Holland America Worker Assaults Female Passenger

[kirin]

That's a very good question, kirin. I wasn't worried about a repeat bad performance on the cruise to Bermuda, because the horrible incident took place while we were on a tender, and the cruise to Bermuda didn't involve any tendering.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I can understand. I have had bad experiences while tendering. I'm just glad you weren't seriously injured and are still enjoying cruising.

 

Kate

[kitty9]

No, I didn't realize it because the opposite thing happened to my traveling companion and me on a Celebrity cruise. We were 2 of approx. 96 people who were treated absolutely abominably on the cruise. Everyone on the ship knew about it, because they made several public address announcements about it. Whenever people brought the subject up, I said that I was one of the people involved. I was always asked if Celebrity had asked me to sign something. I always said no. Then I was asked if Celebrity had offered me any compensation. I always said that they hadn't offered me even one penny.

 

I never contacted Celebrity about this or even told any officer on the ship that I thought I deserved compensation. However, a couple of days after the cruise, Celebrity called my friend and me, and we told them how horribly we had been treated. We did not ask for anything, but we said that we hadn't been offered even one penny while on the ship. A couple of days later, Celebrity called us back and offered us enough cruise credit to pay for a cruise to Bermuda, including port charges and autograts. We accepted.

 

However, they never asked us to sign anything at all, so we felt free while on our cruise to Bermuda to tell everyone the circumstances that led us to being on that ship.

 

That is why I am surprised to hear that Disney makes people sign non-disclosures saying that they won't talk publicly about being treated terribly, because Celebrity never said the slightest thing about it.

 

I never wanted to sail with Disney anyway. And I'm certainly not going to sail with Celebrity again.

 

 

I'm not understanding a lot of what you're complaining about. You apparently hated your Celebrity cruise, but took them up on a free cruise. But even after that, you now claim you won't sail Celebrity again. If things had been as awful as you say, why go back on a line that you seem to hate? Oh, I forgot, it was free.

 

You're upset that a waiter supposedly tried to kiss you on the lips, so you won't sail HAL again. Did you file a complaint against that waiter? If not, how can you expect anything to happen to change the behavior?

 

Like I said before, terrible things have happened to passengers on every single cruise line. Teen girls have been sexually assaulted. Underage kids have been given alcohol and have behaved badly. A child drowns in an NCL pool. Another child nearly drowns in a Disney pool. Passengers have gone missing on Carnival and NCL cruises. People who've had too much to drink have behaved stupidly and have jumped into the sea off the ship. Just take the time and Google cruise ship crimes and I daresay, you won't go on any ship ever again.

 

Let me tell you what's happened to me on cruise ships. I fell and broke my foot getting onto a bouncing tender on an RCI ship. The medical staff was so incompetent that they had to redo the Xray three times. Then, after requesting the use of a wheelchair for the remainder of the cruise, they refused. I had to speak to the captain in order to get him to call the medical center to give me a wheelchair. Did I stop cruising RCI? NO, of course not. Crap happens and you deal with it. Tenders are inherently difficult, and we as the sailing public know this and take the chance. After the ship arrived at our disembarkation port, I got absolutely no help with disembarking nor help getting me to the airport. So, how does that compare with your tender experience on Celebrity?

 

A waiter on a Carnival cruise was enamored with my sister, who was only 16 at the time. He kept asking her to meet him at a bar on shore. My mom reported him to the hotel director and that waiter was never seen again.

 

My mom fell and broke her hip on a Celebrity cruise. She had to be medically evacuated off the ship, back to the US for hip replacement surgery. Add to that the fact that the doctor on board was a blooming idiot (the doctors in Ft Lauderdale were amazed by how terrible her treatment was on the ship and how they had screwed up in a number of ways) should have turned us off from cruising Celebrity, but within 8 months of the accident, mom was back on Celebrity cruising again. Oh, and Celebrity did not assist us in any way in getting me off the ship and back to the US to be with my mom for the surgery. There was only room for mom and my sister on the medical jet. I made all the arrangements myself and while I was not happy, I dealt with it.

 

I took my first solo cruise to the Med on a Seabourn ship, a luxury line. When I arrived at the airport, I was suppose to be met by someone from the cruise line to escort me to the pre cruise hotel in Nice. No one showed up, so I had to find my own way to the hotel at 2am. Did I stop cruising Seabourn? No.

 

When arriving at an airport to join a Crystal cruise, again no one was there to take me to the ship, which was in Singapore. It was in the middle of the night, and calls to the cruise line were impossible. I had to find my own transportation to the ship, which wasn't easy at that time of night. Did I stop cruising Crystal? No, certainly not.

