"Lemons"--make lemonade or be a sourpuss?

[TexEm]

What has been your worst cruise experience that you have turned into "lemonade" rather than becoming a sourpuss about it?

 

Wanted to ask this before our Caribbean Princess cruise 7/10, anticipating how to solve some problems and make a great experience out of them. As it turned out, just had a great cruise, no "lemons" occurred.

 

Example: last cruise (different line) our TA put my elderly mom in an interior cabin far at the front of the ship, and we were in a balcony far aft, never could change it. It turned out more than okay--SHE had the best cabin steward, ever--she had to get some exercise walking to meet us places--and we did, too (we usually met her and then went to eat back aft, another deck). So we didn't gain weight (as much!). I can think of some others, but would like to hear from everyone else. Not necessarily that you got ships credit or a financial advantage from a bad situation, just how your attitude made the difference. Thanks!

[srphnx]

Funny you should phrase it that way.

This post was mine about 2 months ago.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=36759

[ahracer]

My only advice would be to expect the unexpected and roll with the punches. It is all about going in with the right attitude.

 

Scott

[spongerob]

Here's a bad experience from my wife's perspective, I thought it was hilarious and couldn't get mad because it was the result of service that was just a little too good.

 

I work for a company that does a great deal of work on the North Slope in Alaska. When we checked into the Captain Cook in Anchorage after a very long flight at the start of our first cruise vacation, someone noticed that I had company baggage ID tags. We had planned a long sleep-in day to recover from our travels. On three separate occasions, someone came to our room to collect my bags for transfer to the slope and to warn me that I would miss the flight if I didn't get a move on. Each time, I had to explain that I was on vacation. My wife was furious at the interruption, but she's definitely NOT a morning person. Each time we were interrupted it was just because someone was trying to look out for me. I still appreciate to this day.

 

My wife thought it was funny, too, after an extended sleep-in was finally achieved. Make lemonade. Add a little vodka if necessary. It's never so bad that it couldn't be worse.

[Coolmama_1]

No vodka! Make that Jack Daniels and a Lynchburg Lemonade!:D

[JHC]

On our cruise this last Spring (aboard the Brilliance Of The Seas), I wound up being quarantined after getting sick with what appeared to be the Norwalk-type virus.

 

To make a long story short, I was really sick for one night and didn't realize it was "the virus". After 24 hours, I felt ok enough to be walking around. Problem was that after two days of partial recovery, there were still some symptoms that had persisted long enough that I thought a trip to the ship's doctor would be in order.

 

I can remember my wife and I sitting in the doctor's office on the ship and him finally saying "and so you are going to be quarantined for 72 hours, and your wife for 24 hours". We both sat there stunned -- it was an 11 night cruise and this was day 6 and I'd already been sick for two days. We both headed back to the cabin and all I could think of was that our vacation was finished, ruined, our money wasted etc.

 

And after about 15 minutes, something happened. We decided to put a smile on and make the best of it. Luckily we had a balcony cabin and so we got our books and set up for a day on the balcony. We were docked in St. Lucia and for most of the day, there was a guy out on the dock singing the blues. There we were, reading, listening to the blues and getting a tan!

 

Though my wife was quarantined for only 24 hours, she rarely ventured out of the cabin and we spent a very relaxing three days -- reading, talking and listening watching the goings-ons in the various ports.

 

We learned a little bit more about each other over those three days. My wife (bless her heart) would run up to the food court at every meal and check out what was on offering in the buffet and then she's come back down and give me the choices. Then she's run back up and grab my plate and run back down, and then run back up a third time and grab her plate. Most meals she'd run back up a fourth time and get dessert.

 

While I wouldn't elect to get sick like that again on our next cruise, I don't think I'd change a thing. In retrospect, those three days were special.

 

Strange, but true!

[jdecker2000]

Kudos to you for making the VERY best of your situation. If only more people could do so on MUCH SMALLER problems, the world would be a better place. Not many could have handled this as well as you did, including me :) . We ALL need to take a deep breath now and then I guess, and realize each day, good or bad, is but a small portion of our time here on earth.

 

I am truly impressed with your patience and wish you future happy AND healthy cruises!!

[meyerhaus]

Great story Jonathan. Well written, as well! Mine would have to be my TA from hell, but that is all over now.

[PMD]

WOW - same thing happened to us. Except they made us stay in seperate cabins....

[Estelle]

Jonathan - Congratulations - I believe your take on life would win the "Lemonade Award" of all time. Your wife is a lucky woman and you two sound like a great match!

