KarinaGW

It's On.

 

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2016/02/coast_guard_deems_storm-damaged_cruise_ship_seawor.html

 

Jonathan

Except they're reporting it as the Port pod and trying to make it seem like that's what the Coast Guard said (which seems incredibly unlikely). One fact....all I want is one freakin' fact to be reported correctly.

I agree 100 % with you. This propulsion issue is the reason passengers were reporting they weren't making any headway. What concerns me is that they did encounter bad weather coming up the coast from Florida, seems like a ship with propulsion problems shouldn't have been in that weather. IMHO they should have disembarked their passengers in Port Canaveral end not take another chance.

The 150mph winds is why we weren't making any headway. Before the storm, both were working fine. It was after the storm that the port pod was having issues. The ship was a champ.

Izumi on Anthem is a small place. Their tables are like a lot of restaurants made up of 2 and 4-tops. I don't think I saw any table permanently set up for 6 (definitely not more) so that may be the reason you can't reserve for 6. I would go ahead and reserve the 2 & 4 and see if someone can add a note that they will be pushed together on the day. If they can't add that note, the Izumi folk are very friendly and helpful and it should be easy enough.

I have never had any issues when booking direct....are you reporting travel plans to your credit card company before you travel?

Ditto. And, that's how it was caught. USAA is very good at monitoring transactions and knowing my spending patterns.

It must have stayed pretty far south. It didn't make it to Fort Lauderdale. I kinda doubt that's the system they were talking about, because people on the ship said it was forming in the Gulf and heading towards Jacksonville. Based on what was posted above (196 mph) the winds would have exceeded Hurricane Andrew's 165 mph by more than 30 mph. That's some serious wind

I don't remember anyone saying it was forming in the Gulf. The captain said it it was a low pressure system forming off of Jacksonville. I don't know how far. I don't know if your links which are forecasts for land would show marine forecasts. It just feels like a silly lie to have told especially as he told us later the weather was developing there as predicted. He didn't seem like a silly man.

I am finding that you and I are not the first to have fraud on our cards when booking directly through the line. We came back to a very large amount spent on our card while we were at sea. I don't blame the cruise line as I believe they use an outside company for their bookings.

Sadly, I wish I could blame them..well, no actually that would be awful.

I just tend to shop at places hackers like to hack (looking at you, target). This will be my 4th card in 18 months. I cannot wait for the new chip cards to get here.

Going old fart here.

I miss the old Labadee before they added in all the rides and attractions. When the old fort was not a massage station and was someplace you could go. I will admit docking is easier to deal with, but I especially miss the lovely & out of the way Dragon's Breath Beach that used to be where the dock is now.

One thing has not changed. Thoughts from my very first visit there in March 2002: Lunch is decent. The pink liquid is better than the brown, this might be a good time to actually buy a can of soda or water to bring with you.

Now, get off my lawn.

May I ask if you booked directly through Royal? Thanks.

Yup. Always do. If something gets screwed up , I want it to be my fault.

I was disappointed read this, as I am usually defending the forum as being not as bad as people try to portray it. So, I went and looked up what you had said before. Found it, but I couldn't find a single post accusing you of being sensationalist.

 

In fact, the closest I found was a post later in the same thread by you, accusing the press of only reporting the sensationalist comments from the cruise.

 

So, I'm back to thinking that this forum is not as bad as people try to make it out to be.

Oh no. People did. The mods cut the thread down by some 10-15 pages when they deleted the hatred spewing posts. It was pretty rank.

Usually there are a couple of those "golf balls" up there, so if one goes down they can use the other. And it didn't look like the antenna itself was damaged (hard to see in those photos), it may have just been the protective dome.

There is a second undamaged one (which I show in other pictures). Human nature, I guess to focus on the nekkid one. Since I don't know what they're supposed to look like I have no idea of it's entirety, but, it feels complete. Here's a clearer, I think, pic of the hardware...although, at this point, it's all moot. (The optics on the iPad are not anywhere as good as on my phone which I didn't have with me or this would be razor sharp.)

But Carol - if I use my set sail paper to buy my beverage package before I can get my SeaPass card - where do they put the sticker? On the paper? So then do I have to get someone to put a sticker on my card after I get it?

 

Does seem like some odd unnecessary steps.

Oh, they still give you the 1/4"x1/4" sticker to hang onto until you get your card. That was a major pain until DH discovered he had a 2" plastic bag tucked into his backpack. At least, then i wasn't worried about losing it & could find it to prove my package.

I hated everything about the way they handled seapass distribution.

And to add insult to injury, they changed the sound it makes when you debark....I kept plugging in my iPad so I could hear it.

