What is the NCL policy?

[terri1020]

We sailed on Dawn on 6/8 to Bermuda. There were 14 of us on our group. DH, 2DS, DD, Blind, diabetic DM, aunts, uncle, cousin and three year old. On Tuesday of our cruise (6/10, 30th wedding anniversary) we were sitting on our balcony. DM and Aunt were in the next (adjoining) cabin on their balcony. DH and I decided to leave the cabin and I leaned over to tell my aunt that we were leaving. She told me my mom was in the restroom but all was well and that we should enjoy ourselves. She got up to check on mom and...mom was gone. I immediately opened the cabin door to look up and down the halls. No mom. My children happened to be coming out of their cabins so I sent them searching while I phoned the reception desk to ask for help. I told them that my blind 80 year old mother was gone from the cabin, missing. They told me to come by the desk and fill out a form. COME TO THE DESK? I asked if they could send someone to our cabin (they send someone to the cabin for every little thing, why not now?) I was told that nothing could be done unless I went to the reception desk and completed a form. I hung up and gathered the 13 family members. We split up and searched the 9th floor (where our cabin was), the 10th and 8th. We finally found her after about 30 minutes of searching. Not only did NCL not come to help but three passengers stopped her to ask if everything was ok. She said I am blind and can not find my cabin. THEY LEFT HER! I was disheartened by this, for sure. Mom was found, all was well and we enjoyed the rest of our cruise, uneventfully!

 

Mom left the balcony to use the rest room. She went out the cabin door thinking it was the bathroom door and began walking. Since we had adjoining cabins, we blocked her entry door for the rest of the cruise so she couldn't make the same mistake.

 

I know this is a long post, but it was so frustrating and very frightening. I was disappointed in NCL's response and just don't understand it. All I needed was a few people to help us search and they wanted me to leave the area to go to the front desk. It won't stop us from sailing on NCL, I just wish they would tweek the "menu" here and help people when they request it. We had a wonderful vacation on a beautiful ship. It just makes us wiser travelers.

 

Thanks for letting me vent. Please don't bash me...

 

Terri

[terrymtex01]

No bashing from me for sure. I find that a horrible response.. What I found AMAZING is that three fellow pax would just go off and leave her. I am stunned and ..well...sickened by that. That is actually more horrible to me that NCL's response. Bless your DM's heart..I'm glad she was OK.

 

On our most recent cruise we were in the elevator going to the casino and when we got to the sixth deck and went to get off of the elevator a lady hopped on the elevator before we could get off of it. She was elderly and looked a iittle bit confused... I asked her how she was liking the cruise so far.. (my vailed attempt to see if she was alright).. and she said she liked the cruise but she was hungry and could not find the buffet where she was meeting her family. I told her we would get her to the buffet and we went back up to deck 12, I believe it is.. and made sure she got to the buffet. That was just a lady looking for food.. I can not imagine turning our backs on a someone blind who is lost on the ship. Again.. just sickens me. My DM has passed.. but when things like this come my way I just think to myself how I would hope someone would have been there to help my DM or my DF if they needed some thing so simple.

[mypleasure]

I simply cannot believe that 3 people left her to fend for herself like that.

 

I cannot imagine how she was feeling, but confused and frightened are two that spring immediately to mind. Even if they couldn't be bothered to help and guide her back themselves couldn't they have alerted a crew member who hopefully would have done the decent thing.

[DAGVBSB]

I too am shocked at the inaction of the other passengers. But it is just more of the self centered, "I'm more important" than anything else attitude that you see everywhere these days. Those fools couldn't take a few minutes out of their personal fun to help an elderly, handicapped person?? How hard would it have been to either led the lady back to her cabin OR led her to a crew member or even a public area like the buffet or Information desk where crew could assist her.

 

 

It is also inexcusable for NCL not to have launched an immediate search. They are just lucky that it all turned out ok. What if that lady had fallen down a flight of steps, wandered into a dangerous crew area or worse? Then NCL would have had a lot more to answer for and would probably have face a financial consquence for their inaction. The person at the reception desk should have immediately directed your call to security and a full scale ships search should have taken place. The person at the information desk should be severly reprimanded for their inaction. NCL is just lucky that this incident turned out ok.

 

I do hope that you report this entire incident to NCL Corporate (Andy Stuart or Colin Veitch even.) At very least a formal apology is in order and more importantly, a full review of their procedures on board is a definate.

