On Grandeur now..

[Dolphins]

Plastics=Hydrocarbons produces High BTU'S. You have discolored metal on the rear starboard Aft which indicates very high Temps. Direct Flame contact and radiant heat damage with some structual damage is evident on the upper floors.

 

As a retired FDNY officer, I would agree with the above. It appears to me that the crew was well trained in firefighting in that they were able to contain such a hot fire at sea. That they were able to prevent its spread to a larger area of the ship while protectiong all the passengers and crew from serious injury is in my opinion, a remarkable achievement. In less capable hands, this could have been a major disaster. Well done RCI.

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

In the press release regarding returning passengers to Baltimore and compensation I saw no mention of anything to do with airfare change fees and other unusual expenses related to the early return. Does anyone know if the passengers will be reimbursed for such charges, or not?

 

Yes, the release I read made note of airline change fees, even if you did not book your air thru RCI. They will pay them.

[mtstranscribe]

Just got this email from Royal Caribbean. We were on the May 31 cruise.

 

May 27, 2013

 

Dear Grandeur of the Seas Guest,

 

We are writing to provide you with important information regarding your Friday, May 31, 2013, sailing on Grandeur of the Seas.

 

You may be aware that on Monday, May 27, Grandeur of the Seas experienced a fire in the mooring area in the aft of the ship. Unfortunately, due to the time needed to repair the damage caused by the fire, it is necessary to cancel Grandeur of the Seas’ next voyage, which was scheduled to depart Baltimore, Maryland, on Friday, May 31. We are deeply sorry for this unexpected development in your upcoming vacation.

 

Royal Caribbean International will provide you with a full refund of your voyage. Cruise fare refunds will automatically be processed back to the original form of payment. Please allow two to three weeks for all transactions to be processed.

 

Royal Caribbean International would also like to provide you with the opportunity to sail with us again. We will provide you with a future cruise certificate for 50% of the cruise fare you paid for your May 31, 2013, Grandeur of the Seas sailing. This certificate may be used for a future cruise on Royal Caribbean International. Your future cruise certificate will be mailed within six to eight weeks.

 

Also, if you booked air transportation through Royal Caribbean International will receive a full refund. If you did not purchase air transportation through Royal Caribbean International, we will assist you by paying for any airline change fee. We ask that you please send a copy of the receipt for the change fee along with a brief note explaining that you were booked on the May 31, sailing of Grandeur of the Seas to the following address: Royal Caribbean International, Corporate Guest Relations – GR May 31, 1050 Caribbean Way, Miami, FL 33132-2096.

 

Again, we sincerely apologize for this unexpected development and its impact on your vacation.

 

Sincerely,

 

Royal Caribbean International

 

While my first thoughts are relief that no one was hurt in this fire and so sorry about the people's vacation being ruined along with the people from this next cruise, of course Im worried about mine coming up June 14. This was the only week we could go and I know RCI will do their best but on our limited income a refund in 2 to 3 weeks just means no vacation for us. My husband's children were born in Bermuda and have never been back, and we wanted to take them to see this lovely island. We all saved for over a year. However, I am going to take the attitude that I was fortunate not to be on this ship when the fire occurred. It must have been very frightening. There will be many more opportunities for us to cruise.

[chengkp75]

Does anyone know what happens to the crew at this point?

 

They will stay with the ship to start cleanup prior to the ship entering the shipyard for repairs. they normally will remain onboard through shipyard repair periods as well.

[Daghis]

It looks like we have our first case with the Passenger Bill of Rights in place.

 

I was thinking the same thing.

 

I'll note that Royal Caribbean is exceeding what the Bill of Rights requires:

2. The right to a full refund for a trip that is canceled due to mechanical failures, or a partial refund for voyages that are terminated early due to those failures.

 

Instead of just providing a partial refund, they're refunding the full amount plus giving an additional future cruise certificate.

[kruzerci]

Yeah, you're not going. :o

 

Philadelphia is lovely this time of year: The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, the National Constitution Center, Valley Forge Park, all of our wonderful restaurants.

 

Come on up!

 

:D

 

Ugh. Doesn't sound like vacation to me.

 

I'd be Florida or Caribbean bound!

