Your scariest cruise experience???

I was thinking about my last cruise and the scary experience that we had onboard. I began to wonder what other "scary situations" everyone has experienced. So, I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours! :)

We (an party of 6, with 2 first time cruisers) were sailing out of Galveston on the Carnival Elation. I don't remember the dates, but the cruise was 7 days, beginning in late August of 2005. As we were leaving our hotel to board the ship, I can remember waiting for the shuttle in the lobby of the hotel. While we were waiting, we were watching a news channel that had extensive coverage of a hurricane heading for New Orleans. It was Katrina. When we arrived at the cruise terminal, there were rumors that our ship may stay in port at Galveston for an extra day to avoid the hurricane. This was confirmed by the staff at the check in desks. They told us that the captain had not made a decision yet, but that there was a chance that we may stay for the night. As it turned out, the captain decided to try to go around the hurricane and we left on schedule that afternoon. Everything seemed fine, but we ended up having to turn around and head back to Galveston due to a medical emergency. Then it was out to sea again. Around dinner time, we began to notice that the ship was rocking. ALOT. As time went on, it became more and more difficult to even stand up. It was impossible to walk in a straight line. We even joked that all of the sober people were walking like they were drunk (weaving) and all of the drunk people were walking like they were sober. I am not sure how big the waves were that night, but that hurricane sure did throw up some big ones :) We were all pretty calm about the rough seas until we began talking to some of the crew members. Quite a few of them said that they had never experienced such rough seas and they seemed a little uncomfortable. What made it really unnerving was our cabin location. We were in a cabin on a lower deck that was the most forward cabin on that deck. I woke up that night (after being tossed about in the bed by the waves) to the loudest crashing sounds. Turns out, it was the bow of the ship crashing into the waves. Over and over again. Let it suffice to say that I didn't get much sleep that night....because of the waves, and because of my nervousness!

Ok, I know some of you more experienced cruisers have a few tales....please share!!!

Mine was noticing a dirty old man hitting on a tween girl in the Lido. Her family was nearby and she went over to them. I never saw the guy again for the rest of the cruise, so he might have been put off the ship.

Nothing scary happened on our cruise but something you said did remind me of ours. We sailed out of Norfolk (unfortunately I have heard a lot of people say the seas off of the Outer Banks of NC are rough to sail through) and in the middle of a really bad nor'easter. The officers kept telling us you could tell the people who are normally drunk because all the sober people are staggering while the drunkards just plow right along. My next trip also sails out of Norfolk but this time Ill be prepared. I sure wish my family would have told me they have always had seasickness when they went out, I would have been more prepared to deal with it.

I was on the World Renaissance (Royal Olympic) back in 2000 as part of a group trip to Europe. We left Rhodes at about 6pm in the evening, and the seas started to pick up. I was the only person in our group who'd been on a cruise prior to that, so I reassured everyone that all was well.

The waves got worse during the night, to the point where, at 2am, a wave broadsided the ship and caused everything not bolted down to go flying to the opposite end of the cabin. Phone, ice bucket loaded with VERY cold water (!), luggage, cameras, you name it. We all ended up leaving the cabin and gathering in the lounge - the piano had rolled clear across the floor and slammed into a bulkhead, and the speakers dislodged themselves from the ceiling. For the rest of the night we alternated sleeping on the couches in the lounge, and on the floor of the reception area - it didn't move, whereas our mattresses did!

We heard later that the wave that hit us was roughly 25 feet in hight - the crew said they hadn't had that bad a storm in almost 20 years. On the PLUS side, the crew was amazing - they brought everyone who were sleeping in the lounge blankets, and they even made us fresh sandwiches and brought them out to us at 3:30am. The crew were fantastic.

It was certainly something to talk about, even though we had to skip Crete and Santorini because it was still too rough to tender!

I am beginning to think that as the years roll on we are all getting softer towards rough seas etc. I remember sailing home from UK back in 69, for days we had dampened down table cloths to keep plates etc on the table, they got a bit smelly. That of course was for those of us that was weathering the storm, some folk disappeared for days :-) Furniture, grand pianos and all sorts of others things tied down by great big large pieces of

rope.

Mere I think the skipper of your ship however was rather foolhardy, I can't believe he left port before he knew where that hurricane was heading. Dumb in fact!:eek:

This was our third cruise, but our first experience with HAL. My parents had been on many HAL cruises and couldn’t say enough about the line.

