Hurt on excursion question.

[CWcruisers]

Many people safely do that on cruises, but I want the Carnival guarentees that I have personally seen work more than once when we go out on excursions.

 

 

I have done an ATV excursion that was booked through Carnival and it was every bit as rough and rowdy as the independant one I was on when I broke my wrist. It's just the luck of the draw. I've been on a few Carnival excursions that I was surprised at the level of risk that was involved such as when my DH got a horse that we loving nicknamed Del Diablo because he was a devil horse and the first thing he did was rear up when my DH mounted him. And that was a Carnival excursion!

 

My point was that I was very impressed with the care and compassion I received from the ship's personnel. They were not required to offer it, but they did and I was very pleased.

[jenn_x]

Yeeeeouch! Sounds like they took pretty good care of you, glad to hear you are ok. A good reminder to be careful and get travel insurance!

[near the beach]

With the thousands of people on cruises every day. Accidents will and do happen. Head wounds bleed a lot. Even the minor ones. I’m speaking from experience. Having had five “accidents”. :eek: Some requiring stitches, butterflies or nothing other than bandages. I am glad the OP is ok. :) It sounds to me that everyone acted well in taking care of the injured person. That is not always the case. Even the most careful person can be involved in an incident. We all think “it won’t happen to me”.:o Another reason to think about travel insurance.

[graphicguy]

Yeeeeouch! Sounds like they took pretty good care of you, glad to hear you are ok. A good reminder to be careful and get travel insurance!

Exactly what I was thinking. Sorry the OP slipped and fell. But, happy to hear she was taken good care of.

 

Me thinks I'll get some insurance for my upcoming cruise.

[mdrobtx]

Gotta watch out for those cats. 4 years ago I slipped and fell. On the way down my finger got caught in a steel cable attached to the mast. Now I have only 4 fingers on that hand.

BE CAREFUL and wear deck shoes.

[echo]

I always buy travel insurance but in this case it wouldnt have made a difference since the ship took care of the medical. Ok here is where the firestorm will start and I really debated on whether to post this at all , but... I do have one issue with how my situation was handled. And that was the tour being continued as normal and no action was taken to get me back to shore in a timely manner. What if the injury would have been worse, there was no way to know. Like the poster before that said they had a severe emergency, CPR and all and had to goad the operator to get to shore. What would you do? What could I have done to change things? I just think it is something we should all think about.

 

Background the tour was in Nassau, if you are fimilair with Nassau you know that most snorkel boats go to the end of Harbour to snorkel. We went out to sea and then into the back side of the harbour to snorkel, I think mostly to fill time. The seas were rough that day and there was suppose to be a beach portion of this tour that was canceled due to the rough sea. When the event occured and we left to return I was kinda shocked that we went back out to sea instead of the shorter calmer harbour.

[rybreadsmomshubby]

Gotta watch out for those cats. 4 years ago I slipped and fell. On the way down my finger got caught in a steel cable attached to the mast. Now I have only 4 fingers on that hand.

BE CAREFUL and wear deck shoes.

Not that I've ever really been interested in these sort of excursions anyway, but you've just sealed the deal for me.

[rybreadsmomshubby]

I always buy travel insurance but in this case it wouldnt have made a difference since the ship took care of the medical. Ok here is where the firestorm will start and I really debated on whether to post this at all , but... I do have one issue with how my situation was handled. And that was the tour being continued as normal and no action was taken to get me back to shore in a timely manner. What if the injury would have been worse, there was no way to know. Like the poster before that said they had a severe emergency, CPR and all and had to goad the operator to get to shore. What would you do? What could I have done to change things? I just think it is something we should all think about.

 

Background the tour was in Nassau, if you are fimilair with Nassau you know that most snorkel boats go to the end of Harbour to snorkel. We went out to sea and then into the back side of the harbour to snorkel, I think mostly to fill time. The seas were rough that day and there was suppose to be a beach portion of this tour that was canceled due to the rough sea. When the event occured and we left to return I was kinda shocked that we went back out to sea instead of the shorter calmer harbour.

That's an interesting thought. Just what would it take for the excursion to be cancelled and everyone returned to shore so the injured person could receive immediate medical treatment?

I doubt that there will ever be a definitive answer.

[blindrid]

Lets see, it's on the way back when they open up the free booze on these trips, factor in a wet deck on a fast moving craft over choppy waters. It makes for a very bumpy ride where balance may be impared a little.

 

I would bet some where in their ticket in relieves the tour operator of liability due to the inherant risks.

