Legend is going to be late getting in this sunday 9/17/06!

[janetz]

That is exactly the right attitude. :D

[gometros]

I was on that ship also. The captian gave up to date announcements of what was going on. The ship was well informed. You do what you can in an emergency, here two peoples lives were the priority, and rightfully so. It is amazing to me when people can not see that and think they are the priority. The decision was made to save two lives, how he did it does not matter, as long as the two passengers are safe. That is what trip insurance is for. My aunt and cousin had to stay an extra day in NYC, and reschedule their flights. Hey we got an extra day at sea!

 

I have to agree with Fiestacruiser. We were constantly kept informed and up to date with enough information to make alternate arrangements. I think the free phone calls was as much as one could ask given the circumstances.

 

Just curious - for anyone that booked through Carnival. How were your air reservations handled?

[ParrotHeadInNJ]

I am one of the passengers who recently came off the sailing that arrived late due to the evacuation. Let me start off by saying that I understand Carnival's priority lied in getting these passengers the medical treatment they needed. My frustration, however, is Carnival's poor handling of the situation. At least for those of us still on board. It sounds like they were a little more customer focused with the passengers waiting to board the next sailing, which is goodness. I just wish that same concern was extended to those of us still on the ship.

 

Since the ship was over seven hours late in arriving into New York, most of us with arline reservations that day missed our scheduled flights. And some were not successful in getting other flights out on Sunday due to the late hour. Carnival offered no assistance whatsoever, either financial or even logistical. The best they did was to give us a free phone call to the airline to allow us to workout our own alternate arrangements, but any additional charges assessed by the airlines or hotels were to be at the passengers' own expense.

 

I understand the need to deal with medical emergencies, but what none of us on board could understand was Carnival's decision to turn the entire ship around and head back to St. Thomas instead of airlifting the sick passengers off the ship, which has always been the case in my previous experience with shipboard medical emergencies. While Carnival can claim this was not their fault, I do hold them responsible for a poor decision in dealing with the emergency. And leaving so many passengers stranded without flights home was a poor showing in customer service.

 

as it is my understanding, the ship has to be within a certain distance to a shore with an available medivac in order to get someone off the ship that way. i've heard of ships diverting to get within medivac range as well. maybe there were non available for where they were at the time. and sure...everyone was inconvenienced one way or another. my girlfriend and i boarded late when you guys got back. but it is what you make of it and definitely the lives of these 2 people were more important than you or anyone else making their flights on time. i wouldn't want to have it on my conscience that someone died so i could avoid a $75 fee to have my flight changed. and even though we boarded late, we had an amazing time seeing manhatten lit up at night as we sailed off...and the itinerary change was pretty nice too. yea, we missed out on stuff, but there was a great CC group on board and we had a blast. don't sweat the small stuff...

[Ipanema]

We're on the Legend now. We were 90 miles out of St. Thomas (after leaving Tortola) and had to turn back to St. Thomas due to not one, but two medical emergencies.

 

Thanks for this info.

 

Our cruise had a change of itinerary due to time constraints.

 

We went to Grand Turk on 9/27 from 9AM to 5PM.

 

Captain Volpe made jokes like "I have not been to Grand Turk, but don't worry, I'll find it"

 

Then Thursday in Puerto Rico from 11AM to 10:30PM

Friday St Thomas 7AM to 1:30PM.

 

So, the worst part, no Tortola and too short a time in Shoppers Paradise, St Thomas!

[Fiestacruiser]

yea, we missed out on stuff, but there was a great CC group on board and we had a blast. don't sweat the small stuff...

 

I am glad you had a great time. How could you not, beaches, drinks and your new cruise critic friends.......

[Fiestacruiser]

yea, we missed out on stuff, but there was a great CC group on board and we had a blast. don't sweat the small stuff...

 

I am glad you had a great time. How could you not, beaches, drinks and your new cruise critic friends.......

[Ipanema]

I got a cryptic e-mail about the delay, Just the title of the message came thru, nothing else. So I called the 800 number. We live in NYC so we stayed home until we were told to board at 7, got there 7:30 and did not get in until after 9pm. We were able to go to the buffet (Unicorn Cafe) just in time to catch up the other two people in our party and have a snack with them. We toted our carry on bags with us or we would have missed dinner.

 

We were each given a $20 credit on our sign & sale.

 

Other than that no complaints from our group. My Aunt would have preffered the longer visit in St Thomas, San Juan was really hot during the day, usually the visit to San Juan does not begin until 3pm. We actually returned to the ship for lunch then we got the tourist beaureau's taxi-van to give us a mini tour. The driver was great. We found the inexpensive The Crew Station internet cafe and did a quick visit with our e-mailbox. Funniest find in San Juan: Marshall's department store. I tried on a gown but I'll save my Marshall's shopping for home, the prices were about the same as home, bargains galore!

 

Well, I'll have to edit my vacation photos, got some stellar pix.