[smoosh21]

I can imagine the scramble going on in Miami as they get updates from Freeport. Ordering equipment, parts, materials, new furnishings, etc. I doubt Freeport has those things "in stock"

Any delays in repairs will probably be associated with securing all of the materials and part necessary to restore the ship to it former "Grandeur"

to those that posted multiple information sources today, thank you!

 

Now, the real interesting thing begins.

Agents are going to be scrambling to take care of the people on this sailing, and the next sailing which has been canceled, and now they also need to deal with the Quantum going pre-sale tomorrow.

It is going to be a very busy day for the workers in Miami

[cjm61]

Why has CC not done a report on this site yet? They usually get reports of OTHER cruise lines very swiftly. Could there be a reason?

 

I would venture to say, since it wasn't a Carnival ship, CC is not quick to the draw. If it had been Carnival, CC would have had a post up minutes after the incident. Guess we can see some favoritism from this one.

 

I'm just glad the crew and the passengers are safe and no one got hurt. The ship can be repaired.

 

Kudos to the crew for the fine job they did fighting a fire for 2 hrs.

[Charles4515]

Why are people blaming this on smokers???? I mean it seems its always the smokers fault when something bad happens :rolleyes:

 

When I first heard about the location of the fire the thought occurred to me that the fire could have been caused by a cigarette. It is logical speculation that a cigarette might have caused the fire. A cigarette tossed from a balcony could have caused the fire. It might not have but it could have. Even if it did not since it could have......that is enough reason to suspect it, and enough reason to ban smoking on balconies immediately on Royal Caribbean as has been done on Celebrity and Princess!!!

[copnlpn2]

This is a section of the Freedom's mooring deck...like the Grandeur, the aft hull of the ship contains the fire while it's attacked from inside the ship, into the mooring deck area. The fire, until it's put out, will always move upward...

 

 

[dwdwnurse]

I'm still holding out hope for the 6/7. Fingers crossed. I'll take a cruise even if she is a bit singed.

 

Me, too! I wish RCI would let us know sooner than 4 days before sailing if it's going to be cancelled. I could book the 6/28 sailing if I knew we were cancelled.

 

Fingers crossed, too!

[F27TW]

Now's their chance to re-build that UGLY stern. This ship and all the Vision class ships look so hideous from the back ... what a horrible design.

[Aquahound]

I would venture to say, since it wasn't a Carnival ship, CC is not quick to the draw. If it had been Carnival, CC would have had a post up minutes after the incident. Guess we can see some favoritism from this one.

 

Edited....there is an article.

[Murray's Pop]

I would venture to say, since it wasn't a Carnival ship, CC is not quick to the draw. If it had been Carnival, CC would have had a post up minutes after the incident. Guess we can see some favoritism from this one.

 

:confused::confused::confused:

[Brittany C]

I would venture to say, since it wasn't a Carnival ship, CC is not quick to the draw. If it had been Carnival, CC would have had a post up minutes after the incident. Guess we can see some favoritism from this one.

 

I'm just glad the crew and the passengers are safe and no one got hurt. The ship can be repaired.

 

Kudos to the crew for the fine job they did fighting a fire for 2 hrs.

 

Hi everyone-- I am on the Cruise Critic editorial staff and would just like say that we do not discriminate between our coverage of cruise lines. I wanted to let everyone know we've been following the story all day, and have posted a news story with multiple updates: http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5367.

 

Thank you to all of our members for your great coverage, comments and photos!

 

~Brittany Chrusciel, Editorial Assistant

[rcrdale]

When I first heard about the location of the fire the thought occurred to me that the fire could have been caused by a cigarette. It is logical speculation that a cigarette might have caused the fire. A cigarette tossed from a balcony could have caused the fire. It might not have but it could have. Even if it did not since it could have......that is enough reason to suspect it, and enough reason to ban smoking on balconies immediately on Royal Caribbean as has been done on Celebrity and Princess!!!

 

Ok, I am not a smoker but to take your logic one step further: It could have been someone that was drunk and knocked into something electrical that caused the fire, so we must ban all alcoholic beverages on all ships now!

[oneputt18]

Logical to who? Non smokers?

I think we should wait until the NTSB and Royal Caribbean determine the cause of the fire. It is presumptuous to assume it was a cigarette from a passenger.

