Hurricane Sandy

[metrowon]

Just back from Eastern itineary aboard the Fantasy! Thursday moderate seas, Friday worse, up to 20'+ seas! Friday night to 30' seas with 3 differant rogue wave sets in excess off 40'. Once we got into the Gulfstream, it was an adventure. At no time was the ship in any danger. There were some huge waves that hit the Fantasy, and some minor damage. Some persons ignored Captain Tom's announcements and ventured outside there rooms. I'm certain alot of persons feared for thier live's. The ship basically was never in any danger, regaurdless of what was reported.

[xrae]

Glad you are back safe!!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[metrowon]

1st timers were probably really shaken as the three sets of rogue wave absolutely slammed us. I'm not discounting that. We listed probably 10 degrees twice in a period of 40 minutes. I can't tell the differance between 8 degress and 10 degrees anyway . Captain Tom got everyone home safe, some shaken, but SAFE!

[metrowon]

These are pics from Thursday before it got bad!

[Keith1010]

Welcome home.

Keith

[metrowon]

We finally got tied up at PC, around 10 am Saturday. Somehow everyone thought their 6 pieces of luggage, out of 10,000 pices would be Magically there at the terminal, at 5 minutes after 10 am. My family walked off at 1pm, in 3 minutes. Stand in line and complain. So anyone who complains about dis-embarkation is a person who understands nothing about moving 10,000 bags and sorting them.

[metrowon]

Originally Posted by Keith1010

Welcome home.

Keith

Thanks! At no time did I feel unsafe. I do underestand and empathsize with the fear and anxiety that alot of persons experianced on Friday night, and Saturday morning. The rugue waves really slammed the Fantasy.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Thank you for the time taken to report this and safe travels.

Interesting perspective, against, some posts on other boards.

[metrowon]

Originally Posted by DISNEY FANTASY

Thank you for the time taken to report this and safe travels.

Interesting perspective, against, some posts on other boards.

The truth is many persons experianced something they never felt before. It's called an anxiety attack. They are horriable feeling's. We were inside a hurricane. WE were always SAFE! Many of the complainers wanted to go to Castaway Cay on Friday when the winds there were 100 mph to jet ski, or parasail, and see their childen in 25' waves. You had to be their to understand. The ship was never in any Danger! Waves at Cape Hatteras were just reported at 41', and yes 3 of them hit the Fantasy on Friday, Saturday AM. Big fricking wave's. Everyone got home safe and sound! Metrowon

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Originally Posted by metrowon

The truth is many persons experianced something they never felt before. It's called an anxiety attack. They are horriable feeling's. We were inside a hurricane. WE were always SAFE! Many of the complainers wanted to go to Castaway Cay on Friday when the winds there were 100 mph to jet ski, or parasail, and see their childen in 25' waves. You had to be their to understand. The ship was never in any Danger! Waves at Cape Hatteras were just reported at 41', and yes 3 of them hit the Fantasy on Friday, Saturday AM. Big fricking wave's. Everyone got home safe and sound! Metrowon

Yes actually at the parks of WDW that's something Disney does, play on fear and actually a ride isn't as bad.

Each reported instance form last week is their own personal view and in a way true to them, we all cant be everywhere all of the time, but fear can make people feel things are worse than they are, and in the dark its worse, ie back to WDW Space mountain is small drops in the dark but feels more!.

The thing is, nowadays its rare for cruise ships to even move too much in the water and this storm is rare, so people looking for a safe, hot and sunny vacation will be disappointed.

[iloverags2]

Thanks for sharing your perspective. As mentioned, on another board the reports are much different. I do not discount people being terrified - what I do have a problem with is the blame being placed on the Captain and Disney. People were safe...period. What irks me is that anyone who tries to make a statement that people were safe and stand up for DCL and/or the Captain are possibly having their posts removed from that board. Lets all just feed into the rainbows and lollipops perceived to be abundant on a Disney vacation.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Originally Posted by iloverags2

Thanks for sharing your perspective. As mentioned, on another board the reports are much different. I do not discount people being terrified - what I do have a problem with is the blame being placed on the Captain and Disney. People were safe...period. What irks me is that anyone who tries to make a statement that people were safe and stand up for DCL and/or the Captain are possibly having their posts removed from that board. Lets all just feed into the rainbows and lollipops perceived to be abundant on a Disney vacation.

