Medical Emergency on Spirit

[newmexicoNita]

On Spirit, docking in 9 min. Next cruise will not leave NOLA until after midnight.

 

We have been told you folks on next cruise will have to skip Costa Maya like we did.

 

Be aware that you will have almost 900 college spring breakers on each of the next 3 weeks. They were able to purchase an unlimited alcohol package for $375 and they use it to the fullest. So don't be surprised by the drunk kids. The staff did a terrible job with them.

 

Enjoy your trip.

 

no, not the next 3 weeks. The biggest college break was last week and this week. After that most colleges are preparing for the end of the school year. Maybe a little research would have prevented your cruising during sping break. As for skipping Costa Maya, how about reporting why. it had nothing to do with NCL but was weather related.

[newmexicoNita]

I know people are mad at the way there vacation ended and how its starting but people please relax NCL did all they could to save a persons life.. No matter how much problems this has caused the rest of you.. You are still able to board this ship and have a wonderful vacation.. One familys lifes are changed forever.. Just relax and say prayer for the one who passed away!

 

thank you for a sensible posting. Yes, we all need to be happy with what we have and pray we will always be protected. AS for those who feel part of their vacation was ruined or NCL didn't have a very good plan, remember, these things do not happen every day. Add to the death, spring break is never a good time to cruise, regardless of the line unless you are a spring breaker.

 

Nita

[minnesotalady]

I actually can totally relate to why you feel this way. This is the reason I probably would never sail on Carnival again and why, if we can avoid it, we don't take vacation during spring break. On Carnival there were drunk people (lots of them) from morning until night.. and they didn't have drink packages. Probably isn't that way on every Carnival cruise, just like it isn't that way on every NCL cruise, but still it left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Totally agree with your posting!!! Never ever do Spring Break!!!! Carnival we have done many times and will never go back. From our experiences, Carnival has a drunk fest from morning tell night!!! We totally loved the NCL Pearl. Wonderful crew, suites and perks were fabulous, food and atmosphere were also wonderful!!! Great vacation!!! Just our opinion from our experience.

[DebbieCruises]

no, not the next 3 weeks. The biggest college break was last week and this week. After that most colleges are preparing for the end of the school year. Maybe a little research would have prevented your cruising during sping break. As for skipping Costa Maya, how about reporting why. it had nothing to do with NCL but was weather related.

 

Although I haven't researched its accuracy, this is a site I found that tells when many, many colleges are on spring break.

http://www.coolestspringbreak.com/college-spring-break-schedule.html

[DebbieCruises]

Although I haven't researched its accuracy, this is a site I found that tells when many, many colleges are on spring break.

http://www.coolestspringbreak.com/college-spring-break-schedule.html

 

Oops! I just realized that link was for 2008. Here is the 2011 schedule's link.

http://cruisespringbreak.com/sb_dates_2011

I'm sorry.

[RedFlavoredJellybeans]

We said the same thing 19 years ago when we were on a spring cruise on the Norway. Of course, college kids are not all the same, but unfortunately, the disrepectful, loud, heavy-drinking ones stand out so much they skew everyone's thinking to make generalizations. As for the younger kiddos, having to wait endlessly for the elevators because so many chidren would push the button for every deck and having my mother knocked down because of them running so fast in the hallways, was equally unpleasant. The bottom line is, we haven't cruised in the month of March since. I just hope our cruise in April will have them all back in school again.:eek: Of course, all the well-behaved, sweet ones are welcome.;)

 

In Japan, they have elevators with toggle buttons. When little kids push all the buttons, you can just unpush them so to speak. :)

[peg013]

In Japan, they have elevators with toggle buttons. When little kids push all the buttons, you can just unpush them so to speak. :)

 

That would be wonderful. Wonder when we'll get them here or on the cruise ships.

