Dawn's Adrift!

[smeyer418]

almost every company I have ever been at, small and large, have emergency plans. some more extensive then others. A cruise line not having a basic emergency manual is almost beyond comprehension. the crew practices various emergencies every week. Most companies activate their emergency plans a couple of times a year as a test to see how it works. They tend to test various scenarios to see how they do. Sometimes they have an outside consultant come in and run the drill. I would think that a ship losing power somewhere other than its final port would be something they game. Its an obvious possibility. Losing power completely happens at least once every year or two. Having to evacuate the ship happens less often but is drilled at least once every week on every cruise ship.

 

BTW I am not sure insurance would cover/pay anything here. NCL is paying to transport you, house you and has returned your money. Insurance companies only will pay for necessary expenses and since they have already been covered you will probably get a rejection from at least some of the insurance companies...but we can wait to hear what people say when and if they file claims.

 

We shall see on this one...

[WeBeGone]

There's some who think that accidents are accidents. There are others who think that accidents are preventable (or work hard towards that goal).

 

I don't think the Dawn suffered an accident. It was a mechanical/electrical breakdown. Should there have been someone on board who could have "fixed" the problem? Maybe. But maybe the situation was so uncommon and unusual that the "normal" repair people weren't trained to handle it on board. I don't think we'll ever know for sure.

[BikerNC]

I understand your frustration, at the same time I have been reading all other posts and it seems like there are two types of comments, one like yours and the ones from people who say NCL went above and beyond. Lets list some facts.

 

1. You did get to go to all your ports and do all excursions plus you got an extra port "san Juan"

 

2. They did get you back to Miami and yes they had to get over 2000 people there on the bussiest holiday weekend.

 

3. you got 75% refund of your cruise.

4. got a 50% discount on next cruise.

 

5. If an outage like this happens again thye will have a plan since this hasnt happened to this magnitude.

 

6. you had food and drinks

7. A/C yes that sucked but didnt you go south to get away from the cold ( ok this is just to be funny)

 

 

Read some posts about people who got stranded on other cruise lines and they say that NCL handled it the best they could.

 

I would be happy just to get back to a port and then its an adventure from there.

[smeyer418]

I also can't imagine that their insurance company would underwrite them without having a pretty robust emergency plan.

 

and it is an accident

 

ac·ci·dent (ks-dnt, -dnt)

 

NOUN:

 

1. An unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm: car accidents on icy roads.
   
2. An unforeseen incident: A series of happy accidents led to his promotion.
   

emphasis supplied.

[Urban trekker]

It's the OP's first post so let's give them the same politeness that we usually give first timers by welcoming them to the Cruise Critic family and saying thanks for their opinion on how the event was handled.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[AuntieBarb]

It's funny that NCL is supposed to have 'plans' but the passengers complaining that NCL wasn't prepared weren't prepared themselves.

Did the people complaining have travel insurance?

Did they have plans in place if they couldn't return back to work on schedule?

Did the ones with a fear of flying ever consider that a ship might actually, possibly break down while they are on it and cause them to have to get on a plane??

Did any of these people do enough research to know that a screwed up cruise (for whatever reason) happens quite a bit??

 

just very curious why NCL needs to be prepared for anything but the passengers don't.

Maybe all their anger is misdirected and should be on themselves for not being prepared.

 

Well stated, Ang!

 

One big complaint that really gets to me is that NCL should have an emergency plan in place. :rolleyes: OMG, do some people actually think there could be a flawless emergency plan for every location at sea throughout these cruises? It was most fortunate the Dawn was within 100 miles of San Juan as it was!

 

I sympathize and actually expect to hear complaints. Nobody wants their cruise disrupted. But I do expect the complaints to take everything NCL was dealing with into account.

[sunquest76]

Thanks to the OP for expressing you opinion. I have never been in a similar situation, but I agree. I would be OK as long as the people responsible for my well-being communicated with me regarding their plans to make things right. In the OPs opinion, NCL was lacking in this department. Maybe your post will be read by someone who can relay this to NCL for future disaster planning.

 

Glad you made it back and I hope the rest of your trip was pleasant.

[MrLee]

And for the record, the manafest showed 2041 passangers.

