Awoken 2X on Explorer Christmas Cruise 2013 by announcement 4AMish...

[MonaCK]

That reminds me - when i was on the Oasis in the beginning of the month, my roommate and I decided to sleep in the morning we were in Labadee. We were going to get off the ship, but were in no rush.

 

Imagine our surprise when we were startled out of bed by the emergency signals. First, panic, and then the realization that we were in port and it was likely a drill.

 

You'd think they'd warn people when they were going to do a drill like that...

[Topo Gigio]

Yes, she responded after the second page.

 

Where was she hiding?:D

[cruisinck]

It happened to us on the Oasis summer before last. I am a very light sleeper so I had heard them making the announcements in the hallways first and then came the 4 am announcement in the rooms. Then again the next night the something for the same person. When the Captain came on for his noon announcement on the 4th day of the cruise after the second incident he was very firm with parents to make sure to know where your kids are. He then went on to explain that a 16 year old had checked in with his parents and had left out of the cabin after check in. When they returned from the casino at 2 am the son was missing. Again this happened 2 nights in a row. The Captain then apologized to the entire ship and indicated that the family would not be permitted to leave their cabin for the rest of the cruise.

[TravelerThom]

...You'd think they'd warn people when they were going to do a drill like that...

They do make an announcement. You slept through the announcement, but were awakened by the alarms.

[springaussie]

At 2300 in April 2011 on the Mariner of the Seas Captain announced everywhere that a earthquake had taken place in Crete our following day's port. We were in no danger of a tsunami and Crete had not been damaged. He apologised for the late announcement but said it was law.

[brigittetom]

Is this common on RCCL?

 

I would have thought no....but apparently it is. :)

 

I'm not a big fan of cruising with tons of teens on board for various reasons, but this is one instance where I can see their side. Kind of awkward to notify mom and dad that they are going to be "occupied" in someone else's cabin at 3am. Obviously that's something that's not going to get the "permission granted" okay. Same goes for missing spouses. :D

[cb8]

I can only imaging that the calls would be annoying but people can't complain to much. If you were in the same position with a loved one missing I am sure you would want the same action took.

[A&L_Ont]

Isn't there a volume control knob that you can turn off or at least turn down the volume of all announcements?

 

On the older Princess ships there was, say the Dawn Princess, and maybe some of their newer ones too. It has been a while since we sailed on Princess, I can't remember. On Oasis Class there is no volume control. I can't remember about the Radiance Class.

[TravelerThom]

Isn't there a volume control knob that you can turn off or at least turn down the volume of all announcements?...

Most cruisers would consider that there is a significant difference between a sales pitch for bingo and an announcement to abandon ship. Generally there is a volume control for most announcements, but this volume control may be overridden for emergency announcements. Note that all discussion in this thread has had the Captain personally making the in-cabin announcements.

 

Thom

[Clarea]

Where was she hiding?:D

In someone else's stateroom.

[truffles2]

We had a similar situation on Navigator transatlantic last November. They paged the missing party several times in the wee morning hours and security personnel were roaming the ship with pictures of the missing (especially the Promenade area). Turned out to be a domestic dispute:rolleyes:.......

[BTSEN5]

I was on this cruise, and on the first early morning I was eke up at 4:30 am by a knock on the door. It startled me, because my sons were in a room down the hall.

 

I opened the door to find 2 worried young men asking if I had seen their 21 year old sister named Priscilla. She never came back to the cabin and that was not like her. They were literally knocking on every cabin door searching for her.

 

Thankfully she was found, but it definitely was a reminder to my sons that they are to keep contact with me.

[Cruzin RN]

Not in the middle of the night, but on our Dec 20th Enchantment cruise the repeatedly paged a passenger in the morning of Day 2. Finally the captain made an announcement that a 'young lady' was missing and they were going into full search mode. He later came back and announced that she was found safe and sound and apologized for the inconvenience.

 

Hate to assume, but I have a feeling I know where she was...

 

 

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I was on the cruise...it was a little worrisome, since we had not stopped at any ports. Knocks on doors, pictures flashed of the girl...as meagle said, announcement was made soon that she was found..im sure the parents were relieved..and then angry (like all parents would be)

 

Thought it was handled well by the crew.

[goose30]

That reminds me - when i was on the Oasis in the beginning of the month, my roommate and I decided to sleep in the morning we were in Labadee. We were going to get off the ship, but were in no rush.

 

Imagine our surprise when we were startled out of bed by the emergency signals. First, panic, and then the realization that we were in port and it was likely a drill.

 

You'd think they'd warn people when they were going to do a drill like that...

