Were You Ever Scared On A Cruise?

[derftegel]

I thought that the cruise lines would get OUT of the way of a hurricane. Hugo was talked about LONG before it hit. Why on earth would a ship be THAT close to the storm. Now, I know that when there is a storm in one area that the sea can be rough hundreds of miles from there but in this case it doesn't sound like that's the case. All I've been told is that for the comfort of the passengers and the safety of the ship, crew and passengers that they would sail around such weather.

 

Just ran across this post today, and noticed you are on Mariner same date as we 9/23/07. You will recognize me by my ear to ear grin. :p

[Lynn the Cruiser]

In March of 2006 we were on the Grand Princess out of Galveston during Spring Break. On the first night of the cruise, we were awakened at 3:00 a.m. by the voice of the captain over the intercom. At first it scared the *%#* out of me, but when I realized what was happening I settled down.

 

Apparently a teenager (I still remember it was Kelsey from Caribe 7-something) had decided to "upgrade" her accommodations without letting her parents know!:eek: I assume they had tried everything to find this girl before the captain resorted to waking the entire ship in the wee hours of the morning.

 

There was another missing teen incident around 9:00 that same morning. When the captain came on at noon he gave the teens a stern talking to and their parents a stern warning! That was the end of the troubles for that cruise!:)

The captain's voice coming over the intercom can be really scary. It happened to us on one cruise...he came on in a very somber voice saying he had terrible news...of course everyone thought terrorism being it wasn't too long after 911. It turned out there was a pier collapse and we weren't able to dock in the Bahamas.

[cruiserbryce]

the only time I have been worried is when we were returning to the ship on the tender in Grand Cayman...the seas were very choppy and it was quite windy...everything was fine of course, but still...it was a new thing for us...

 

as far asrough seas go...I am pretty easy with this...I figure the ship has to have been through at least this much before...and if the crew doesnt look worried then I am certainly fine

[PrettyLA]

I've heard about a pianist playing the Titanic theme long before our cruise in April and as luck would have it ... it was played during our cruise too. I think that is just awful! :mad:

 

They were playing this on piano one of the last nights of my cruise on Explorer that I just got off of.

[Yumcha21]

Ok, here's one. My very first cruise aboard the Norwegian Dawn '05. We were rocking and rolling, barf bags were put out near the elevators(one elevator even smelled of puke). The only time I was scared was when I sat on the balcony seats of the main theatre and the ship was rolling and pitching; kind of like being on a roller coaster. The piano lady was playing My Heart Will Go On and I overheard someone say that it was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. My favorite part of this trip was when the captain said "open bar", going to charleston s.c. for the first time even for two hours, and the icing on the cake; an extra day off from school.

[Shanafan]

Only when I am waking up to our seapass bill!!! :eek:

[iheartbda]

I've always heard and read that fire on board is the biggest fear on a ship. On a cruise this past winter we were at dinner the first night when I thought I smelled smoke. It seemed to be getting worse but no one seemed concerned even when the captain announced, "all crew, we have a code 38" (or whatever it was).

 

Waiters were still going about their business but I was getting more nervous and sicker to my stomach by the minute. Couldn't think about eating but chugged my cocktail. Smoke smell intensifying, waiters STILL going about their business, when captain now announces, "all crew, we have a code 38 at the incinerator". CODE 38, like hell, you have a fire and I knew it!!!

 

Waiter nonchanantely brings my dinner and says hope you enjoy. No food for me, bring me another drink. All the time I'm thinking maybe this won't be too bad, we're just off the coast of Florida, we'll be rescued.

 

Captain finally makes another announcement that there was a small fire at the incinerator which was now under control and the smoke we're now smelling is just what's going though the exhaust system.

 

Later, when I called my husband (this was a girl trip), I was tryijng to tell him what happened when my phone cut out. All that got through to him was stress headache and fire. Could not get another call through to let him know everything was ok so I ran to the Internet Cafe, signed up for one of the plans and emailed him the story. WOW, did that ever cost, OUCH.

