After 7/11 Crown Princess List CC members join

[Nliedel]

I was amazed by the number of people who said "Cruise Critic. I read that. I don't post tho" to me. I also had people recognize me from my avatar and talk to me. I even ran into someone who was looking for me because they lurk here and read my blog! It was a weird sort of semi-fame, made odder when I won a night at Princess Pop Star.

[Merion_Mom]

THAT'S what I was trying to remember, Nancy!

 

I think that they should send you the Princess PopStar trophy!

[Retired not Expired]

I've been following this since Nancy and Carol first reported it. I just haven't posted because one, I'm not a Princess cruiser, and two, there were enough experts solving everything.

 

BTW, Carol and Nancy, thanks for all the good work you have done in getting the facts out and glad you made it through this ordeal.

 

I believe Nancy hit it on the head. It doesn't matter if you were hurt or not, these people went through something that can be tramatic. If you're a first time poster or a long time poster, telling your story can help so much in dealing with it. I'm happy CC is here for them and I hope the new ones stick around. I had something very tramatic happen in Nam in the early 70's that went deep. Due to the climate in the states, I wasn't able to vent when I came back and it stayed with me a long time. So I know how something like this can be. I bet both Carol and Nancy will agree that coming to these boards helped them through it.

 

Just my two cents and now I'll shut up.

[Nliedel]

And Nancy WAS hit on the head as well!

 

I don't remember it, but I have a soft bruise on my left temple and a discoloration there. Can't touch the area. Weird, because I don't remember it at all. There are several minutes in the cabin that are missing. I suspect from stress. Carol says I got semi-hysterical, and I have no memory of that (and I am 100% fine if I never get a memory of it either).

[hamptod]

I have been a member of CC since 2004 and I am a notorious lurker. I find that often when one asks a question, someone will invariably answer so quickly that I try not to clutter up the board. The other reason I don't often post is frankly, this board can be intimidating:rolleyes: Early on I posted something and boy was I attacked like I was shark bait. So I post sparingly and when I feel strongly that I have something to add.

 

On my last cruise, I didn't join the roll call. For the 7/11 cruise on the Crown Princess, I did. What a difference a post made!! It was such a wonderful experience and I was happy to attend the meet and greet. I, like Carol and Nancy told many people that I met during the course of the cruise that I am addicted to Cruise Critic and one person even recognized my screen name and we had a great conversation. I also got the response that many "lurk" but don't post. I also met Narragon who was able to make the meet and greet but we also had a great excursion together and a wonderful chat at the Lotus Pool. There was an instant connection because of the board. It was great seeing and chatting with new friends during the cruise and it made the cruise more enjoyable. My family actually teased me about being so social (I'm not usually at first) with strangers. I corrected them and reminded that we were not strangers at all but CC'ers!

 

It is absolutely therapeutic for me to post right now and get out my feelings about the accident on the Crown. It is truly helping me to get through it. It also helps that I was able to be part of a community that understands the ups and downs of cruising and can relate to the experiences. Hope this answers the OP's question.

 

Deborah

[Nliedel]

Deborah is a DOLL and I love her!! She is so nice and friendly and SOCIAL! LOL! She has a skewed view of herself. I "gave" her a hug after, but the truth is I stole it from her. I needed it bad.

[charli]

DH and I are on the RSSC Navigator in the fall and the Crown Princess in Dec. 2006, so of course I jumped over here to follow the story. It has been so reassuring to read the variety of CC posts about the Crown. Everyone has a different story, a different experience, and they are all valuable. I don't consider myself a lurker. I check the boards (Princess, RSSC, and ports of call) regularly but as I rarely post, I rarely sign in. I am not a confrontational person and have only been on 4 Princess and 2 RSSC cruises, there isn't much different for me to contribute. However, I enjoy learning from the more experienced cruisers and usually my posts are questions. I've always received good answers. Thank you all for the valuable advice you've shared through these boards. If a question is asked that I do have unique information on I post- cautiously. I've read quite a few negative responses to innocent questions and comments.

[hamptod]

Nancy,

 

Thank you!! We stole hugs from each other:D BTW, forgot to tell you, great interview. I miss you guys already!!

 

Deborah

[Nliedel]

Nancy,

 

Thank you!! We stole hugs from each other:D BTW, forgot to tell you, great interview. I miss you guys already!!

 

Deborah

 

Did you hit your head? I looked like a dork and need a facelift! LOL!!! My husband keeps playing it for the kids and I am at the point of hiding in the next room.