The other board is known for its censorship, and lack of freedom for speech, yes some posters there have been rude and the posts should be deleted, but there as usual is a case of if you post something we disagree with its removed.

On this incident, I am an armchair viewer, not there, but very interested in all of the different reports, and different perspectives coming out. All the posters are on the same cruise, and I have seen photos and video that does imply they had a very rough time.

Now with 9 Disney Cruises under my belt and two n the Fantasy, I trust Disney with my vacation. 10th is booked for next year.

But I am asking the same questions as many are concerning the Fantasy.

Why did Carnival Dreams Captain decide to stay out another day, when the Fantasy shadowed the southern side of this storm.

RCL Monarch of the Seas in Port Canaveral on Friday took the decision to stay in port for that day.

There are reports by quite a few saying the Captain didn't know it was as bad as it was, -That implies a mistake, particularly if you cross refer to Carnival Dream.

In the end the Captain is responsible for the safety of the cruisers on it, it looks like they made the wrong call. I wouldn't say it was motivated for cash, to get back on the correct day, bar a mistake and when they hit the waves they were committed to the route as turning would be far worse if not impossible.

There will be damage to DCLs reputation on safety on this and it will put off some new cruisers, in the short term, DCLs PR sometimes on incidents isn't always accurate to admit a mistake, as one person pointed out they said cruisers were enjoying another day at sea in the sun instead of Castaway which clearly is PR overdrive.

[rjs2006]

I keep reading the ship and passengers were in no danger but what is statement based on? Because no one died or got seriously hurt? When other cruise lines decided to avoid it all together it makes me wonder as well. I'm not so sure how anyone but the officers would know what the level of safety was at that moment.When disney PR makes statements that the ships were nowhere near the storm and enjoying perfect weather, that seems a bit odd. I have been on 6 disney cruises and love them but why put people in harms way or scare the crap out of them when you're known for excellent service. I understand peoples desire to defend disney but something doesnt seem quite right about this one. Let the bashing begin because I know its coming.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Originally Posted by rjs2006

I keep reading the ship and passengers were in no danger but what is statement based on? Because no one died or got seriously hurt? When other cruise lines decided to avoid it all together it makes me wonder as well. I'm not so sure how anyone but the officers would know what the level of safety was at that moment.When disney PR makes statements that the ships were nowhere near the storm and enjoying perfect weather, that seems a bit odd. I have been on 6 disney cruises and love them but why put people in harms way or scare the crap out of them when you're known for excellent service. I understand peoples desire to defend disney but something doesnt seem quite right about this one. Let the bashing begin because I know its coming.

Agree, I have read that one person was hurt, and had a near miss, of something worse. The questions that are NOT Disney bashing, or Captain bashing are:-

Why did Carnival Dream stay out a day, but Fantasy came in?

Both experienced captains, one took another decision against the other on the same weather condition's and similar modern ships.

RCL Monarch of the Seas stayed in port.

Cruisers have a right to ask these questions.

Saying no one was hurt, is the same as two planes having a near miss, yes no one was hurt, but you do not want it happening again.

[wer10fans]

Originally Posted by metrowon

.... and see their childen in 25' waves.... Big fricking wave's. Everyone got home safe and sound! Metrowon

I have had these thoughts but it wasn't until my kids were teenagers

[metrowon]

Originally Posted by DISNEY FANTASY

Agree, I have read that one person was hurt, and had a near miss, of something worse. The questions that are NOT Disney bashing, or Captain bashing are:-

Why did Carnival Dream stay out a day, but Fantasy came in?

Both experienced captains, one took another decision against the other on the same weather condition's and similar modern ships.

RCL Monarch of the Seas stayed in port.

Cruisers have a right to ask these questions.

Saying no one was hurt, is the same as two planes having a near miss, yes no one was hurt, but you do not want it happening again.

Carnival Cruise line own's the Concordia, nuff said.

[DISNEY FANTASY]

Originally Posted by metrowon

Carnival Cruise line own's the Concordia, nuff said.

Possible they do not want/need another incident and will err on the side of caution now.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Originally Posted by rjs2006

I keep reading the ship and passengers were in no danger but what is statement based on? Because no one died or got seriously hurt? When other cruise lines decided to avoid it all together it makes me wonder as well. I'm not so sure how anyone but the officers would know what the level of safety was at that moment.When disney PR makes statements that the ships were nowhere near the storm and enjoying perfect weather, that seems a bit odd. I have been on 6 disney cruises and love them but why put people in harms way or scare the crap out of them when you're known for excellent service. I understand peoples desire to defend disney but something doesnt seem quite right about this one. Let the bashing begin because I know its coming.

No bashing from me. You have to understand that Metrowon is one of the biggest DCL cheerleaders so you have to take what he says and what the others who were complaining said and meet somewhere in the middle to get the truth.

Bill

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Originally Posted by metrowon

Carnival Cruise line own's the Concordia, nuff said.

Can't miss an opportunity to take a pot shot can you?

Sorry the Concordia is from Costa Cruise line that is under the umbrella of the Carnival Corporation.

You must have been listening to Diane Sawyer a lot on ABC when that terrible tragedy happened.

Bill

[chictravel227]

Ok, it was rough going. I had only heard about the 20 meter waves, not the 40', but I believe it. I did not know that the Carnival ship decided to stay out longer. We did wonder if this was the best decision as we were almost thrown from our bed in the middle of the night. I do say almost. With that being said, none of us are harmed.

Disney also offered everyone on board a 25% discount on a future Disney vacation (awaiting further details). Which may play into the whole Carnival ship staying out and us not or it may have something to do with Costa Concordia.

Disembarkation was a nightmare as Disney failed to adequately keep everyone informed. There was a period of over an hour after docking with no updates. Staff did not clear the lobby area as they should have when people ignored the captain's orders to not linger there. Staff gave no instruction or it was ignored, when the captain said we were clear to go, we could almost not get out of the elevators because people were jam packed up against them. It was a mess and should have been handled better. Not sure how, but it should have been.

Those of us who kept their luggage got off promptly at around 11am. We were more than ready to get off the ship. After fighting our way through the crowd of people that is. Never was I so happy to have kept my luggage.

Hindsight can be 20/20. Maybe the Fantasy was a bigger/newer ship with better stabalizers/ technology/etc. Maybe the captain did make a mistake, and luckily there were no injuries (that I have heard of yet). Would we have been better off staying out another day, possibly. Again, hindsight. I did not go to ship captain school, so the best I can do is be an armchair coach here. I can only hope that the Captain acted in the passengers best interests.

There was damage to the ship with a verandah being shattered and a door out to a verandah being shattered (as told by other passengers). I can only guess how disturbing that would be if it had happened in our room.

We were on deck 7 in a verandah and everything came flying off the shelves (including the ice bucket) and anything left on the vanity by the verandah. The phone by the bed also was knocked off as was the alarm clock.

My traveling companions and I were a bit nervous, ok, a bit scared by the incident, but we figured the professionals knew what they were doing. But then, we had a laugh, and thought of it as an adventure. We got caught in the tail of a hurricane.

We were sad we could not go to CC, but figured we would rather be alive than getting a day in the sun with good waves. And, Disney does do a good job of entertaining you, so it was pretty fun. We did take our Bonine early just to hold off any motion sickness issues.

End of the day, I and my traveling companions made it home. Hope that if there were any injuries to other cruisers, that they were minor. I will chalk this up to an experience that was an adventure, but that I would like to never repeat again. I would sail with Disney again. At least when they update their very dated Caribbean itineraries.