[Babysonata]

We were on the spirit this past week too. I was just wondering what had happened with this man? We heard all kinds of rumors, none of which seem to be true. BTW, I was fine with the diversion; I did not like the way that NCL handled most of the afternoon. We were asked to leave our cabins at 3:00, all bars,buffets,etc closed by 4:00, we didn't dock until 5, didn't get off til 7:45... I think my favorite part was after we had then waited in a 2 hour line to get off the boat, there was ONE person with a computer scanning cards of people to get off! ONE! I had a 2 and 5 year old with me that had not eaten since noon; there was nothing being offered to the passengers. When we got to the gangway, one of the NCL staff members yelled at my 2 year old cause she was walking on the left side and not the right. You try keeping a 2 year old still in line for 2 hours... I wanted to yell right back at her... Quickest I've ever been through customs though!!!!

[K&M2009]

What a horrible idea to give them unlimited drink cards. I just don't get the people that feel the need to get plastered 24/7 on cruises. And I'm just a couple years out of college, but never had that urge anyway to be a total ***** for lack of a better word to describe how these kids act. I never did the whole "spring break" cliche thing.

 

Very sorry to hear about the loss of life - that obviously is a much bigger issue than all of the spring breakers and logistics.

[Rozee]

A lot of people are missing the point. It’s not that there was a medical emergency. It’s how they handled it (among other things). I was on that ship with a group of 27 others. We are all in our early 50’s. Not the spring breakers.

 

The information handed out by the captain and the crew was imprecise, incomplete or totally non-existent.

 

Why, if they could steam at 24 knots did they only move at 17 after the med evac? Low on fuel? Don’t know, but it would have been nice to know.

 

Sunday morning, a number of passengers (including myself) found that they could not buy anything. Nothing from any shop or bar on board. Our key cards had been mysteriously de-activated and we had to get back in line to the reception desk to get it re-activated. This did not help the lines one bit.

 

We were told that internet and ship to shore would be free because of the delay. Sure enough, we got charged and we had to dispute our bill. More time in the reception line.

 

When asking for basic NCL policy information at the reception desk, I was told to go onto the internet.

 

The people in our group that did not get the drink package received the drink information in their rooms that made them think they did get the drink package, the people that did get the drink package did not get the information. They got it backwards for our group. More time at the reception desk (this is still not resolved).

 

All the bars and drink service were shut down at 1pm on Sunday. At this point the captain had finally informed us that docking would not occur until late afternoon. You couldn’t even get a soft-drink. Then they re-opened them between 2pm and 3pm. I suspect their where a LOT of complaints to get them to do that.

 

2 in our group needed wheel chairs to get off the ship. We pre-arranged for them and where told by 5 different stewards that they were coming. We waited for 3 hours, before we finally managed to talk our way into one. We managed to get off by 6pm and where the lucky ones. Met a woman today that said she did not get through customs until 9pm.

 

We left Roatan an hour late because we were waiting for 5 missing spring-breakers. This made our stay at Cozumel shorter which created some problems for shore excursions. If NCL is going to wait for folks, I think they should be able to make up the time at sea (or sorry, but the kids are going to have to learn a lesson. IMHO, YMMV).

 

They forgot to set the ships clocks forward for DST. My Wife actually called them to remind them (this was at 7am Sunday). When they did set them forward, they set them forward 2 hours, causing more confusion. They set them to the proper time about an hour later.

 

It was really just one screw up after another.

 

I do feel sorry for the crew having to deal with the spring breakers. Generally the lower level stewards and staff where trying to be very helpful. The people with multiple stripes, not so much.

 

I think that the lack of communication from those in charge to the rest of the crew and passengers was the biggest problem.

 

Now we did have a good time despite the stressful situation created by the late arrival at the end. And I doubt too many real crises where created, but everyone, including the crew would have had an easier time if we had been given accurate information.

