Pride Of America Buoy Disaster

[Zeno]

In response to Zeno's comments concerning the terms disseminate and communicate/communication. Disseminate means to scatter or spread while communicate means to exchange knowledge. One could interpret the two words as synonyms, however, I did not intend them to be synonyms. My intent was that the ship's "management" did not spread important knowledge/information that impacted my husband and me in a timely manner, thus we were unable to alter our plans accordingly, which ultimately caused feelings of dissatisfaction.

 

Thanks for answering my question. However I now have another.

 

My intent was that the ship's "management" did not spread important knowledge/information that impacted my husband and me in a timely manner, thus we were unable to alter our plans accordingly, which ultimately caused feelings of dissatisfaction.

 

 

Do you mean that the ship's management should have given you and your husband some sort of specific info or that you intended that they should not give you this info?

Thanks for your patience.

[KeystoneCruiser]

Ok I have comments to make on both sides of this issue:

 

First of all, NCL is well known for lack of communication when problems arise. I blame it on the inept corporate office. You should have been given more information and kept abreast of the situation.

 

Even if there hadn't been a natural disaster (more on that side later), don't expect much from NCL as compensation for two reasons: it says so on your contract and NCL will do whatever it takes to hang onto their money!

 

BUT, on the other side:

 

I too cannot believe that people are ticked off at a cruise line because they missed ports or were late due to a natural disaster. Let's put it bluntly to those on the POAm: your vacation and pleasure were not as important as the safety, well being and recovery of the others in Hawaii. The cruise line made a GREAT decision to not go to the big island in the days following a disaster! The last thing the people in Kona (or even Hilo) needed to deal with during those days was a bunch of cruise ship passengers. If you had gone to Kona, you would probably be complaining now that all the stores were closed and all the shore excursions cancelled. (due to the busses, drivers and security personel being needed to take care of those affected by the disaster!)

 

So what your vacation was impacted (or ruined as some have said.)! Many others LIVES were and still are affected by the situation. Anyone who was on that cruise and whining about missing Kona is selfish and a poor example of a human being. NCL should give the money you guys turned down to people who REALLY need and deserve it, the citizens of the big island!

[7SeasLover]

This is just one of those situations (or multiple situations) where a nice letter to NCL expressing your displeasure may get a positive response. I've been on numerous cruises, some perfect, some not. We've missed ports, been re-routed, etc. None of those is worth a descritive word of "disaster". We've had such high seas as to cause damage inside our room, we've been sea sick (off the coast of Nova Scotia during a storm), and I could go on and on.

 

When we experience a negative, we just write a polite letter to NCL and express our opinion. I've never been disappointed with NCL's response.

 

This instance sounds like a group of people trying to make something out of nothing. So the ship dragged a buoy. So you missed a port or two, or your excursions were canceled or shortened. These are not disasters. They are, however, disappointing.

 

Write to NCL. I'm going to write to NCL about our mini suite and the awful sound of running watr 24/7. :( Do I expect something? Yes, a nice reply letter. I just want to voice my opinion.

 

Sorry your trip was not up to your expectations. Also, don't confuse the companies. NCL, NCLA, etc. :eek: You do know that itineraries are discretionary, right?

[cathi007]

Michael, although I agree with you that it seems pretty lame to get a lawyer over such a small incident, thats why the courts are so booked up because of frivolous law suits. I don't agree that anyone should be murdered. maybe just spanked, lol.... Any way it stinks that they had to miss ports, but like one poster said, at least there was no disaster, ie tsunami, ect, Cathi

[Reading Interventionist]

Sorry for not responding sooner, I had a meeting to go to after school. To clarify what I meant concerning "management" giving information. I was hoping for more timely information so plans could have been made. I am assuming a lot now, but at the time, I felt that "management" knew more than they were willing to share with the passengers. I know "stuff" happens and I am pretty flexible but I am human and get a bit miffed when things happen that are within the power that be's control and don't.

 

We went on an Alaskan cruise in June and missed the Victoria port due to high winds. Yeah I was a disappointed that we didn't make the stop but the captain was very forthcoming with information almost to the point of "shut up" already about it. Looking back I am thrilled he was so forthcoming and upfront. I felt safe and secure with the knowledge.

 

I suppose the difference is the cruise line. Just like corporations, each handles situations differently and some not on such a positive note.

 

In retrospect, I am glad I read each and every comment concerning the "fiasco" (lack of a better word) and yes I am disappointed and NCLA will hear from me, but I don't think my letter will be as harsh as I first anticipated. I might have over-reacted, but that was me, due to the circumstances at the time.

