Dream turned around and heading back to Galveston

[Wheels87]

Well, as I was sitting out by the aft pool at 0700, I noticed the we seemed to be turning. We headed north for about an hour and the turned west/northwest and were headed back towards Galveston. 

 

At that point, there were no announcements at all about it. I asked several officers who seemed genuinely unaware that we had turned around. In fact, the gentleman at the shore excursions desk assured me that if we had turned around, the Captain would have made an announcement. 

 

Finally, about 1030, he did just that and said that we had a medical emergency involving a passenger and that the winds were too high to attempt an air evac. So, we are, indeed on our way back to Galveston. 

 

We will offload the passenger and head straight to Progresso and have to miss Cozumel.  No big deal at all, considering someone's life is at stake. 

 

Fortunately, we have been to Cozumel 21 other times, so we don't feel like we are missing out. We were just taking a taxi to Paradise Beach, as we usually do. 

 

Also, we are on a B2B, so we still have the second leg to go to Cozumel. 

 

I sure hope they cover this in the news. The media is quick to bash the cruise industry for every little thing, yet refuse to cover these types of stories. Just for the record, this is the second time I have been on a cruise which altered course. Back in January of 2014 I was on the Elation when it turned around and headed north for four hours so the Coast Guard could fly out and evac a passenger. 

 

I just wanted to update everyone. 

 

Cheers! 

 

Brad 

[amyotravel]

2 minutes ago, Wheels87 said:

Well, as I was sitting out by the aft pool at 0700, I noticed the we seemed to be turning. We headed north for about an hour and the turned west/northwest and were headed back towards Galveston. 

 

At that point, there were no announcements at all about it. I asked several officers who seemed genuinely unaware that we had turned around. In fact, the gentleman at the shore excursions desk assured me that if we had turned around, the Captain would have made an announcement. 

 

Finally, about 1030, he did just that and said that we had a medical emergency involving a passenger and that the winds were too high to attempt an air evac. So, we are, indeed on our way back to Galveston. 

 

We will offload the passenger and head straight to Progresso and have to miss Cozumel.  No big deal at all, considering someone's life is at stake. 

 

Fortunately, we have been to Cozumel 21 other times, so we don't feel like we are missing out. We were just taking a taxi to Paradise Beach, as we usually do. 

 

Also, we are on a B2B, so we still have the second leg to go to Cozumel. 

 

I sure hope they cover this in the news. The media is quick to bash the cruise industry for every little thing, yet refuse to cover these types of stories. Just for the record, this is the second time I have been on a cruise which altered course. Back in January of 2014 I was on the Elation when it turned around and headed north for four hours so the Coast Guard could fly out and evac a passenger. 

 

I just wanted to update everyone. 

 

Cheers! 

 

Brad 

Thanks for the info. Hopefully the passenger is going to be OK. Enjoy your cruise.

[bury me at sea]

Thanks for reporting.  I hope the passenger will be ok.  An extra sea day would be fine with me but I'm sure many of your fellow cruisers are disappointed.

[Wheels87]

I guess I should mention that they immediately offered a 20% future cruise credit, so that is nice. Not necessary, in my book, but a nice bonus. That should come in handy for my 15 day Hawaii cruise next January. 

 

Yes, let's hope the passenger is OK. 

 

God bless, 

 

Brad

[bury me at sea]

1 minute ago, Wheels87 said:

I guess I should mention that they immediately offered a 20% future cruise credit, so that is nice. Not necessary, in my book, but a nice bonus. That should come in handy for my 15 day Hawaii cruise next January. 

 

Yes, let's hope the passenger is OK. 

 

God bless, 

 

Brad

 

That is certainly far above anything I would have expected.

[Eli_6]

Oh no! Hope he or she is ok.

[Sean_B]

13 minutes ago, Wheels87 said:

I guess I should mention that they immediately offered a 20% future cruise credit, so that is nice. Not necessary, in my book, but a nice bonus. That should come in handy for my 15 day Hawaii cruise next January. 

 

Yes, let's hope the passenger is OK. 

 

God bless, 

 

Brad

 

As someone going on my first cruse this year, this is my worst fear (being turned around and missing a port). I'm very compassionate and understanding of the reason why, so that's not the problem, but the 20% off a future cruise may not be what a lot of people can use, as in my case. This will be a one-and-done cruise and we will very likely never sail again due to the cost coming from Canada, so an OBC would be better.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Sean_B

[amyotravel]

2 minutes ago, Sean_B said:

 

As someone going on my first cruse this year, this is my worst fear (being turned around and missing a port). I'm very compassionate and understanding of the reason why, so that's not the problem, but the 20% off a future cruise may not be what a lot of people can use, as in my case. This will be a one-and-done cruise and we will very likely never sail again due to the cost coming from Canada, so an OBC would be better.