 

Would you expect them to make a shipwide announcement that a drill was going to take place at say 9:00AM. That probably would have woken you up as well. Also most effective drills are unannounced so everyone is caught off guard and they can practice their emergency skills.

[nanwel]

It happened to us on the Oasis summer before last. I am a very light sleeper so I had heard them making the announcements in the hallways first and then came the 4 am announcement in the rooms. Then again the next night the something for the same person. When the Captain came on for his noon announcement on the 4th day of the cruise after the second incident he was very firm with parents to make sure to know where your kids are. He then went on to explain that a 16 year old had checked in with his parents and had left out of the cabin after check in. When they returned from the casino at 2 am the son was missing. Again this happened 2 nights in a row. The Captain then apologized to the entire ship and indicated that the family would not be permitted to leave their cabin for the rest of the cruise.

 

How many kids are going to wait in their room alone till 2am for absent partents to show up! Probably a lot of the "cause" for lost look outs!!

If you bring teenagers aboard, you have to want to be with them, not just leave them to their own devices all day/night.

We have all seen those "lost" teens! Feel sorry for them.

[TravelerThom]

Would you expect them to make a shipwide announcement that a drill was going to take place at say 9:00AM. That probably would have woken you up as well. Also most effective drills are unannounced so everyone is caught off guard and they can practice their emergency skills.

YES, I would expect for an announcement to be made, as I have heard them many times. I have been in most ports that I sail to many times, and generally am in no rush to get off the ship; hence still around when the announcement is made after most are off the ship. The announcement "The following is a drill for the crew only" is made in public areas (not the emergency channel in your cabin), followed by ships bells and directions from the bridge (eg "fire in stairwell 7 between decks 8 and 10" followed by more explicit direction to various teams) and then again followed by "This is a drill for the crew only".

 

Thom

[MonaCK]

Would you expect them to make a shipwide announcement that a drill was going to take place at say 9:00AM. That probably would have woken you up as well. Also most effective drills are unannounced so everyone is caught off guard and they can practice their emergency skills.

 

Since I'm pretty sure that they do this drill every time they are in Labadee, it's hardly a surprise. A note in the cabin the night before stating that you should expect to not sleep in lest have the you know what scared out of you at 9am by emergency alarms would have been a little bit more welcome than jolting out of bed.

[Trekker954]

I have experienced this typically when there are many children on board (December and summer sailings). It is usually teenagers they are searching for.

[ehfl]

Isn't there a volume control knob that you can turn off or at least turn down the volume of all announcements?

 

Emergency announcements cannot be turned down or off.....think about it. If there was an evacuation order, wouldn't you want to know, even if it was a bit inconvenient?

[brigittetom]

How many kids are going to wait in their room alone till 2am for absent partents to show up! Probably a lot of the "cause" for lost look outs!!

If you bring teenagers aboard, you have to want to be with them, not just leave them to their own devices all day/night.

We have all seen those "lost" teens! Feel sorry for them.

 

I don't think there is anything wrong with expecting teens to observe the 1am curfew. It's the rule of the ship. Responsible parents would check in on them and trust them to stay put while said parents get to enjoy a little more of the nightlife. Why would kids go wandering looking for their parents when it was agreed upon beforehand? These are supposedly responsible teens, not the younger group.

[rodenboy]

This happened to us on the Allure week commencing 16th September 2012.

 

We had been on board only a number hours and barely left Ft Lauderdale when there were ship announcements looking for the missing passenger. During the night there was an in-cabin announcement saying they were now searching for her. The woman had fell overboard but we didn't find this out until the morning after. Guests woke up and realised that they weren't in Nassau as per the itinerary. Over breakfast there was an announcement to say that the woman had been searched for and as a result we were behind schedule and so we went straight to St Thomas. (We stopped at Nassau on the way back.) At the time, we presumed that the in cabin announcements were generally quite common.

 

 

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[ronandcarla]

Years ago on one of our Adventure of the Seas trips while we were in Aruba and when we came back on board and had passed security with our sea passes our daughter who was about 13 or so discovered she had left her gift bag on the bench outside of the store we were just in and we could see it from the entryway of the ship, so she and her mom went back through security using their proper sea passes, but coming back on my wife used her proper pass but by mistake she also used her pass to register our daughter, somehow security never caught the mistake. Move ahead 5 or 6 hours later (in those days the ship stayed in Aruba until late at right) they made an announcement over the loud speakers looking for our daughter before they would pull out from the port; also at this point we were all in bed and the phone rang asking us (parents) do we have any idea where our daughter might be, because of the ships security was thinking she was still on the island. We told them she was in bed and they (security) came down to see for themselves and prove who she was by way of sea pass and passport. As far as we were concerned we were very happy of how they handled this security breach by us/them. Just another reason for us to love RCCL.