NY212

Unlike the OP, I didn't see waves reach my balcony, but I didn't look for them when the ship listed toward port, the side I am on. I think that we got to a tilt of about 20 degrees.

When things started to get rough, I wrapped the glasses in towels and stuck them in drawers. I don't know why that occurred to us, but it did and we didn't have any broken glass. Since we didn't hear the attendant 's knock on the door, we would have had broken glass in stateroom and bathroom all night.

I agree with the other posters who said that they would not want to be medicated, as it might interfere with taking action if that was needed, although I sorely wanted not to be fully aware of what was happening. We left the alcohol in the minibar.

I can't write anything about this without mentioning that the crew has been fantastic

Maybe we shouldn't have been told that we were going to dock at six, but if we weren't given a guesstimate, people would be complaining about that. I suspect that there were many factors in determining when we could dock, and they weren't all resolved until this evening. I have certainly learned that nothing at sea is certain.

It was an unpleasant and scary experience that turned out okay, albeit not much of a vacation. I plan to cruise again as soon as I can.

The Triumph was adrift for 7 or 8 days and was without functioning toilets for about 2 days, not 5. I'm not arguing that it was pleasant by any means, but my point is that nobody's lives were in danger on the Triumph but they certainly were in danger of sinking, however remote that possibility is. They were also in danger from flying objects in their cabin and around the ship.

 

I personally would be a little disappointed in the compensation.

We all signed a contract that said, basically, that RCI would not be financially responsible if our cruise was shortened, had problems, etc. They are being very generous. Yes, I wish we had the cruise we planned, but you can't always get what you want.

I keep hearing that we were locked in our staterooms. We were not. For our safety, as a precaution, the captain asked us to stay in our staterooms. Not prison.

As for current conditions, we have 30 + mph winds, which may account for the rocking. The rocking is not extreme.

Also, I want to reiterate that the crew has been terrific.

I can't go through all the posts to see who said what @ panic.

No panic in captain or cruise director 's voice; by yesterday evening, captain sounded like he'd had a lot of stress, no surprise.

No one with whom I spoke on board today said they had panicked. Most were sanguine. Somewhat scared, yes. Hungry, yes. Had trouble staying in bed during rocking,yes. Ready to go on another cruise, yes.

Doing Yacht delivery's on the east coast, you NEVER sail your boat west into the shallows of Cap Hatteras, not having local knowledge resulted in unnecessary risk to life and ship, calling the office in Miami and not the local coast guard for advise was not smart. Cat two winds shallow water, dumb.

The captain was in frequent contact with the coast guard.

There is cruel irony in that during a show called "We Will Rick You", that Mother Nature said, "oh yeah, I can do you one better".... :-)

 

 

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I can't believe I missed that! 😂

I'm neither a meteorologist nor a ship's captain, so I do not have sufficient knowledge to know if we could reasonably have avoided the storm.

I was in the theater watching "We Will Rock You"'s matinee when they stopped the show, saying it was too dangerous for cast and crew. That was the right decision, clearly, as I could see some of the dancers struggling.

We went back to our stateroom at that point, so we were already there when the captain made the announcement that passengers should go to their staterooms.

The captain or cruise director made announcements every hour through ten p.m. It seems to me that we were given information more- or-less as it became available. I cannot imagine how hard the captain's job was yesterday. He got us through it. I have heard of only two injured passengers- no idea about crew.

We secured everything in our stateroom. (Tip about the closet - I draped towels over the rod and it prevented the hangars from sliding around noisily) It was scary to feel the ship tilt so much. It was scary to see how high the waves were. I worried that the wind would pick up the chairs on our balcony and smash them through the glass door.

But we made it. Considering what could have been, losing three nights and three ports seems like a very good deal.

RCI is being very generous (blame the free happy hour for Typoss). Elsewhere people have posted that we will get full refunds and half off a future cruise, plus free wifi. those who traveled to get to Bayonne or those who had to make arrangements to cover child/elder care may not feel adequately compensated, but I don't know how they could be.

There are about 500 children on this cruise, and I would guess that many of them planned to go to Disneyworld. I'd hate to be a parent in that situation, but for us adults, we got a mini vacation with free room, food, entertainment. Could have lived without the excitement of the storm, but we'll have stories to tell.

I hope they don't refund the gratuities as the crew really earned them. They worked so hard and continued to be pleasant to the passengers when they were probably as scared as we were.

Batteries going..., no time to proofread

Anthem is returning to Bayonne. Captain just announc d

Isn't it possible that the Captain both did a great job once they were in it and also made a mistake getting them into it in the first place?

 

We don't have all the details yet but the two things aren't mutually exclusive.

That is my guess, but it is jut that - a guess. once we were in trouble, the captain did a great job. The crew has been great too, and I'm sure most of them got little or no sleep. Captain made announcements as frequently as he could, given that he was trying to keep over 6000 passengers safe.

We are returning to Bayonne now

I just saw this thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2130260&highlight=owners+suite

I posted a few photos from my trip on Quantum in Jan 2015.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2145422

BTW - looking back at the trip, I loved just about everything on-board the ship except Dynamic Dining which I loathed, the over-hyped robo-bar, because it was hardly ever both open and functional, and the lines for popular amusements.

When I looked down from the balcony, I saw a lifeboat, but if I looked out, I saw the ocean. It was not priced as obstructed view. The orangey-yellow haze in the center of the photo is, I think, an artifact of the light hitting the lifeboat.

There are closets on either side of the bed. One is narrow - we put our winter coats in it and didn't open again until we returned to Bayonne. There is storage above both the bed and the sofa. Some of the storage was used to hold extra bedding, but at least half was available.