 

And with more than 350 posts on this thread how many are actually from people who were affected by this breakdown?

 

No, I'm not going to go back aqnd count them (over 350 posts!!!) bt there weren't more than a half dozen who said they were on this cruise. :rolleyes:

[WeBeGone]

Welcome to Cruise Critic. Nice first post.

[gregdude]

Actually they should have an emergency plan and I would bet they do. Every school I know of has emergency plans for just about everything that could possibly happen. Certainly cruise lines have emergency plans for just such a situation. But having a plan and implementing it is another story. It seems to me that a major issue here was communications on the ship (not placing any blame on crew or passengers). With Internet and Cell phone access people went ahead and made their own arrangements. Years ago everyone would have depended on the crew and NCl to resolve these issues and they probably would have, but too much access may have resulted in some of the obvious confusion in this ongoing saga.

[Planer's Edge]

There's some who think that accidents are accidents. There are others who think that accidents are preventable (or work hard towards that goal).

 

Accidents are never preventable, thus the definition of the word. You can do everything that you think is possible. Yet, accidents still happen.

 

As for these plans everyone is talking about. You don't think NCL had some level of contingency plan. Do you think they are just a bunch of dopes just sitting around figuring out ways to nickel and dime us out of our hard earned money. There are people on ships called Chief of Safety, Chief Engineer, Hotel Director, etc. They are there to handle things when they get dicey. I think finding 2 planes, with crew, in the amount of time they did it was pretty good. Perfect, NO! Do some of you think that there are planes with crews just sitting around waiting to be called into service especially on a holiday weekend?

 

Now did this evacuation go as smoothly as one would hope? Nope!

 

Did they learn anything from this event? Yep!

 

Will it run any more smoothly the next time it happens? Probably not!

 

Because there are human beings involved. Did any of you see the video of people at the reception desk absolutely hammering the people working there. The passengers were telling the reception exactly what they were NOT going to do. When you start out negative it is really tough to get that chip off your shoulder. And there are a few posters on this thread that may never get that chip off of their shoulder. I would love to use my favorite line glasses being half full or empty but my posts keep getting deleted when I use it.

 

PE

[gregdude]

One final note, than goodness this was the NCL Dawn and not RCI Oasis of the Seas with 6,000 passengers!!!!:eek:

[MrLee]

One final note, than goodness this was the NCL Dawn and not RCI Oasis of the Seas with 6,000 passengers!!!!:eek:

 

:D:D Interesting thought!

[iassist56]

Things break.That happens to everything sooner or later.You can't blame NCL. I'm sure they didn't want this to happen.How you react to it is your choice. Miserable people tend to be miserable.I believe when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. 75% refund and 50% off your next cruise? That's lemonade. Besides that's a great story to tell your friends.

[halos]

Did any of you see the video of people at the reception desk absolutely hammering the people working there. The passengers were telling the reception exactly what they were NOT going to do. When you start out negative it is really tough to get that chip off your shoulder. And there are a few posters on this thread that may never get that chip off of their shoulder. I would love to use my favorite line glasses being half full or empty but my posts keep getting deleted when I use it.

 

PE

 

This is my biggest fear when cruising...NOT that something will go wrong with the ship, but the aftermath of it. I can deal with anything but when large groups of people become angry, I can 'feel' it.

You know when you walk into a room full of tension, no one has to say a word but the air is thicker and you feel uneasy?? Magnify that by a large group of passengers on a ship. I am REALLY sensitive to it.

That feeling makes me physically ill. That energy spreads like a disease and then proceeds to make everyone miserable and I totally believe that makes everything actually go worse. I believe with all my heart that if everyone remained calm and had some grace in situations like this, things would get resolved better and quicker.

[Harleycat]

Those men would have gotten to that solution sooner or later. But' date=' you women keep telling us men to read the instructions and they were doing just that. :D :D :D[/color']

 

PE

 

Actually, the department VP was a woman! :p

[familyof4cruising]

I understand your frustration. I'm sorry for your experience. From what I read I think NCL handled this to the best they could.

 

I can not imagine that this could have been done any better considering the magnitude of the experience.