[Bigdog49]

What did reception want to do? Add mom to the lost and found book like a lost camera. :mad: I would have demanded to be connected to security.

 

Worse then that those passengers that just left her wandering. I guess they were worried they would miss the good seats for the show or fresh food at the buffet. :mad: :mad:

[terrymtex01]

I simply cannot believe that 3 people left her to fend for herself like that.

 

I cannot imagine how she was feeling, but confused and frightened are two that spring immediately to mind. Even if they couldn't be bothered to help and guide her back themselves couldn't they have alerted a crew member who hopefully would have done the decent thing.

 

WOO HOO Mypleasure.. only two more days until you board the Star.. I'm SO JEALOUS.. I SO want to be going back aboard her and to see Alaska again.

[garycarla]

...Mom left the balcony to use the rest room. She went out the cabin door thinking it was the bathroom door and began walking. ...

 

This sounds like a terrifying situation. Having traveled with an 80 yr old Mother myself that tends to get lost easily, this can happen, blind or not. I have to assume there were additional issues other than being blind. After all, about 2 steps after leaving the cabin, it should have been obvious she was not in the bathroom and should have stayed put vs. walking around. (those bathrooms are very small)

 

As to the response from NCL, this just does not sound right. I don't know if it is policy or just lazy on their part. In just a "little" defense, I would guess they get calls all the time that so and so is missing, and probably constant requests to page somebody. When in reality, they have just separated. I wonder what they would do if it was a toddler?

 

As to those people that she talked to, I am without words. Heck, most people will help even someone that seems to have all their senses, but esepcially a blind person.

[sun~]

I read through the post twice to make sure I got the facts correct. It seems to me that there is far more to the story than they elderly woman who is blind and got lost by going out the cabin door. I am not trying to be rude, or even bash the OP, but just perhaps this woman has dementia as well. For the woman to continue wandering for at least half an hour is odd in itself. If she went out into the hall, the sounds and smells are much different than a cabin, big clue right there to stop and go back through the door. I am no expert on dementia, but my elderly grandmother lived with us til she died at 84 - she suffered from vascular dementia and my father has parkinson's disease and has lewy body dementia, so I try to keep at little bit informed.

 

One of the things that was mentioned that three people spoke to the mother and didn't do anything. I know this may sound odd, but often people with demenita will lie to strangers, and I wonder if the mother didn't say she was lost, but said something like "I am just waiting for my daughter" or something to save face (my gran would do that if she didn't remember things).

 

The first thing the family should have done is call security. Security will search and will look on the monitors (yep they are everywhere). It was terrible of the front desk staff not to take it seriously. When an elderly, blind lady is wandering alarm bells should have gone off in the front desk staffer's head. This incident should be brought up at a higher level at NCL, not to punish the staffer, but to serve as a learning tool in future. If a child goes missing and alert goes off immediately, but there should be something similar in this case.

 

I wonder on lines such as HAL with an extremely high number of elderly cruisers if it has a policy in place for an incident such as this?

[Mooder]

As to the response from NCL, this just does not sound right. I don't know if it is policy or just lazy on their part. In just a "little" defense, I would guess they get calls all the time that so and so is missing, and probably constant requests to page somebody. When in reality, they have just separated. I wonder what they would do if it was a toddler?.

 

I agree they probably get a lot of unreasonably upset people when someone has gone missing for just a few minutes, but in the case of a blind octogenarian (sp?), they should have responded immediately. A security officer should have been at the cabin door by the time the OP hung up the phone. Based on reading these boards, I have come to the conclusion that the reception desk on NCL is the greatest weakness of their customer service. I cannot imagine any NCL employee I have ever dealt with being so unresponsive in this situation. I have only had to deal with reception once in my cruise experiences, and I hope never to do so again.

[terrymtex01]

I read through the post twice to make sure I got the facts correct. It seems to me that there is far more to the story than they elderly woman who is blind and got lost by going out the cabin door. I am not trying to be rude, or even bash the OP, but just perhaps this woman has dementia as well. For the woman to continue wandering for at least half an hour is odd in itself. If she went out into the hall, the sounds and smells are much different than a cabin, big clue right there to stop and go back through the door. I am no expert on dementia, but my elderly grandmother lived with us til she died at 84 - she suffered from vascular dementia and my father has parkinson's disease and has lewy body dementia, so I try to keep at little bit informed.