[Alexis]

I want to be scared again. Any experiences to add?

 

 

 

 

 

LOL Gee thanks. :o You just created another experience for me. :D

Here I am reading all the ones I never got to see and WHAM! That face scared the HECK out of me. :eek: :D

[KC_fn]

My party went snorkeling at Cabo, an official Carnival excursion. We were taken from the dock out to the snorkeling area by smaller boats owned by a local operator.

 

Three of the small boats headed out together. The drivers were much more interested in racing each other than they were in safety. Another goal seemed to be getting the boats airborne, by hitting hit as many waves as possible, as hard as possible. One of the women in our party was so scared that she cried most of the way out; all of us had a death grip on the side of the boat. It was terrifying.

 

We got to the snorkeling area in one piece, and spent about 2 hours; then it was time for the return trip. Again the drag race; again the hard bouncing off the waves. This time, we weren't so lucky, or at least one man wasn't (not in our party). We hit one wave particularly hard, and the man went flying straight into the air about 5 feet; when he came back down, he hit the deck so hard that he injured his back. The driver finally slowed down, and we crawled back to the dock, listening to this poor man's groans the whole way. We were met by an ambulance who took the guy and his wife away. Their cruise ended right then and there.

 

I haven't booked an official cruiseline excursion since. Supposedly one reason we pay outrageous prices for the official excursions is that they're contracted to reputable local operators, who have some standards of safety and reliability. Not so, at least not for us that day in Cabo.

[rclcruzer]

This sounds soooo strange, can't believe I am actually revealing my "old fear",

But on my first 3 cruises, I was always afraid that the Stabilizers that come out on each side of the ship underneath, would SLAM into something in the middle of the night. Like it would run into a giant "underwater sea rock" !!! :p

Weird huh?? Not worried about the daylight hours, just the night. My DH thought I was completely loony!

However, 4 years ago, on HAL from San Diego, doing the Mexican Riviera, on the last sea day before we returned to port, we hit a horrible storm. My DH and I were on the treadmill and it through us right off! The gift shops were closing up and everyone was green, even me, and I don't get sea sick... It was a BAD BAD sea day to say the least! :rolleyes:

[Frankiesmom]

These are great! :D

[uksimonusa]

Christmas day 2005. We were on the Sov of the seas and stopped at Coco Cay. It was really gray and they water was a little rough, but we caught the tender and headed over to the island. After an hour or two it started to rain really hard. Most of us who did go to the island started to head back to the tender to get back on the ship.

Well the seas were REALLY rough now. The rain was blowing sideways into the tender. When we finally go to the ship the gangway was moving up and down with the waves. It probably came up 10-15 feet off the deck. The poor crew that was trying to keep it steady looked absolutely terrified. That sure didn't help me any.

The crew would watch the waves coming alongside of the ship and when there was a big dip (the gangway could then touch the deck) they would tell 1 or 2 people to run. Literally run across the gangway. I was real worried about the elderly folks who could not run across.

 

To this day, I just can't forgive the captain. He could see Santa's sleigh on the radar, but he couldn't see the big friggin storm headed our way. :rolleyes:

 

Now I know why I cancelled that cruise, we were going on the SOS, but they changed the itinery and instead od being at sea on Christmas Day, we were going to CocoCay, not wanting a BBQ Christmas Lunch, we changed to the Grandeur out of Tampa instead, kinda glad we did:D

[rclcruzer]

Well, I wasn't scared, but we had three different incidences on my Radiance cruise last April. The first, and ironically right after muster, was a fire in the crew quarters. We had just finished muster when "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo" came over the intercom. Small fire on deck 2. They put it out within a matter of minutes. At the same time, a passanger had fallen down the steps after muster, so he was being evacuated. Delayed departure about an hour and a half. Then on the last day, at sea, over the intercom comes "Oscar, Oscar, Oscar (apparently code for man overboard), starboard side". We rescued a Cuban refugee floating in an inner tube.

