Carnival Magic Disappointment

[ScottsSweetie]

I was on the Magic in May. We docked in Roatan, and we made our way to our private excursion meeting place, where we got in a vehicle and took a 20 minute ride to our boat.

 

By the time we got there, the wind had kicked up so much that our tour guide told us that if the Magic had just been arriving, we would not have been docking that day at all. (And we had to change our originally planned excursion due to the winds and rough seas.)

[lido deck larry]

Well, you should either start driving cruise ships since you know so much, or start cruising RCCL. Problem solved. Did you express your displeasure directly to the captain, I hope?

 

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk

[lido deck larry]

When you get your Master Mariner's License and are privy to all the facts, you can criticize the decision of the Captain all you want. If the Captain had tried to dock the ship in those conditions and ran aground or ran into the pier or into the reef, you (or someone) would've been saying he is irresponsible. He can't win either way with passengers, so he errs on the side of safety -- and rightly so.

 

I'm an airline pilot. I love it when a passenger gets off the plane and criticizes one of my landings, especially when they have no clue about the conditions I faced to land the plane. Or, when we have to divert to an alternate airport due to weather conditions and are low on fuel because of extensive holding and delay vectors and someone chimes in that they've landed in worse weather (or so they think).

 

Just last week I was landing in La Guardia. La Guardia is a very congested airport with short runways. I was landing a light A320 with a direct crosswind and it was quite a firm landing. One guy decided to make a comment about it and it took everything I had to bite my tongue as he walked off. He obviously had no clue about the conditions, nor did he have an ATP License, or he would've said "thank you" instead.

 

Sometimes, you just have to trust the professionals to do their jobs. Safety is #1. If you get inconvenienced, so be it. It's better than the alternative. Just as with airlines, the decision to divert, delay or cancel a flight is not an easy decision. Believe me, airlines don't like cancelling or delaying flights. It costs the airline lots of money to do so. I'm sure the Captain in this situation based his decision to cancel the port on the weather conditions, sea conditions and his extensive experience and knowledge and knowing how a 130,000 ton ship reacts.

I know. Everyone is an expert pilot in coach. I try and thank the pilots for a great flight if I see them on the way off the plane.

 

Sent from my SM-G386T using Tapatalk