We were on a lower deck, inside cabin, right at the front of the ship.. When we got to our cabin there was some kind of machine in our room, not a fan but something similar. A staff member came into our cabin and said the machine shouldn’t have been there and he took it away. About an hour later we noticed a really foul smell and complained to our cabin steward. Hours after that the smell got worse and my DH began to investigate. He located a small cabinet door just outside our room and after prying it open he noticed it contained some pipes and backed up sewage.

We pointed it out to our cabin steward who promised to rectify the situation. Still, the next afternoon nothing had been done (DH wedged a pen cap in the door as a marker, so we know that nobody even checked the cabinet)

We then complained to the front desk… yet again, nothing was done. Our next step was the Hotel manager.

By this time, the carpet in our cabin was getting wet. We pleaded for assistance but long story short (or a little less long rather….) nobody would help us so I threw a hysterical fit. Finally someone came down to my cabin to investigate. She got as far as my cabin door, smelled the stench and refused to go in. we were stuck in that room for the whole 10 days because there was simply no where else to put us (or so they said). The next afternoon they came to clean the carpets but the sewage problem was never fixed. The smell was still there, only now we also had a heavily deodorized room and the carpets were more wet from the steam cleaners, we didn’t know what we were stepping on. All our clothes wreaked of … well you know what.

They then brought in the same machine that was there on day one when we first entered our cabin and I was so angry because it was then that I realized, they were obviously aware of the situation before we boarded.

There’s a lot of details I’m going to skip here because this isn’t the actual scary part.

I felt like crap (pun intended) all week but on the last night I got violently ill (and I stayed ill for 18 months until I was finally diagnosed with an H. Polari (sp) infection (commonly found in 3rd world countries and usually contracted from malnourishment and/or filthy living conditions)

I’m getting to the scary part…

I was so sick on that last night I couldn’t get out of bed. My DH offered to stay with me but I insisted he enjoy his last night and to just come check on me from time to time. He did come check on me a few times, and after the last time he checked he said he’d be coming to bed soon.

I was in and out of sleep all night, I had no idea what time it was. We didn’t bring a clock with us and I couldn’t find the remote in the bed to turn on the TV to get the time from there.

I soon realized what time it must have been when I started hearing the announcements for immigration in the morning.

My husband wasn’t in the room and I knew I hadn’t seen him for hours.

My parents finally came to our cabin and I filled them in on the nights events. They told me to stay there and they would go and look.

A few minutes later a whole different kind of ‘sick’ took over and I started to panic. I literally dragged myself out of my cabin holding onto the walls and was actually on my hands and knees crawling at one point.

My parents found me and said they couldn’t find him anywhere.

We made our way to immigration (hoping to see his name already crossed off) when we got there we saw one of the cruise staff who we got to know well during the week. She asked me where Jarrad was and was terrified to admit that I didn’t know.

My mother looked at me and she didn’t say anything but I knew we were all having the same horrible thought.

They began paging him by name…nothing.

Crew started helping us search the ship… nothing.

This went on for what felt like an eternity but it was actually about 45 minutes

My best guess of when I saw him last would have been around 1:30 or 2:00 am. So he had been ‘missing’ for going on 5 hours.

My father finally found him. He was in the Crows Nest, a place that had already been searched, but he was slouched down, fast asleep (or passed out is my guess) in one of those really comfy chairs facing the window. Apparently some of the staff had bought him a few drinks and when they all left for the night, DH thought he’d stay because the ship was approaching Ft. Lauderdale and he thought he’d watch as it pulled in.

One of the speakers that echoed his name repeatedly was right above his head and he never heard it.

If he wasn’t found when he was, disembarkation would have been delayed and I’m sure flights may have been missed.

Needless to say, if I wasn’t so sick and had the strength to throw him overboard I probably would have!!

Now, years later, they can all laugh about it… but I still just shake my head.

It was the scariest, most sickening time in my life!

I'm sure it's me BUT the post about the sewerage and missing husband sounded like script of a made for TV move rather than reality:rolleyes:

I have a lot of trouble accepting the fact the crew left anyone in the Crow's Nest let alone someone passed out or asleep when they closed down for the night

then again, I can't understand why someone would want to discuss the "scariest moments" on board a cruise ship:confused:

just don't get this one at all

Being on a ship when a fire breaks out and everyone is told to report back to their cabins and await futher instructions.

Has happened to us twice on ships.

I was on Disney Magic with DD and her kids. Water got unusually rough

after dinner, and by 10p when we were in bed, we were rocking and rolling.

