Man overboard emergency frequency?

[regana]

Just returned from our 5th cruise and although it was overall great, the first night was scary. At 4am there was an announcement for a missing person to contact guest services. There were 4 more announcements until finally at 6:30 an official man overboard announcement ordered everyone to their stateroom to have stewards check occupancy. Thank goodness the person was found (25 year old guy traveling with his parents but hooked up with someone in another stateroom). I was a nervous wreck and still can’t stop thinking about it but how common is a scenario like this? 

[soonernstlouis]

Oh the shenanigans guys will pull when you allow them out of Mom’s basement.

[sparks1093]

We've never experienced it, from published accounts it seems to be fairly rare.

[h_blond2]

10 cruises and we have never experienced anything like that. It is rare.

[MistyRo76]

18 cruises and we've had one man overboard situation. Ours was on the Splendor out of Long Beach about 10 years ago and it was actually a crew member who jumped overboard after an alleged fight with his girlfriend. There were witnesses so the ship immediately stopped and initiated search and rescue procedures. Another crewmember had throw the guy a life preserver and the preserver was spotted floating in the ocean. It was after midnight so it was hard to see. The crew lowered a lifeboat and went to the area where the preserver was floating but the crewmember was never found. We had to stay in that area doing a zig-zag search pattern until released by the Mexican authorities to continue the cruise that next morning. It was definitely scary! 

[ElCrappyTan]

Was the missing person announcement blasted in the staterooms? To be fair, especially if you are sleeping or there is a lot of in-room noise, you can't hear the general announcements.

[chengkp75]

Cruisejunkie, whose statistics need to be read carefully, states that in the last 10 years, there have been an average of 17.4 overboards per year.  This does include ferries and other passenger vessels as well as cruise ships.

[ray98]

Super rare....as chengkp75 posted above.....less than 20 instances per year out of the millions of passengers who cruise.

Edited February 20, 2019 by ray98

[Mommawo]

I can imagine the guy when he realizes his mom is looking for him when he is with a woman 😂 he is never gonna get married with her around I assume 

[cemebro]

Not to sound cold hearted, but I wouldn't find that scary unless it was someone I was traveling with.

[Bernardo62]

8 minutes ago, Mommawo said:

I can imagine the guy when he realizes his mom is looking for him when he is with a woman 😂 he is never gonna get married with her around I assume 

25 with a curfew.....on a ship!!!

[Gamecock_Cruiser]

We had it on the Ecstasy a few years ago. It was the second to the last night about 3:45am, we were woken to "EMERGENCY, MAN OVER BOARD, EMERGENCY, MAN OVERBOARD, EMERGENCY, MAN OVERBOARD" over the intercom in the cabin, I jumped out of bed. Talk about startling. A few minutes later, they started announcing for the person to come to guest services or call 7777. We got up and went on deck, to which a lot of people where there in robes and some just left from partying. They lowered a life boat and was searching. The ship stayed until the coastguard arrived about 8am, and they let us go on. Unfortunately, they never found the person.

 

They did not do cabin searches or anything. I assume their were witnesses that actually saw it. It was rumored that she was arguing with family before jumping. 

[pghsteelerfan]

Although I don't think that particular situation is very common, it does happen.  We had quite an interesting cruise on Glory on the 5/9 - 5/16, 2010 sailing, including a "missing person" incident on the next to the last night of the cruise.  That situation was resolved before getting to the point of everyone having to report to cabins for an actual occupancy count.  This thread I'll attach is old (if anyone interested), but was started the day after our cruise.  The most accurate details/best descriptions of what ACTUALLY happened are from fellow passengers who were on that sailing and those posts are on Page 2, Posts #27, #33, and #34.  Post #34 mentions the CD coming into the comedy club, and that was the only thing we "witnessed" in regards to the missing woman since we were in the comedy club at that time.  We just assumed that there was an issue with a S&S bill or something.  At the time, this was our 4th cruise & we never had any of these things happen on our 3 cruises prior to that.  Having been on CC since 2010, I know that these things can and do happen, but I would hope to think that all of this happening on one cruise was a little out of the ordinary (2 medevacs; ambulance w/lights flashing when we arrived in St. Thomas; one "missing person" situation).  Other than the 2 hour late arrival to St. Thomas, this never affected us in any way and we still really enjoyed the cruise.  We have been on 3 cruises since, and only one of them did we change course to Key West where an ambulance met a passenger with a medical emergency.  No missing person's though.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by pghsteelerfan

[teknoge3k]

I bet his mom didn't let him stay out late the next night. I mean the poor baby is only 25 years old. I couldn't imagine. 

[patsnation18]

In the 7 cruises I've been on, I've only had it happen only once, at least that I know of.  April '12 cruise 15 day voyage from San Diego to Hawaii on the Carnival Spirit.  Mid afternoon, about a half an hour after the Captain made the " we are past the point of no return" announcement on the second sea day ( basically saying we were officially closer to HI than CA now) an announcement was made that someone had gone overboard.  Ship turned around and the Captain asked everyone to keep their eyes out and to alert a crew  member if they saw anything in the water. 

 

Supposedly it was a young boy w/ binoculars who first spotted the man in the water after the announcement was made and his family alerted the crew and they were able to rescue him, he was brought back onboard and he was taken to the hospital at our first port stop.  Word on the ship was that the man disrobed and jumped overboard in front of his family and children. 

 

Witnessing that rescue, all the passengers lining the deck rails trying to help in searching for this man, and seeing first hand how efficiently and professionally  the crew worked to rescue him was simply amazing.  It was all on the crew too, as we were literally in the middle of the ocean, too far from SD and still way too far from HI for the coast guard or any rescue units to be able to reach us in ample time.  I still wonder about that gentleman from time to time and hope he got the help he clearly needed.

[Mommawo]

14 minutes ago, teknoge3k said:

I bet his mom didn't let him stay out late the next night. I mean the poor baby is only 25 years old. I couldn't imagine. 

Ok not to make light of a horrible situation BUT I can imagine he was like oh yeah finally it’s gonna happen aaaaannnnd my mom is looking for me and called the entire ship to a stop until she finds me. ......... never gonna happen for me never gonna get it 😂 

 

but then it’s just my twisted sense of humor 

however those who have experienced the real emergency breaks my heart.  Can’t imagine how terrifying it would be especially to loved ones

Edited February 20, 2019 by Mommawo

[bowlinmoe]

25 years old?  Was he rooming with his mom or something?  

 

Very odd that she was looking for him.