters and 4:30 pulled into port. At 7:00 p.m. I got off the ship took the bus to the Amtrak train station to go home. I had enough of that awful, terrifying trip. The Captain should never be at the helm of the ship again and Corporate should be brought up on charges. This is no exaggeration. They risked the lives of 2500 passengers and 1300 crew members. Just to get back early and film the apprentice on the ship.

 

THAT IS THE TRUTH!!

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

Seems there is a widespread flaw in thinking here that seems to be all over these boards, namely, "the Captain would do nothing that would endanger the ship, the passengers or the crew." If that were the case, it is nice to know that there has never been a case of a Captain (or an Airline Pilot, or a truck driver or an engineer) doing anything that that would endanger life or property. There have never been train accidents where engineers have made mistakes about rail crossings, the Exxon Valdez never happened, never any fatalities on the highway due to wrong judgements made by truck or bus drivers, etc., etc.

 

So either these posters who 100% back NCL and their actions either live in a dream world, OR, have a big political ax to grind (see all the posts regarding "personal responsibility" and "here come the lawsuits").

 

Give it some time. Let an investigation, if it is needed, happen. Don't assume that there will be lawsuits. Let the issues sort themselves out in good time. THAT is the American way.

 

Thanks for giving us one of the very few rational and civil posts to appear on this subject.

It's been a solid half-week of ludicrous, churlish posts along the lines of "How dare you question a captain?," "blame the press," "blame the passengers," "blame the lawyers," "stop whining about a little water" and "how dare anyone doubt the motives of a multinational corporation?" Just mindless drivel and kneejerk nonsense of the worst kind.

The credibility of scores of CC posters has dropped wildly in the past few days. So it was a relief this afternoon to read some commonsense thinking on the subject. Thank you, ECCruise. Well done.

[CrazyMums]

That is when the jaccuzzi's also flew off the ship.THAT IS THE TRUTH!!

 

There were pictures posted of the Dawn after it returned to port that clearly showed the jaccuzzi's. I wonder how they took those pictures if they "flew off the ship". Truth?

[smeyer418]

What it shows are the shells. If You look inside the inards are toast...

[CrazyMums]

What it shows are the shells. If You look inside the inards are toast...

 

Thank you for the clarification - I stand corrected. It must have been a very frightening experience even without the 70 ft. wave.

[Cinnamon Seahorse]

It wasn't the first time it has happened, and it won't be the last. After the incident with the Dawn last week I pulled out my scrapbook from my October 1997 sailing on the Norwegian Crown. We had one really rough day of sailing on our way to Bermuda, and I spent the day in bed as that was what my stomach was recommending. Later in the day one of my cabinmates came in and advised the Captain had told everyone to stay inside. Gale force winds made it unsafe for people to be out on deck. The following morning there was a great photo available for purchase in the photo gallery--one of the ship's photographers had captured a wave crashing over the bow of the ship and onto the decks. The picture is incredible and makes me wonder why I wasn't sicker. Not for a minute did I ever think our safety was in jeopardy. When we headed down the southern US coast, Hurricane Mitch was active. The captain had us stay overnight in Savannah so the storm could move further offshore. The corporate policy was a certain number of miles (and Mitch was further away than that), but the captain's personal policy was 50 miles further than corporate. I look forward to my upcoming cruises with NCL.

 

Astrid SJ--I love your dancing kitty!

[vllygrrl]

You DID do the same thing.

 

No, we did it because the ship was damaged, not to get out of the storm.

[vllygrrl]

There were pictures posted of the Dawn after it returned to port that clearly showed the jaccuzzi's. I wonder how they took those pictures if they "flew off the ship". Truth?

 

It was actually the crews jacuzzi's, which are located much lower near the bow of the ship

[zygmund]

NCL also charged each passenger on the trip a Port Fee for Nassau. I requested that Fee be refunded and was flatly told we are not refunding the Fee! Just one more instance of NCL arrogance. I paid $165.00 in port Fees for the trip I don't know exactly how much of that was for Nassau but since we did not go there why wasn't that portion of the Fee returned?

[Cruisin Kay D]

There is a new thread today by "gigsjp" Full Dawn Cruise Review 4/10 (our long story)... or something like that. At bottom of his writeup is a link to 2 sets of photos -- including 2 of the storm damage of front end where crew jacuzzis were -- it's the forms that's still there & looks like the "innerds" are gone -- also a rather bent up railing laying to the right.

[smeyer418]

NCL also charged each passenger on the trip a Port Fee for Nassau. I requested that Fee be refunded and was flatly told we are not refunding the Fee! Just one more instance of NCL arrogance. I paid $165.00 in port Fees for the trip I don't know exactly how much of that was for Nassau but since we did not go there why wasn't that portion of the Fee returned?

As reported else where what are called "port fees" are now really denominated as non-commissonable charges(that is the TA is not paid a percentage). They cover expendables such as food, fuel etc not only port charges. So it may in fact cost more when they don't hit a port - not less. In any case they should recompte this and pay you back the part they didn't earn...

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

Huh? :eek: How can there be a connection. What? The sea gods were upset that the ship left earlier than usual? This is a random, freak occurance. There is no question to answer. This could have happened if they left earlier, normal time, or later. No one knows when something like this will happen. Just like an earthquake. Gee, if I am visiting California and I am scheduled to leave from LAX on Delta airlines at 12:05 but my flight is delayed by three hours and in those three hours a major earthquake happens am I going to blame Delta airlines for that? I don't think so. :rolleyes:

 

Don't quote me on this because it is only what I heard on the news but when they left Miami 1 day early they were well aware of the storms. They had to make it back because there was some type of meeting with Donald Trump. It had to do with the Apprentice.

Of course they couldn't control the rogue wave cause that is something that just happens without any warning but the storms should have been avoided. But the news is almost always exaggerated and I wasn't on the ship so I really can't say what is the truth or what was right or wrong.