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

[Chella]

Well, I for one think they need to send God a court order today. And get some answers:p Aren't people funny?

The concept of rouge wave seems to be escaping a lot of folks..

 

Amazes me that people who were not on this cruise can make comments. I bet if it happened to them, they would be singing a different tune. I was there and know what took place. The Captain had no right taking us thru that storm. It did not just happen upon us, it was sitting out over the ocean from Wednesday (I watched it on CNN news in my cabin.) The Captain had orders to get that ship back to NY by 5:00 AM and that is what he was trying to do, regardless of weather conditions.

[CHUD]

Why am I wasting my time? :rolleyes:

 

NCL went above and beyond in their handling of this situation. They didn't have to give these people anything but they gave refunds and cruise credit. Why is everyone so suspicious of large companies? Everyone wants to find someone to blame. Sometimes there is no one to blame. Things happen sometimes for NO REASON. There doesn't always have to be someone to blame.

 

NCL was dishonest about everything regarding the itinerary changes and only a few of the 2000+ passengers were notified, actually the notification was emailed at 11 on Friday 4/8, even at that, a little late to change one's vacation plans. The passengers on this cruise, minus the "wave" already lost the port of Nassau, spend way too much time on their island, GSC, drinking and spending money on NCL, which would have been spend in Nassau instead, then back to Miami, "overnight???" we left the port at about 2 am? We rode right into a storm that was predicted and the captain and NCL knew about well in advance, yet did nothing to even try to avoid it or to turn around until the ship sustained damage. The coast guard ships were following us most of the night. All of you who think the angry passengers have no reason to be angry at NCL - well if you are willing to spend thousands of dollars to have your cruise cut short and changed because of an agenda with "the Donald" good for you. We work hard for our money and don't take enough vacations, we at least deserve some type of consideration for our comfort factor, as well as the ship's seaworthiness. NCL lied and lied about why the changes and why the rush to NYC, that they chanced going thru a storm that was bad enough for many hours prior to the wave hitting the ship. They need a wake up call and as long as people continue to defend this corporation for it's greed, nothing will change. People end up paying as much, if not more on NCL freestyle, since there are cover charges for some of the restaurants, and the food is the same in all the rest of them, except for salsa as long as you like tex mex food.

:cool:

[Chella]

: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!!

 

I agree with you 100%. I was on deck 10 when this happened. Everything you have written is true. I find it sad that people who were not on this cruise can make comments about "dealing with it", "get over it" etc. I blame the Captain and Corporate Headquarters. Their only concern was to get the ship back to NY by 5:00 AM. But what upsets me more, is the fact that they constantly lied to us. Those 4 Miami reps that came on board Thursday didn't have any info for us. All they kept saying was "I don't know the reason why and will check into it". What was the purpose of them being there? I'm thinking they were there because they were needed in NY for the Trump appearance. I may be wrong, but I doubt it. From a "special event in NY" to putting "special equipment" on ship is far from the truth. Thanks to the NY Post Newspaper, the truth finally came out about Trump, which NCL denied at first. I was glad to see that you also heard the Captain say he called the Coast Guard. I called NCL Guest Relations today and was told the Captain never made that announcement and that it was a passenger that called the Coast Guard. More lies, even after it all happened. Shame on you NCL for putting us thru this terrible experience and not caring about the welfare of the crew and passengers (865 of which were children.)

[johnql]

Amazes me that people who were not on this cruise can make comments.

Why does that amaze you? As Americans, we are called upon all the time to judge incidents (and crimes) that we know nothing about beforehand. In fact, that's the foundation of our judicial system - to find a jury that is not biased and look at all the evidence with an objective eye. It means listening to witnesses and getting as accurate a picture as possible of what actually occurred. In this case (the Dawn wave incident), that's what we who weren't on the ship are attempting to do. Making comments and asking questions are part of the process. The only thing that I know is true is that there is no ONE truth. No single passenger or crew member can lay claim to THE truth. Every individual has a perception of what he/she went through, and that perception is valid to that person. But everybody knows that a perception is colored by past experience, expectations, and personal bias. We who weren't on the Dawn have to read as many accounts as possible and try to separate the hysterical from the well-reasoned, the biased from the balanced. The only way to do that is use common sense and our own backgrounds (cruising and otherwise) to formulate an opinion. Just because we weren't there doesn't mean we can't use our imagination, empathy and common sense to figure out what makes sense and what doesn't.

