Bomb Threat Last Night on the Fascination

[firefighter15]

Coming off a 4 night cruise on the Fascination out of Jacksonville. We had a great time but last night around 3:30 a.m. my wife told me someone was knocking on the cabin door. I just rolled over and said it was probably just some lost drunk guy who couldnt find his cabin and told her to go back to sleep. Shure enough 10 seconds later another loud thud came from the door. In my early morning stupor I crawled out of bed and answered the cabin door not thinking of the clothes or lack there of that I didnt have on.

 

There stood a male and female "Officers" in white uniforms with stripes stating "We need to search your cabin immediatly!" Now normaly I would protest and demand and explination but I was still sleep walking and they seemed hell bent on doing it so I conserverved my energy slunk back to the still warm bed spot and said for them to "knock themselves out"

 

They stayed for about 1 minute searching everything but our luggage, checking the balcony, begind the curtain under the live vests and even under the narrow passage under the bed. Turning to say goodnight they flicked off the light and chut the door behind themselves where I could here the familiar thud on the cabin next door to mine.

 

When we awoke some 3 hours later and found a slip under the door advising that the Jackosnville police had advised them they recieved a bomb threat at 1am that early morning. While waiting in the human sea of bodys waiting to disembark (which was delayed to to the bomb inspection I guess) We also heard there had been 5 arrests made aboard our whip during my cruise including a fight and a sexual assault. I did witness a few people being escorted off by Jacksonvilles Finest as we departed the ship at 10:30 AM and we were on deck 4 ( snuck down from 7). It was the most interesting cruise and worst disembarkation I have ever been apart of..

 

Thought you might want to know!

 

Ron

[LemurCat]

Coming off a 4 night cruise on the Fascination out of Jacksonville. We had a great time but last night around 3:30 a.m. my wife told me someone was knocking on the cabin door. I just rolled over and said it was probably just some lost drunk guy who couldnt find his cabin and told her to go back to sleep. Shure enough 10 seconds later another loud thud came from the door. In my early morning stupor I crawled out of bed and answered the cabin door not thinking of the clothes or lack there of that I didnt have on.

 

There stood a male and female "Officers" in white uniforms with stripes stating "We need to search your cabin immediatly!" Now normaly I would protest and demand and explination but I was still sleep walking and they seemed hell bent on doing it so I conserverved my energy slunk back to the still warm bed spot and said for them to "knock themselves out"

 

They stayed for about 1 minute searching everything but our luggage, checking the balcony, begind the curtain under the live vests and even under the narrow passage under the bed. Turning to say goodnight they flicked off the light and chut the door behind themselves where I could here the familiar thud on the cabin next door to mine.

 

When we awoke some 3 hours later and found a slip under the door advising that the Jackosnville police had advised them they recieved a bomb threat at 1am that early morning. While waiting in the human sea of bodys waiting to disembark (which was delayed to to the bomb inspection I guess) We also heard there had been 5 arrests made aboard our whip during my cruise including a fight and a sexual assault. I did witness a few people being escorted off by Jacksonvilles Finest as we departed the ship at 10:30 AM and we were on deck 4 ( snuck down from 7). It was the most interesting cruise and worst disembarkation I have ever been apart of..

 

Thought you might want to know!

 

Ron

 

Wow, crazy. Thank God there wasn't a bomb. I hope they arrested the yahoos who said there was. When are people going to figure out that crap just isn't funny or cool?

[arush5268d]

I find it odd that security didn't take part in the search...

 

Also odd that a couple of web searches don't yield any results for a bomb scare or anything involving the Carnival Fascination lately.

[michelle1836]

WOW! I hope they caught whoever was behind all this!

[LemurCat]

I find it odd that security didn't take part in the search...

 

 

How do you surmise security didn't? This is just one person's report. For all we know, security was checking cabins along with the officers.

[nobody000]

I find it odd that security didn't take part in the search...

 

Also odd that a couple of web searches don't yield any results for a bomb scare or anything involving the Carnival Fascination lately.

 

 

Thats alot of cabins and areas to check, I assume they had all hands on deck so to speak..it would be better to see an officer or security at your door than your room steward asking to look.