 

Stories of things that have gone wrong also happen on land vacations. Heck, you don't even need to be on a vacation to have bad things happen. It's a part of life. OK, I can see if something really serious had happened to someone on a ship, like the woman on the HAL cruise, that they'd be totally turned off from that line. But like they say "ship happens" everywhere in life.

Edited March 8, 2014 by kitty9

[Lois R]

Hi Darcie:) thanks for the post. I counted the amount of issues....

especially the one about your Mom:(...did I count 6?.....I know you

have cruised...I am guessing about 100 times?......So you are definitely

the voice of experience and you still love cruising:D

 

I just booked Reflection for Nov 8th out of Miami (solo of course)....

Want to go?

[vacation luvver]

I'm not understanding a lot of what you're complaining about. You apparently hated your Celebrity cruise, but took them up on a free cruise. But even after that, you now claim you won't sail Celebrity again. If things had been as awful as you say, why go back on a line that you seem to hate? Oh, I forgot, it was free.

I would have preferred to have been offered cash, but I was given a free cruise instead. And it didn't involve tenders. I have said about various cruiselines "I wouldn't cruise with them again unless they gave me a free cruise" and "I wouldn't cruise with them again unless they paid me to do so." Well, Celebrity gave me a free cruise, and I didn't see why I shouldn't take it.

 

You're upset that a waiter supposedly tried to kiss you on the lips, so you won't sail HAL again. Did you file a complaint against that waiter? If not, how can you expect anything to happen to change the behavior?

No, I didn't file a complaint, and you're right, I should have done so. I guess I didn't because I didn't think that they would believe me. The first night in the MDR, I told the waiter that I wanted two main courses, and I wanted them served to me at the same time. He said that that was impossible. I would have to choose one of them to have first, and he would serve the second one to me if I still wanted it. Okay, if that was the cruiseline's policy. I had been served two main courses at the same time on other cruises, but I didn't want the waiter to get in trouble by going against company policy. So I got my two main courses one at a time.

 

The maître d' came over to our table and asked how everything was. I said that everything was perfect, except that, unlike other cruises I had been on, I couldn't get both main courses served at the same time. The maître d' then had a very involved conversation with the waiter in a language I couldn't understand, and then the maître d', very angry, told me that the waiter had wanted to serve both main courses to me at the same time, but I wouldn't let him. I had INSISTED that I get them one at a time. I tried to say that that wasn't what had happened, but he wouldn't listen to me. So I figured out that all a ship employee has to do is say, "No, I didn't do that" and TPTB listen to him and not the passenger. On that cruiseline, anyway.

 

Like I said before, terrible things have happened to passengers on every single cruise line. Teen girls have been sexually assaulted. Underage kids have been given alcohol and have behaved badly. A child drowns in an NCL pool. Another child nearly drowns in a Disney pool. Passengers have gone missing on Carnival and NCL cruises. People who've had too much to drink have behaved stupidly and have jumped into the sea off the ship. Just take the time and Google cruise ship crimes and I daresay, you won't go on any ship ever again.

Obviously, the teenagers being assaulted bothers me, since this adult woman being assaulted bothers me. As far as kids drowning on cruiseships, while of course that upsets me greatly, I do not see it as the cruiseline's fault that they drowned. So I would not boycott a cruiseline for something that was not their fault. I do not blame a cruiseline if people drink too much and jump off the ship, so I would not boycott a cruiseline for that reason.

 

Let me tell you what's happened to me on cruise ships. I fell and broke my foot getting onto a bouncing tender on an RCI ship. The medical staff was so incompetent that they had to redo the Xray three times. Then, after requesting the use of a wheelchair for the remainder of the cruise, they refused. I had to speak to the captain in order to get him to call the medical center to give me a wheelchair. Did I stop cruising RCI? NO, of course not. Crap happens and you deal with it. Tenders are inherently difficult, and we as the sailing public know this and take the chance. After the ship arrived at our disembarkation port, I got absolutely no help with disembarking nor help getting me to the airport. So, how does that compare with your tender experience on Celebrity?

I guess you want me to say that your experience was worse than mine. Okay, your experience was worse than mine. But why do you think that Celebrity gave my friend and me a free cruise as compensation? We never said one word to any of the officers or anyone at Guest Relations that we deserved compensation. Other passengers were very surprised to hear that we hadn't been offered even one penny. Even after we got home, we never called Celebrity to complain. They called us. And they offered us a free cruise without making us sign anything. They must have had some reason to offer us a free cruise and offer you nothng.