 

No matter what it was not what you planned, nor what NCL wanted. I don't even think getting back 100% of the cruise price will make some people happy. Everyone is different. What could make this better for you?

 

I think NCL was fair with their compensation.

 

I actually feel worse for those that had their cruises cancelled the sailing after. A cancelled vacation at the last minute is heartbreaking. I usually travel during peak times ( days off from school) and I know that I could not reschedule unless I took my kids out of school, which I try to avoid.

 

Book a new cruise with your voucher... and try to get past this.

[Harleycat]

Everyone keeps writing about "an emergency plan". Do you actually think that cruise lines have plans for every concievable, or unheard of, or never happened before, emergency? Does anyone actually think that at a corporate office somewhere, men in suits sat around and thought "well, if the Dawn loses power and no one on board can adequetly fix the problem, and we have to get her to San Juan, and we have to fly 2224 people back to Miami, let's have these planes standing by, just in case"....... good grief :eek:.

 

When I worked in Healthcare, we were constantly writing procedures for situations that "could never possibly happen". Well, sure enough, it would happen and a new policy would have to be written. One example was the procedure for the code team (cardiac arrest). It was policy to have one code team and one back up team on duty at all times. Wouldn't you know it, one day we had 4 back to back codes. The code team took the first code and the back up took the second but all heck broke loose when the third and forth were called. Luckily someone thought to put the ER on notice and the third was handled by their team and then the ER was put on 911 diversion so we had paramedics and other staff available for the 4th. Post mortem included new written procedures for multiple codes.

[a1cruises]

first of all congrats on the engagement but you are not telling the whole story, i also was on the ship.

 

first of all yes the captain said there was backup power, they used the backup power to get to San Juan, there was enough power to propel the ship slowly with most of the other resources such as a/c, etc being diverted to run the engines, would you rather have been adrift for 4 days with air?

 

The second "lie" - they NEVER said they would transport everyone back saturday, they said they would charter flights and get everyone back to Miami as soon as they could, never did they specify everyone woudl go saturday.

 

the third "lie" again never did they say how they were choosing passengers for the flights, how would they know who had flights when out of Miami unless they were arranged by ncl, and i am pretty sure that is a small majority of people since the NCL air is so much more expensive then booking yourself.

 

lastly, i and my family were on of the first few off the ship saturday after they called for non us citizens on the first flight, we arranged our own air, we got off when they called for the first group of us citizens on the ship on the first flight to get off, we were told by the captain who was at the gangway that we were not on the flight and we told him we booked our own air and he said that was fine we can not keep you on the ship, sorry for the inconvenience and have a good day. there was no argument in any way. Yes you are right they would not let us citizens off in the first wave but right around 9:30 they called for us citizens and then there was no problem.

 

i guess your way sounds much more dramtic though

 

one last thing - you say you had to get home because you are doctors? not sure what this has to do with anything, if the ship had not broke you would not have been home for another day at least, if the ship did not broke were you planning on jumping off and swimming home saturday?

 

 

Good rebuttle pieshops. As a travel agent, I am probably more understanding when things go wrong (cruises and airlines). I am not saying that all problems are handled well, but if passengers would just calm (like you did) and realize that things happen that out of the crews control, but that most crew members do their best to get all passengers accomodated under a very trying and stressful situation. I would gladly travel with people like you any day because, you do not lose your cool and make it worse for yourself and others around you. Situations like these bring out the best in some (you) and the worst in others (the doctor).

 

The "doctor that wrote the post" that you responded to sounds like a pompous JERK who only thinks of himself first and acts on his emotions before finding out the "facts". I thought that doctors were supposed to be analytical people that refrained from making decisions before analyzing the "facts" first. It sounds like he was living in his own little emotional bubble during this crazy situation and made things worse for himself and those around him. Maybe his fiancee now sees what type of person that he is under stressful circumstances and re-things her decision to spend the rest of her life with this person. It is a good thing that the ship did not catch fire or worse, because people like him would have thrown people like you overboard, to save his own life (some doctor right?).