[RedFlavoredJellybeans]

We left Roatan an hour late because we were waiting for 5 missing spring-breakers. This made our stay at Cozumel shorter which created some problems for shore excursions. If NCL is going to wait for folks, I think they should be able to make up the time at sea (or sorry, but the kids are going to have to learn a lesson. IMHO, YMMV).

 

Wouldn't it be funny if NCL charged these guys for any monetary loss due to delaying the ship. :p

[Rozee]

Wouldn't it be funny if NCL charged these guys for any monetary loss due to delaying the ship. :p

 

...

Miller Lite ... $284.97

Diesel ........ $9,286.12

Nachoes .... $76.42

...

[newmexicoNita]

The NCL Sun (March 5-12) also had a medical emergency requiring return to Cozumel for a heart attack (at the time it was a survivor but not sure of current status) requiring us to miss Guatemala.

 

My husband sat with the Security Officer for a bit to ask some questions about the contingency plans they could have employed. Apparently being 3-hrs from Cozumel we werent available to airlift and/or boat extraction thus teh return.

 

No fists please, but we werent 'fine' to miss a port that we've waited 8-mos to see (we're on deployment R&R) While we were happy to hear the patient was stable/critical on board and remained that way during the return and check-in into hospital, we were equally sad that we couldnt visit a country we planned to. Likewise the sea day 'compensatorty' activities required payments and were geared to the Spring Breakers. Yes, we had more money to spend on a sea day but that's the not point.

 

This was our first NCL cruise and based on the overall quality, we prefer Princess (and we missed a port on that cruise too due to weather)

 

There are reasons for so many cruise lines, just like so many car companies. What works for one may not work for someone else. I do think maybe, you are judging NCL based on situations out of their control: 1-you cruised during spring break, you had a medical emergancy and the weather prevented your visiting one port. None of that has anything to do with NCL. As for activities, I guess we all see things differently, we happen to like Princess but our biggest complaint with them was lack of activities period. What was offered was based on extra chages. I think most lines are doing this more and more. The days of fun activities on sea days are gone, but we did find plenty to keep us busy on the Spirit a few weeks ago.

 

NIta

[newmexicoNita]

Although I haven't researched its accuracy, this is a site I found that tells when many, many colleges are on spring break.

http://www.coolestspringbreak.com/college-spring-break-schedule.html

 

debbie, just one thing wrong with the schedule. It was for 2008 unless I missed something. I do know, normally the first and second week in March are the heaviest college spring break periods. So last week and this week should be the worst, but yes, there are spring breakers from the end of Feb (very few) until about the first of April. ok, and now, I see you did post the 2011 spring break schedule. Last week and this week do look like the heaviest. .

 

Nita

[newmexicoNita]

What a horrible idea to give them unlimited drink cards. I just don't get the people that feel the need to get plastered 24/7 on cruises. And I'm just a couple years out of college, but never had that urge anyway to be a total ***** for lack of a better word to describe how these kids act. I never did the whole "spring break" cliche thing.

 

Very sorry to hear about the loss of life - that obviously is a much bigger issue than all of the spring breakers and logistics.

 

i agree, it is a bad idea but there is a policy for allowing groups to purchase booze cards, how can a company discriminate? Believe me, I do not approve of seeing all these kids plastered from the minute they get on the ship til they get off. Yes, I was a college kid once, but I didn't think it was necessary to get drunk all the time, but I don't think NCL or any other line has much control over this. I guess they could eliminate the alcohol plan during the month of March. Of course, after next week we are going to hear about all the bratty younger kids as the heavy season for lower level breaks will be in full force. Let's just say this: unless you have no choice, it is best not to cruise from the first week of March until after Easter.