I went to sleep, and my DD woke me to say there was water coming in

under the glass door to the balcony. Then it was literally running across

the floor and out into the hallway. We slept piled against the wall in my

bed, all four of us? How could we go to sleep? Easy......I tasted the water

and it was fresh hurricane water. I convinced everyone that as long as it

wasn't salt water we were safe. By the time we reached Canaveral, the

starboard carpets smelled like you wouldn't believe, including public areas.

There were rolls of carpet waiting on the wharf to replace them, and the

ship evidently sailed on time that day.

As far as why would anyone want to talk about scary cruises, I've heard

tons of scary flight stories, and told a few myself. Human nature.

Let me tell you, being the DH that was asleep(passed out) in the crows nest. They do leave the room open after the bar closes. I went up around 3am. No made for TV movie there, it was all real.

I'm sure it's me BUT the post about the sewerage and missing husband sounded like script of a made for TV move rather than reality:rolleyes:

 

I have a lot of trouble accepting the fact the crew left anyone in the Crow's Nest let alone someone passed out or asleep when they closed down for the night

 

then again, I can't understand why someone would want to discuss the "scariest moments" on board a cruise ship:confused:

 

just don't get this one at all

I am SURE its you!!!

 

I think you win the most miserable cruise award. Sounds like you and DH should have set up camp in the CN instead of your cabin.

 

I think I am a laid back passenger and nothing much gets to me. Heck I probably would have attended to the nasty toe nail clippings myself ( see other thread). But if I had been faced with your situation, I would have made an enormous spectacle of myself and created "tent city in the Crows Nest.

 

I am curious. Have you sailed HAL since that cruise from hell-o?

Hammybee,

We have actually cruised with HAL 5 times since then. We have sailed on that exact ship earlier this year. I think we are hooked on HAL. Although we may try another cruiseline next year.

Jarrad

I think you win the most miserable cruise award. Sounds like you and DH should have set up camp in the CN instead of your cabin.

 

I think I am a laid back passenger and nothing much gets to me. Heck I probably would have attended to the nasty toe nail clippings myself ( see other thread). But if I had been faced with your situation, I would have made an enormous spectacle of myself and created "tent city in the Crows Nest.

 

I am curious. Have you sailed HAL since that cruise from hell-o?

I vowed never to sail HAL again. I understand these things can happen. (mind you they always feel like they're happening to me). What really cheesed me off was the fact that they were aware of the situation before we got there and their lack of care/concern/help in rectifying things.

Had i known then what i know now, I would have had a lot more to say. (i didn't even know about CC back then)

In the end they gave us a $150 credit pp (like i was going to come back) citing we were lucky to get that seeing as we got a sell off on the cruise! (i didn't mention in my OP that our toilet didn't work about 75% of the time, the A/C was useless and we had our main light that flickered like a strobe light for 10 days)Had i/we known what our living conditons would have been like, we wouldn't have gone if they paid us. it's not just the cost of the cruise we incurred, like everyone else, it cost us vacation days, flight, on board expenses etc.

I was told that was all they could offer me O/B and we'd have to follow up with head office. Needless to say we got nowhere.

My parents bought our O/B credit and sailed the next time without us.

There are now usually at least 6 of us that cruise once a year or more (i managed to get 3 cruises in this year. woohoo!) and i don't remember how i was 'bullied' into going back to HAL but i remember being very apprehensive when i did. Turned out to be our best vacation ever in every way.

I'm glad we gave HAL a second chance because it is now our favourite line but i'll never forget how we were treated.

This is why I say, and i also mentioned in a recent post- I/we know first hand that you can go on the same ship twice and have a totally different experience.

About the setting up camp in the CN- being new to cruising and ignorant about how the way things worked I was actually worried they would throw me in the brig if i ticked THEM off anymore with my complaining!!!

What, no fly in your soup? :)

What you went back for more???????

I am staggered, I am really struggling to understand why you did not SUE the pants off HAL. Wild horses would never have got me back on HAL ever again if that had been me.

What, no fly in your soup? :)

Ok i give, what does that mean?!?

It means exactly what it says. No fly in your soup :)

What you went back for more???????

I am staggered, I am really struggling to understand why you did not SUE the pants off HAL. Wild horses would never have got me back on HAL ever again if that had been me.

My Dr believed that the condition of my room was what caused my virus but was not willing to put it in writing.

When i look back now i think i should have sued them- and never travelled HAL again. However, I don't believe sueing is as easy here in Canada as it is in the US, and being that the incident occured in the US made it more complicated. (Almost three years ago I broke my ankle at work... a Govt. building that wasn't plowed or salted 2 days after an ice storm- I phoned numerous lawyers and couldn't find a single one to help me).

