Carnival ship returned to port Nov 4?

[travel-to-go]

Just left Key West yesterday, Tuesday, Nov 5th. While watching the sunset, Monday, the 4th, we noticed a Carnival ship turning around and heading back into port, at what appeared, from our vantage point, at the Casa marina long pier to be the Navy docks. Is this a scheduled thing, to be out of the port at sunset, per the Key West ordinance? Or was there a medical or other emergency on board? Does anyone know?

Just curious. I thought it odd.

[bhopal21]

Just left Key West yesterday, Tuesday, Nov 5th. While watching the sunset, Monday, the 4th, we noticed a Carnival ship turning around and heading back into port, at what appeared, from our vantage point, at the Casa marina long pier to be the Navy docks. Is this a scheduled thing, to be out of the port at sunset, per the Key West ordinance? Or was there a medical or other emergency on board? Does anyone know?

Just curious. I thought it odd.

 

Carnival Imagination was scheduled to port at pier B The Westin Hotel from 0730-1330 yesterday so it should have been gone long before sunset.

 

Mike:)

[Aquahound]

Just left Key West yesterday, Tuesday, Nov 5th. While watching the sunset, Monday, the 4th, we noticed a Carnival ship turning around and heading back into port, at what appeared, from our vantage point, at the Casa marina long pier to be the Navy docks. Is this a scheduled thing, to be out of the port at sunset, per the Key West ordinance? Or was there a medical or other emergency on board? Does anyone know?

Just curious. I thought it odd.

 

It was the Fascination. There was a medical emergency on board. A young woman experienced a miscarriage. Shortly after the ship left, they turned around and came back.

Edited November 6, 2013 by Aquahound

[jasminelee]

I don't know about being out of the port by sunset, but we are sailing to KW on Dec 8 and are scheduled to be in port until 8pm.

[travel-to-go]

Aqua hound. Thanks for the answer. We've been on board ships which had to make emergency ports, one on New Year's Eve. And I lost an uncle at the start of a long cruise to Tahiti two years ago. I feel bad for the woman, here she is celebrating a cruise and an upcoming child, and lost both. That is awful. I wish her the best.

Jasminee, I don't know if the rule has changed, but when Key West built the new pier and expanded cruise ship service fifteen years ago, the rule was, they had to be out of the port by Sunset. They make a lot of money and a name for themselves by their famous sunset celebration on Mallory Square with buskers performing all sorts of acts. I remember being on the pier, where the Peter Mayer Band was playing (Peter is a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer band as well as an accomplished musician on his own,) was singing his song, "Oh, Susannah, (when the sun goes down)" timed for the moment of the sunset, when a Carnival ship pulled out of port at the exact wrong moment, billowing clouds of foul diesel smoke and soot and pumping its loud horn. They got a one finger salute from three thousand people on the pier.

It completely blocked our view of the sunset we had all paid a lot of money to see!

[Aquahound]

Aqua hound. Thanks for the answer. We've been on board ships which had to make emergency ports, one on New Year's Eve. And I lost an uncle at the start of a long cruise to Tahiti two years ago. I feel bad for the woman, here she is celebrating a cruise and an upcoming child, and lost both. That is awful. I wish her the best.

Jasminee, I don't know if the rule has changed, but when Key West built the new pier and expanded cruise ship service fifteen years ago, the rule was, they had to be out of the port by Sunset. They make a lot of money and a name for themselves by their famous sunset celebration on Mallory Square with buskers performing all sorts of acts. I remember being on the pier, where the Peter Mayer Band was playing (Peter is a member of Jimmy Buffett's Coral Reefer band as well as an accomplished musician on his own,) was singing his song, "Oh, Susannah, (when the sun goes down)" timed for the moment of the sunset, when a Carnival ship pulled out of port at the exact wrong moment, billowing clouds of foul diesel smoke and soot and pumping its loud horn. They got a one finger salute from three thousand people on the pier.

It completely blocked our view of the sunset we had all paid a lot of money to see!

 

First, very sorry to hear about your uncle. That must have been a very tough experience. :(

 

Ref the sunset, the rules have changed a little since then. Key West does allow a certain number of ships per year to stay past sunset. However, when that happens, it'll almost never be on the Mallory Square dock anymore. It'll either be Pier B or the Outer Mole.

 

By the way, I also may have been one of those people throwing the one finger salute. That sounds familiar and back then, I never missed a Parrothead event. ;)

[travel-to-go]

Paul, I think that was maybe 1999. I can check. And thank you for your condolences. It was harder on my aunt and three cousins. It is amazing what you have to go through when someone dies at sea. I think it was their second day out, on a thirty day cruise to Tahiti. He was kept alive for several days, and died before dawn on the day they were returning to Hawaii. They had to return, as it was too far for the Coast Guard to airlift him off. He had to be repatriated and declared dead by a medical examiner on shore. The family ended up opting for cremation and a memorial service back home in Marietta, GA. He was my father's youngest brother, and so much like my Dad, whom I was already grieving. My Uncle Sidney had been a man amongst men. The Atlanta Constitution ran an obit/ news story on his passing.

I'm thinking the offending ship passing (leaving a few minutes late) might have been October 22, 1999. We were on the Hilton Pier B, for our Sunset Celebration (private) at MOTM (Meeting of the Minds) Annual Parrothead Convention. Can't find my badge from 1998. So not positive which one. Peter Mayer was playing his song, "Oh , Suzannah, (when the sun goes down) " as that carnival ship steamed past the Hilton Pier. Right between us and the sunset.

Just returned from this year's convention. It was my first attempt at air travel since a very damaging heart attack April 22, 2012. My heart is fine, but I went into shock and organs failed. I have lung damage which keeps me on oxygen, 24x7. I don't know if I am ever going to be able to take another cruise, first because the logistics are difficult, and secondly, I no longer have a job, since my doctors still have not released me back to work and I have used up my benefits. I am "separated from my company" (involuntarily) on Long Term Disability, for half my base pay (and I made a lot more than base, due to OT call-outs, night work, etc that paid for our cruises.) our favored line was Cunard, though we also had a number of trips on HAL, one on Royal Carib, one on Carnival (not my style) and one on the defunct Seabreeze ( Premier, I think- I forget!) my favorite of all time was on the QE2 including crossing directly over the wreck of the Titanic on the anniversary of the loss, laying a wreath over the spot. We crossed to England, took the Eurostar through the chunnel and spent three days in Paris, and returned on the QM2.

Many happy cruises to you!