Boy do I feel stupid, because when we were on the Serenade last month, to Alaska, on the 3rd day the captain came over the intercom and said "Bravo Bravo Bravo", like 6 times in a row. NOW i know what they were doing! Putting out a fire on our ship??? YIKES!! Weird though, nobody talked about it, or said anything. Hmmmm....So now I know what it means! I thought it was some kind of drill:rolleyes:

[FlyingPhotog]

Our honeymoon cruise on the Carnival Celebration out of Galveston. We departed Galveston on New Years' Eve, and right from the moment we pushed off the waters were rough. We rolled from side to side all the way to Cozumel.

 

The scary part was the first night, getting ready for dinner. We opened the bathroom door to find water coming up through the shower drain and flooding the floor, spilling over the doorway onto the carpet of our stateroom. My wife got especially nervous between that and the rough seas - she thought we were going down for sure.

 

The flood was caused by some sort of plumbing malfunction that affected the other rooms down the hall as well. The rest of the week we saw industrial fans trying to dry the carpet along out hall, and couldn't walk barefoot in our room. :rolleyes: As compensation we got about 10 free drink coupons and a voucher for 10% off a future cruise, which we never used.

[Gonzo70]

On my last cruise we all actually had to put on our life vests! The entire ship closed down for a while - all the bars, restaurants, casino, everything. We were all huddled together by the life boats waiting for the captain to speak; packed in like sardines. Oh wait, that was just the muster drill.

[mchin]

In August 2003, we were cruising on Explorer of the Seas and had been out running TS Claudette the entire cruise. Our last port was Cozummel -- Claudette caught up with us. Unlike the other ships in port that day, we did not leave earlier to miss the storm. The captain decided that Explorer was a large enough ship to handle the storm. Well.......we had a very interesting night. Waves were breaking over the observation platform (the helopad) which was deck five (I think). We went to a balcony cabin on deck seven and were getting wet by the waves. The ship was tossed in the water, and many people became seasick. It took the crew several hours to finally close the outside decks down. People were out strolling, watching the waves, and kids were playing near the pools which were like small tidelwaves as the ship tossed about.

 

The next day was our last sea day, there was some damage to the ship. Lights were broken on the observation platform, I think someone said they lost some of the deck furniture overboard, chairs were strung all over, etc. People walked around in a daze that day - a very somber mood.

 

Luckily, the experience did not scare us from sailing.

[rclcruzer]

On my last cruise we all actually had to put on our life vests! The entire ship closed down for a while - all the bars, restaurants, casino, everything. We were all huddled together by the life boats waiting for the captain to speak; packed in like sardines. Oh wait, that was just the muster drill.

 

:D hahahhahah lol!!!!!

[KC_fn]

GONZO: You won't believe this, but that same thing happened to us! Was THAT what it was? :eek:

[rclcruzer]

This sounds soooo strange, can't believe I am actually revealing my "old fear",

But on my first 3 cruises, I was always afraid that the Stabilizers that come out on each side of the ship underneath, would SLAM into something in the middle of the night. Like it would run into a giant "underwater sea rock" !!! :p

Weird huh?? Not worried about the daylight hours, just the night. My DH thought I was completely loony!

However, 4 years ago, on HAL from San Diego, doing the Mexican Riviera, on the last sea day before we returned to port, we hit a horrible storm. My DH and I were on the treadmill and it through us right off! The gift shops were closing up and everyone was green, even me, and I don't get sea sick... It was a BAD BAD sea day to say the least! :rolleyes:

eeeek...meant to say THREW not through!:o

[Quampapetet]

I've never cruised before, but my dad was on a cruise ship (for business) one time and the pitch of the ship was so bad at one point at night, their cabin door flung open and I think his roommate fell out of bed.

 

I don't recall if it was the same trip or not, but he was on a cruise when 9/11 happened. Their group's meetings ceased for the rest of the day after they found out what happened and everybody on the cruise was so somber. There was a public prayer meeting on the ship that lots of ppl went to. When they were leaving the ship, he saw security questioning somebody and then hauling them off the ship - don't know what the outcome of that was.