 

Oh wait. I did not tell all of you the best part. The camp counselor TOLD my sons I'd been in an accident, then would not allow them to call home. Since we did not suspect they had been told, I did not call camp. Gene did call to check on them till Friday and they did not tell him the boys knew. They had nightmares that I died!!! I am FURIOUS NOW! I did not know till late this afternoon when Steven broke down crying and would not tell me why. Gene-Gene finally told me. I am super pissed. I have a phone meeting scheduled with the directors boss on Monday.

[Merion_Mom]

I have been a member of CC since 2004 and I am a notorious lurker. I find that often when one asks a question, someone will invariably answer so quickly that I try not to clutter up the board. The other reason I don't often post is frankly, this board can be intimidating:rolleyes: Early on I posted something and boy was I attacked like I was shark bait.

hee hee hee

So I post sparingly and when I feel strongly that I have something to add.

 

On my last cruise, I didn't join the roll call. For the 7/11 cruise on the Crown Princess, I did. What a difference a post made!! It was such a wonderful experience and I was happy to attend the meet and greet. I, like Carol and Nancy told many people that I met during the course of the cruise that I am addicted to Cruise Critic and one person even recognized my screen name and we had a great conversation. I also got the response that many "lurk" but don't post. I also met Narragon who was able to make the meet and greet but we also had a great excursion together and a wonderful chat at the Lotus Pool. There was an instant connection because of the board. It was great seeing and chatting with new friends during the cruise and it made the cruise more enjoyable. My family actually teased me about being so social (I'm not usually at first) with strangers. I corrected them and reminded that we were not strangers at all but CC'ers!

This has to be the most true and direct thing ever said about Cruise Critic, and why I am so addicted. It IS like cruising with dozens of your friends, even if you haven't seen their faces yet.

 

It is absolutely therapeutic for me to post right now and get out my feelings about the accident on the Crown. It is truly helping me to get through it. It also helps that I was able to be part of a community that understands the ups and downs of cruising and can relate to the experiences. Hope this answers the OP's question.

So true. Even my friends and family here, who love me very much, just don't understand cruising itself or what I experienced. CCer's "get it".

[Nliedel]

So true. Even my friends and family here, who love me very much, just don't understand cruising itself or what I experienced. CCer's "get it".

 

My husband likes cruising. My eldest son likes cruising. My second oldest is already asking me if he can start packing for our cruise next spring. There's a boy who belongs on CC!! :D

[bjworm]

:) I am a new member to this community and it's somewhat coincidental that this happens to be my first post which happens to be after the "Incident".

My wife and I were enjoying our third ever cruise when we had that unfortunate occurrence on the Crown. Fortunately we are fine. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the injured and anyone adversely affected by the mishap.

Several weeks prior to the cruise, we found this site and had been planning on joining post-cruise anyway. We have found this forum to be an indispensable source of information about cruising and everything related to it, including the infectious enthusiasm of many many contributers.

We met so many nice people on board the Crown, including several CC members and others familiar with CC. The morning the day of the mishap, we happened to be seated for breakfast with a couple from our very own home town and also with CC member CaroleLee and her husband. All very nice, very friendly people indeed.

Even though the cruise terminated with an unfortunate ending, the Crown and all who work on her deserve a huge round of applause for giving us a great cruise on a fantastic ship.

[OuiOnboard]

Edit..sorry...my point was already made...asked and answered.

[birdie16]

I am a regular poster on the RCI, Carnival or NCL boards so if I post here it is as a "new" Princess poster. I think a lot of people have come over to the Princess boards to read more about the 7/11 crown accident because we are interested in cruising and this event.

 

As for why people seem to "suddenly" feel the need to post, I think from reading some of the posts people are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). It would not surprise me at all to hear there are people that have never even visited these boards to find themselves posting just so they can talk about the experience with others that may share the same experience.

 

I have PTSD from another traumatic incident that has nothing to do with cruising and I understand the nightmares, problems sleeping, new fears and strange reactions to sounds and odors that "remind" you, etc. Everyone handles the stress of a traumatic incident in their own way, you may have 10 people experience the same event and only one could have PTSD.

 

My heart goes out to all the people that were on the Crown, passengers and crew. Whether or not you were injured, you really did experience a traumatic event.

[Merion_Mom]

Oui: That seems to have been only temporary.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Wow, that's horrible that the kids weren't allowed to call their dad!

 

BTW, I hope those who have officially join now won't hesitate to keep on posting. Maybe they can be helpful to first-time cruisers with their experiences this week, both good and horrible.