It was my parents persuasion that got us to go back, insisting it was a isolated incident. I stil can't believe i went back.. but i did... and now here i am recommended HAL to other cruisers.

I was angry and bitter for so long b/c it took forever to figure out what was wrong with me.

But, i truely believe this could have happened on ANY line. Like i mentioned before, things happen. It was the management that was definately lacking in every area i appealed for assistance- which i now realize is a rare thing with HAL.

What can i say... time has the power to heal!

We had a similar experience to the OP -via "Hurricane Bonnie" We were coming across on the "Royal" Princess and it had been downgraded to a "Tropical Storm" so the Captain headed into it- However we hit the "eye" around 12;30PM and it was eerily quiet for about an hour -then the storm came back but not AS bad as the AM had been.....The TV weatherman at the next table told us "If it still has an eye -it STILL a hurricane!" but we hadn't had the good sense to BE afraid. Neither of us get seasick [ and we didn't then either] we and our table mates had gone up to the bar at the top of the ship and simply WATCHED the ship rocking and rolling forward -it was MOST like a rollercoaster! -and we laughed and just rode it out [not trying to WALK around too much] until a wave hit the GLASS in front of where we were sitting [with our knees propped up in front of us ] and that was [ if I remember] 11 decks up!!!!!! This was in August so the ocean along the east coast was still quite warm -out of Canada. By the time we got along Maine coastline -the storm was over.........We never were "Afraid" -mostly curious.

Anne

Yep I had noted that you were Canadian, I was thinking that yes an American would have sued the pants off.

Although another person who was on the Statendam in October with us disputes that the ship had sewerage problems or only minor problems, I personally know two woman who spent the whole cruise using the public facilities, day and night. They complained, asked for a change of stateroom which was declined etc. I think they were too timid, but hey we are not all the same. Had it been me I they would have done something to get rid of me, but I am an Oscar performer when the chips are down :-)

About the setting up camp in the CN- being new to cruising and ignorant about how the way things worked I was actually worried they would throw me in the brig if i ticked THEM off anymore with my complaining!!!

Hmmm ... I would have set up camp in the Hotel Manger's Office. :) And, the stink I would have raised would have rivaled the sewage smell. I wouldn't have let the person sent down to check on the problem get away without entering the cabin. I would have threatened to contact CDC from the ship if they didn't address the problem ... and if that didn't work I WOULD have called CDC from the ship via phone and e-mail and would have cc (1) HALHQ and (2) the media. Action WOULD have been taken.

In the aftermath, you probably SHOULD have filed lawsuit on environmental hazard grounds ... using the doctors reports of your condition as evidence.

And, as for there being no cabins available ... nonsense. Yes, there may have been no PASSENGER cabins available, but there almost CERTAINLY would have been a staff cabin, or an entertainment cabin, unoccupied. For instance, on the R class ships there are blocks of staff/entertainment/chaplain cabins on port and starboard just abaft the Crows Nest. Given the environmental hazard present in that sewage situation they could have moved you there. You'd still have cabin steward service, etc.

I can say that I have been stupid but never really scared but I will tell this story in behalf of my parents. As my Mom puts it they were horrified with the following event.

In the early 1960's my parents and I were completing a crossing on the Queen Mary. I was 6 years old. The ship was going through one of the bad storms that you have heard about concerning the North Atlantic. According to my parents there were 40 foot seas. All passengers had been told to stay off the upper decks because the winds were so high. They actually had the safety netting hanging along each side of the ship.

Many people were ill and in my ignorance I could not understand why. I was having a blast and not sick at all. I was leaning up against a heavy door looking out toward the aft of the ship. I really was behaving. Someone opened up a door further down behind me and it caused such a swift air pressure that the door that I was leaning on pushed open and I was sucked outward through the door. Just about the time I was lifted in the air off me feet a crew member who was walking the outside deck grabbed me by the seat of my pants and brought me inside to safety. I thought it was a great "ride" but if he would not have caught me I most assuredly would have been blown overboard. Maybe the nets would have caught me or maybe not.

At least I am hear today to tell the story. By the way I was confined to our cabin for the remainder of the crossing.

hammybee (response to #15) --

What, no fly in your soup?

hammybee (response to #15) -- I used to carry a zipper up my sleeve. When we'd be having the soup course, I'd pull it out and say, "There's a fly in my soup."

Yeah, right :p