[Arizona Laura]

LOL Gee thanks. :o You just created another experience for me. :D

Here I am reading all the ones I never got to see and WHAM! That face scared the HECK out of me. :eek: :D

 

 

I don't even remember where I got the picture from but is pretty bad.

I thought this thread was dead. But I do thank everyone for the great stories and the jokes.

Laura

[Micknmin]

The scariest cruise I ever went on was my first one. In 1974, I went on a Greek ship called the Amerikanis with my family. I was 17 at the time and my sister was 20. The two of us met up with a group of kids from NY onboard and we hung around with them for most of the trip. My parents would let us stay up late at night as long as we promised to stay with each other at all times. One of the last nights on the ship, the group that we were hanging around with decided to go hang out up on deck, but I needed to go to the bathroom first. My sister went up with the group and I told them I would meet them on deck in a few minutes. After going to the restroom, I went up on deck to where I thought I was supposed to meet them, but they weren't there. I figured that they must have stopped along the way and decided to wait for them. I leaned against the railing and was looking out to sea when two of the crew members from the lower decks came up and got on either side of me. They started speaking in Greek (and of course I had no idea what they were saying), when suddenly they each grabbed one of my arms and started walking me down the deck. I started yelling at them to leave me alone, but there was no one around to hear me. I kept struggling to get away, but they still continued to pull me along...heading for a door. Suddenly an officer of the ship came around the corner and hollered something to them in Greek and they both let go of me and ran off. The officer came and made sure that I was okay, and then took me to the other side of the ship where my sister and our friends were waiting. I have no idea what happened to the crew members that had grabbed me. My sister and I decided not to tell our parents because we had promised that we would stay together for the whole cruise and we knew they would be mad (yes, we were stupid). I didn't tell my parents about the incident until about 2 or 3 years ago, and my mother was absolutely horrified!

 

That is definitely the scariest moment I have ever had on a cruise ship!

[dsan]

Took my very first cruise in sept. and we caught the end of a hurricane. Talk about scared!!! They locked all the door on deck so no one could get out. The waves were 30 feet high. The glasses flew off the counter, the refridgerator flew open all items flew out. The next room to ours the tv fell off the wall. I wanted to find a way off the ship then.. if this is cruising its not for me.. sick was putting it mildly. There were people loosing it every where. After 1 1/2 days it calmed down and we were fine but I was ready for it to end... But didnt deter me now I love it...

[MavisMarie]

I thought that the cruise lines would get OUT of the way of a hurricane. Hugo was talked about LONG before it hit. Why on earth would a ship be THAT close to the storm. Now, I know that when there is a storm in one area that the sea can be rough hundreds of miles from there but in this case it doesn't sound like that's the case. All I've been told is that for the comfort of the passengers and the safety of the ship, crew and passengers that they would sail around such weather.

 

Sometimes it cannot be avoided! We were on the Brilliance inaugural transatlantic, which began in Harwich (London) and would end in Boston. Hurricane Gustav was out there and the captain chose to go a bit North out of the English Channel and eventually he had to turn South. We were hit with 45 foot seas and 80 mph winds. This lasted for 3 days. It was a very WILD ride, to say the least. One 45 foot wave is rough but hitting 2 of them back to back is unbelieveable. At one point, we were almost directly over the remains of the Titanic...that'll put a scare in ya!

[cruzincurt]

We were on the SS Norway docked in Miami when the boiler blew up killing several crew members. I was a little concerned while standing at muster stations that the crew had trouble getting the outside promenade windows open (where you boarded the life boats).

 

The crew was quite confused. My concern was reduced when the 15 or more Miami-Dade fire trucks and America's finest arrived within minutes on the dock below. We were then told to exit the ship immediately once the fire was out.

 

We were extremely lucky this unfortunate event happened just after we docked back in Miami and not out on the open seas. The grand and beautiful Norway never cruised again and reportedly has been sent to the boneyard for scrap.