[Sandytoes]

First I have to thank all who responded and who gave really good explanations.

 

I wanted to find out why people who never posted before but now post, especially after Crown unfortunate mishap, did they come here only express their horrific experience? Or is it their way\need for resolution and/or closure of the experience they just went through?

 

People do come to boards like this one because we are interested in learning and hearing about other people's good and bad experiences, their likes and dislikes. I have been coming to this board for quite some time. I love to read and ask questions to all the fellow cruisers.....

Now with the incident with Crown, I am also curious in knowing exactly what they were doing, where they were, who they helped, so on and so forth. I read people crying, screaming, blood everywhere, crew staff positive\negative statements. But, I have not read one thing on how any one onboard helped a child, helped this one with their bruise. I watched video after video I couldn’t help noticing that people were standing around...wondering what just happened.... If anyone helped another passenger we would like to hear that as well.....

 

 

Sofifi -- That was Perfect Explanation ....Well put....

Beav - I couldn't have said it any better....

hamptod - We are here, listening and caring, hope you do get through it.

Bjworm - welcome to CC. We would love to hear about your experience on the Crown.

Birdie16 - PTSD - I liked that. Thank you....

[ozland]

Sandytoes:

 

Perhaps people are reluctant to "brag" on themselves . . . there were lots of passengers helping one another. I'm sure every passenger with any kind of medical training stepped up to the plate if he/she wasn't injured. Several of our very own CC'ers were among those who contributed greatly to the care of the injured, some despite being traumatized themselves.

 

At the risk of boring others who have read my story of where I was at the time . . . I was on Deck 16, starboard side, at the side of the railing overlooking the pool. About mid-point between the outer railing and the inner one. Managed to scramble uphill to hang on to the inner railing until the ship was righted. Saw lots of chaos up there, lots of screaming, but also people helping people.

 

So, okay, I'll tell my helping story. After locating my daughter and telling her where to find me I stayed with a teenage girl, lying at the top of the stairs on deck 15. She had hit her head, was bleeding some, and was scared. Her father and grandmother were with her but were very traumatized. I stayed while the father left to try to find other relatives. My daughter joined me and I went to get a chair for the grandmother (found a small plastic table) since she had hurt her knee. We brought towels to cover her. We got ice. I knelt with the young girl for approx. 45 minutes until medical help arrived. She didn't want to get up nor did we want her to since we didn't know the extent of her injures. Lots of passengers stopped to ask if they could help.

 

Someone mentioned on another board a negative comment regarding the crew. I have a positive one. At some point while waiting for help to arrive a crew member dressed in kitchen type clothing came limping badly up the stairs. He wanted to help. He stayed and helped direct traffic around the girl. I saw this same man approx. 8 hours later, still limping badly, still dressed in the same cook's uniform, and still trying to help wherever he could.

 

Just small incidents given the magnitude of injuries and the number of passengers who were helping in much greater capacities than I was but I wanted to give you a small example of passenger helping passenger. My daughter and I were able to help some more here and there but I don't need to turn this into a book. I think you'll get a glimpse of what happened hundreds of times over.

[Ships Ahoy 2126]

Get over it, its just a message board. Who cares about when some one joined the boards, if you dont like what they post dont read it just move on. Some of you on here take this way too seriously and should get a life, and get out of the house more often.*****!!

I enjoy hearing positive and negative posts. By the way some people post you would think they work for the cruise line.

 

I couldn't have said it better!

[hamptod]

Sandytoes, thanks so much for your concern. I am doing well and slept a little better last night. I'm glad that some of the explanations have helped you to understand. I posted on another thread about where I was so won't rehash.

 

This I will tell you, my son who is 17 did go out and try to help as best he could based on training he received in camp and in school. Once we were all back in the cabins and realized everyone in our family was okay, he left to help. He actually went up to the youth center on 17 to assist the counselors with the kids to make sure they were okay. He also wanted to make sure his friends were okay and were safely back with their families. When I realized he was gone, I was upset as at that point as I didn't know if anything else was going to happen. He just wanted to help, I just wanted to protect him. I am really proud of the way that he responded to the situation and everyday since then, I have told him so. Once he was sure that things were in order, he returned to the cabin.

 

For me and the rest of my family, because we are not medically trained we thought the best course of action was stay in or close to the cabin to stay out of the way so that those injured could be attended to and also so that they could have some privacy and not be gawked at or whatever.

 

I did go in the hallway near the cabin and pretty much made sure those in the surrounding area were okay, bonded with Nancy and pretty much stayed close to the cabin. I just thought that was the best course of action.