 

Things always have a way of working out and we learn from our experiences. I just hope that NCLA has learned from this experience and offers a sincere apology rather than lip service (there is a difference.)

 

Thanks for reading the post.

[waterrats]

I heard hotel guests soon after the earthquake started to join at the pools at their hotels for cocktails and sunbathing. Now why couldn't the people on this ship do that. It's a good thing the complainers on this ship were not shore side because they probably would have found a lawyer right then and there to sue the hotels.

 

When you vacation, you have to roll with the flow. Noone says your plane will leave on time. Noone says you will catch your connecting flight. Noone says its not going to rain, not going to be 98 degrees, hazy, hot, and humid. You just have to roll with the flow and make the best of the situation. Alcohols and lots of new friends on cruises should get you through.

 

Joe

[smeyer418]

Didn't take the $100 as were advised NOT to by an attorney!

 

You should get a new lawyer...unless they were having you sign something to accept the money, it wouldn't have prejudiced your position. BTW what happens in most of these class(less) lawsuits is the lawyer gets money and you get a future credit(screwed).

[jeffw47]

I was on the POAM for this cruise and went to the meeting and listened to a bunch of people start griping about everything under the sun, which had nothing to do with what the meeting was actually called for. I felt sorry for Buz the captain. He was probably one of the nicest Captains I have every sailed with.

I will say I personally talked with one of the divers NCL brought in from Kona to cut away the chains. He told me the buoy could have broken away in Honolulu. He also said as the ship was dragging the buoy it never effected the POD or prop. He said the problem happened when it came into port and was preparing to dock and the POD was turned sideways and the prop started wrapping around the prop. This naturally bent the prop. He also said he thought that it would only take 6 to 7 hours to remove the chain, nut actually took over 12 hours to completely remove the chain and also pull up the cement block. By that time according to him, the Coast Guard got involved and wanted to make sure the POD was sea worthy. This caused another delay. This is where the engineers from Germany came in who helped build the ship. They were flown in by NCL. Once they proved to the Coast Guard they could run the ship using the remaining POD and prop, it slowed the ships normal cruising speed of 21 knots to around 10 knots.

To put it into perspective, the diver told me the day of the earthquake, he lost over 80% of his house in Kona to the damage. Kind of makes the inconvenience to me and the other passengers a little trivial.

I am a diamond member on RCL and this was my first cruise with NCL. I thought the food was above average and the service we had was extremely good, especially in the speciality restaurants. Maybe this was due to the fact they impressed on the crew to go out of their way to try and please the passengers or maybe I just love to cruise and I am not the demanding type of person?!? After all it is still Hawaii!

I agree with some of the quotes regarding communication, but I think the captain was doing the best he could with the information he was getting. Such as taking longer to remove the chains or the Coast Guard getting involved, flying in engineers from Germany to inspect the POD and prop.

 

I am not trying to lessen the problems, I am just saying what I saw and what my perspective was. Obviously, others will see it different. As I saw in an earlier post, I don't think Kona would have been an option buoy or no buoy, due to the earthquake.

Sorry for my rambling, but I did want to throw out my observations.

[SJCPremier]

Im interested to know, if $100 credit was not enough, what do any of the affected passenger think is just compensation?

[shoreless]

While I know that #### happens, and that there are always people who want something for nothing, I think that most people just start out being mildly annoyed in a given situation, and then get more and more aggravated as time goes by if nothing is done to allay their concerns.

 

I think cruiselines (or any other entities) could avoid most of these reactions if they just did more to give the impression that they were being open and proactive about keeping passengers up to date with any information they might have, even if it's a "Sorry, we don't have concrete information yet."

 

I've been lucky so far (only 2 cruises), but I can see myself getting all worked up if some of this stuff happened to me too.:o

 

As to telling people that they shouldn't confuse NCL and NCLA, if I hadn't been spending time here, I would never have known they were two different things; as someone mentioned, you certainly wouldn't know it by looking at NCL's website.

[honestguy]

Well here's my two cents! First off the people wouldnt have seen Kona anyway thanks to the earthquake, Hilo was off from the get go for some reason, so even when they booked the cruise they were missing one port.

 

Secondly they are lucky the ship didnt stop and return to honolulu. To inspect the damage.

 

As to the people being upset, I think it has more to do with NCL and how they communicate things, then the fact they hit a bouy! I think its wrong for people to want something for nothing, but it seems that NCL wasn't to up front with the info.

