Crown Princess Incident

[CruiserSmurf]

I feel bad for first time cruisers who went through this. They prolly will never want to cruise again. I have read where people have said they won’t return to Princess because of this. Bad news is that this isn’t really uncommon for any cruise line. On top of that this was a brand new ship so I don’t think if this was a mechanical problem it was because Princess was negligent in maintenance or something. It is not like we are talking about the Sun Princess. This ship had only been out a few times

 

Best wishes to everyone.

[Cruisin' Chick]

I'm sending good thoughts your way. I hope that nurse is right about the little girl. Different news sources had different info, of course.

 

That's terrible about your photos. Maybe someone moved them to another location?

 

It seems this is a weird day for travel. Besides the NY problem, LAX, Burbank, and Ontario airports were closed down due to some radar problems in Southern Calif., so that will undoubtedly affect anyone traveling (the ripple effect).

 

Your reports have helped informed those of us who love cruising. I hope nobody tries to discount what you went through (I'm thinking about what happened with those on the Grand).

[Merion_Mom]

Any idea of the degree of the list? I heard 50 degrees, but I just don't see how that is possible.

A guy standing near me who seems to be very knowledgeable says that it was 45 degrees. It DID feel like we might not right ourselves, and might in fact keep going over. It was VERY scary.

 

Contrary to doggfan's opinion (he was posting simultaneously to me, and called to me, but I couldn't see him in the darkened internet cafe), this has been a fabulous cruise, and this is a gorgeous ship. We have been having a GREAT time. Well, except for this one little thing...... :)

 

I MUST say this:

 

The crew and staff of the Crown Princess are fantastic, the best, amazing, wonderful, kind, caring, responsible and helpful. You couldn't ask for a better more even-keeled (unlike the ship :D) bunch.

[SomeBeach]

Carol, I was so happy to read a post from you and Nancy. Thanks for the news on the little girl. Nothing was reported about her on the news. One FL newspaper mentioned a man with chest injuries as still being in critical condition and several listed as serious.

Safe travels home.

[wrp96]

The crew and staff of the Crown Princess are fantastic, the best, amazing, wonderful, kind, caring, responsible and helpful. You couldn't ask for a better more even-keeled (unlike the ship :D) bunch.

 

Carol, I knew there was a reason I liked you. You need to come visit the MOS again. We need more people with your attitude.

[ravennheart]

OMG I cannot believe this happened, and I only just heard about it. I am so glad that you guys are ok. Thanks so much for the update.

[khfadpi]

I feel so sorry for everyone on the Crown. We just got off the CB this past Saturday and it really gives me cold chills. That could have happened to us. Is there really some defect in the Grand Class Ships. :eek:

[flvol77]

A guy standing near me who seems to be very knowledgeable says that it was 45 degrees. It DID feel like we might not right ourselves, and might in fact keep going over. It was VERY scary.

 

Contrary to doggfan's opinion (he was posting simultaneously to me, and called to me, but I couldn't see him in the darkened internet cafe), this has been a fabulous cruise, and this is a gorgeous ship. We have been having a GREAT time. Well, except for this one little thing...... :)

 

I MUST say this:

 

The crew and staff of the Crown Princess are fantastic, the best, amazing, wonderful, kind, caring, responsible and helpful. You couldn't ask for a better more even-keeled (unlike the ship :D) bunch.

 

WOW...if that is true thank god you are ok. That is just crazy. Have a safe trip home, my thoughts and prayers are with everyone who was/is on on board. Take Care.

[SomeBeach]

Carol, I knew there was a reason I liked you. You need to come visit the MOS again. We need more people with your attitude.

 

Wrona, I was getting ready to post the same thought! Now I'll just second Wrona's post.

Carol, ya still got it girl! ;)

[silverwolf]

Carol and Nancy, I hope you both are okay. I am praying for all of the passengers. I know this had to be very scary.

Please post when you can. Be certain that all of your Cruise Critic friends are here for you.

[Cruzzinagain]

I feel bad for first time cruisers who went through this. They prolly will never want to cruise again. I have read where people have said they won’t return to Princess because of this. Bad news is that this isn’t really uncommon for any cruise line. On top of that this was a brand new ship so I don’t think if this was a mechanical problem it was because Princess was negligent in maintenance or something. It is not like we are talking about the Sun Princess. This ship had only been out a few times

 

Best wishes to everyone.

port. They were already into this cruise for 8 days. I believe the cruise departed from and was returning to NY.