Missing ports happens occasionally for a variety of reasons. This should not be your biggest fear; it's just a part of cruising. Sea days are wonderful, and there is so much to do on board so no need to stress about a possible missed port.

[Sean_B]

3 minutes ago, amyotravel said:

Missing ports happens occasionally for a variety of reasons. This should not be your biggest fear; it's just a part of cruising. Sea days are wonderful, and there is so much to do on board so no need to stress about a possible missed port.

Oh, I get it. I guess I overstated my fear so it's not that I'm going to be anxious about it. I would just be really disappointed with the FCC vs the OBC.

 

Hopefully the patient is ok and gets the medical attention they need.

Edited January 7, 2020 by Sean_B

[amyotravel]

Just now, Sean_B said:

Oh, I get it. I guess I overstated my fear so it's not that I'm going to be anxious about it. I would just be really disappointed with the FCC vs the OBC.

 

Hopefully the patient is ok and gets the medical attention they need.

They are being overly generous doing anything about it. They want people to come back and spend money again, so of course they would rather do FCC than OBC. Not saying you for sure couldn't get OBC if it happened to you, but it's just not the best move for them considering they don't need to do anything at all.

[Tapi]

25 minutes ago, Sean_B said:

 

As someone going on my first cruse this year, this is my worst fear (being turned around and missing a port)... This will be a one-and-done cruise and we will very likely never sail again due to the cost coming from Canada, so an OBC would be better.

Yes, missing ports is not fun, but a definite part of cruising. Medical reasons, weather, disruptions at ports of call, you name it. With that said, don’t loose too much sleep over missed ports of call. While they do happen, it’s not a frequent thing.

 

Hopefully you’ll enjoy your cruise enough to find a way to use a future cruise credit if you’re offered one! I get that the cost can be prohibitive, but once people get addicted to cruising, they find a way to make it happen! 🙂

[Eli_6]

The 20 percent gig is a good deal.  I would take that ANY day for missing Cozumel.  I had a 25 percent deal for my cancelled Mardis Gras.  Just saved me $1314 on a new booking. When they cancelled my Vista sailing in July, I had over a $6k FCC and got my money back but that was with much less notice.

[Sean_B]

3 hours ago, Tapi said:

Hopefully you’ll enjoy your cruise enough to find a way to use a future cruise credit if you’re offered one! I get that the cost can be prohibitive, but once people get addicted to cruising, they find a way to make it happen! 🙂

I'd go into an explanation of why it's going to be a one-and-done but I don't want to get another strike for going off topic. We'll enjoy the cruise for sure, as it's our 20th anniversary 🙂

[Bevv]

 

[SRQbeachgirl]

6 hours ago, Sean_B said:

 

As someone going on my first cruse this year, this is my worst fear (being turned around and missing a port). I'm very compassionate and understanding of the reason why, so that's not the problem, but the 20% off a future cruise may not be what a lot of people can use, as in my case. This will be a one-and-done cruise and we will very likely never sail again due to the cost coming from Canada, so an OBC would be better.

 

Well that's just...depressing. I'm not sure I could get through an average Monday if I didn't have a cruise to look forward to. What part of Canada? There are cruises leaving out of New York, Boston, and Baltimore that might make it less expensive, especially if you catch the cruise bug and just can't imagine life without cruising.

[Sean_B]

1 minute ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

Well that's just...depressing. I'm not sure I could get through an average Monday if I didn't have a cruise to look forward to. What part of Canada? There are cruises leaving out of New York, Boston, and Baltimore that might make it less expensive, especially if you catch the cruise bug and just can't imagine life without cruising.

Thanks to a work requirement, we have two homes (one in NS, one in BC) so we could leave from either one, but the cost of the actual cruise isn't really the problem. It's the cost of flights and the exchange rate are what really piles up the price (along with the 18% gratuity).

Our upcoming 8-day on the Breeze is going to cost us just over $7000 CAD with flights, pre- and post-cruise hotel, and a standard balcony cabin (which was only $20 more at the time than an interior cabin) and three moderately priced excursions. As a comparison, our two-week trip to Japan last year was $4600 including flights, hotel, food and transportation (bus, train, etc).

 

We're still going to enjoy it thoroughly and will take advantage of everything the ship has to offer.

[SRQbeachgirl]

16 minutes ago, Sean_B said:

Thanks to a work requirement, we have two homes (one in NS, one in BC) so we could leave from either one, but the cost of the actual cruise isn't really the problem. It's the cost of flights and the exchange rate are what really piles up the price (along with the 18% gratuity).

Our upcoming 8-day on the Breeze is going to cost us just over $7000 CAD with flights, pre- and post-cruise hotel, and a standard balcony cabin (which was only $20 more at the time than an interior cabin) and three moderately priced excursions. As a comparison, our two-week trip to Japan last year was $4600 including flights, hotel, food and transportation (bus, train, etc).

 

We're still going to enjoy it thoroughly and will take advantage of everything the ship has to offer.

 

I hope you have a fantastic cruise!

[mpdog42]

7 hours ago, Tapi said:

Yes, missing ports is not fun, but a definite part of cruising. Medical reasons, weather, disruptions at ports of call, you name it. With that said, don’t loose too much sleep over missed ports of call. While they do happen, it’s not a frequent thing.

 

Hopefully you’ll enjoy your cruise enough to find a way to use a future cruise credit if you’re offered one! I get that the cost can be prohibitive, but once people get addicted to cruising, they find a way to make it happen! 🙂

Although, is seems to be happening more and more over the last 15 years (Medical Emergency's)...I could see in the future, Cruise lines starting to restrict "High Risk" passengers???

Mike 

[VentureMan_2000]

3 minutes ago, Sean_B said:

Our upcoming 8-day on the Breeze is going to cost us just over $7000 CAD with flights, pre- and post-cruise hotel, and a standard balcony cabin (which was only $20 more at the time than an interior cabin) and three moderately priced excursions. 

 

 

Yikes !  Yeah, no wonder you say this might be your only cruise.  I was looking at those 8-day Southern Caribbean Breeze cruises in 2021 last week...  quite a bit more pricy than the 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Glory... $2,465 ($3,205 CAD) vs. $1,773 ($2,305 CAD) , both Category 8D balcony on deck 8.

Add gratuities and Cheers, and that's another $196 CAD per day... not real hard to approach that $7000 CAD after hotel, transportation, and 3 excursions.

I want to be able to cruise often, so always only book the lesser priced cruises -- but still splurge for a balcony.  Also, we set out on our own in port - no paid excursions.  Our big splurge will be CHEERS.  In another life, I hung around the rumrunner crowd, so our cocktail bill was quite small. 😅  




 

[Sean_B]

1 minute ago, VentureMan_2000 said:

 

Yikes !  Yeah, no wonder you say this might be your only cruise.  I was looking at those 8-day Southern Caribbean Breeze cruises in 2021 last week...  quite a bit more pricy than the 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on Glory... $2,465 ($3,205 CAD) vs. $1,773 ($2,305 CAD) , both Category 8D balcony on deck 8.

Add gratuities and Cheers, and that's another $196 CAD per day... not real hard to approach that $7000 CAD after hotel, transportation, and 3 excursions.

I want to be able to cruise often, so always only book the lesser priced cruises -- but still splurge for a balcony.  Also, we set out on our own in port - no paid excursions.  Our big splurge will be CHEERS.  In another life, I hung around the rumrunner crowd, so our cocktail bill was quite small. 😅  




 

It's funny because 8D is our cabin category, which was $2268.88 US when we booked but that also includes pre-paid gratuities ($2999.98 CAD). We're not going to buy Cheers so we'll just go ad-hoc (we don't drink that much).

[DallasGuy75219]

10 hours ago, Wheels87 said:

I guess I should mention that they immediately offered a 20% future cruise credit, so that is nice. 

Seems like this is standard.  They gave us 20% FCC when my Pride cruise skipped Princess Cays to get a sick passenger to Nassau, where we were already scheduled to port the following day.  So a 7-day cruise with two days in Nassau and one day in Freeport sucked (Princess Cays was the only port I was looking forward to), but obviously outside of Carnival's control.  

 

IMO the 20% FCC for something outside Carnival's control is pretty generous, especially compared to Royal Caribbean who, in my experience, does less or nothing even for issues within their control (e.g., mechanical issues).

[Wheels87]

So, just to provide and update...we returned to Galveston yester evening and docked around 9pm.  Emergency response vehicles rolled up while we were docking. As soon as we disembarked the passenger, we pulled out and headed back out to sea. 

 

Good night! 

 

Brad

[cruisegus]

question, since around 9 pm is prime evening time and you were once again in Texas territorial waters, was there any change noted on the usage for the Cheers package?

[marci4tony]

I understand the prohibitive cost - when AirFare is the higher than the actual cruise.  (Montana)  And a future credit would have to extend into 2-3 years for us - we cruise every 2-3 years.

 

I would hate to have missed a port - but unfortunately, that is the nature of this industry.  More than likely, that "port" that you missed will still be standing in 2 years - you may enjoy cruising enough to try again.  Book it, make payments, and viola - 2 years, even on a meager salary and minimum time off available can be doable! 

 

We are hooked.  I love the cruising - not just the ports.  Have fun!

[rukkian]

If you are worried about missing ports, you can always get insurance that pays for missed ports.  Some will pay as much as $1k if you miss a previously scheduled port.