[tisbit]

It wasn't just officers and security. The crew member that searched our cabin was wearing a Polo shirt and seemed she might have been part of Camp Carnival. Seemed it was all the best English speaking crew members. There were a lot on each floor going door to door. I figuered it was a missing child until we got the letter. She told us it was a safety inspection due to a report they received.

[Sinjan]

Just looked on the local news stations websites and don't see a thing about it. Weird. *shrugs*

[poobears]

Wasn't there another bomb scare recently on a different boat? People are crazy, I'd be more worried about the sexual assualt though, wonder what the details were behind that?

 

Hopefully all the crazies are cruising now and only the non violent crazy people will be on Fascination in July.

[bean-si]

Wow, I will have to watch the news locally later today.

[gandme2010]

My Mom, sister, and I were on the same cruise. We had a female security officer search our room. We had no idea about the fight or sexual assualt. We did hear some officers taking about arresting a few people though. I wonder if we'll ever hear any more info about it all.

[firefighter15]

Sorry I was typing the 1st post from the Jax Airport before we boarded the flight. I kept the letter of the bomb scare as a scrap book momento, just an odd thing to get. Dont know why its not out but I can assure you it has. Makes you wonder what else they manage to keep under wraps.:eek:

[LRY229]

We were also on this cruise. Had a wonderful time until the 3:30am knock. I also thought it was probably some drunk, but they were very persistent. Security officer just said it was an emergency and they had to search all rooms - they looked behind the shower curtain, in the closets and under the bed - kept asking if everything was OK. They apologized repeatedly for disturbing us. Hey, better safe than sorry.

 

I live in the local area and there was nothing on the evening news. Latest we've ever disembarked - it was after 11am. I'm sure there were lots of unhappy folks arriving that were delayed in getting on the ship.

 

Other than that one incident we had a great cruise. Loved cruising out of JAX.

[woodie841]

My husband and I were also on this cruise and were also awaken at 3:30 a.m. when men dressed in white uniforms entered our room for an "emergency search," (unless we slept through the knock, there wasn't one). Being very sleepy, my husband and I simply turned over in bed and let them search. My initial thoughts were that there was a stow-away or a missing child. They only searched areas where a person could hide - under the bed, the shower, closet... This morning when we found out that it was a bomb threat, I was actually surprised that there was not a more thorough search! It makes me think that there is more to the story. I thought back to the deck party two nights before. I saw a security officer speaking to another officer. It looked like he had a picture of someone in his hand and they were discussing it. When they saw that I was looking in their direction, I felt as though they gave me a stern look and whether due to my attention or by coincidence, the conversation ended and the officer holding the print outs walked away.... hmmmm... paranoid or could there have been suspicious activity throughout the entire cruise??? I had no idea about the other arrests until reading this blog!!! WOW!!! My husband and I have been on 7 cruises now and have never been through anything like this!!!

[cruisingcouple2008]

We had a bomb scare also on our Glory cruise at debarkation. They evacuated all of port canaveral I mean all. Even the outher ships terminals. All buses took all waiting passengers away. There was a small to medium bag that was in the front of the terminal and from lido we watched the men in bubble suits and the robots get the suitcase and put it in some big kind of pot i mean huge pot with a lid and wheel it away remotely onto a trailer.

 

then we had to wait for all the buses that were taking us to the airport to bring all the next group of passengers and employees back and then we disembarked. We didnt get off til after noontime and I had called Southwest from Lido and they had no problem reported it on my reservation and said if we missed our 2 pmish fligh they had us on standby for a 5pm ish one. They were great.

[woodie841]

They evacuated all of port canaveral I mean all. Even the outher ships terminals. All buses took all waiting passengers away. There was a small to medium bag that was in the front of the terminal and from lido we watched the men in bubble suits and the robots get the suitcase and put it in some big kind of pot i mean huge pot with a lid and wheel it away remotely onto a trailer.