 

I will tell you that my father's wife totally freaked out and wanted off the ship immediately so we also spent some time calming her down.

 

It just seemed to me that unless you could really contribute assistance medically, the best thing to do was to stay put to ease congestion in the main corridors etc. At that time, I also didn't know if there would be a passenger count or whatever and that it would be easier to find folks by cabin.

 

When the announcement came on about dinner, we did go to the first seating. Why? Normalcy, we needed to do something normal, we needed to calm down and get out of the twilight zone even for an hour or so. Just imagine, one minute you are experiencing a really good, relaxing vacation, ready to settle in for the last few peaceful days home and the next minute, there is screaming, chaos etc. It was also for my son and his friend, they needed that from us. If we had "wallowed" so to speak, it would not have helped them at all. We had plenty of time for that later. The adults in the group made a conscious decision to at least "appear" normal after the incident, whether we felt it or not. I think that is why it is hitting me so now, I wanted my son and his friend to feel secure and put my own feelings aside until we got home.

 

I will be fine and I thank God that we are all okay and that as bad as it was, it could have been worse. No one died and everyone will be okay, that is what is most important.

 

Deborah

[friend of Eeyore]

As to why I hadn't posted before my cruise on the Crown (as a first-time cruiser) - I didn't really know about this site before. My husband had mentioned it, but I didn't realize what a community it is. Nancy (nliedal?) and Carol (Merion Mom?) let me know how much of a community it was - I was amazed that they had cruised with each other through meeting on the boards - it lets you know how much of a community you can form. (Thank you Nancy & Carol for letting me know - & I'm glad you found your photos.)

 

Then, if I hadn't wanted to answer someone earlier about a balcony, I might have lurked for longer than the 3-4 days that I did. I, personally, found it very therapeutic to read others accounts - plus, like someone said earlier, everyone else was bringing up the points I would have.

 

As for helping others - I missed a lot of the confusion. After I lifted myself out of the pool after the tilt (I got lucky & was swept to a ladder), helped others up, found my stuff & my husband (he was safely holding on to a beam on our aft balcony), I went down to the medical center. I have some first aid training (as a teacher), but I was amazed at all of the passengers that were helping out. Firefighters, EMTs, Doctors, Nurses - Kudos to all of you! I couldn't do much, but I did what I could.

 

All in all, I think listening & talking to others, even lurking on the boards, is sometimes the best help we can get.:)

 

PS: Nancy & Carol: Hello from your (other) Michigan friend!

[Nliedel]

Hey Cathy! You made it home okay? How was the journey?

 

So, you ready to go again? I'm dragging the old man along next time (and 50% of the offspring too).

[PescadoAmarillo]

I think one reason is that if one Googled "Crown Princess" in their news search on July 18th, one of the first articles that came up was the Cruise Critic news article on the list. That would have brought many people to Cruise Critic for the first time. And, of course, the fact that one had to be registered to even get on the boards must have made a huge difference.

[Nliedel]

Like Cathy said, Carol and I were walking advertisements. Well I was a talking ad, Carol wore a namebadge! She ran into at least four people in the elevator who recognized her name from here. You would not believe the number of people that said to me, "Cruise Critic? I read that. YOU'RE NLIEDEL? Wow, nice to meet you. I've read your posts for years now. I never post myself." It was amazing. I'd say there are probably three lurkers for every member. That's not posting members, that's members.

[friend of Eeyore]

Hey Nancy-

 

We ended up flying instead of driving (which we had planned to do). We found out that flights back to NY weren't that bad after all. And, since first class was all that was available, it's not my fault, right? There were plenty of other cruisers on the plane with us, some even in first class with us.

 

Free rum & Coke! Need I say more??:D

 

As someone (Carol? You?) reported, security was horrid. They made me cry too, and cursed at my husband for saying something! (You can bet we said something to the TSA boss!)

 

After picking up the car in NY, we traveled for a couple of days around the northeast - saw Vermont Teddy Bear, Ben & Jerry's, some scenary, the cars in the Race to the Clouds/Mt. Washington(?), the Erie Canal, and Niagra Falls (went down in the Cave of the Winds to the bottom of the waterfall - hey at least that time I was standing still and upright with water pouring over me! -unlike the tilt/being in the pool!)

 

The tilting feeling didn't pass for a week, and I swear I almost had a panic attack yesterday, but I think I'm okay. Are you sleeping well yet??

 

love & hugs to you (& Carol):)