The price of disloyalty?

[ckrobyn]

What happened to merion mom and nliedel? :eek: 2 of my fave ladies!

[LABCHICK]

They were on the Crown PRINCESS this past week when it did its little list. Judi :)

[madelinerose]

Carol, again, welcome home! ;)

 

 

Karen

Baltimore

[brn2crz]

I know...Mine too :D

Nancy and Carol were on the "free Rollercoaster Cruise" otherwise known as the Crown Princess,that had the listing accident..

 

 

N&C...It just occured to me,that perhaps the comment about the refund and the moola was a little crass...Not meant to be...Just good leverage:o

 

 

Sorry if it was out of line...

 

Just join us because it would be too fun!!

(you too Robyn)

[xpcdoojk]

Oh contraire Grasshopper...

 

I have been sending out invites for the last 3 months...Yours must be lost in the mail :eek:

 

 

JC...That would be the ultimate ...Please come on down...

 

Shall I tell Neal A RS for 2!!?? :D

 

Now you are blaming the post office... O the shame!;)

 

jc

 

PS I am way to cheap for a RS. I didn't just have a windfall from Princess!;)

[ckrobyn]

What the heck were they thinking cruising on Princess anways?? :eek: LOL

 

Thank goodness they are ok!

 

What cruise are you trying to entice me on????

[brn2crz]

Our...First ever Voyager OTS Cruise Critic Group Cruise.

 

Jan 27 08..

 

See my links for details!!

[brn2crz]

Holy Baloney...

 

Someone merged my thread ..Argggg :p

 

Oh well at least the did not delete it..

 

But hey...It was a relative topic...Promoting my CC Group Cruise????

 

Come on Karen...I see you.....

[ckrobyn]

Okay - I just updated myself on the Crown Princess tragedy - holy! I saw it on the news but had no idea 2 of our own were on that ship!

Carol and Nancy - SO glad you are both okay :)

Group cruise on the VOS? Hmmmmm.......sounds interesting! I'll take a peek at the details! ;)

[elleluv]

 

Now....Why don't you guys take your sweet little refunds...And book the Voyager from Galveston with Wrona and I......(Jan 08) It would be awesome to meet you 2....

 

I was so jealous when I started reading the "LIVE LIVE LIVE" thread...I had no idea you guys were taking that trip....

 

Anyway...I know its way down here in lowly Galveston...But Nancy,SW has great rates.....And well gosh...You guys have all the extra moola now...

 

 

Hey Cat,

 

I actually already TRIED to convince Carol to join us a couple of weeks ago... I even told her you and Wrona would be there... She had some lame excuse about needing to be in the classroom with her students... :rolleyes:

 

Ellen

[elleluv]

 

Group cruise on the VOS? Hmmmmm.......sounds interesting! I'll take a peek at the details! ;)

 

You should go, Robyn... :) We've got a great group!

[xpcdoojk]

Holy Baloney...

 

Someone merged my thread ..Argggg :p

 

Oh well at least the did not delete it..

 

But hey...It was a relative topic...Promoting my CC Group Cruise????

 

Come on Karen...I see you.....

 

Yeah, I was confused as heck for a few seconds there! We must not question these things, there is a greater power than us mere mortals at work in the world!:rolleyes: You surely know that!:D

 

jc

[brn2crz]

Hey Cat,

 

I actually already TRIED to convince Carol to join us a couple of weeks ago... I even told her you and Wrona would be there... She had some lame excuse about needing to be in the classroom with her students... :rolleyes:

 

Ellen

 

Well..Doh!!!

 

Forgot about that little detail!! :D

 

JC...Somethings never change eh!

[ckrobyn]

You should go, Robyn... :) We've got a great group!

 

I just looked at the details and it looks like a great cruise!

 

The only thing that throws me is that it is out of Galveston - how expensive is it to fly from Toronto to Galveston? :confused: I'll go look at that now! Otherwise, the cabin prices are very reasonable - plus, I would LOVE to meet all my CC friends!