 

One of the things that was mentioned that three people spoke to the mother and didn't do anything. I know this may sound odd, but often people with demenita will lie to strangers, and I wonder if the mother didn't say she was lost, but said something like "I am just waiting for my daughter" or something to save face (my gran would do that if she didn't remember things).

 

The first thing the family should have done is call security. Security will search and will look on the monitors (yep they are everywhere). It was terrible of the front desk staff not to take it seriously. When an elderly, blind lady is wandering alarm bells should have gone off in the front desk staffer's head. This incident should be brought up at a higher level at NCL, not to punish the staffer, but to serve as a learning tool in future. If a child goes missing and alert goes off immediately, but there should be something similar in this case.

 

I wonder on lines such as HAL with an extremely high number of elderly cruisers if it has a policy in place for an incident such as this?

 

Terri.. I really believe this poster is saying this out of concern.. I kind of agree .. my DM, about 4 years before her passing, started doing and saying the strangest things. There were two things that happened and after the second I KNEW something was wrong. It took me six months to talk DF into taking her to the doctor to have it checked and sure enough, she was diagonosted with Dementia. It's worth checking out..

[weltek]

Wow, that's very sad. I agree the desk should've sent someone to your room and dealt with this as an emergency. I don't think the onus fell on the OP to call security instead. The front desk should have sent security to her stateroom.

[soccermommy]

I've never had to contact the front desk or security, but it seems to me that there should be a way to give a "heads up", on a voluntary basis, to the front desk/security for any passenger with special needs or circumstances. Thus, if a cabin on that list calls for help, the help will come quickly. Of course, there are all kinds of scenarios where this could go wrong, or be abused, but it's worth exploring.

 

Can't come up with an excuse for those passengers, or frankly, for the reception desk. I'm glad your cruise wasn't totally ruined by this, and hope your heart rates have recovered!

[Evilmille]

We sailed on Dawn on 6/8 to Bermuda. There were 14 of us on our group. DH, 2DS, DD, Blind, diabetic DM, aunts, uncle, cousin and three year old. On Tuesday of our cruise (6/10, 30th wedding anniversary) we were sitting on our balcony. DM and Aunt were in the next (adjoining) cabin on their balcony. DH and I decided to leave the cabin and I leaned over to tell my aunt that we were leaving. She told me my mom was in the restroom but all was well and that we should enjoy ourselves. She got up to check on mom and...mom was gone. I immediately opened the cabin door to look up and down the halls. No mom. My children happened to be coming out of their cabins so I sent them searching while I phoned the reception desk to ask for help. I told them that my blind 80 year old mother was gone from the cabin, missing. They told me to come by the desk and fill out a form. COME TO THE DESK? I asked if they could send someone to our cabin (they send someone to the cabin for every little thing, why not now?) I was told that nothing could be done unless I went to the reception desk and completed a form. I hung up and gathered the 13 family members. We split up and searched the 9th floor (where our cabin was), the 10th and 8th. We finally found her after about 30 minutes of searching. Not only did NCL not come to help but three passengers stopped her to ask if everything was ok. She said I am blind and can not find my cabin. THEY LEFT HER! I was disheartened by this, for sure. Mom was found, all was well and we enjoyed the rest of our cruise, uneventfully!

 

Mom left the balcony to use the rest room. She went out the cabin door thinking it was the bathroom door and began walking. Since we had adjoining cabins, we blocked her entry door for the rest of the cruise so she couldn't make the same mistake.

 

I know this is a long post, but it was so frustrating and very frightening. I was disappointed in NCL's response and just don't understand it. All I needed was a few people to help us search and they wanted me to leave the area to go to the front desk. It won't stop us from sailing on NCL, I just wish they would tweek the "menu" here and help people when they request it. We had a wonderful vacation on a beautiful ship. It just makes us wiser travelers.

 

Thanks for letting me vent. Please don't bash me...

 

Terri

 

If anyone bashes you they are unfeeling selfish people. I understand everything you are saying. I once had an elderly mother who would wander off. She did not have dementia, she just would get lost. Very sad that NCL did not take this seriously. Shame on them.

[VoyageVirgin]

No excuse for not sending someone to assist in locating your mom. None.