 

Nita

[luvcruzing]

According to previous posts on this thread, the Spirit was late getting into Costa Maya because of an auto pilot issue. The pilot knew for at least two hours that the ship would be late, but never informed the passengers. When the ship finally arrived, two other ships had already docked. Apparently, it is a tricky port to dock at in the best of times, and with two ships already docked and it being windy, the captain decided it was unsafe to dock. However, as one poster noted, the passengers were already up on deck waiting to go ashore for their shore excursions when they finally found out that they wouldn't be docking after all. Seems like there was a total lack of communication on this trip. But, I must say, this has been a very informative thread. If my ship is ever going to be late getting into port for whatever reason, I will be sure to stock up on water and food beforehand. Thanks everyone.

[1stTimer02/2011]

Again, extremely thankful we booked the week of 02/27-03/06... might have been Mardi Gras.. but no Spring Breakers at that point....

 

Will keep a mental note about this time, if we decide to do a cruise next year same time..

[phantomII]

i agree, it is a bad idea but there is a policy for allowing groups to purchase booze cards, how can a company discriminate? Believe me, I do not approve of seeing all these kids plastered from the minute they get on the ship til they get off. Nita

I never heard of these BOOZE cards before. Someone else has written that they just started it last week. Bad idea in my opinion. I like my beer but I don't think anybody needs to drink that much! (If they have any maturity).

[newmexicoNita]

I never heard of these BOOZE cards before. Someone else has written that they just started it last week. Bad idea in my opinion. I like my beer but I don't think anybody needs to drink that much! (If they have any maturity).

 

they have always been available for groups but everyone in the group has to participate. This vertion, offered the other day might be a new one. Again, it has been offered for at least a few years. We have never considered it because, although we do drink, we don't drink enough for it to pay for itself. $375 worth of booze is a hell of alot to consume in my estimation. i do agree with you, no one needs or should drink that much, but remember, college kids are not as mature as some might think. Just look at what goes on in places like Cancun where there is no control over the drinking!!!

 

nita

[Kajunswty]

A lot of people are missing the point. It’s not that there was a medical emergency. It’s how they handled it (among other things)

 

I agree completely...I had no issues with the medical emergency whatsoever. But most of the issues that happened after could have been avoided. It was as if NCL had never dealt with this type of situation before :confused:

 

The information handed out by the captain and the crew was imprecise, incomplete or totally non-existent.

 

Why, if they could steam at 24 knots did they only move at 17 after the med evac? Low on fuel? Don’t know, but it would have been nice to know.

 

Again, I agree...what was the problem? It wasn't like there were rough seas. Not to mention the fact that it seemed to take forever for the captain to figure out "how" late we actually were. I know the issues with the River traffic and that couldn't be easily put in a time frame. But there has to be charting software that they use to determine point A to point B. If we would have known how long it would take us to get to the mouth of the River from where we did the evac most of the locals or past cruisers would have known 6-8 hrs past that.

 

Sunday morning, a number of passengers (including myself) found that they could not buy anything. Nothing from any shop or bar on board. Our key cards had been mysteriously de-activated and we had to get back in line to the reception desk to get it re-activated. This did not help the lines one bit.

 

What a mess that was! Lines lines & more lines...we tried to purchase our photos and found the cards were inactive. My husband went down and got in line only to discover he had gotten in the luggage tag line (yes thats right, the cabin attendants did not have them...you had to get them from the reception desk). so we get the card fixed and photos purchased then back in the luggage tag line only to discover there was only one color left, the last color to be called for disembarkation LOL yay...almost ready to relax. Only to remember I forgot to return the beer bucket so I head up to the pool deck to get the credit but oops sorry that has to be done by the reception. okay, it was my own fault for forgetting. By that time they had designated a specific "credit / account" line. There were at least 30 people in line...nope didn't get in line, seriously for $5 no way. Plus I was trying to get to a place where I could sit and watch us sail down the River in the daylight.

 

We were told that internet and ship to shore would be free because of the delay. Sure enough, we got charged and we had to dispute our bill. More time in the reception line.

