LIVE from the Crown 7/22

[LOSTnotFound]

All is well on the Crown. Everything I have seen so far looks great. Had a great dinner and show. We had a letter in our cabin regarding the list, basically that the ship was cleared to sail from the USCG. SOmeone else may be able to give more details on that. The only thing I saw that was probably from the list was a glass panel on the deck by one of the pools. Its cracked and all taped off. The comedian at the show, Sarge, was the first to mention the list and he got a good response from the crowd.

[Hve2cruise]

Thank you for posting and glad that everything is getting back in order. Friends of mine are on the ship now and said that there is a musty odor throughout because the carpets are still wet. Did you notice this too?

 

Have a safe journey and a great time!

 

Helane

[Colo Cruiser]

Sarge is excellent, I hope he is on again next cruise!!! :D

[Cruisin' Chick]

Keep posting. I'm sure the those on the upcoming Crown cruises would love to get a first hand report. Hope your cruise goes smoothly.

[Ships Ahoy 2126]

I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the cruise. You'll have an awesome time on this ship. Keep the updates coming!

[GoodAsGold]

I'm a Sarge-fan, too!

 

 

 

Sarge is excellent, I hope he is on again next cruise!!! :D

[ForEternity]

Enjoy your cruise! I was on the last voyage. Before the list....it was one of the best cruises I've ever had. As for that glass panel, I don't know if it's the same one, but when we boarded, there was one all shattered and taped up. I'm glad to hear it's almost back into shaped! The ship is so beautiful, and it was soooo sad to see how messed up it got.

[bonbob]

Glad to hear everything is going well. We are on the 11/4 sailing and can't wait. If you worried about everything that happens on planes or even the roads, you would never leave the house!! ENJOY

[Nliedel]

That aft stairwell stank to high heaven after the incident. Please tell me it's better now!

 

If you run into Jacinta (cruise director) tell her Nancy and Carol from the 7/11 sailing say, "hi." She will remember us. Tell her I was the one sobbing over the photos. When she rolls her eyes buy her a drink! LOL!

 

If you have a choice at dinner you want: Michaelangelo Dining room: Nick and his assistant Andre. They are stellar.

 

In DaVinci it's Simon. Just wonderful.

[cynbar]

Thanks for posting so quickly from the Crown, we all have been waiting anxiously to get a report on the condition of the ship. Have a great week, and if you find other chances to keep in touch, we will all really appreciate it!

[hamptod]

Please keep us posted and enjoy your cruise. If you are aft and have Vicente as Steward, tell him the Hamptons said hello and miss him already! Also try Atila in the Da Vinci dining room, he was great!

 

Nancy is right, the back staircase aft sustained most of the water damaged and smelled really bad. Hopefully that is gone now. Please enjoy your cruise:D

 

Deborah

[NZYU]

Sarge is fabulous.

[Toto2Kansas]

Hello Everyone!

I just received a call from St. Vincent from WAYNE!

 

Since we have booked with him twice before and he knows us, I have some good news. He is making an exception for me as he knows that I will not stand him up on this tour.

He said he will work with us and go ahead with our tour on St. Vincent. He will not know for sure if the Falls will be open for the climb until shortly before we leave for the cruise, but he will keep us posted. If they aren't, trust me, he will still make sure we have a wonderful day with dolphin and whale watching and swimming at the black sand beach.

 

As for the price. He will contact me at a later date as with the fuel prices the way they are right now, and we all have felt the crunch of that one, he will have to calculate the price in a couple of months. He is very fair when it comes to pricing, so I am sure it will still be half of what the cruise line will charge for something no where near as nice and much more crowded.

 

He has ordered a new boat, as previously posted, which holds 28 people. Looks like by December, we may have it pretty well filled.

 

I will keep everyone posted as I get more info and pass it along. As for the list of those wanting to book, here it is. If anyone else would like to join us, please let me know. If you are not interested or wish to cancel, please alert me to that also. As the main reason he is moving his tours strictly to an agent is because of 'no shows' and groups that decided just not to show up. Thanks!

 

PMCrusta X2

Albfamily X3

Adbeva X2

Stan and Marsha X2

LibraryChick X2

Couple from the ship that are not posting on CC right now. X2 (sorry but I forgot their names, will have to go back through this roll call to find them)

US X2

 

So, we are all set for our visit to St. Vincent, no need to worry about other excursions for that port.

 

PS-To Judy, I did talk to him and assured him that you would be there with your group in November, and would not let him down. He is considering it and I have a feeling that he might come through on this one. :) I explained to him how you had to cancel your cruise last November and missed out on the tour and how you really wanted to go with your group. Let me know if you hear from him please. ;)

[mrjcharles]

Hooray for Sarge!!!

[Merion_Mom]

That aft stairwell stank to high heaven after the incident. Please tell me it's better now!

 

If you run into Jacinta (cruise director) tell her Nancy and Carol from the 7/11 sailing say, "hi." She will remember us. Tell her I was the one sobbing over the photos. When she rolls her eyes buy her a drink! LOL!

 

If you have a choice at dinner you want: Michaelangelo Dining room: Nick and his assistant Andre. They are stellar.

 

In DaVinci it's Simon. Just wonderful.

Just a quick note, if any 7/22 cruisers are reading this: In Michelangelo, their names are Nik and Adrian. ;) His girlfriend, Jazmin, is an assistant in there, too, but we never were able to scope her out properly. :D

[RM]

Thanks for checking in with the good news. Have a wonderful time!