 

My experience (which I have detailed on other posts) involved sailing to Alaska on the Infinity on Sept 21 2001. Needless to say going on a cruise 10 days after 9/11 - including flying out on one of the first international flights allowed out of Phila (we sailed from Vancouver) led to endless complications and difficulties. Despite the challenges encountered (and there were many) our family went with the flow and had an amazing time. In fact I think it helped us to recover from the shock of what had happened and made us appreciate life and our time together even more. They were quite a few people on board who were still able to compalin about delays, etc even at that time - these were not the people we spent our time with. ;)

 

I think the situation actually created an entirely unique experience and made people interact in quite a different way than normal on a cruise. The ship was probably only about 2/3 full - lots of cancellations. It was the repo cruise returning from Alaska and ending in San Diego. The next cruise was a 10 or 11 day through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean for the fall/winter season - the offers to stay on board were amazing since so many people had cancelled - it was SOOO hard to say no (we had already taken our kids out of school for 7 days - couldn't do anymore). We could have upgraded to a suite (we had a balcony) and about $1000 shipboard credits - family of 4 for less than $1200! Quite a few people took them up on it - still sorry we couldn't.

[tommyboy7]

When on our honeymoon on the Grand in February, we ran into very rough seas leaving Ft. Lauderdale. My wife has a very weak stomach and this caused her to have to retire to the cabin. Seeing as this was our honeymoon, and once laying down she was alright, we made the best of it... Wink, Wink...

[sue d. miller]

Great attitude!!!! :eek: :D

[CruiseFever]

What a great idea!

 

So often it's how WE handle situations that decide the outcome.

[JHC]

Thanks to everyone for the kind words.

 

This experience was something of an eye-opener for me as I'm usually the type in land-life to get frustrated by the small things that go wrong.

 

Now, when something goes awry at work or while doing a project at home (I'm not the handy type :cool: ), I think back to our "Quarantine Experience" and how "turning lemons into lemonade" really made everything alright.

[dobie]

Broke my leg while on the Dawn Princess (but onshore in Puerto Vallarta). In a wheelchair the rest of the cruise, in a cast for 6 months (it was BAD!!). Had my pic taken with the captain, rode up and down in the glass elevator so that I could see the champagne fountain and take pics (people getting on the elevator kept asking me what floor I wanted to get off at, my husband was outside opposite taking pictures and the ship's wheelchair had wheels that I couldn't reach to wheel myself). I just kept laughing and they kept bringing me glasses of champagne. Last year ended up in San Francisco while on the Vision of the Seas to Cabo, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. 2 hurricanes there, mutiny onboard, passengers rude and crude. I didn't have warm clothes, bought them. When I got home, found out my toilet had cracked, my house flooded, and we couldn't live there for 3 months while it was rebuilt. It had to be gutted. We lost alot. SO.....I booked the same ship, the same week, in October, this year, and have 10 friends coming with.....it cannot possibly happen again.........

[cnmiranda]

These are lovely stories:)

 

Does it have to be cruising experiences alone?

 

Big lemons I have caused:

 

1. Traveled with hubby, in-laws, and SIL to Paris. I got the dates screwed up and left us without a hotel in Paris one night. No biggie I thought. Turns out Paris was sold out for a few days due to a large convention. Each of us were forced to pay almost $300 for a suite in a hotel, that's the best I could do after spending 2 hours with a foreign travel agent. My family was so understanding. I was about to cry realizing the extra expense I was going to cause everyone. SIL's husband said "no problem, we'll roll with it". To this day it is one of the nicest things family has ever done for me I felt soooooo terrible and they made it okay.

 

A true disaster:

 

2. Flying internationally. Flew from Las Vegas to LAX then England to catch a tour. We had a 3 hour layover so we just proceeded directly to the gate (pre 9/11) to wait for our flight. Time was getting close and no one came to the check in counter but we weren't worried. Finally agents came and they started calling row numbers to board the plane. We had no tickets so we ran up to the ticket counter. Turns out the only way to check in was in the baggage area and our seats had been given away. Now I started balling because the airline only flew the London route every 2 days. So we stayed an extra 2 nights in LAX and went to Universal Studios the following day. The CEO came to personally apologize to us for the mix up and was so friendly and secured our seats for the next flight. It was really a bizarre situation. The tour guide heard of our encounter and let us sit "up in front" of the tour bus because she knew how tired we were from trying to catch up with our tour. The airline was Citybyrd (european airline) they no longer fly out of LAX.

 

3. Forgetting out passports before we were set to sail the Diamond to Alaska. The staff made lemonade and let us get on the ship. I couldn't believe it. I will be a Princess cheerleader forever. We were on the fateful 5/15 sailing when the ship crashed. We rolled with the waves and had one of our best vacations ever. Nothing could have ruined that trip. Even with the chaos the following day I enjoyed helping the less-savvy internet travelers secure flights home. It definitely was a learning experience, they all were!

