Live from the crashed Grandeur in Costa Maya

[caitlyn20]

Thank you for keeping us informed. I am so sorry to hear this. I was suppose to get married on the ship on Saturday. From these posts, I feel I should start calling guests and letting them know that it won't be happening. I am sick at my stomach. It just doesn't seem real.

 

Jen

 

I'm sorry this will mess up your wedding plans. I have to imagine that this is something that doesn't happen very often, so there was no way to anticipate that you wouldn't be able to marry as planned. I hope you are able to make arrangements to have your wedding elsewhere, although I know that is such short notice.

 

From what I can tell, we will not be back on Saturday. They said "if" we can get back by Saturday, it'll be in the evening. They cleared the docks at midnight so they can get a crane onto the dock to help with repairs.

[Kokomos]

Cathy , Still hasnt made CNN AOL or FOX as far as I could tell all is still quiet. Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe return.

[njoyndride]

Cathy very nice of you to post info, especially in Jenn's case it will help her much more than info from the cruiseline.

[Joe_Scarfone]

Cathy , Still hasnt made CNN AOL or FOX as far as I could tell all is still quiet. Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe return.

 

Anyone have any speculations why it hasn't hit the news yet? I would imagine after the rouge wave incident the Dawn faced, this would have been out there immediately.

[MonaCK]

Yowza!

Those on board -- thanks for keeping us updated as to the progress. Lots of scary cruise ship stuff going on...

[caitlyn20]

Cathy , Still hasnt made CNN AOL or FOX as far as I could tell all is still quiet. Enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe return.

 

Yes, I've checked the news on line to see if they've had anything about it. Nothing on the USA today site either. Maybe they are going to be successful at keeping it low key.

[JenFromDallas]

Jenn so sorry I know how awful this must be for you as our daughter was married onboard Rhapsody and something like this was in the back of my mind. No mishaps for us thankfully. Are any of your guests sailing with you?

Sharon... just seems as if a black cloud has followed us. We were first booked on April 30th, but found out it was a repositioning cruise and had to switch to the 23rd. Now this! It just seems as if anything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. Not sure about finding another spot with such little notice. Considering Royal Romance now has all my money and since it's JazzFest week in New Orleans, everything is booked solid. Thought about a chapel, but getting flowers, official, music and reception switched at this point is pretty much impossible.

[caitlyn20]

Yowza!

Those on board -- thanks for keeping us updated as to the progress. Lots of scary cruise ship stuff going on...

 

Is there other scary stuff? We have been out of touch since Saturday. We thought the excitement of the cruise would be that we lost our anchor in Grand Cayman yesterday but it was "recovered."

[JenFromDallas]

I'm sorry this will mess up your wedding plans. I have to imagine that this is something that doesn't happen very often, so there was no way to anticipate that you wouldn't be able to marry as planned. I hope you are able to make arrangements to have your wedding elsewhere, although I know that is such short notice.

 

From what I can tell, we will not be back on Saturday. They said "if" we can get back by Saturday, it'll be in the evening. They cleared the docks at midnight so they can get a crane onto the dock to help with repairs.

Cathy, Thank you for your posts. You're giving me much more info than RC ever did. Hope to hear more promising news in the A.M., but not holding my breath. Looks like I need to start looking for another site. Hmmm... maybe Vegas??

[njoyndride]

Jen - Any chance you can change to Rhapsody out of Galveston for Sunday? RR might work with you on the change. Just a thought.

[MonaCK]

Did you hear about the NCL Dawn and the 70 ft rogue wave? They were on their way back to NY and had to doc in S. Carolina for repairs. 62 cabins damaged by water ... It happened last Saturday so it might have been just when you guys left.

[lorrainesy]

Jen

So sorry to hear about your troubles, my advise would be to really keep on RCCL, it sounds like you had a really nice wedding planned, what an awesome idea getting married on the ship, you deserve to have the wedding you paid for.

Maybe they can switch your wedding party to another ship, or if your schedule is flexible switch you back to the April 30th sailing, I am on that sailing and know that they still have a suite available.

Of course what ever you do make sure that RCCL compensates you for all this trouble!

[Tankminder]

Hi All! Also live from the Grandeur... as Cindy said, we're all fine but, yes - it's a pretty big hole. The official line is 45 feet long by 6 feet wide - "football shaped" as Tom Canosa desribed it to us. It's right at deck1 and went through several crew member's cabins according to some wait staff I spoke to. Thank goodness nobody was hurt. Since the line for internet has diminished so I'll try and add a few details. As of midnight they've erected a large wall around the site so it can't be seen from the dock at all. They've also blocked off the promanade deck above the work so it's only visible from side angles from above. They have a crane in place, and several very large pieces of steel- as well as dozens of acetelyne (sp?) tanks, and the welding flashes are evident. The damage is directly below my room (3622) - starbord side where the bow curve meets the side of the ship. The banging is already evident - so I'm not expecting much sleep tonight.