Karina, I only have empathy for what you endured on your cruise and you think that the same skipper that got you into a pickle, "heroically" got you out , but please tell me why you feel the need to strike out. I am simply pointing out 2, TWO, II, LIES that were told to you. I have no other screen-names (actually it`s pretty hard to do from one computer now as CC tracks your ISP addy) and no other agenda. I would think that slugging it home at 6 knots would be irritating enough, but then to find out that "perhaps" and I say Perhaps, with 2 screws running, the skipper could have held the ship into the wind better and by extension, made that nightmare more tolerable. I am speculating as to when the port azipod went out, but parts of the puzzle are becoming more clear.

We should know more by the weekend. Glad that you are home safe!

BTW I`m CCL plat and also totally enjoyed the Allure!

Thank you for your "empathy".

I guess guilt must be doing something to you because no one said anything about dual identities except you.

I was merely answering the question of why you were told to go back to the ncl boards.

If you don't want to appear to be badmouthing, perhaps you shouldn't use antagonistic biased insults to describe a situation.

I was on the ship. You weren't. Your "thoughts", as well as a majority of those posting in these threads who weren't mean less than nothing to me. My aim, except for my final post in a different thread, has been to try and present a balanced description of circumstances. I am human and occassionally lapsed somewhat...but I tried. Can you, honestly and with truth in your heart look into the souls of all of us from Anthem and claim you are doing the same?

"Go back to the NCL boards?" What the hell does that mean???? You sound as bad as the OP. Both NCL ships on the eastern seaboard were in the bahamas when the storm hit....Not sure what dumb joke you were trying to make.

Look at OP's posting history. Until Anthem, he has been an NCL board denizen. He has only come over here to badmouth the Anthem situation.

Paul, one thing I find significant is that he said "it isn't working properly", not " it isn't working".

 

It could be something like the pod wasn't steerable, but was capable of providing propulsion, so it was shut down for maneuvering into NY harbor. It could also be that it worked fine, but would have an alarm condition like high temperature, so it was stopped to save it for use in an emergency. Pods are extremely cramped, and you cannot enter when running or the shaft is turning. Perhaps due to seas it was decided that it was too dangerous to enter the pod to try to lock the shaft to work in there. Another possibility would be that they had actually locked the shaft which would cause a lot of drag and slow the ship, because they had a warning on the thrust bearing. These bearings are monitored on a trend, and even when the bearing is nowhere near wearing out and failing, if the wear trend suddenly increases, warning alarms are sounded. As I think on it, this may be pretty likely that they locked the shaft to prevent any damage to the bearing, but that the bearing was only in alarm condition, not failed.

 

Got any friends in COTP NY?

Shortly, before noon yesterday, some of is in concierge suite were looking aft and discussing the azipod situation (that's what I wanted to talk to you guys about earlier). The starboard pod was chunking along fine. But, the port one was not (or didn't look like... I have a picture but my phone is being stupid) all the way shut down. Unless there is a drag reason why you would still see a trail from it albeit a very weak one when shut down, it looks like it was operational but really low-powered. Somewhere grammar left my capabilities, but boat lag is setting in.

If you go through a storm with Cat 5 or so winds and 30 foot seas, they give you VOOM for free.

 

Though there are probably easier ways to get it...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mentioned this in a different thread. VOOM is blazingly fast. It was very cool. However, when it does get opened up to 5000 people, the speed drops to slightly more than regular rccl wifi. It is however pretty damn stable either way.

In a New York minute.

Here are the things I will say. (They ramble.)

Holy heck, yeah, Sunday night was pretty damn terrifying at times. I never felt actively in fear for my life but I can understand why people would have. I was on deck 7 port side and it seemed to have a permanent (what I felt then and appears to be true) 15-ish degree downhill towards starboard tilt pretty much the entire time with lots of bouncing and forward rocking. There were one or two moments when I felt myself freefalling above the bed which was freaky. We watched the SuperBowl (which stunk) without the commercials (the only things that make it worthwhile) and raided the minibar. Every time I heard an announcement, I pictured the Captain in a trance holding the ship in place by sheer force of will. The cruise prior to the event was fine. The cruise after the event was definitely changed, not for the better but the staff and the crew did their damndest to try and make sure that the passengers were as comfortable and happy as we could be given the circumstances despite the fact that each and every one of them had never experienced anything that terrifying in their lives either.

So, here's my bombshell (no pun intended)...while this was my worst cruise, it was not even close to being my least favorite cruise.