[discjoker]

Why does that amaze you? As Americans, we are called upon all the time to judge incidents (and crimes) that we know nothing about beforehand. In fact, that's the foundation of our judicial system - to find a jury that is not biased and look at all the evidence with an objective eye. It means listening to witnesses and getting as accurate a picture as possible of what actually occurred. In this case (the Dawn wave incident), that's what we who weren't on the ship are attempting to do. Making comments and asking questions are part of the process. The only thing that I know is true is that there is no ONE truth. No single passenger or crew member can lay claim to THE truth. Every individual has a perception of what he/she went through, and that perception is valid to that person. But everybody knows that a perception is colored by past experience, expectations, and personal bias. We who weren't on the Dawn have to read as many accounts as possible and try to separate the hysterical from the well-reasoned, the biased from the balanced. The only way to do that is use common sense and our own backgrounds (cruising and otherwise) to formulate an opinion. Just because we weren't there doesn't mean we can't use our imagination, empathy and common sense to figure out what makes sense and what doesn't.

 

Very well said!

[Chella]

Why does that amaze you? As Americans, we are called upon all the time to judge incidents (and crimes) that we know nothing about beforehand. In fact, that's the foundation of our judicial system - to find a jury that is not biased and look at all the evidence with an objective eye. It means listening to witnesses and getting as accurate a picture as possible of what actually occurred. In this case (the Dawn wave incident), that's what we who weren't on the ship are attempting to do. Making comments and asking questions are part of the process. The only thing that I know is true is that there is no ONE truth. No single passenger or crew member can lay claim to THE truth. Every individual has a perception of what he/she went through, and that perception is valid to that person. But everybody knows that a perception is colored by past experience, expectations, and personal bias. We who weren't on the Dawn have to read as many accounts as possible and try to separate the hysterical from the well-reasoned, the biased from the balanced. The only way to do that is use common sense and our own backgrounds (cruising and otherwise) to formulate an opinion. Just because we weren't there doesn't mean we can't use our imagination, empathy and common sense to figure out what makes sense and what doesn't.

 

Well put John...I was referring to those that are making light of a bad situation....especially to the one that suggested sending God court papers. Only 1 thing is for sure, those of us on the ship know what we saw and heard and what the Captain did and didn't do. And not to mention all the lies NCL Corporate threw at us during this entire cruise and it was posted in the newspapers. :)

[jamesmiller11]

Just curious, does anyone know of another cruise line that did or has shortened a cruise for advertising reasons like the Dawn's "Apprentice" schtick?I am just wondering if cruise lines cancel or shorten ports for promo reasons on a regular basis?:confused: I haven't heard of this before but now I guess it may happen all the time.

[shoreguy]

NCL was dishonest about everything regarding the itinerary changes and only a few of the 2000+ passengers were notified, actually the notification was emailed at 11 on Friday 4/8, even at that, a little late to change one's vacation plans. :

 

If you want to call someone dishonest base it on facts. From April 6th on the CC roll call for this cruise:

 

WAIT UNTIL YOU HEAR THIS ONE....TRAVEL AGENT JUST CALLED ...BECAUSE OF SOME SPECIAL EVENT AT THE PIER ON APRIL 17TH WE WILL BE ARRIVING AT 5AM AND ARE EXPECTED TO BE OFF THE SHIP BY 7:30 AM. WE WILL BE GOING TO CAPE CANAVERAL FOR A LONGER TIME...THEN TO THE PRIVATE ISLAND....THEN TO MIAMI AND THEN HOME. NO STOP IN NASSAU. WE ARE GETTING ROYALLY SCREWED... AND according to the fine print...we have no recourse. I am soooooo angry about this. Check with your travel agents...

They could at least have given us Key West. This stinks. Time to look into another line....

 

Not that she was happy but your statment has a big hole it. These are the things that juries make decisions on.

[shoreguy]

Just curious, does anyone know of another cruise line that did or has shortened a cruise for advertising reasons like the Dawn's "Apprentice" schtick?I am just wondering if cruise lines cancel or shorten ports for promo reasons on a regular basis?:confused: I haven't heard of this before but now I guess it may happen all the time.