I have several great pictures of the hole taken before they were chasing folks, but as somebody said, there's only terminals here - so I can't find a way to post. It's pretty odd how crazy they were being about taking a picture of something so obvious and so public - after all, it's perfectly visible from pretty much anywhere. We left the ship around noon and were greeted by a mexican military guard in full gear and hard hat- toting an m16 standing in front of the site. I knew at that point it had to be a pretty big deal.

I hate to not be optimistic, but officially there's still no word other than "we'll do our best" relative to getting folks home. I trust they'll do what they can (to a point), but I'll be more comfortable when I see my tickets - especially since they didn't make the travel arrangements. I do have the "cruise protection" from RCL - I trust that'll cover me (keeping fingers crossed).

As of now, we still have free internet, and free 3 minute phone calls - a line that has been a mile long all night. (Not quite sure why since we really don't have much in terms of details anyway). We're in Costa Maya till at least tomorrow afternoon/evening. Should be an interesting ride to NOLA. Can't decide if it'll be rough because they'll want to make up time, or smooth because they'll want to take it easy with the hole. We'll have to see!

When I get back, if somebody hasn't already done it, I'll post the pics of the hole.

Stay tuned!

[flagger]

They are going through all of this trouble to block views of the hole and ship because of negative publicity. I can remember scenes from airline crashes in the 80's where tarps were hastily placed over the tailsection/logos of crashed airliners. These were put in place many times before the victims were removed from the wreckage.

 

It is all about perception and your PR department doesn't want the public to see such images. Secondly as far as not being on any news services yet, Mahuhual (sp?) is not exactly a bustling hive of activity save for the cruiseline built port at Costa Maya. The closest freelancer is probably somewhere east on the Yucatan.

[lorrainesy]

Thank you for the information flagger. I am sailing on April 30th and am going crazy trying to find information on this (so fair it is only on CC). Good look with your air fair and safe sailings!

Remember to post those pics I'm dieing to see them!!!

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

Can anyone tell me if I can still purchase travel insurance for my April 30th cruise?

[MBeamTX]

Can anyone tell me if I can still purchase travel insurance for my April 30th cruise?

 

If you're scheduled to sail on the Grandeur, I seriously doubt it. Insurance isn't designed to cover you for an event that has already happened. For instance, if your cruise is derailed by a hurricaine that was already named and being tracked before you bought the insurance, you're generally not going to be covered. I suspect this situation would be much the same.

[Cruise Cat]

Still no news on this in the outside world for some reason. I reported it to the tip section of DrudgeReport and gave a link to this thread. We'll see if they pick up or if all the media was only concered with the big wave last week because they could capitalize on everyones fears.

[1corona4u]

Still no news on this in the outside world for some reason. I reported it to the tip section of DrudgeReport and gave a link to this thread. We'll see if they pick up or if all the media was only concered with the big wave last week because they could capitalize on everyones fears.

 

Why would you do that? There are people on the ship, that have posted the details. If the media gets ahold of this, it's sure to spin. :rolleyes:

 

I guess for some people the story is not validated until it hits the media. And we all know the media always has all the accurate details.......:rolleyes:

[Fisherlady48]

Oh Jen. that is not good news for you. Maybe you could go ahead and be married in New Orleans, although that would not be the same.. Good Luck.

 

Let us know

 

K

[stillfrantic]

Jen: I hope something works out for your special day. Just keep the thought in the back of your head that the wedding is one day but the marriage is for a lifetime. Even if the wedding doesn't go off exactly as you plan, you'll still have a wonderful life together.

 

Everyone on board....try to keep us update. We just this week switched ships to be on the Grandeur.:o

[caitlyn20]

Can anyone tell me if I can still purchase travel insurance for my April 30th cruise?

 

I always purchase my travel insurance with an independant (Google "travel insurance"). Since this isn't big news yet, and since it's not for sure that your trip is cancelled, I'd definitely give it a try. I've purchased my insurance just a couple of days before a trip before, so I'm sure it's not too late yet.

 

After all, if they take next week to fix the ship (which I'm just speculating on...they have NOT said they will), then it could be fixed enough in time for the repositioning cruise.

[caitlyn20]

I guess for some people the story is not validated until it hits the media. And we all know the media always has all the accurate details.......:rolleyes:

 

Well, for me it would be alot easier to explain to my boss that the reason I won't be at work for an extra day or two is because of a crash he's HEARD about rather than saying "my ship crashed...but sorry it's not in the news."

[davygee]

Have passengers been told when the ship will leave Costa Maya to return to New Orleans?

 

Someone posted that apparently Grandeur is due back in New Orleans 1 day late...i.e. Sunday 24th April rather than Saturday 23rd...is this correct?

 

And how is the work on the ship going?

[Bisous3]

This is awful....my friend just finished putting together all the musical productions on the Grandeur! Those people have worked so hard- I hope that they can repair the damage!

Suzanne