[elleluv]

Forgot about that little detail!! :D

 

Yeah, obviously I did too... ;) :D

[MrPete]

It has occurred to me that I am being punished for leaving Royal Caribbean to cruise on Princess.......................... :rolleyes:

 

Carol,

 

I'm beginning to think it's you!

 

However, your journeys do make for good reads on CC!

[elleluv]

I just looked at the details and it looks like a great cruise!

 

The only thing that throws me is that it is out of Galveston - how expensive is it to fly from Toronto to Galveston? :confused: I'll go look at that now! Otherwise, the cabin prices are very reasonable - plus, I would LOVE to meet all my CC friends!

 

You won't find flights to Galveston... You'd fly into Houston.... :)

[booze brothers]

Time to bring out the bottle of wine (no, not the Chardonay) Sure glad you gals are home and safe. Your neighbor, Mimi Bedminster, PA

[ckrobyn]

You won't find flights to Galveston... You'd fly into Houston.... :)

 

Yep - just found that out at aircanada.com :D

[teacherkim]

just wanted to say thanks to Nancy and Carol for sticking with the reporting even though the first post went poof. Just read your whole amazing account (we were without power for the last 24 hrs. due to storms) and you did a great job. The story on the news channels were pitiful on their facts. Glad you are home safe!

[Merion_Mom]

You guys ALWAYS schedule great group cruises during cheap fare times, also known as SCHOOL! The only reason that YOUR fares are cheaper is that all the kiddies are in school, and there is lower demand. Guess what? It's the mean ol' teachers who are keeping them there, so that YOU can cruise cheaply and almost kid-free! :(

 

Thanks for everyone's support..........did you notice that Tahoe Bob did NOT come back and explain himself? :D

 

Carol, I am glad that you and Nancy are safe and I hope sound. I was looking to see you on channel 6. However I did see a couple that owned a hoagie shop in South Phila. awhile back returning from FL. He hurt his arm. They featured them coming in at the airport.

I am hoping you did not have a power problem because some of the counties outside Philadelphia are still w/o power. Rest up hopefully you will be as good as new in a short time.

I am happy to say that no one from Channel 6 was at the airport when I landed. I am and have been quite all right, but if one of them had stuck a microphone and a camera in my face and asked how I was, after the long unexpected flight home, I think that I would have burst into tears, just from the emotional release.

 

Fortunately, our area did not lose power, so we're ok here.

 

Carol (and Nancy too if you are around) - I am really curious; can you describe just how bad it was? I've been reading the P threads, but do not recall:

 

+ Where were you when all of this happened?

In a rare situation, both Nancy and I were in the cabin together. I think that a lot more than usual WERE in their cabins. Tuesday was Port Canaveral day, and 900 out of the 3100 passengers were on the Kennedy Space Center excursion. Anyone leaving the ship had to go through Immigration procedures, so everyone had to be up early to go through the process. We were in the Princess Theatre at 6:50 A.M. After a long morning of excursions, I think that most people had a quick lunch and then just wanted to veg out. For some, that meant a lounger by the pool, but for many (probably more than usual), it meant a nap in the cabin. That's why *I* was there.

 

I fell asleep about 2:50 (the ship had sailed at 2:07 - please don't ask me WHY I looked at my watch this time or WHY I remember that when I forget almost everything, but I did and I do :confused: ). I woke up when our friend Joani called on the phone to discuss dinner plans. We had anytime dining, and every afternoon, we'd figure out what we were doing. This was formal night (#2), and Joani and Al are some sort of Captain's Circle members level on Princess, so they were invited to a Captain's Champagne reception from 7:45 to 8:15, so we were discussing making a dinner reservation for 8:30. The phone call came at 3:25, and we talked for quite a while. (ok, we're girls, so there) WHILE WE WERE ON THE PHONE (it was really a four way conversation - Me on the phone relaying info to Nancy, and Joani on the phone consulting with Al), the boat leaned starboard. Nancy and I LOOKED at each other, and grabbed for stuff as it started to slide, all the while thinking, "This is a little thing and it's about to go back; it's fine".