 

Yes the QM2 did last year - the QM2 "Apprentice" schtick

[UnhappyPassenger]

I must say it is very hard to go through some of these messages and read what is being said from people who were not even on this cruise ship. Do not get me wrong I do not thing that NCL was completely at fault for what happened on our way back to New York City, nature certainly had its part. And leaving from New York is certainly safe - the weather has always been an issue. But I believe the captain had much pressure added on him to be back in port at 5 a.m. had he not had that pressure he would have been smart enough to stay behind the storm. I do not think that people realize that it was not a freak wave. Starting very early Friday morning we were experiencing 20 foot waves and intense wind at sea, the captain announced that he was going to speed up the ship so that when we met rougher condition he could slow down. Later that day at about 8 p.m., we began hitting the 40+ foot waves. The captain told us he had to ride the waves out because it was the safest option. We experienced these waves ALL NIGHT LONG. My family was up in Cagney's when another big wave hit that send glass, plates, food, etc. flying across the room. We went back down to our staterooms COVERED in glass and other items and completely drenched. All of the people in our party of 17 thought we were going to die.. it had to be the scariest experience of our lives. People were calling their family members saying goodbye! And people still have the balls to blow it off. Yes some people were taking it too far.. but if you were on that ship you would know that there was no way we would have survived had the ship begun to take on any significant amounts of water. And when he announced at 1:30 a.m. that at 1:15 a.m. he called the cost guard "just to let them know we are out here".. it certaintly brought about another wave of panic. And yes the ship was definitely slowed to 6 knots or less. Our stabilizers were not working we were going so slow. I am certainly not saying criticizing anyone or trying to be a drama queen, but I just feel that everyone needs to know how scary a feeling it was to be on that ship, I thought I was going to die. It was awful. And yes it certainly is old news and people need to move on because that is all you can do.

[Chella]

If you want to call someone dishonest base it on facts. From April 6th on the CC roll call for this cruise:

 

 

 

Not that she was happy but your statment has a big hole it. These are the things that juries make decisions on.

 

Not all the passengers were notified of the itinerary change. We found out when we got to the NY Port. I called my travel agent and was told they never received any notices from NCL, and proceeded to make a 3 way call to NCL. I heard my travel agent tell NCL the noticed was never received.

[Carolyn1950]

UnhappyPassenger, I was on the Sea during hurricane Ivan and we hit some very rough water.. The dining rooms had the dishes broken, all the shelving in the gift shop came loose and flew across the room, the liquor is the store was all broken. We spent the night falling out of the air and banging on the bed and trying to hang on. All of the drawers in our cabin flew across the room and some had tv's flying across their cabins.. At times my evening dress would appear to be hanging completely sideways from the roll of the ship..

 

One thing you said that struck a cord with me was until you are very very scared you don't know what it is like.. I listened to the ship's rudders sorta free spinning most of the night and I thought perhaps we might sink. The Sea was rocking from side to side instead of back and forth and I have just enough knowledge to know that was not a good thing.. I certainly understand and sypathize with you being afraid.. It is not fun...

 

But I went back again in Feb. and am going sailing again in Oct.. I figure what are the chances of it happening twice?;)

[shoreguy]

Not all the passengers were notified of the itinerary change. We found out when we got to the NY Port. I called my travel agent and was told they never received any notices from NCL, and proceeded to make a 3 way call to NCL. I heard my travel agent tell NCL the noticed was never received.

 

I would have a conversation with my TA. Was it never received or never read. If you think it is important to find out if in fact anyone was dishonest.

[UnhappyPassenger]

Oh I will definitely go on a cruise again, it is true.. how can it actually happen two times in a row. Our cabin experienced the same thing.. we were falling off the bed, drawers were flying, glasses were flying.. everything was shifting, falling, breaking. It is just so upsetting to me that people can be blowing it off when I know that if they were on that cruise ship they certainly would be singing a different tune.

[WaldosPepper]

... It is just so upsetting to me that people can be blowing it off when I know that if they were on that cruise ship they certainly would be singing a different tune.

 

Someone wouldn't necessarily have to have been on that exact cruise to have experienced the same or similar. Many who have cruised more than once have had harrowing experiences. Click here to read about my last "adventure": http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=93856 it may help you understand how often these types of things actually do happen. Smashing dishes, flying drawers, flying televisions, closed decks, waves over the highest decks, etc, are not as uncommon as many folks believe.

 

No one is "blowing it off" - they are simply attempting to smooth out the over-the-top dramatics that some exiting passengers engaged in. The news media has had a field day with this event, and it's really about time the whole furor died down now. :)

[jamesmiller11]

Thank you Shoreguy. I was thinking that type of itinerary changes may happen quite a bit. Since a ship is only in it's originating port a few hours per week, a cruise line may try to schedule photo ops or advertising during that short period before passenger turn over again.

[BreezieNJ]

They have lied about everything, why would they change things now? He deffinatly said HE called the coast guard. I remember this because this is when I really panicked. There were alot of people that didn't know about the itinerary changes until we got there....the poor people that were getting married in Miami....all there plans were ruined. They had like 20 people with them and had to scrabble to even get married. I found out the Friday night before we were leaving, I was packed and the kids were off school. I couldn't cancel. Plus we were told we would be compensated. Yeah sure. We didn't even get the full port charges back.It just kills me that we saved for 2 years for this aggravation. Oh well.:(

[EscapeFromConnecticut]

From a "special event in NY" to putting "special equipment" on ship is far from the truth. Thanks to the NY Post Newspaper, the truth finally came out about Trump, which NCL denied at first .... Shame on you NCL for putting us thru this terrible experience and not caring about the welfare of the crew and passengers (865 of which were children.)