That being said, having worked with sight impaired people for the last 8 years (through a charity) I know how independent they can be - and stubborn as well. I personally know a lady with Retinus pigmentosa and she is also a marathon runner. You would not believe the amount of bruises she acquires running into low lying branches, etc when she practices, won't use her white cane when she should. Just very independent - but I love her dearly, she's of the attitude that the disability will not make her disabled. I've seen this type of behaviour before, many times. I don't think your mom has dementia - I'd bet she just wants to be independent and felt she could find her way without someone feeling sorry for her. JMO

[G'ma]

Am I the only one who believes this problem should have been avoided in the first place?

 

Blind, elderly relative, possibly suffering forgetfulness or dementia, leaves to use the bathroom and doesn't return to the balcony in a reasonable amount of time...and nobody in the family notices?

 

If my blind 80 year old relative was walking from the balcony to the bathroom, I would have watched that a) she was able to clear all the obstructions OK...because she's blind and cannot see; and b) made sure she was able to step up into the bathroom, avoiding tripping and falling.

 

I certainly would have noticed, within minutes, that I haven't heard her nor has she returned - and would have left to see if everything was OK.

 

It wasn't only NCL's reception desk who skrewed this one up....it was every family member who traveled with this poor woman - blind and elderly - left to her own devices to make her way through a small cabin, into a tricky bathroom.

 

My mother lived with me during the last year of her life. While she wasn't blind (simply couldn't see well), she did have dementia which worsened over the year..... She never went anywhere unaccompanied..... If she used the bathroom, I watched her make her way there. If she went to the kitchen for water, I watched to make sure she got there without injury.

[packercruising]

I tend to agree with G'Ma and this is not a slam on the OP. This was not mom's place of residence where she might know where things are. There certainly were enough family members around to make sure she got to the bathroom ok.

 

Calling security might have been a good idea but who always thinks of things like that in times of stress.

 

You didn't say where you found her or how you know 3 people asked her if she was alright. I find it rather appaling that none of the 3 did nothing to bring her to the attention of someone that could help at the very least.

[Evilmille]

Am I the only one who believes this problem should have been avoided in the first place?

 

Blind' date=' elderly relative, possibly suffering forgetfulness or dementia, leaves to use the bathroom and doesn't return to the balcony in a reasonable amount of time...and nobody in the family notices?

 

If my blind 80 year old relative was walking from the balcony to the bathroom, I would have watched that a) she was able to clear all the obstructions OK...because she's blind and cannot see; and b) made sure she was able to step up into the bathroom, avoiding tripping and falling.

 

I certainly would have noticed, within minutes, that I haven't heard her nor has she returned - and would have left to see if everything was OK.

 

It wasn't only NCL's reception desk who skrewed this one up....it was every family member who traveled with this poor woman - blind and elderly - left to her own devices to make her way through a small cabin, into a tricky bathroom.

 

My mother lived with me during the last year of her life. While she wasn't blind (simply couldn't see well), she did have dementia which worsened over the year..... She never went anywhere unaccompanied..... If she used the bathroom, I watched her make her way there. If she went to the kitchen for water, I watched to make sure she got there without injury.[/quote']

 

What is a reasonable amount of time? According to the OP's post, someone went to check on her and she was gone. It was NCL that screwed this up. How can you blame the family for this? If an elderly person is missing it is the responsibility of the cruise line to assist. Thankfully, the woman was found unhurt. It could have turned out to be a tragedy. Please stop blaming the victim. I wonder if a child had wandered off if there would have been the same response from NCL.

[crew mom]

Wow, I'm sorry Mom got lost but glad that all turned out well in the end. Reception should have sent Security to you right away. They could have located her on the camera system if they had a good description. Did the receptionist understand the situation?

 

It would concern me that Mom continued on walking instead of staying put after realizing her error of entering the hallway rather than the bathroom. That is something that you should keep track of. Did she understand she was lost? What if this had happened on land somewhere? She may have wandered into traffic.

 

I'm glad all ended well and I wish many more happy years to Mom!

[weloverunning]

Not only did NCL not come to help but three passengers stopped her to ask if everything was ok. She said I am blind and can not find my cabin. THEY LEFT HER!

 

Just curious as to why these people would be compassionate enough to ask her if everything was okay but then did nothing to help. Are you sure she admitted she was lost? I am surprised Grandma just didn't stay in one place once she realized she was not in her room.