 

Steve

[Cruise Miriam]

Nancy, I'm so glad you and Carol are okay and now I understand the phone message I received from your husband. I didn't get it until after tonight's baseball game so had no clue until very late what was going on. I'll be in touch with him and will try to call you on your cell tomorrow to see if there's anything I can do to help. You, Carol and everyone aboard ship please stay calm and be safe.

 

All of you are in my thoughts.

[MoonPet]

I'm always happy to see another CC'er posting from the ship - then we know you are all okay.

 

Scary, very scary, but I'm glad you are making the best of it.

 

It was a bad travel day on both coasts today - LGA was shut down for many hours with power problems then all three NYC area airports were seriously slowed down by the evening storms.

 

ZLA OTS, the high-altitude radar facility in Palmdale that handles all flights to/from/transiting Southern California, had an outage of about 90 minutes, so lots of issues on the left coast too.

 

So, for those of you flying home tomorrow, you might experience some residual delays. Get home safely!

 

Best wishes and hugs to all of the KP pax.

[Blamar]

Hi folks:

First of all let me add all my good thoughts and prayers to the passengers, their families and their friends. Cruising is becoming like the old saying about plane crashes, to paraphrase "any cruise you can walk away from is a good one". However, I still would pick a cruise over any kind of holiday.

 

What I am surprised at is that there has been no discussion about Princess having a "no tipping" policy.

 

Sorry, about that. Now back to good thoughts.

[seattlekckckc]

About the lost pictures - can you ask at the desk to have them reprinted?? I know they can do this, once we couldnt find our picture and one of the photo shop people scrolled through hundreds of photos until we found mine, which they happily reprinted. Obviously this is an unusual situation, but it cant hurt to ask! It would be best if you knew ~about~ where you had them takes.

[CaesarsNcruisin4me]

What a scary thing to have happened. Thankyou for taking the time to post and keeping us updated. Sending everyone best wishes for safe travel home!

 

Sandie

[kaitlinsmom]

Everyone on the cruise (passengers, crew, etc) you are in so many people's prayers tonight - Please find comfort in that and may you all get home safely and soon -

[travel-to-go]

From what my sister told us, Princess isn't arrainging for any travel for anyone. They're only (hopefully) reimbursing them as well as giving them back the money for their cruise. So I'm going to imagine that flights back to New York out of MCO are going to be at a premium. So with all of the trauma of what happened on the ship, they now have to find a hotel and flights.

 

Many of you know me here from the Cunard board or the fashion (Who me? Fashionable?) boards (Don't EVEN ask me about body waxing or my stolen strapless bras from before my January Panama Cruise! P.S. Police caught the person, and I fianlly got them back after a very "UN-supported" dinner with the Commodore! <LOL>)

 

Anyway- Not to make light of this very scary incident, but Thank goodness, most people are only shaken, minor injuries, and somehwat ruined vacations (although, many will be able to look back on "the adventure" after some time and distance has passed and have great stories- That may sound callous, but I have had my share, including the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan at which 103 people died. (We were at a bar down the street when the fire broke out- A friend jumped over the wall and razor wire from the pool area and came to join us) I've been through my share of hurricanes (including one at sea, which we were able to mostly avoid by changing our intended path through the Caribbean. I was also on the bulletin boards with the passengers on the Fantome before they were dropped off in Belize during Hurricane Mitch and followed the whole thing. (The Fantome was lost with 34 souls aboard- Rest their souls) I might have been on that ship, if circumstances had been different. I had considered it. I DID get caught in the aftermath in Key West- I got in BEFORE they closed US 1 and stranded many of my friends and musician friends, one of whom, with his wife, ended up IN the tornados that hit furter up the Keys. By the way, he moved from Grand Cayman, where he played at the pool bar at Hyatt 7 Mile Beach for years before Ivan hit and still has many, many friends there- then got hit in his new home in Sarasota and another musician he plays with frequently lost his entire studio and the band's unstruments in Punta Gorda. Many in my family got hit, also in all these the last two years. So I am no stranger to disaster. (Hmm, maybe you don't want to get around me. <LOL>!) Last year I was among the first group allowed into the Keys after Hurricane Wilma. And we did our best to help where we could, inlcuding a successful blood drive- moved from our ruined hotel, as we were, where we usually had it)

 

Now- (long intro- sorry I ramble so, as many of you know!)