That said, here's what annoys me. Had the cruise followed it's original course and we had completed the it, I would have come off it and said. "Fine cruise, glad I tried Anthem, don't care for her, probably won't sail her again."

Now, I feel like I have to sail on her again just to prove it's not this past weekend keeping me away. OTOH, of the 2 ships I can get to from DC, I would take her over Grandeur in a second. Maybe I'll like Carnival's Pride when I have to sail on her for a programming cruise in January.

I am very proud of the passengers of Anthem. So much could have been so much worse but when push came to shove, everybody behaved with strength and the resilience that humans are capable of even (or maybe especially) when terrified. Once this common bond wore off and our various realities set in, I saw, met and talked to the same people that NJHousewife did. I also saw, met and talked to those who understood the situation (not liked, understood) and I also saw, met, and talked to people who had a genuinely good time (a smaller subset admittedly) throughout...I was probably more like those people, but have a healthier respect for the ocean than I think they did.

I was going to try to come up with something pithy to end this, but the best I can do is that I now have a new personal philosophy:

On a scale of 1 to Trapped on a Cruiseship in 150mph winds, how bad is the current circumstance?

Hugs to all who shared the experience. I am glad beyond words that we are all safe and sound and back in the arms of our family and friends.

Karina, I met her on that cruise and she is as fabulous as you think she is. :D:p;)

.

I missed both of you?

Okay. I *REALLY* have to pay more attention to the Roll Calls. It's just usually by the time I sign on, there's already 100 pages and my eyes glaze over.

Je suis désolée aussi!

 

I was on from October 23 - November 15. It was MY lifeboat! :eek:

Gah. I was at the other end of the deck. Got a couple great shots of the lifeboat..but, I assume you do too. All I can do when I think about it is how lucky it was that it happened at 4/5am. That and how puzzled I was when I got woken up by texts from everyone I know asking if I was alright.

exactly ....now that i think about it maybe i should be expecting a game stop charge :p

lol :D

Does anyone know how the parking refund works? There was no one to ask in the garage this morning. I paid with a credit card, so will the parking company refund me based on the date of my transaction (Feb 6) or will I have to mail my receipt to RCI?

When I got there, there was a gent from the parking garage company with a clipboard and taking down our names and last 4 digits of the card we used. They will refund back to card within 4 weeks. If you paid cash, they will reimburse with a check. I would check the car tag they stuck in your dashboard for the company name and contact them. If you tossed yours, mine is till sitting in my car and I can grab it in the morning and let you know.

Ahh...the FCCredit...how I wish I had one now! I'm really craving another Panama Canal cruise or a transpacific. (A girl can dream, right?) I can tell you our FCC experience...first, it isn't an immediate gratification kind of thing. It takes about a month to 6 weeks to get it, and they mail it to you. It's an actual paper certificate, though that's hard to believe in this digital age. The timing was great for us, as we had another cruise booked with a final payment date looming.

 

We applied it, but I don't remember all the details. I think we might have had to sign it and mail it somewhere, but we have a great TA we've used for 20 years so we gave it to her and she pretty much took care of it. The bottom line is: it just works like a check and they apply it to your balance. How you accomplish it depends on whether or not you use a TA.

 

Now, on a personal note...I enjoyed your posts a LOT. I was sad when your thread was closed. There are some posters here on CC whose posts exemplify a rare and delightful combination of humor, intelligence, compassion, wisdom, common sense, and honesty. You are one. Thank you.

Judy

Apparently, in 4-6 weeks (between FCC, cruise refund and parking refund), I'm going to be rolling in dough.:D

On an unrelated but related note, while I was on the cruise, someone in Tennessee got hold of my credit card number and spent $500 at Gamestop. At least, I get that back in 2-3 days.

And, aw...shucks. Thankee ma'am.

After the Explorer was hit by a rogue wave in November 2014, and ONE LIFEBOAT was knocked out of commission, every port in which we stopped wanted to inspect the ship and "make sure that it was safe".

 

:eek:

We were on the SAME cruise and I never met you??!!?...at least knowingly?

Je suis dévasté

Couple of problems with his tweet. First off, that's not a radar, that is a satellite TV or internet dome. Second, ship's radars are not "air search" radars that look into the sky like a weather radar. They are pointed at the sea, because that's what is important in limited visibility, other ships and land.

The first cover came off in the storm and dramatically dropped its bits on the pool deck...looks like it was made of fiberglass. By the time I got off the ship this morning, they already had another one waiting to be brought on.

If it is sat-TV or Internet, then it wasn't damaged at all as both worked fine through the entire event.

unneeded post. Someone explained the future cruise credit far better than I did. I prefer to acknowledge the people who have better knowledge than I.