 

 

Very well said, Chella. The press-bashing that we've seen on CC in the past couple of days is ludicrous and empty-headed, and the NY Post story demonstrates that very well.

The media didn't sail into a ferocious storm, and neither did trial lawyers. NCL did.

(Interestingly, it's often the press that reveals the reality behind the corporate spin put out by the cruise lines .... the repeated fiascos with Carnival's Tropicale come to mind, along with the December mess with the Carnival Holiday. If you were counting on the cruise companys p.r. department for facts in those situations, you were gonna be left with a LOT of KoolAid)

[jaxon41]

I started reading this thread to find out what happened on the Dawn -- I was in DC when it happened, away from the home computer, and I was very interested when I heard the story -- even hung around the tv when a teaser came on. I jumped to this page (7) after reading very dismissive posts by others on page one. I couldn't help but think there was more to what happened than the spin I was hearing -- as one who used to be in the business (spin, not travel), I know damage control happens fast and furious -- the truth comes out later. I am just so sorry for what the passengers had to go through, and yes, as some of the first posters have said, much is to be learned from every "near miss", just as it is from an actual "hit" -- how do you think we got air bags, or something better than a pinto to drive, or the TSA?

 

From what I have read here from passengers -- I will NEVER sail NCL. But then, it sounds like they might have some financial problems very soon -- some here, on the first page, really don't understand the value of the plaintiff's bar in making the world safer for all of us.

 

For those unfortunate passengers, if your allegations are indeed true, and I am not doubting you but understand that there has to be proximate cause between the occurance and beating the clock to meet with The Donald, I would stay on top of the investigation WITH MY CONGRESSPERSON!

[lmvenice]

Do you understand that this was a ROGUE WAVE? A wave out of nowhere? Something that no one could have predicted.

Yea, a magical, mystical, untraceable, “rogue wave”, how convenient.

 

We weren’t in the Bermuda Triangle… or were we?

[BoscoBreaux]

Is it the Coast Guard or the NTSB(the national transportation safety board) or someone else? I know NTSB is doing the investigation on the Norway(which it hasn't completed two years later). The NTSB investigates every incident on a plane when someone is injured(and sometimes when an incident takes place if no one is injured)

 

I believe I read somewhere that the NTSB will be involved. If it can be determined that the captain refused to deviate his course, a course that a "reasonable" captain would be have determined to be too risky, then damages--much more than a free cruise--are appropriate. We don't know what happened, or what was communicated to and from the Captain, so it is foolish to say the Captain, or NCL, acted appropriately. What we DO know does not look good for NCL, nor the Captain, but only time will tell. If someone finds even one email or letter stressing the importance of an early Sunday arrival...NCL better have tons of liability insurance.

[smeyer418]

No one email or even many won't by itself make NCL liable. It still has to be shown that the decision was the proximate cause of the injuries. Also since no one was seriously hurt, the inconvenience of a day(which would have been lost any way of they divereted) won't make for a large penalty. The pain and suffereing of those who had to endure the pounding may be compensible. But I must say if it was my vacation cut short a day for Donnie Trump I would be highly upset..........

[snuckems]

I got a friend who's in the CG, and he tells me that the CG office in Charleston is conducting an investigation. My friend says that the Capt had the NOAA Ocean Prediction Center's forecast 24 hours ahead of the storm with Gale and Storm warnings for the area the ship sailed in.

[arby70]

I think I would have been terrified as well. I can't imagine how scary it all was, especially if you had children with you. We went through a storm too on our first cruise once we were out in the open ocean on our Alaska cruise, but I never felt like we were at all in danger. No 70' waves though. I would like to think that I could just throw the frightening experience to the wind, so to speak, like some of the other passengers on the ship. But I'm sure I would have been shaking in my shoes. I am not certain if I would get back on a ship or not had I gone through this storm, but I hope I don't have to find out. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[MrPete]

It is just so upsetting to me that people can be blowing it off when I know that if they were on that cruise ship they certainly would be singing a different tune.

 

Picture somewhere in the future, when something like this happens again (just like everything happens before), and you come on to post you opinion based on your experience, and you are told, "How could you possibly know....you weren't on the ship?"

 

 

:eek: