Oosterdam smoke/fire(?) incident 2/23/2006. Still a great cruise!

[BobofArizona]

Oosterdam smoke/fire(?) incident 3/23/2006 fails to mess up a great cruise

 

Last week we returned from the 3/18/2006 sailing of the Mexican Riviera on the Oosterdam. It was our third cruise, the first on HAL, and it was truly wonderful. Great food, wonderful beds, and generally good service made this cruise a delight. There are already at least 3 great reviews of this cruise on this board (NHCruiser, drjohn, desert diva) so I won’t write any more about that aspect.

 

There was an event that caused us some concern, however, on this cruise – and coupled with the horrible fire of the Star Princess - I wonder if more might be done regarding passengers and fire awareness.

 

While dressing and preparing for the second seating dinner on the last formal night (3/23/2006 - the date of the Star Princess fire), my wife and I began to smell smoke in our Verandah Deck (5) cabin. Of course, we looked around in the room for its source, but found none. The smell grew stronger, however, and when I noticed a mist like smoke descending from the ceiling, I opened the door into the corridor, and found passengers from the adjoining rooms also in the hallway checking on the source. They all had extremely worried looks in their faces, and were expressing deep concern.

 

Crew members were already in the hallway, checking thins out. The Captain then made a general announcement over the intercom saying they felt there was a problem in the air-conditioning system, and this was spreading the smell through the cabins. He assured us nothing was seriously wrong. He almost made it seem like it was routine event (probably in an effort to calm folks down). Yet, even our cabin steward had a very concerned look on his face.

 

I felt better knowing the crew and captain were aware of the incident. However, the smoke in our room continued to thicken, the smell worsen, and then our smoke alarm in our cabin went off as well. Afterward the smoke and smell began to subside, but the smoke alarm continued on for some minutes. While the smoke alarm continued to be activated, the Captain again gave a general announcement that a bearing in the air conditioning system was the cause and the problem had been resolved. The smoke then completely cleared and the smoke alarm stopped.

 

Afterwards, my wife and I confided in each other that we both had private visions in our minds of going to the muster stations in case we had to get on life boats. (“At least today they are covered up nowadays – more protection from the elements”, said my wife.)

 

The whole incident took no longer than 15 minutes, max. We went down to the Dining Room and had a wonderful dinner, and even truly enjoyed the Baked Alaska parade. Our dinner mates were unaffected in any way and surprised to hear of the details of the incident, though a few had heard the captain’s announcement.

 

The next morning we read of the terrible fire on the Star Princess in the NY Times summary . In no way do I mean to compare this minor incident to that horrible tragedy. Yet, perhaps we need to take another look at fire safety aboard ship. In a regular hotel they tell you NOT to open the door in case of fire (that would cause it to spread, wouldn’t it?) I didn’t even think about that when I opened the door to see what was going on. How do you get to a muster station if you can’t open the door? I guess you have to hope the P.A system works and follow the Captain’s directions. I also wonder about panic in the event of a serious fire. I guess there was none on the Star Princess, but I am convinced if people had actually seen flames on our deck (or had been aware of the Star Princess fire), the scene would have been chaotic.

 

Make no mistake. We enjoyed our cruise immensely, and would book on HAL and the Oosterdam again in a minute. This kind of fire could happen anywhere, even in your own car. The crew responded quite rapidly and should be commended.

[BobofArizona]

Oops. The date in the title thread should have been 3/23/2006, not 2/23/2006, and I guess there's no way to change it now. Sorry about that. but that was a first-timers post, so please forgive. Thanks.

[NHCruisr]

Hi Bob! Thanks for the nice words about my review. Thanks, too, for bringing up this important subject. We heard the Captain's announcements as we were walking around the public areas of the Oosterdam on our way to second seating dinner. We had heard about the Star Princess incident and, of course, this is the first thing that went through our minds. We commented on how comforted we were by the calm announcements from the Captain himself. We felt that the incident was well handled but it certainly gave us something to think about. I have confidence in the HAL crew. I believe that the passengers have responsibility once they board the ship. The must be careful with smoking materials. They need to report anything that seems out of the ordinary. They need to go to muster drills and PAY ATTENTION.

 

Last October we were on the Sun Princess. Late one afternoon while still in port we lost all electricity on the ship. Announcements were late in coming, confusing, and made by various officers other than the Captain. We question if the Capatain was even on the ship when the outage first happened. The power outage lasted for several hours, through dinner times, and past sunset. The emergency generators were on. Interestingly, all the bars remained open and had emergency generation. The crew was wonderful. They made sandwiches and other cold foods and served them by flashlight. People in inside cabins took chairs in the hallways and cabin sterwards went and got them snacks. We did receive a letter of apology from the Captain and a $75 dollar credit. I do not think the incident was well handled by the officers in charge of the ship though. I bring this up to point out that HAL handled the incident you described extremely well in comparison. I will continue to sail both HAL and Princess but I will certainly always have awareness of possible emergency situations.