 

Also I can say this. I am a veteran cruiser. I know things like this happen, however I can say from working for NCLA that a good many people sailing NCLA are first time cruisers. I think alot of people dont realize the way the cruise lines are run in terms of missing ports.

[RLJPHX]

...It Was Still Wrapped Around Our Starboard Propeller Or Azipod. ... The Next Day And Hit Our Third Port Of Kauai'a On Time. Sailing With One Engine Made That Difficult... We Then Got To Honolulu Late Enough To Cancel Or Shorten All The Post Cruise Excursions...

 

The above is from the first post. It does mention the Azipod and states that they were sailing on one "engine." Since the ship doesn't have an engine, the poster must mean that one of the azipods is not working.

 

Once they proved to the Coast Guard they could run the ship using the remaining POD and prop, it slowed the ships normal cruising speed of 21 knots to around 10 knots.

.

 

Now a second post stating that the ship is running on only one azipod. So I restate my earlier post.

 

Is this true? If so, is POAm spending less time in port this week so that the ship can get to the next port on time? When and how will the ship be repaired? Dry dock in Hawaii or go the the west coast on one azipod? What if something goes wrong with the only working azipod. I can see the headline, "NCL ship adrift at sea rescued by Coast Guard." Any Info out there?

[Cosmopolitan]

Didn't take the $100 as were advised NOT to by an attorney!

 

Was this attorney a passenger on the ship or was he waiting at port:confused:

[JLC@SD]

Thanks! :) I am! I know what we were told and I know what I read in the local newspapers.

 

you were told............and read them in the papers..........good.......that makes them all facts for sure.....:rolleyes:

[chasetf]

Your's is the second. Not bad for a ship with over 2,000 passengers aboard. 2 out of 2,000 = 1 out of 1,000 = 0.1%; or 99.9% of the passengers were happy....or haven't made it here to complain......yet.

$100 per cabin is the standard compenstion NCL gives for missing ports.

When the Zenith had to miss a port all we got was a free drink. :( Guess we went cheap. ;)

[JLC@SD]

Didn't take the $100 as were advised NOT to by an attorney!

 

advised NOT to by an attorney............who wants to take thousands from you.........:rolleyes:

[Zeno]

I was on the POAM for this cruise and went to the meeting and listened to a bunch of people start griping about everything under the sun, which had nothing to do with what the meeting was actually called for. I felt sorry for Buz the captain. He was probably one of the nicest Captains I have every sailed with.

I will say I personally talked with one of the divers NCL brought in from Kona to cut away the chains. He told me the buoy could have broken away in Honolulu. He also said as the ship was dragging the buoy it never effected the POD or prop. He said the problem happened when it came into port and was preparing to dock and the POD was turned sideways and the prop started wrapping around the prop. This naturally bent the prop. He also said he thought that it would only take 6 to 7 hours to remove the chain, nut actually took over 12 hours to completely remove the chain and also pull up the cement block. By that time according to him, the Coast Guard got involved and wanted to make sure the POD was sea worthy. This caused another delay. This is where the engineers from Germany came in who helped build the ship. They were flown in by NCL. Once they proved to the Coast Guard they could run the ship using the remaining POD and prop, it slowed the ships normal cruising speed of 21 knots to around 10 knots.

To put it into perspective, the diver told me the day of the earthquake, he lost over 80% of his house in Kona to the damage. Kind of makes the inconvenience to me and the other passengers a little trivial.

I am a diamond member on RCL and this was my first cruise with NCL. I thought the food was above average and the service we had was extremely good, especially in the speciality restaurants. Maybe this was due to the fact they impressed on the crew to go out of their way to try and please the passengers or maybe I just love to cruise and I am not the demanding type of person?!? After all it is still Hawaii!

I agree with some of the quotes regarding communication, but I think the captain was doing the best he could with the information he was getting. Such as taking longer to remove the chains or the Coast Guard getting involved, flying in engineers from Germany to inspect the POD and prop.

 

I am not trying to lessen the problems, I am just saying what I saw and what my perspective was. Obviously, others will see it different. As I saw in an earlier post, I don't think Kona would have been an option buoy or no buoy, due to the earthquake.

Sorry for my rambling, but I did want to throw out my observations.

 

Interesting observations. I suspect that you are correct about Kona not being an option because of the earthquake. It is a pity that some passengers did not find commuications from the bridge to be satisfactory. What do you think the problem was with that - lack of frequent updates? or something else? I don't feel that anyone has clearly defined exactly what the communcation problem was. I agree that it is hard for the Captain to give definitive answers when he does not know the extent of the problem himself.