[emeraldcity]

Do we have to wait until we get the certificate (6-8 weeks) or can we book our replacement cruise right away? It's going to make the disappointment a little easier to handle if we can start another countdown.

 

And has anyone had any experience with OBC on a cancelled cruise? I had converted RC credit cards points to OBC and they advised me strongly in that call that I had to understand it was a one-way transfer and the points can't go back into the account.

[Host Kewlguy]

Lets stay on topic here. Posts about muster station assignments need to be posted on the other active thread. Thread hijacking is against the Community Guidelines. Thanks for your future cooperation.

[chengkp75]

As a retired FDNY officer, I would agree with the above. It appears to me that the crew was well trained in firefighting in that they were able to contain such a hot fire at sea. That they were able to prevent its spread to a larger area of the ship while protectiong all the passengers and crew from serious injury is in my opinion, a remarkable achievement. In less capable hands, this could have been a major disaster. Well done RCI.

 

Greetings to New York's Bravest.

 

I agree that the crew did a good job. One difference from shore firefighting is that there will normally be 5-6 five man fire teams responding to any fire, no matter how small or large. There will also be a technical response team to deal with securing power, ventilation, etc. Security teams will cordon off the area, and not allow anyone into the "hot zone" except fire teams. Most ships have an officer billet of "firefighter" who is normally an experienced firefighter or smoke jumper. His duty is training of the fire teams, and being the lead person on the primary fire team. I used to be Staff Chief Engineer, and my responsibility during emergencies was to be on scene commander to the 50 or so crew who actively respond to the emergency.

 

The structural fire protection designed into the ships is quite impressive as well. Boundary cooling is a normal assignment for some of the fire teams, but as one poster noted, cooling of the outside of the ship is normally limited to shore fire departments while in port. As I've posted before, we tend to be somewhat leery of shore fire department cooperation because of the Normandie fire, but we usually had several tours for Honolulu FD personnel every year, to familiarize them with the ship's systems.

[wrp96]

In the press release regarding returning passengers to Baltimore and compensation I saw no mention of anything to do with airfare change fees and other unusual expenses related to the early return. Does anyone know if the passengers will be reimbursed for such charges, or not?

 

Don't know but if RCCL handles it like CCL handled the dream, those people that flew into the cruise port may fly directly home from Freeport at RCCL's expense instead of flying them back to Baltimore. Or will cover hotels in Baltimore until Friday. Note I'm just guessing here.

 

But it would be very bad PR to fly them back to Baltimore and say your on your own until your scheduled flight home.

[lettienets]

I would venture to say, since it wasn't a Carnival ship, CC is not quick to the draw. If it had been Carnival, CC would have had a post up minutes after the incident. Guess we can see some favoritism from this one.

 

I'm just glad the crew and the passengers are safe and no one got hurt. The ship can be repaired.

 

Kudos to the crew for the fine job they did fighting a fire for 2 hrs.

Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas ... - Cruise Law News

 

www.cruiselawnews.com › Fires

9 hours ago – Another cruise ship, the Carnival Sensation, was on on standby to help the ship in case...

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Do we have to wait untilwe get the certificate (6-8 weeks) or can we book our replacement cruise right away? It's going to make the disappointment a little easier to handle if we can start another countdown.

 

And has anyone had any experience with OBC on a cancelled cruise? I had converted RC credit cards points to OBC and they advised me strongly in that call that I had to understand it was a one-way transfer and the points can't go back into the account.

 

You should be able to book your next cruise w/o the actual certificate. It should be in the system.

 

I had to miss/cancel a cruise this year on the day of boarding and the actual certificate we received was not needed to re-book another cruise (It was in the mail and we re-booked prior to receiving it). I hope it's the same in your case.

[stewartmamone1]

I'm glad you guys are safe and okay.

[Bettytrouble]

Hi everyone-- I am on the Cruise Critic editorial staff and would just like say that we do not discriminate between our coverage of cruise lines. I wanted to let everyone know we've been following the story all day, and have posted a news story with multiple updates: http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5367.

 

Thank you to all of our members for your great coverage, comments and photos!

 

~Brittany Chrusciel, Editorial Assistant

 

THANK YOU!!!

I was NOT liking the accusatory tones that I was reading. :)