 

And another point would be that liability laws (wherever you were) in another country other than the US, are totally different so as to liability I believe you are SOL.

 

As to care, I would hope they at least acknowledged the injury and tried to offer some type of rudimentary medical care i.e. bandaging, towel, etc. It sounds like you get to live to play another day anyway :).

[echo]

Please keep in mind, I haven't said anything about anyone's liabilty. Others have brought that up.

[CorvetteLady]

I always buy travel insurance but in this case it wouldnt have made a difference since the ship took care of the medical. Ok here is where the firestorm will start and I really debated on whether to post this at all , but... I do have one issue with how my situation was handled. And that was the tour being continued as normal and no action was taken to get me back to shore in a timely manner. What if the injury would have been worse, there was no way to know. Like the poster before that said they had a severe emergency, CPR and all and had to goad the operator to get to shore. What would you do? What could I have done to change things? I just think it is something we should all think about.

 

Background the tour was in Nassau, if you are fimilair with Nassau you know that most snorkel boats go to the end of Harbour to snorkel. We went out to sea and then into the back side of the harbour to snorkel, I think mostly to fill time. The seas were rough that day and there was suppose to be a beach portion of this tour that was canceled due to the rough sea. When the event occured and we left to return I was kinda shocked that we went back out to sea instead of the shorter calmer harbour.

 

Did you ask them to get you back ASAP? Did they ask if you needed immediate medical attention? I do think they should have returned by the quickest route but maybe they couldn't travel along the harbour? If you didn't ask then you will never really know what they could have done. They may have thought you were find and there was no need to rush.

 

I have never really thought about what would happen if I was injured on an excursion, your post has made me realize that I should give it some thought.

[ckekjhaze]

I would have taken you or whomever was with you to insist to be taken back immediately if that's what you felt was needed. You may (not saying you were) been a little shocked or embarassed and didn't want to make a big fuss so you sat there quietly trying not to "rock the boat" OK bad pun. Tour operators are there to make money not read minds. If you INSISTED that you needed to get back to the ship and needed a water taxi immediately and been willing to pay a little extra then I'm sure you would have gotten one.

 

My daughter got hurt when we went to Selvatica. We were staying at an AI and the staff at Selvatica were extremely attentive. She fell off her bike after hitting a tree root. Luckily it was on the way back and she had already ziplined and swam in the cenote. She was cleaned and bandaged and they offered at no expense to take us to a hospital but I didn't think it was that deep to need stitches.

 

As her mom I was ready to advocate for her but the staff were great and prepared with first aid stuff and I thanked them over and over. Accidents happen and these tours operate to make money so bringing back one person and having many others ask for a refund because their excursion got cut short may have come into play. At no point would I have even considered that our resort should know about it because I bought the excursion tickets from their concierge desk, or that the resort should have provided follow up medical care. I of course could have called the resort physician when I got back, but we stopped at a pharmacy and bought extra bandages and antibiotic ointment and she was fine.

Although head injuries are different, I would have taken Selvatica's offer to get us to the hospital for an xray in that case.

 

Glad you're OK and no permanent damage.

[betty215]

hold on...let me get this right, you fell on the catamaran, hurt yourself pretty badly, and they made you wait in the catamaran while everybody snorkled, and then took you back to the ship after the excursion was done? :eek: oh no. you had a head injury. hit your head bad enough to cause your skin to break open. yeah, i would have a big problem with that. :mad:

[graphicguy]

Did you ask them to get you back ASAP? Did they ask if you needed immediate medical attention? I do think they should have returned by the quickest route but maybe they couldn't travel along the harbour? If you didn't ask then you will never really know what they could have done. They may have thought you were find and there was no need to rush.

 

 

I have never really thought about what would happen if I was injured on an excursion, your post has made me realize that I should give it some thought.

 

 

That's the first thing I thought.

 

I'm thinking that they provided what they thought you needed. From that point, I believe it would be up to you to tell them that you needed further assistance and/or needed a doctor immediately. You said there was a nurse present? Did she inform the tour operator that she felt it was necessary for you to seek a Dr's care?

 

Anyone can play "what if" games. But, glad to hear you're OK. That's the important part.