I am amazed that people were so self-absorbed that they used a meeting called to discuss this specific problem to complain about other things. I mean, there is a time and place for everything. A meeting re: buoy and propeller and port cancellation is NOT the place to complain about your cabin steward or wait service.

[intrepid_guy]

Did you ever think that the "slow info" from the Captain was because he also did not know exactly what was going on? If the other report is correct, they had to call in divers to go down there and look/remove the bouy. These things take some time. I am sure that the captain was not intentionally keeping anything from you. Not to be a smarty pants, but, the captain does not have a magic mirror to see thru the hull and into the water where the pods are.

 

~Intrepid

[cruisingknut]

I was thinking, the cruise line still has to pay the crew, for ship, fuel, food, etc., etc., for the whole cruise. Maybe $100 was equitable. Dunno.

[cruisingknut]

I was thinking, the cruise line still has to pay the crew, for ship, fuel, food, etc., etc., for the whole cruise. Maybe $100 was equitable. Dunno.

[mikedw]

Did you ever think that the "slow info" from the Captain was because he also did not know exactly what was going on? If the other report is correct, they had to call in divers to go down there and look/remove the bouy. These things take some time. I am sure that the captain was not intentionally keeping anything from you. Not to be a smarty pants, but, the captain does not have a magic mirror to see thru the hull and into the water where the pods are.

 

~Intrepid

 

People want instant answers and that's not always possible. On another not when I got out of the navy, I worked for Amtrak in onboard service for several years and I know a lot of times we would hold back info from passengers or lie to them when it came to delays. Better to say signal trouble then the train on the track next to us cut someone in half and we can't move until they clean up the remains. That happened about once or twice a year and we weren't going to announce that over the PA for the kids and everyone to hear. Intrepid guy, what part of Baltimore are you from? I'm from Brooklyn moved out 5 years ago when I got married.

 

Michael

[MA 2 VA]

Didn't take the $100 as were advised NOT to by an attorney!

 

And people wonder why the cruises are getting expensive. We had the same thing happen in the Dawn rogue wave incident. I'm glad to say that the class action suit was denied. It is unfortunate that you missed a port and there were some problems. You were offered compensation and refused it. Again, I'm sorry your cruise wasn't everything you and some of the other cruisers were expecting, but I hope you are offered nothing else. If they do, it just raises the cost of my next cruise.

[intrepid_guy]

Intrepid guy, what part of Baltimore are you from? I'm from Brooklyn moved out 5 years ago when I got married.

 

Michael

 

I (we) have been living in Hampden since 1998! Prior to that I spent about 18 months living just off North Avenue, uh, not the best of neighborhoods.

 

 

~Intrepid <--- a Hampden Hon at heart.

[mikedw]

I (we) have been living in Hampden since 1998! Prior to that I spent about 18 months living just off North Avenue, uh, not the best of neighborhoods.

 

 

~Intrepid <--- a Hampden Hon at heart.

 

Brooklyn is not what is once was either, was glad to meet someone from Hagerstown. I like it much better up in the mountains.

 

Take care,

 

Michael

[intrepid_guy]

On cruiselines, however, changes happen a lot.

 

(gassing up ye olde flamethrower) Just kidding.

 

Actually, no they don't happen a lot. Out of the hundreds of ships out there and the thousands and thousands and thousands of cruises every year, one or two incidents a year (or even within a month for that matter) is NOT a lot. It is still an unusual circumstance.

 

Out of 8 cruises that I have been on, only once was there a major itinerary change so that the ship could stop at Grand Turk for a medical emergency. Completely unpredictable. We missed a call at Great Stirrup Cay. You know what we got for it? 2 hours of free rum punch at the pool... no cash. For me, no problem. Others acted as if they were thrown overboard and forced to swim back to Miami. Ranting, raving, "worst vacation ever"!!!! Ridiculous. I suppose we should have kept the gentleman aboard to suffer so John Q Public could have a beach day. Stupidest thing I have ever heard.

 

People blow things out of proportion all the time here. It was not the worst vacation of your life. At least you werent that man's wife! Or the wife of the man that died on our last cruise (at Labadee) 2 weeks ago, or the parents of the 6 year old girl that passed away on the same trip. THAT is the worst vacation of your life.

 

Me, I take things in stride and look at the bright side of things.

 

Oh - and everyone should read their cruise contract, not doing so is just silly. Then when something does happen, you will know if you have a leg to stand on.

 

~Intrepid