 

I understood that the phone calls were free for rearranging travel arrangements, flights etc but the calls had to be made from the lobby. We are local so I didn't get more info on the phone calls until I realized our family would be waiting on a call to pick us up & would be worried. I did eventually call without getting in line & hopefully won't be charged...I'll have to watch my bank to see if they ended up charging me for the call.

 

The people in our group that did not get the drink package received the drink information in their rooms that made them think they did get the drink package, the people that did get the drink package did not get the information. They got it backwards for our group. More time at the reception desk (this is still not resolved).

 

I am amazed that NCL has the booze card, after all the crap CCL has gotten for their party atmosphere I thought the higher ups at NCL would have taken note. Bad bad idea...not just for the inconvenience of the other passengers who would like to be served at the bar but for a liability issue. I was amazed no one ended up with alcohol poisoning. Bar waiters were serving drinks in the hot tubs. The security officers walked right past, pretty sure theres a rule about that! There was no time limit while in them.

 

We saw several spring breakers in line on Sunday to have the tips removed. I think that if NCL offers the alcohol card the tips should be mandatory like on the CTN's (cruise to nowhere). I can't imagine what the room attendants had to pickup / clean up. One morning I actually went to the reception area to have them spray something because of the puke smell in our hallway.

 

We left Roatan an hour late because we were waiting for 5 missing spring-breakers. This made our stay at Cozumel shorter which created some problems for shore excursions. If NCL is going to wait for folks, I think they should be able to make up the time at sea (or sorry, but the kids are going to have to learn a lesson. IMHO, YMMV).

 

We shouldn't have been late for Cozumel, the captain could have

made up the time in the middle of the night like we’ve done on other sailings that have had delays for one reason or another. I wonder why he waited for the people in Roatan but left the ones in Belize? We saw an employee rolling off a cart of luggage in Roatan while we were waiting to disembark. Surely a ship tour would have had more than a handful of people??

What about the docking issue in Costa Maya? How could the captain blame the winds for not being able to park when he was so close to the dock we were splashing the other ships. It was so disappointing to be so close. Its not like the wind speed changed in the hour he was attempting to park. If he knew the winds made it unsafe then he should have not even attempted it. One thing that was a pleasant surprise is we did receive a credit for the port fees.

 

Now we did have a good time despite the stressful situation created by the late arrival at the end. And I doubt too many real crises where created, but everyone, including the crew would have had an easier time if we had been given accurate information.

 

We were celebrating my daughters 16th birthday and also had a good time. 2 years ago when we sailed the Sky our of Miami during Mardi Gras for my now 18 y/o birthday we didn't experience any spring breakers, must have been lucky I guess. We really enjoyed Belize & Roatan, they were new ports for us. The weather was fantastic, couldn't have asked for better weather & seas. Next year though..I think we'll head to Disney :D our 2nd favorite vacation destination

[trouble1964]

As far as the complaints about NCL go, they could have been addressed in another thread. By this one "Medical Emergency on Spirit", reading the thread title and the gripes posted about the delays, it made it seem like the posters are taking their frustrations out on the man who was the emergency.

 

Maybe it's because I am so close to the situation, but my perception was that people were griping and complaining about the chain reaction that happened from someone's life attempting to be saved.

[9876]

As far as the complaints about NCL go, they could have been addressed in another thread. By this one "Medical Emergency on Spirit", reading the thread title and the gripes posted about the delays, it made it seem like the posters are taking their frustrations out on the man who was the emergency.

 

Maybe it's because I am so close to the situation, but my perception was that people were griping and complaining about the chain reaction that happened from someone's life attempting to be saved.

 

Maybe you are too close to the situation. I have not seen or read one person who complained about the action NCL took in an effort to save this person's life or wish that they would have not taken that action. There is no question it was the right thing to do. People are simply upset about the way it was handled; this is totally different.

 

Everyone if very saddened by your loss. Please do not take these complaints as if they are aimed at the person, family or group of the person who was trying to be saved; they are not. It is truly about the actions or lack of actions in which NCL handled the delay.