[echo]

To clarify the snorkeling was over, thank goodness. No they knew I wasn't fine, that was evident to everyone on the boat. When I fell there was a collective gasp and silence for atleast 15 minutes while they tried to figuire out what to do with me. People moved from their spots to accomadate us. The crew walked me to the back of the boat , gave us 3 paper towels and bag of ice. And then wrote a report and had me sign it. I told them I needed to get back to shore asap. The lady who was a nurse , asked me if any of the crew were medically trained and asked if the man talking to me was doing any medical, I told her no that he was filling out a report, she then went over to the captain and asked him to notify the ship and the owner and to get me back asap. At that point we went out to sea ( maybe for some reason they could not go thru the harbour), music came on, rum punch was then served and the dancing begun. I was just out of it. And alittle panicky, since I've had a severe head injury before and knew how bad it could be. You know the rest of the story. I did have 2 people walk up to me on the ship later and ask if I was ok. And my hubby had 2 more see him later and ask about me. It is nice to know that some of your fellow passengers look out for others. And I will return the favor one day if it is ever needed.

 

Another thing that would have been nice is for Carnival to send someone to get me say in a wheel chair. The catermeran docked at Senor Frogs, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from the ship. I know I sure couldnt walk it, I know it'd would have been above and beyond but it'd been nice and not that unreasonable. Looking back I'm not sure how I'd had gotten back if the owner didnt do what he did. Hence the purpose of the post. What could we have done different and what would we do next time? And making people think this could happen to us and what are we going to do.

[Smart Arsenal Fan]

To clarify the snorkeling was over, thank goodness. No they knew I wasn't fine, that was evident to everyone on the boat. When I fell there was a collective gasp and silence for atleast 15 minutes while they tried to figuire out what to do with me. People moved from their spots to accomadate us. The crew walked me to the back of the boat , gave us 3 paper towels and bag of ice. And then wrote a report and had me sign it. I told them I needed to get back to shore asap. The lady who was a nurse , asked me if any of the crew were medically trained and asked if the man talking to me was doing any medical, I told her no that he was filling out a report, she then went over to the captain and asked him to notify the ship and the owner and to get me back asap. At that point we went out to sea ( maybe for some reason they could not go thru the harbour), music came on, rum punch was then served and the dancing begun. I was just out of it. And alittle panicky, since I've had a severe head injury before and knew how bad it could be. You know the rest of the story. I did have 2 people walk up to me on the ship later and ask if I was ok. And my hubby had 2 more see him later and ask about me. It is nice to know that some of your fellow passengers look out for others. And I will return the favor one day if it is ever needed.

 

Another thing that would have been nice is for Carnival to send someone to get me say in a wheel chair. The catermeran docked at Senor Frogs, which is about a 5-10 minute walk from the ship. I know I sure couldnt walk it, I know it'd would have been above and beyond but it'd been nice and not that unreasonable. Looking back I'm not sure how I'd had gotten back if the owner didnt do what he did. Hence the purpose of the post. What could we have done different and what would we do next time? And making people think this could happen to us and what are we going to do.

 

No cheerleading nor snark here, pinky promise, scout's honor. :)

 

But just wondering, do you know for a fact the ship was aware of the injury at that time?

[echo]

I was told by the crew and owner that they knew. Later the shore excursion head told me he was in contact with the owner of the boat before I got back to ship. Said he had 6 pages of incident in his file. The infirmary never indicated one way or the other if they knew I was coming, I was just glad to be looked at. Before I was finished in the infirmary a ships officer was there to do another report. Ask me to fill out what happen, I wrote slipped and hit head , that was about all I could muster at the time. They called my room 3 times I think, once we first settled down and I got into bed and wanted to come by and fill out another report, hubby said how about later. Never did do another one. Then they called about 10 in the evening asking to speak to me, He told them I was alseep, it was 10. Then in the morning they called again at 8. I was still resting. The last 2 calls were from guest service and they were just checking to see if I was ok. Which was nice but odd times to call.

 

I'll tell a story I heard about 5 seconds before I fell. I was wanting to walk out on the net , when I heard one of crew said there could only be 5 people on each side of the net. This was a large catermeran, larger than the ones I've been on before. This is a new tour company that they have just started using and the boat looked new. Anyways, he stated that last week they had people dancing on it and they all fell thru while the boat was moving. I think he said 17 people, someone asked if everyone was ok and he said yes, that they were moving slow and the capt stopped. So I waited till 2 people had left on one side to get on the net. Wish they would have stayed. lol.

[graphicguy]

echo...you asked what we would have done differently. I don't know that there's anything we could have done differently. The tour operator had a car waiting for you. Carnival gave you medical treatment at no charge. Although, I guess they could have given you a wheelchair. But, I'll assume you walked to the infirmary, so thankfully you could do that. It doesn't sound like you got any stitches. You state that it would have been nice if the car had been closer? OK.....maybe have the car closer. You also stated that maybe there was a shorter route the catamaran could have taken. I don't know the route, nor that area well enough to comment on whether there was a shorter way to shore.