 

On another note, if trip cancellation/interrruption insurance was purchased, the insurance company who would have helped get their customer home and re-imbursed for any expenses (all plans vary slightly on how much and what they reimburse) that NCL would not cover. This should be a lesson to all travelers (cruising or otherwise), that life is not perfect, and insurance (with a reputable insurance company) will give you peace of mind during very stressful incidences and occurences happen while you are far away from home. Next time you are offered insurance for a cruise don't try to save a little bit of money because you think that nothing can happen to you "life happens" and it is not always the way that we plan it.

[Dr. Jack Daniels]

It's the OP's first post so let's give them the same politeness that we usually give first timers by welcoming them to the Cruise Critic family and saying thanks for their opinion on how the event was handled.

 

 

Really????

 

I thought the standard welcome was for all of the blue ribbon cruisers to come in and point out that since this is the OP's 1st post that their opinion means absolutely nothing.:rolleyes:

 

DJD

[sloopsailor]

....however when you travel there are NEVER any guarantees and if you want perfection...stay home!

 

And even THAT isn't a guarantee of perfection! Two winters ago our power here at home went out for 39 hours during a winter storm. No heat - furnace fan runs on electricity; no light - ran out of candles and no stores open to buy more ; no cooking - electric everything; no TV to pass the time away - nothing! Most of the whole town was affected, so there wasn't an easy escape from the problem.

 

I would rather have dealt with the power issues on this cruise than our power issues at home. Adventures are much more fun when you're on vacation!

[MrPete]

I don't think anyone would be very happy on something that huge and so dark.

 

I remember a creepy feeling sailing the Atlantic when an announcement came over and said we were stopping for about ten minutes with the engines being shut down.

 

It was an eerie ten minutes, and that was in the daylight.

 

Can't imagine it being in the dark, but I'm sure it made for an interesting period of time.

 

Glad to hear everyone made it through unscathed.

[weltek]

"It didn’t matter whether we were on the first flight or the last. Frequent travelers have dibs on certain benefits. Families with small children should have priority. Just tell us what’s happening.

Amazingly, as NCL or the Dawn scheduled passengers to fly back to Miami, they broke up families and couples – people sharing the same cabin. They assigned a man to one flight while his wife and infant son were assigned to another."

I'm not sure why you think families with small children should have priority. You bring your family on a cruise, you deal with possible complications. It's a risk you take traveling with kids.

Airlines will break up families if need be when last minute flights are delayed and they need to scramble to get people on board others. So what?

It was a crisis. NCL didn't plan this, they didn't have immediate planes in their miami backyard to send over, they were scrambling, reasonably so. You were compensated. It sucks, but have a little empathy for the company that had to deal with a crisis.

[Planer's Edge]

Really????

 

I thought the standard welcome was for all of the blue ribbon cruisers to come in and point out that since this is the OP's 1st post that their opinion means absolutely nothing.:rolleyes:

 

DJD

Nope, that is reserved for you Jack. :rolleyes:

 

PE

[NormanW]

Be glad everyone is safe. As if its not difficult enough dealing with rapidly deteriorating indoor conditions (heat/humidity) and no real escape as outside there's little relief. One has to cope with it. No big deal.

 

HOWEVER when you have people SCREAMING at the front desk...

Morales go south quickly with both crew and pax alike. Definitely not a good way to spend your time...vacation or not!

 

Not the fault of the ship or her crew but people being completely unreasonable! What do you think yelling at someone is going to accomplish? Making rude comments about one's nationality is completely and utterly out of line.

 

To continue on and on is really beating the dead horse. I'm sure we're going to see more posts as people want to "get the word out". The way it usually works is people that have good things to say are generally quiet and folks that want to blow steam will do so on every internet forum and social networking site. You could have 1000 generally happy people and 50 very upset ones. If 10 of the 1000 post and 50 of 50 angry post it makes it look like a disaster, right?

 

No matter how bad things go or seem to be going remember they can always be worse! Far worse!

 

Imagine if this happened in rough seas?

 

You may have dealt with something similar to this!

 

 

Someone mentioned the ship sinking. Well as unfathomable as that sounds (sorry about the pun) it does happen. Explorer:

and Sea Diamond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxcJNVxifcE come to mind. (Caution: those videos are pretty graphic for ship lovers!) Code Deltas are rare but not unheard of.

 

Cheers,

 

Norman