 

A waiter on a Carnival cruise was enamored with my sister, who was only 16 at the time. He kept asking her to meet him at a bar on shore. My mom reported him to the hotel director and that waiter was never seen again.

Good! But I was an adult when the waiter tried to kiss me. And I already admitted that I should have reported him, even though I didn't think it would do any good.

 

My mom fell and broke her hip on a Celebrity cruise. She had to be medically evacuated off the ship, back to the US for hip replacement surgery. Add to that the fact that the doctor on board was a blooming idiot (the doctors in Ft Lauderdale were amazed by how terrible her treatment was on the ship and how they had screwed up in a number of ways) should have turned us off from cruising Celebrity, but within 8 months of the accident, mom was back on Celebrity cruising again. Oh, and Celebrity did not assist us in any way in getting me off the ship and back to the US to be with my mom for the surgery. There was only room for mom and my sister on the medical jet. I made all the arrangements myself and while I was not happy, I dealt with it.

Do you mean that since you were willing to sail on Celebrity again, I should be willing to sail on Celebrity and HA again?

 

I took my first solo cruise to the Med on a Seabourn ship, a luxury line. When I arrived at the airport, I was suppose to be met by someone from the cruise line to escort me to the pre cruise hotel in Nice. No one showed up, so I had to find my own way to the hotel at 2am. Did I stop cruising Seabourn? No.

 

When arriving at an airport to join a Crystal cruise, again no one was there to take me to the ship, which was in Singapore. It was in the middle of the night, and calls to the cruise line were impossible. I had to find my own transportation to the ship, which wasn't easy at that time of night. Did I stop cruising Crystal? No, certainly not.

And since you were willing to cruise on Seabourn and Crystal again, does that mean that I should also be willing to overlook bad treatment? Why?

 

Stories of things that have gone wrong also happen on land vacations. Heck, you don't even need to be on a vacation to have bad things happen. It's a part of life. OK, I can see if something really serious had happened to someone on a ship, like the woman on the HAL cruise, that they'd be totally turned off from that line. But like they say "ship happens" everywhere in life.

I know that. But Celebrity must have thought that what happened to my traveling companion and me (and approx. 94 other people) was so bad that within a few days after we got home, they offered us a free cruise. But I see no reason to cruise with them again. What am I going to do - go one of their tendered cruises and say, "Well, if anything goes wrong, I know they'll give me a free cruise"? No, I would just as soon stay away from them. And if I were that woman on HA, I would never go back to them. I guess it's just me.

[kitty9]

Hi Darcie:) thanks for the post. I counted the amount of issues....

especially the one about your Mom:(...did I count 6?.....I know you

have cruised...I am guessing about 100 times?......So you are definitely

the voice of experience and you still love cruising:D

 

I just booked Reflection for Nov 8th out of Miami (solo of course)....

Want to go?

 

Lois, I would love to go, but my sis and I just purchased the Disney Vacation Club and we booked our villa for the week after that. I am going back on Equinox this April 4, after just getting home from the Equinox Feb 10th cruise, and we have Equinox booked again for next February. Still trying to get sis to agree to book Solstice for Alaska. I haven't had much luck.......yet LOL

 

I've got to find time to get on board Reflection. BTW, are you going back to Europe this summer?

[kitty9]

Cruise lines compensate for many reasons. On our Equinox cruise last year, I was in a Sky Suite that was right under the galley for the buffet. It was so noisy that I, and all the others who had cabins near me, didn't get one night's sleep in 11 nights. We all did complain to guest services, but obviously nothing could be done. They admit it's a terrible design flaw on the S class ships. But, without demanding anything, we all received a $1000 voucher to be used on a subsequent cruise.

 

But, if I might ask, you've been quite vague as to what happened on the tender. So, if you're comfortable, and since I described my incidents, could you be a little more precise on what the terrible incident was on your cruise? I'm curious as to what was so scary and unfortunate that so many people suffered.

[Lois R]

Lois, I would love to go, but my sis and I just purchased the Disney Vacation Club and we booked our villa for the week after that. I am going back on Equinox this April 4, after just getting home from the Equinox Feb 10th cruise, and we have Equinox booked again for next February. Still trying to get sis to agree to book Solstice for Alaska. I haven't had much luck.......yet LOL

 

I've got to find time to get on board Reflection. BTW, are you going back to Europe this summer?