 

Fun thread! :D:D:D

[10X]

In the early 1990s we did a 7 day cruise on the then NCL Westward. It was a Mexican Riviera cruise that started in Acapulco and ended in LA. The itinerary was reversed the next week.

 

The first day of the cruise we noticed there was a constant drip from the shower head. It did not cause us a problem, but no sense in wasting the water, so I reported it.

 

We went ashore and had a nice day. However, when we returned to the ship and entered our cabin, there was water EVERYWHERE. The bathroom was wet, ceiling to floor and all four walls. The carpet, through most of the cabin, was dripping wet, with water pooled on the surface. It squished when you walked on it, and water would seep between your toes. Water also ran under the walls into the hallway and into our friend's cabin next door.

 

We had a note from the Purser's Desk that they wanted to move us into another cabin. We refused. We were already unpacked and comfortable. We were next door to our friends, where we wanted to be. Plus, it was only water and it would dry.

 

Later that evening, I tried to use my cruise card to buy a drink, but was turned down. The card had been cancelled. The Purser's Desk was so sure we would want another cabin, they cancelled the card and entered our "new" cabin number into the computer.

 

It didn't take too long to straighten it out and we had a very nice cruise.

 

We think we know what happened that day. The plumber came to fix the leak but failed to turn off the water into the cabin. When he disconnected the plumbing, water went everywhere - uncontrolled. It continued to run until he could get the main water valve closed.

 

I would loved to have been a fly on the wall of the cabin where I could see his face when all that water burst forth. He was probably drenched from head to toe and would have been wildly scrambling to find the shutoff valve. It had to have been hilarious to watch him slip, slide and fall trying to get to that valve. To this day we get a chuckle out of thinking about the incident.

 

Nothing in life is perfect, not even a cruise. So don't sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff. Just relax and have a good time.

[regnig]

Our 1st Princess cruise was the weekend of the 'Storm of the century' in 1993. Not being too bright we had arranged to fly from BWI to Lauderdale Saturday the moring of the cruise. By late on Thursday it was obvious that if we didn't get to FL quickly we were going to miss the ship. Thanks to a very patient and diligent TA we were finally booked on a flight to Miami out of IAD late Friday afternoon. As it turned out it was one of the very last to leave until Sunday morining due to the storm. Had to fly 1st class :eek: , but we just weren't going to miss the ship. In Miami we rented a car, drove to Lauderdale and checked into a rather expensive hotel as it was the only one with open rooms due to the season and all the cancelled flights north. That night we got to watch the palms trees bend from side to side as there were tornados crossing FL that evening. Just a tad bit scary. :eek: In order to get home following the cruise we flew to BWI on our ticketed flight, rented a car to drive to IAD to pick up our car. We had a GREAT cruise, ship was half empty and we were hooked on Princess for life. Now for the lemonade ---- as a result of this trip and the added expense, I have had no resistance from hubby in getting him to fly to our departure city a day in advance (yea! makes vacation even longer :D ) and sometimes I can talk him into 2 days!!! What a great outcome to our adventure!

[Crowsie]

On the Sky Princess doing Australia/New Zealand.

 

One of the boilers went down while at sea. We were dead in the water for about 4 hours while they got the back-up boiler up to temp.

 

There was a HUGE dense fog...no wind whatsoever. It was HOT. Up on the deck with my MIL reading...no on else around...too hot to be on deck without any wind. Fog was so bad the captain had to blow the ship's whistle every 10 minutes to warn other boats we were there.

 

Got GREAT service from the waiter..he just kept bringing us drinks....he spilled the first two cuz the whistle went off and scared the cr++ out of him...dropped the tray right on the floor.

We all laughed and got used to knowing when the whistle was going to blow so we could put our books down and cover our ears...man was that loud.

 

Luckily, I had been to the tanning booth before the trip...my poor MIL..figuring the fog would prevent burning..learned the hard way about the hole in the ozone layer in that part of the world.

 

She was quite red in her cranberry colored dress for formal night later that evening. :eek:

 

So..while others crabbed about the heat on deck, we got pleasantly tipsy and had some great laughs.

[TexEm]

Thanks for all the replies to this thread, I've just read through them all and now realize what small problems we've had while cruising (or traveling anywhere). I've just been here on cruisecritic since June, and sometimes people tell these awful stories and they just stay awful. So it's good to hear what people have done to make it better.

 

srphnx--sorry, just joined after your thread about lemons and lemonade, so didn't see it, but have read through it now--I had read a little about some of the problems on the Diamond, but, like I said above, your story puts all of mine in perspective. Have always enjoyed your posts, you seem to think about what you say before you say it--and you've really helped a lot of us.