 

Then IT KEPT GOING. We leaned HARD to starboard. (I now believe from various things that I have seen and heard that it was between 15 and 20%) I was still prone on the bed, and found myself forced against the headboard - fortunately, the pillows, big fluffy down pillows, were there. Nancy was thrown against the desk and chair, and my glass of red wine across the room on the bartop flew over and showered her and the carpet. All the bottles and glasses fell over, but didn't fall on the floor. The little table FLEW over, and the glass top (which was not attached but merely sat in the grooved top of the wood frame) FLEW off like a frisbee and landed under the desk. We heard everything all over the cabin MOVING.

 

It felt like it last forever. The sensation was that it just kept going steeper and steeper and steeper - it couldn't really be happening - surely it would just right itself now - but it kept getting steeper - then finally, the angle stopped getting steeper, and the ship settled back down gently onto a horizontal plane. I know for a fact that it was only a matter of seconds - maybe 45 total? *Maybe* a minute? But there was certainly a point where it did NOT feel like it was going to stop, like it was going to be ok. Then it ended.

 

Captain Andy (everyone calls him that; it's even what's engraved on his official name plate badge that he wears) WHILE WE WERE TILTING came on the PA system, and said that there was a problem with the steering, and he'd get back to us as soon as he could. His voice was quavering, and he was clearly out of breath from dashing from wherever he had been. That something in his voice frightened the HELL out of us.

 

Nancy was afraid to go out on the balcony, so I checked. The furniture (4 chairs, two tables - aft corner balcony, baaaabeeeeee) was all up against one wall; she had clothes out there drying, and thinks that she lost a sarong. All of the stuff in the bathroom was lying on the floor. All of the hanging clothes were compacted against one wall of the closet. Our TV did NOT fall, but many had, we heard and saw later. Nancy was borderline-hysterical, which passed in about a minute, and she says that she doesn't remember. We hugged, and put stuff back, then ventured out of our cabin.

 

+ Would you have been able to make it to your stateroom and get your lifejacket like they train in the muster drill?

How can I explain that it didn't feel like a "lifejacket moment"? In fact, there were no barriers to returning to your stateroom. Things weren't blocked or obstructed. Forget the elevators, and there was water cascading down the stairs, but that didn't impede their use. Some crew members DID hand out some lifejackets, but my sense is that that scared people a lot. Some people DID venture out of their staterooms with lifejackets in hand.

 

There is no real muster drill on Crown Princess. Everyone goes to a Lounge and sits and listens to an explanation of safety measures. At the very end of the taped talk, you are instructed in the method of putting on and fastening your lifejacket. Only then do you put it on. Other than that, you are sitting there HOLDING the thing, unlike RC where you are IN your lifejacket, standing at a lifeboat station, BEING CHECKED OFF on a list. No check-off on Princess. The Captain says in his announcement that "we have methods of knowing where everyone is and whether they are attending the drill". Not to MondayMorningQuarterback or anything, but that sounded shady to me at the time. HOW do they know if you are at Muster Drill? They can't. There are those who questioned "How did they know that everyone was accounted for and that no one had been swept overboard?" To me, it seemed to consist of relying on your passengers to know if their mother/father/sister/brother/friend/etc. couldn't be found.

 

+ Many state they felt like the ship would not right itself; did you experience that as well?

There was definitely that moment where I thought, "Is this how it all ends?"

 

+ It sounds like glass was a big problem. Would you advocate cruiseships using less glass, or stronger glasslike material to avoid breakage and injury in these types of situations?

I have heard only one account of wall or structural glass giving way. That was on a pool deck and the glass wall was on the workout area. A friend of mine said that her son was there, and the force of the water being thrown from the pool BROKE a panel of the glass wall and the water flooded into the gym, and the list and the water sent heavy gym equipment falling and sliding. I think that injuries there were from this heavy stuff falling on them or knocking against them. The vast majority of glass breakage was from GLASSES. When display cases fell over in the shops, their contents broke on impact. I am now having a hard time picturing the shop's walls themselves, and I can't remember if those front glass walls were broken, but I am thinking that they weren't.

 

Marble in the Piazza area was often the material of table tops, and if the table fell over, the marble shattered. Most cases were ok, but if heavy blenders or something fell on them, they shattered. Many bar blenders and big machine stuff fell down and broke on the ground. A piano was turned UPSIDE DOWN, but was righted by crew; I don't know how it sounded. :)

 

 

 

Sorry for all of the Qs. Just trying to get a true feel for things from someone I trust. Thanks!

These were good questions, Patrick. I don't think that cruise ships can cruise with fewer glasses or dishes or stuff like that.

 

Let me add one more thought to that, though. I do think that TVs should be bolted down; they weren't. (they are on RC ships) I do think that the shelves in the bar aren't designed properly. In both Crooner's Bar and the Explorers Lounge Bar, after I listened to them sweeping up glass (it's a VERY distinctive and memorable sound) for a long time, in BOTH places (about an hour apart in time), there was a second crash. Either the workers thought that the shelves were stronger than they were, or they didn't check to see if stuff that hadn't fallen was actually secure, but TWICE stuff that hadn't yet crashed, now did. So those shelves/methods of securing barware need to be looked at.

 

I heard (third-hand) that there were kitchen workers hurt by flying knives. ACK! I don't know how you prevent that.

 

Dinner Tuesday night was fabulous, but there were no desserts. They had all been prepared already, and were sitting on their bakery trolleys. ALL of that went flying. There was ice cream, since that was in locked freezers. Oh, and there was still fruit and cheese, because THAT had been in secured, closed compartments.

 

If you hadn't known that something had happened, you wouldn't have been able to tell inside the dining rooms at dinner. The crew were FABULOUS.

 

Sheesh, this got long. Sorry.

 

Carol

[Merion_Mom]

Another thought about why bottles and glasses on our bartop didn't break.

 

I think that it's because I had some plastic up there, and coincidentially, that ended up between glass things, instead of glass crashing into glass. I had a glass bottle of JD, but next to it was a plastic bottle of brandy. There were glasses, but next to them were plastic bottles of Tropicana SugarFree Lemonade, and Crystal Light, and my big plastic mug.

 

Just dumb good luck.

 

Oh, and here's a great ad for Saran Wrap, or whatever brand they use:

 

Our cabin steward kept a HUGE ice bucket, made of very heavy glass, filled with ice at all times. (we had white wine, which we consumed in the first five days of the cruise). It had no wine it in on Tuesday, and most of the ice had melted by 3:30, so it was filled with cold water and a little ice. But he sealed it over every day with Saran Wrap, or its equivalent. THAT HELD! The water did NOT spill!

 

Isn't that weird? :confused:

[GMoney]

Carol - Thank you SO much for your post; I really appreciate the detail. Sorry to make you relive all of that, but it is by far the best account I've read anywhere, and I find it all very interesting.

 

Princess seems to have had the chance to learn a lot between this and the Star incident, in terms of how things can go very wrong. I do not mean this in a negative or disparaging way; I like Princess and will continue to sail them. Specifically, they learned from the Star that they needed balcony items made from fireproof materials and balcs equipped with sprinklers. It sounds like there will be lessons from the Crown (bolting down TVs, other things that Carol mentions).

 

It would be a nice silver lining if out of all of this, the major cruise lines partnered to look at the worst case scenarios of what can go wrong at sea, and then identify / implement best practices to minimize the damage during these incidents. I know they do sea trials when new ships are launched, but it seems there is some opportunity for the cruise lines to really take things to the next step and simulate disaster scenarios. I'd like to think they were already doing this, but from these 2 incidents, it doesn't seem like it.

 

Ship enhancements like the Flowrider, bowling alleys and promenades and the like are great, but maybe technology and innovation needs to also be directed at safety.

[rubrrick]

Carol.......thanks for the short version to let me know that Nancy and you were all right...............and now you have elaborated on your condensed version.........it gives me a better sense of what you both were experiencing.

 

I think that I have mentioned this once before.........If there is "fair and balanced" reporting of the ups and downs of a cruise...........you are the one to be heard.......because you tell it like it is!!!:)

Thanks!!

 

Rick

[Ericknow32]

Carol,

 

That sounds like one hell of an adventure. I am so glad that you are OK.

 

 

 

 

A little off topic but, what did you think of Princess's personal choice dining.