 

Hi, ahhhh...you are a Disney fan?;)

 

No, no Europe this summer. I just went on Century for nights and this

summer I am going to Toronto with both of my sister's and bil's so

yes, I am doing a small land trip too:eek:

Then in November Reflection......and maybe I will be able to go back

to Europe next year.

[vacation luvver]

But, if I might ask, you've been quite vague as to what happened on the tender. So, if you're comfortable, and since I described my incidents, could you be a little more precise on what the terrible incident was on your cruise? I'm curious as to what was so scary and unfortunate that so many people suffered.

I actually posted several days ago what happened, but for some reason, my post just disappeared. I don't know why. So I'll try again, and I hope you'll be able to read it before it disappears (if it disappears, that is).

 

The tendering on the ship was awful, and not just at this port, which was Bar Harbor. People had to wait a very long time after their shore excursion was supposed to start in order to get on a tender. Even though the shore excursion people assured us that we would get to see everything that we were supposed to see, I knew that was impossible, since I asked if the time we would have to return to the ship would be made later, and they said no.

 

I won't go on and on about the problems we faced at the other ports, because this complaint was about Bar Harbor. We got on the bus very late because it took so long to get tendered, and the tour director immediately informed us that we wouldn't be able to see a lot of the sightseeing which was supposed to be included on the tour and for which we had to see, because we were so late, even though it wasn't our fault that we were late. She told us that we should come back to Bar Harbor another time. Lunch was included, but we didn't sit down at the restaurant until 4:30 PM because we were so late. If someone had a problem with diabetes or having to take medication with food on a regular basis, that was just too bad.

 

I had made a dinner reservation for 7:30 PM, because that was the earliest time I was given a reservation, because I was told that they had to be absolutely certain that I would be back on the ship in order to keep my reservation. We got on line for a tender at 6:45 PM, only to wait until 7:30 PM to get on a tender. Obviously, I wasn't able to keep my dinner reservation. 7:30 PM was supposed to be the time that the last tender left Bar Harbor, but I'm willing to bet there were several tenders after us.

 

It was pouring rain, and we had to spend those 45 minutes standing in the pouring rain waiting to get on the tender. Of course, it was not Celebrity's fault that it was pouring rain. It was also pitch dark outside. After we got on the tender and rode a little bit, it suddenly crashed into some rocks and made a very loud sound. I said that it sounded like we crashed into a brick wall. The tender broke (it eventually was pulled out of service), and the smell of gas fumes clogged the air. People who were sitting near the tender driver said that he was driving very fast and very recklessly. They heard him say the word "emergency" in English, but I, as I wasn't sitting near him, never heard him say that, but I do know that he didn't say anything to us about what had happened and what was going to happen. I heard the next day that other tender drivers had stuck their heads outside the tender so that they could see better, but our driver didn't, which is probably why the tender crashed into the rocks.

 

Other passengers passed out lifejackets. I didn't know if we were going to have to jump into the ocean. I was worried about my traveling companion, because she has had a couple of heart attacks and can't swim. Both of us were in deep shock, as were many of the other passengers, some of whom fell down when the tender crashed into the rocks.

 

We finally got on the second boat that came to rescue us after 45 minutes. We got back on the ship at 8:45 PM. We didn't have any appetite, so we went to the 9:00 PM show. Finally, at 11:15 PM, we felt that we could eat something, so we went to the buffet, where the pizza station was listed in the daily bulletin as being open until 1:00 PM. The pizza station was closed up tight. Luckily, there was other food available.

 

We were summoned to a meeting with the captain the next morning. The captain said that he had already made his report about the incident. People wondered why he hadn't waited until after he got a chance to talk to us. He said, "Well, I'm talking to you now," which I didn't think was a good explanation. We disagreed with a lot of what he told us he wrote in his report. (After I got home, I mentioned this to the Celebrity person who called me. I told her my story, and I guess she got the same story from other people. She told me that the captain did not change his report.)

 

Several announcements had made on the ship about the tender. When people discussed it the next day, I would say that I was on that tender. they would ask me if Celebrity had wanted me to sign something. I said no. When I was asked if I had been offered any compensation, I said "Not even one penny." Because it was true. The captain never said a single word about us getting compensation eventually. As I never brought the subject up with him or any other Celebrity person, I figured that we weren't going to get anything.

 

So I was surprised to get a phone call a couple of days after I got home asking me to give them my side of the story of what happened, and I guess enough people gave them harrowing stories that they decided to give us compensation. I just wish something had been said while we were on the cruise, or I wouldn't have told everyone that they weren't offering us even one penny.