 

 

The strange thing about our experience from my perspective is exactly that this did not happen... they weren't looking in drawers, evacuating rooms or looking for suspicious packages. They even told us to stay in the bed while they searched... they were clearly looking for a person and not a bomb. I'm not a security professional but I would have thought that they would have called us to our emergency points so that they could have thoroughly searched each room and its contents....If this was normal, I am worried that it would have not been enough in the event that there was an actual bomb onboard.

[tisbit]

From the sounds of the letter, I presume they pretty much knew it was a hoax but had to do something...or there was a bigger item they were looking for (the caller said it was in a case or something) that led to that type of search.

 

I seriously doubt anyone would say it was a bomb threat if it wasn't one, that is too inflamatory to throw around loosely....now if they said they were looking for a lost child when it was really a bomb threat.....that is more plausible.

[verbalcurrency]

I was also aboard this cruise. From our own visit from security at 3:40AM and many of the guests we spoke to while waiting in line (for 90 minutes) to exit the ship that morning, it sounds as though the security checks were wildly inconsistent. The officer that entered our room checked the closets and dresser drawers, but did not enter the bathroom and ignored our luggage. If this was a legitimate threat, the resulting search was shoddy at best. And if the ship's captain had already determined it was a hoax, they should have let people sleep. This was my first cruise, and likely my last.

[Rainbow Fighter]

I was also aboard this cruise. From our own visit from security at 3:40AM and many of the guests we spoke to while waiting in line (for 90 minutes) to exit the ship that morning, it sounds as though the security checks were wildly inconsistent. The officer that entered our room checked the closets and dresser drawers, but did not enter the bathroom and ignored our luggage. If this was a legitimate threat, the resulting search was shoddy at best. And if the ship's captain had already determined it was a hoax, they should have let people sleep. This was my first cruise, and likely my last.

 

 

How sacry, juts glad it turned to be a hoax.

[Crusin6]

Interesting how a number of the posters here are in single digits in their posting history.

[Crusin6]

Is there a credible link to a news story somewhere?

[Sinjan]

Is there a credible link to a news story somewhere?

 

I've been watching for one ever since OP posted. So far nothing on any of the local stations. What seems truly odd is that they DID cover the botched wedding from down in Orlando.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way saying it didn't happen. But still seems odd there wouldn't be something about it.

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

I was also aboard this cruise. From our own visit from security at 3:40AM and many of the guests we spoke to while waiting in line (for 90 minutes) to exit the ship that morning, it sounds as though the security checks were wildly inconsistent. The officer that entered our room checked the closets and dresser drawers, but did not enter the bathroom and ignored our luggage. If this was a legitimate threat, the resulting search was shoddy at best. And if the ship's captain had already determined it was a hoax, they should have let people sleep. This was my first cruise, and likely my last.

 

Please don't let something like this discourage you from cruising. I have cruised 14 times and have never had anything like this happen. Give it one more try - you owe it to yourself!!!

[Crusin6]

I've been watching for one ever since OP posted. So far nothing on any of the local stations. What seems truly odd is that they DID cover the botched wedding from down in Orlando.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm in no way saying it didn't happen. But still seems odd there wouldn't be something about it.

Certainly could have happened...I am just a little leary about all the newbie poster claiming that it happened. They joined CC just to report this?:rolleyes:

[LSEA]

Interesting how a number of the posters here are in single digits in their posting history.

 

 

Hi Cruisin6,

 

Do I have enough of a posting history? My daughter and I were on this ship and yes, it did happen. About 3:40 there was a knock at our door. Like another poster said I thought it was probably just someone being obnoxious so I ignored it. Seconds later another knock and I heard some voices. Looked out and saw a young woman in uniform. Opened the door and she was very apologetic and explained what was going on and needed to look in our room. No problem, she came in, looked around a bit, apologized again and left. Certainly alarming to be woken up, when I saw her in the hallway all I could think was there was horrible news from home and someone was trying to get word to me. After I realized that wasn't the case it was no big deal. And I appreciated they didn't signal an alarm and make a general announcement, I think that would have sparked panic. It really wasn't a problem at all and in no way lessened our enjoyment of the trip. The next morning there was a nice letter from the Captain explaining the situation.