[Nliedel]

Just a quick note, if any 7/22 cruisers are reading this: In Michelangelo, their names are Nik and Adrian. ;) His girlfriend, Jazmin, is an assistant in there, too, but we never were able to scope her out properly. :D

 

ADRIAN. I posted Andre too. That was after looking at the menu they signed. Those boys (so young) are WONDERFUL. Just a note, Nick will not bring you the fish one night. He will say, "Even if you order it, I will not bring it." He was right all the time too.

[momthecruisedirector]

We, too, fell in love with Atilla and Narcissus on the 7/2 cruise. We requested them each night after our first dinner with them on the second night at sea (only one night we couldn't get a table in their section). They really made dining a special occaison - and my family is certainly suffering with what I've been cooking this week! If you get a chance do the galley tour - the demo is fun (free) and the cookbook really is worth the extra cost.

[CruisySuzy]

Hey Nick and Andrian were our dynamite duo too..... nlidel is right he won't steer you wrong (no pun intended)..... Fortuntely we tracked him down on Tuesday to say our goodbyes, and make sure that they were okay and to take care of them!

[Toto2Kansas]

My apology for the post about St. Vincent on this thread. This is not where I posted to but it is where it ended up. Talk about the Twilight Zone. Do do do do. LOL

Again, sorry about that everyone!

[Sandytoes]

Right now, Investigators from the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board will be aboard the cruise to monitor the vessel, which departed 7\22 for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

 

The Coast Guard has now required the crew to manually steer the ship while in water less than 50 meters deep.

 

Heard not that many people cancelled the cruise. Wondering does the ship feel crowded?

 

Did they re-fill the pools?

 

How's the shops look? Glass?

 

Are the elevators working?

 

Thanks for keeping us posted while on board....

[Retired not Expired]

Right now, Investigators from the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board will be aboard the cruise to monitor the vessel, which departed 7\22 for the Turks and Caicos Islands.

 

The Coast Guard has now required the crew to manually steer the ship while in water less than 50 meters deep.

 

....

 

Where did you find this? If this is true, it sounds like it may NOT have been human error but being in shallow water on auto-pilot. Could it had sensed a rise in the bottom and the auto-pilot made a turn to deeper water or sense it may run aground?

[CruisinMaterial]

I'd love to know where that USCG comment came from too, do you have a source for that?

[curiouscat]

Passengers' spirits stay afloat

 

BY HANA ALBERTS

Newsday Staff Writer

 

Christmas was coming in July for John Mahon and his wife, Terry, and the Brooklyn couple wasn't going to be scared away from their Caribbean cruise on the Crown Princess, tipping incident or no tipping incident.

 

"It's the first time I've been away in 32 years," John Mahon, 58, of Gerritsen Beach, said Saturday as he stood in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal in Red Hook.

 

 

"If I have to sit in that little yellow boat," he said, pointing to one of the lifeboats affixed to the side of the immense vessel, "so be it."

 

The Mahons' children gave them tickets for the cruise as a Christmas gift. The couple arrived at the pier on a chartered bus filled with 40 other vacationers from their neighborhood, including Jim Brandow.

 

Brandow, 46, who served in the Navy from 1979 to 1981, said the estimated 15-degree swaying of the Crown Princess on Tuesday, during which about 240 people were injured, paled by comparison with his military experience.

 

"It was a lot worse than this" in the Atlantic Ocean, Brandow said. "You're talking a 40- to 50-degree roll."

 

Early Saturday morning, the 113,000-ton ship plowed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and dwarfed the Statue of Liberty on its way to the cruise terminal, after a two-day trip from Port Canaveral, Fla. On its way to New York, inspectors for the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board ran drills and trials of steering mechanisms to ensure the ship was sound and operating safely.

 

The listing incident, which remains under investigation, occurred about 111/2 miles outside of Port Canaveral as the vessel was completing its previous cruise.

 

Coast Guard Petty Officer Daniel Bender said that while the Crown Princess did pass inspection, the crew has been ordered to use manual steering -- rather than an autopilot setting -- when the ship is in American waters less than 50 meters, or about 164 feet, deep. The steering precaution is "to prevent the possibility of anything like this happening again," Bender said.

 

Later Saturday, as excited passengers gathered up their luggage, kissed relatives goodbye and snapped photographs in front of the gargantuan white ship, many said they were confident the vessel is safe because it passed authorities' inspection.

 

Out of about 3,000 bookings for this voyage, 480 were canceled after the listing incident, Princess Cruises spokeswoman Julie Benson said. The cruise line refunded 50 percent of the ticket price to passengers who opted to go on the trip, a compensation that ranged from $724.50 to $2,124.50 for a double-occupancy stateroom.

 

A midday thunderstorm Saturday produced winds that violently whipped the multicolored flags atop the Crown Princess. But the vessel itself did not rock.

 

Tina Busardo, 18, of Mastic, was reassured.

 

"Now it's double-, triple- and quadruple-checked," she said.

 

 

CuriousCat

[Retired not Expired]

Passengers' spirits stay afloat

 

 

 

Early Saturday morning, the 113,000-ton ship plowed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and dwarfed the Statue of Liberty on its way to the cruise terminal, after a two-day trip from Port Canaveral, Fla. On its way to New York, inspectors for the Coast Guard and National Transportation Safety Board ran drills and trials of steering mechanisms to ensure the ship was sound and operating safely.

 

 

 

Coast Guard Petty Officer Daniel Bender said that while the Crown Princess did pass inspection, the crew has been ordered to use manual steering -- rather than an autopilot setting -- when the ship is in American waters less than 50 meters, or about 164 feet, deep. The steering precaution is "to prevent the possibility of anything like this happening again," Bender said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CuriousCat

 

Thank you. It looks like they may be looking at a safety feature built in to keep it from running aground in shallow water while on auto-pilot. Hmmmmmm