[Mooder]

Am I the only one who believes this problem should have been avoided in the first place?

 

Blind' date=' elderly relative, possibly suffering forgetfulness or dementia, leaves to use the bathroom and doesn't return to the balcony in a reasonable amount of time...and nobody in the family notices?

 

If my blind 80 year old relative was walking from the balcony to the bathroom, I would have watched that a) she was able to clear all the obstructions OK...because she's blind and cannot see; and b) made sure she was able to step up into the bathroom, avoiding tripping and falling.

 

I certainly would have noticed, within minutes, that I haven't heard her nor has she returned - and would have left to see if everything was OK.

 

It wasn't only NCL's reception desk who skrewed this one up....it was every family member who traveled with this poor woman - blind and elderly - left to her own devices to make her way through a small cabin, into a tricky bathroom.

 

My mother lived with me during the last year of her life. While she wasn't blind (simply couldn't see well), she did have dementia which worsened over the year..... She never went anywhere unaccompanied..... If she used the bathroom, I watched her make her way there. If she went to the kitchen for water, I watched to make sure she got there without injury.[/quote']

 

You have no idea that it wasn't within 5 seconds! The aunt is sitting on the balcony, the woman gets up to go the bathroom, and then when checked on she is gone - that's all we know. I think it is only fair to comment on the NCL policy, which clearly failed here, and leave the speculation to the people who really know the woman's condition and level of independence.

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

Are we the only ones who keep the cabin door locked while we're in the cabin?

 

Not sure if that would have prevented this, but it sure would have been a deterrent.

 

Glad all turned out OK!

 

:)

[soccermommy]

What's with this "blame the victim" ? The point is, this lady went missing and had very frightening experience. How this happened is secondary to the discussion. She was missing, and apparently no one helped her!!! Doesn't NCL have some responsibility to help? So, the original question still stands: WHAT is NCL's policy?

[KevinsCruising]

Hey Terry,

 

I recognized your screen name. We met last year on the Legend . Remember the Piano Bar ? Crazy you just got off the dawn and I am going on the Dawn on June 29th. Thats totally crazy about your mom !

Hope the rest of the cruise was OK. Fill me in.

 

Thanks

Kevin

[terri1020]

WOW! I didn't mean to start a war. I just was wondering what the policy was and if it needed to be addressed. Some people think we let mom wander for a long period of time. This all happened in a minutes time. She thought she knew where the bathroom was. We sailed Sunday and this happened Tuesday afternoon. When the door shut she said she felt around and got turned, took a few steps feeling for the "bathroom" and got totally lost. She knew she wasn't in her cabin but kept trying to find the door. She realized after a few minutes of walking that she should have stayed by the cabin door, turned around and tried to get back. Obviously she must have taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on the total opposite end of the ship but on the same floor. We were on the 9th floor with cabins from forward to aft, one straight shot. Our cabins were in aft. My son found her all the way forward. Apparently every time we were looking up and down the hall, she was going from one side of the ship to the other.

 

As for people approaching her and not helping, I could imagine she would say she was fine, so thinking about it in that context restores my faith in mankind a bit.

 

We ARE very attentive to mom and her needs. She's lived with my family for the past six years so we are totally aware of her limitations. Having her go to the bathroom, not 10 feet away from us, was not one the places we felt we had to follow her to. From Sunday to Tuesday, she DID go to the bathroom. We KNEW she could do this on her own.

 

Look, I hold no bad feelings towards NCL. Like I said, I would travel with them in a heartbeat. I was just wondering what their policy was. After reading these posts, I realize my mistake was not calling security. My immediate reacation was to call the front desk. In my head I thought THEY would notify any help that might have been available.

 

Thanks to those who showed compassion. To those who insinuated that we did not take proper precautions in this situation, you need to walk a mile in our shoes. To the poster who suggested that we lock her door from the inside, we did lock the door but when you turned the knob from the inside, it unlocked.

 

Terri

[Mooder]

In my head I thought THEY would notify any help that might have been available.

 

That ALL makes perfect sense and I think that calling the front desk should have been enough. Their job is to point you in the right direction if you have not called the right place. Anyway, I am sorry you had this scary experience, but am glad it worked out and that you all enjoyed your cruise! I hope it won't keep your Mom from cruising again. Finally, thanks for the post - it keeps us all on our toes to hear what can go wrong.