 

Aside from that, I don't know if anything would have made it better. There was a nurse on the catamaran. Probably lucked out having a medical professional there to keep an eye on you.

 

I know I've been "bonked on the head" enough to know what that entails (and probably explains how I behave:eek:). Yes, the head will bleed a lot. And yes, you become disoriented and a bit nauseated. Best thing to do in my experience is to sit down and rest. Eventually, those symptoms subside by sitting. Sounds like that's what they had you do (in addition to application of ice to keep the swelling down). Sounds like they did all the right things.

 

I'm trying to think of anything else that could have been done and I can't.

 

Again, glad to hear you were fine.

[onthehighseas606]

Recieved medical care at no charge. Carnival did make many more reports and called my room a couple of times to check on me.

 

To answer someones question, we had 1 sea day left on the cruise and I mostly stayed in bed. So atleast it wasnt early in. And to comment on another post, one fear that did race thru my mind was, what if the ship wouldnt let me back on?

 

So Carnival did do something for you and treated your injury. My head hurts just reading this thread and what you went through. I would have been worried about passing out and being taken to a hospital and missing the boat maybe. I hope you had travel insurance, no one ever knows what can happen on or off the ship.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Echo, that sounds terrible and it's just luck (or an angel on your shoulder) that it all seemed to turn out ok. And I still say I hope you are going to be checked out by your doc at home, because 9 days out something could still come up. I know, pessimist, but I've been a nurse a long time and have seen a lot. You asked for help right away, and kudos to you for that. But when a person takes a bad blow to the head, the last person who might know what to do would be that person. And even if no brain injury occurred it is common to feel dazed, embarrassed, not want to make a fuss - etc. I do think the people in charge of the excursion should taken it upon themselves to get you back to land immediately and made sure someone was there to get you back to the ship. It sounds like they were more concerned about carrying on the excursion as planned and making sure people got their money's worth.

[lillian marie]

We watch for the danger factor when we book tours. My husband and I have worked overseas and medical care can be quite limited in 3rd world countries. I'm glad that your injury was not life threatening and that you could be treated on ship, yet even on ship it is likely that the doctor is not board certified in the United States. Travel out of the country is risky and I'm glad your injury had a happy ending.

[salty dingo]

How would you expect the crew to act and what would you expect them to do? What would you expect Carnival to do once you were back on shore but still a piece from the ship?

Well, excursions are at your own risk... so if you slip and fall no one owes you nada. And that is exactly how it should be.

 

They should come to your immediate aid and do whatever is possible to deal with the injury.

 

If it were a Carnival sponsored excursion, I would expect the ship's doctor to offer complimentary medical care, but that is totally irrelevant because, of course, we always travel with traveler's insurance which pays for this sort of thing.

 

If someone did not buy the insurance, I would not care to speculate on what would happen because they would be irresponsible for not buying it.

[marne001]

This question is probably gonna be a free for all but I have a scenario for you.

 

If you were on a Carnival sponsored tour and in the last 2/3rds of the tour, (the tour is on a catamaran.) You slipped and fell, in turn hitting your head very hard, knocking yourself silly, split the skin and were bleeding enough for it to be rolling down your head and back. How would you expect the crew to act and what would you expect them to do? What would you expect Carnival to do once you were back on shore but still a piece from the ship?

 

I'll tell you what did happen afterwards. No cheating.

 

Guess I am clumsy or have been sailing for decades or both. I have been injured twice on ship sponsored excursions which required a visit to the ship's infirmary. The first one I slipped while swimming at a resort and required stitches to my head. No charge.

 

Next was a bad wipe out on a washed out limestone gully while I was going down hill fast and showing off. Someone who should not have been on a mountain bike tour weaved in front of me and stopped as we were ALL GOING DOWN HILL!!!! Rather than hit the idiot, err, I mean strike the 'innocent', I avoided her but knew the bike would probably slide beneath me. I did not expect to land on rusty razor wire, ouch. Again to the ship's infirmary to get the wound cleaned, a tetanus shot and stitches again, I added up the possible cost in my head ~$185 I estimated, but again no charge.

 

When passengers hear of my clumsy experiences they tell me of their encounters with the shipboard medical staff. Regardless of cruise line, I hear the same, if the accident happens on the ship, the cruise line will generally take care of the cost. If the accident occurs on a ship sponsored excursion, the cruise line has always taken care of the medical stuff. Of course anything bigger than setting a broken finger (maybe arm?) or more serious is given emergency attention before evacuation which will be the passenger's responsibility and very $$$$.