I just spent quite a while summarizing the cruise, and when I went to attach photos, there was an error that caused the window with my post to close. So now I'll post photos and worry about text some other time.

After seeing Starwater from the back of the main level, I believe that the balcony seats probably provide the best view.

Starwater has singers, dancers, aerialists and a cellist, as well as taking full advantage of computer-generated graphics on the many screens. DH and I thought it was okay, not great, but the three aerialists were amazing. DH had watched them in the gym, and had been filled with awe. The cellist has a pretty thankless job, and I can't imagine that playing the cello while suspended 20 feet in the air is comfortable.

Yesterday, Day 8, at sea: I was simply unable to use the internet all afternoon. Every site timed out, and I tried at least six. I turned my phone on and off and tried again - no luck. I didn't hear everyone moaning, so some people must have gotten on. By the evening I was able to get it to work, and this morning (@8-9 am) it's reasonably fast. But it's does seems like almost everyone is sleeping late, so there is little contention for the resources.

Should have said Day 7.

Yesterday, Day 8, at sea: I was simply unable to use the internet all afternoon. Every site timed out, and I tried at least six. I turned my phone on and off and tried again - no luck. I didn't hear everyone moaning, so some people must have gotten on. By the evening I was able to get it to work, and this morning (@8-9 am) it's reasonably fast. But it's does seems like almost everyone is sleeping late, so there is little contention for the resources.

Devinly Decadent has wonderful breakfasts. I wish I'd discovered it earlier. I don't know if it's the same every day. Today they had low fat whole wheat blueberry pancakes, yogurt parfaits, delicious looking fruit and muffins, etc. I'm going to have to get DH up before 10:30 so he can have the pancakes.

We went to Silk (MDR) last night without reservations at 6pm and were seated immediately.

I would also like to know if you can sit at a large table with other people.

Probably not, unless either you all arrive together or you have pre-arranged it.

We were in Puerto Rico until about 2 p.m. today.

IFly was supposed to start at one. I hadn't been able to make a reservation, so I showed up at 12:45 and went to the standby line. About 45 minutes later, all off us on standby got in - people with reservations hadn't shown up.

There was some classroom instruction, which have us a pretty good ideas of what to expect, then we donned our flightsuits, goggles and helmuts and got ready to fly.

There were 13 of us, and we each had a minute of flight, one at a time. The instructor was in the tube with us, but was not flying. He grabbed onto the back of the flightsuit and guided until he thought it safe to let go. To me, it felt very secure with him there and also after he let go. Flying was absolutely wonderful. Neither DH nor I are great with heights, and still we both loved it. If there were any more open slots I would do it again. The first minute is free; after that it is @45 for two minutes. If there are packages, I didn't hear about them, possibly because it is moot due to there being no open slots.

Went over to Northstar about 10-20 minutes after it opened. There was a marker saying "from this point the wait is 90 minutes" and the line was at that point. Will have to try another time, getting there before Northstar opens.

They've gotten the photo thing right. No longer do you walk from panel to panel, trying to find your photos, trying to remember what you were wearing or anything else that could help your pick your photo out from the hundreds. Now there are ipads. Your swipe your seapass or the wristband that does more than open doors, and it shows you your pix. We don't usually bother with pix, but we wanted the ones from ifly. They weren't ready yet, but the system does seem to be working well.

While I can hear the tv on the cardio machines, I don't see anything on the screen.

While my wristband allegedly works for everything except getting on and off the ship, DH's only opens the stateroom door. He is unable to charge things on it. I haven't tried to charge on mine, but guest services confirmed that he wouldn't be able to charge and said I could. They said it was an IT problem. His seapass card works just fine.

Enjoying your review, please keep it up. I will be on the January 11th sailing, with the new DD do they still have formal night, is there a captain's reception like the other ships? Thanks Harry

The Grand restaurant, a complimentary one, is formal every night. Jackets are required , at minimum, for men, and I see many dressed up women.

Day 4:

While wandering around at @1:00 this afternoon, I found a line of perhaps fifteen people waiting to get into Divinly Decadent for lunch - not that long a line, but it wasn't moving. Then I saw a line for North Star, maybe 40 or 50 people. Then I went to Seaplex, where the bumper car thing was going on. The line stretched around the rink. It looked like there about a dozen bumper cars, so I imagine it's a long wait.

The waves were very high for much of the day - the winds were 38 mph with effective speed of 52. The rocking of the ship turned my reading in the solarium into my napping in the solarium.

We went to WJ for dinner tonight where there were several vegie choices in addition to salads. They were so good that DH went vegie for the night.

Last night was the diamond/dp/pinnacle reception. It was in the theater, which is not where I remember it being in the past. CD, captain, loyalty ambassador and one other crew member (hotel & restaurant mgr.?) spoke.

Bring an itty bitty booklight or something like it if you read in bed - the lights on either side of the bed throw too much light toward your partner.

They have worked on energy efficiency, as others have noted. In addition to the a/c shutting off if the balcony doors are open, you have to put your seapass card in a slot by the door for the lights to operate. I brought an old one to leave in the slot, although there is no real need to do so.

There are sinks with automatic faucets at the entrance to WJ and in the concierge club.

As far as I can tell, each restaurant has one menu, so if you want variety, your have to change dining venues. WJ seems to have some variations at each lunch, but aside from desserts, the dinners have all been the same. Bear in mind that I don't pay much attention to meats, so they might have changed, but I doubt it. The three restaurants I've tried, Chic, Silk, and American Icon Grill, all have the same alternate menu, which also does not vary each day. It is the menu from which I've ordered my arugula salads and the pasta primavera