I was supposed to be flying back from Orlando today. My father died in Daytona on the 8th. We were supposed to fly in the 8th and come back to CT today. He died before we could get there and we changed flights to Sunday (9th) and returned last Thursday, as I was ALSO due to be laid off from my job in Connecticut today. (I'm telling you, stay AWAY from me! I am bad luck!) Delta, who was MARVELOUS through this entire ordeal for me, worked over an hour, looking for flights JAX, MCO, DAB, Even Melbourne. Flying in and out of Florida (Wth cruise ships, Disney and families on summer vacation with the kids out of school) is a nightmare to get in and out of on short notice during the sumer. People think "Snowbirds"- February is high season. Not if you have kids in school who are dying to see the rodent! I grew up there (Pre-Disney, even!) and also the family used to drive to FL from New York State every summer to see the grandparents before we moved down in 65. Summer+ Florida =fully booked flights! Hopefully, one of the lines (or two) will arrange to ferry an extra jet or two to get out of staters home quickly and safely.

 

Carol, It has been my experience that the photogs keep the originals (digital files) If you are truly wanting those pics and someone took them all (Which is absolutely HORRIBLE of anyone to do!) Try getting hold of them, before you leave, or get their land based number/web address. You can sometimes get copies made (I have done it on Cunard after the fact) The hardest part is identifying your photos.

 

And BTW, FLVOL77- I left Ormond Beach, Florida after I graduated High School to move back to TENN where I was born. Went to UTK (go VOLS!) from Fall of 72 to Summer of 75. So we may have crossed paths somewhere! Who knows!

 

Karie,

who hopes that all are doing well, mostly nursing bumps and bruises, and not badly injured, and can look back on this some day as a source of great stories. You survived it! I wish you all the best in getting home safely and with the least amount of hassle possible.

My thoughts are with you all. I know it is scary.

[SusieCruisie]

My thoughts and prayers are with all of you who were on board , and I hope you are all home soon. Thank you to those who have posted, that was so generous of you.

[llund]

The 11:00 news just showed everyone getting off the ship. I am sure it was a very frightening experience. To all the passengers, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

[Bizzyma]

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone on board the Crown. How horrible for the passengers and the crew. I have only been on 2 Princess cruises, but the staff has always been so great. I feel so bad that they have had to deal with this. Kaitlinsmom, I sailed on the Golden last fall and someone on the roll call named Kaitlinsgrandma had to cancel due to her health. I have been wondering how she is doing and if she ever got to take her cruise. Is she related to you and if so, could you give an update on how she is?

[GloriaF]

I just logged on and read about the incident on the Crown ~ thoughts and prayers to all aboard.

 

It sounds like you are in port now and safe, but will need to make arrangements to go home. Remember not only FLL and Orlando are nearby, but Jacksonville to the north will have some openings at hotels and flights home. I only mention this to help since all areas and hotels are going to be crowded.

[ladylawyer]

Carol and Nancy,

 

I've been screaming through these posts, looking for the 2 of you, since I read Wrona's post on the main RCI Board. I cried through the first half and laughed through the second. First, and most importantly, I'm glad that you're both OK, physically! Secondly, I would expect nothing less of you than to find a way to have some fun amidst chaos and be positive to the end.

 

Please let us know when you're home, safe and sound. You both are in our hearts and prayers! ~ Lorna

[Goldryder]

Grand Princess did exactly the same thing and that was a 'computer software malfunction'....or in laymans terms, a bug in the system...which should have been sorted out by now across the fleet of Grand class ships, especially a brand new one.

 

A computer boffin somewhere will be getting their backside kicked over a second ship to do this.

 

The NTSB are still requesting passengers off the Grand in February of this year to contact them with accounts of her list/sharp turn....

 

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/GPList2.html

 

So, it looks like its back to the drawingboard on the steering pods and their software. To have one mishap is bad, to then have another on the same class of ship and a new ship at that, is just getting seriously bad. Its also very sad that this second incident has caused such severe injuries too, one would think that lessons had been learnt from last time, especially the securing of heavy items etc.

 

Not that it would put me off cruising, but I dare say there will be some who will stay away from cruising and away from the Grand class ships as a result of this. Its human nature that if something goes wrong, people lose their trust in it...as has happened in the past with the venerable DC10 airliner, Concorde etc etc.

 

Perhaps the rush to a computerised everything isn't such a good thing afterall, time maybe to go back to basics and maybe shrink the ships a little bit. I wonder what would be the consequences of Freedom of the Seas, having a similar software fault......personally, I shudder to think.

 

To all those onboard this time, I hope that you are not too badly shaken by this experience, those injured, hope too that the injuries both mental and physical heal quickly and that your love of cruising rides out this rough patch.

[safein]

My thoughts and prayers go not only to the passengers, but the crew as well. Hope no one was badly injured in the galley with all the equipment, plates and possibly hot foods!

 

Anita