Incident on Solstice Cruise to nowhere someone's in huge trouble!

Just back from my Holiday.

I was on this cruise also. I was on my balcony (enjoying my complimentary champagne :D ), when I saw the life raft falling into the water and then making a loud hissing as it inflated. It also showed how slow the ship was travelling, as it only moved along the ship at an incredibly slow pace. Was also interesting to watch the ship do a sharp 180 in open ocean in windy/choppy conditions. From our balcony, we were able to watch the officers prepare the boat the recollect it. As they tried to lower it, is dropped way to quickly. Everyone yelled in panic and aborted the drop just before it "hard landed" on the ocean. The mechanics/engineers where called in to fix the problem, so it lowered correctly.

My recollection of the captains announcement was "a crew member had thrown an expensive life saving piece of equipment overboard". So it would be interesting if anyone has more information on the culprit as to whether is was a passenger or crew member (hard to believe, may have been a poor choice of words)??

In defence of the Aussies on board, they were quite well behaved considering the majority had unlimited drink packages. To be honest, I didn't notice any drunken/disorderly behaviour. Everyone behaved themselves in a responsible way. All 3 nights where smart casual on this one.

Love your idea of a lifetime ban , it should apply to all cruise lines when someone has proved that they can't behave responsibly on a cruise ship .

It's not across all lines, but I'm sure this couple have a lifetime ban from RCL group ships.

I saw those pictures on facebook :eek: and i am glad the caught the person who did it.

 

Whilst i do appreciate the these short cruises tend to be party/lots of drinking type cruises, i do wonder if these all inclusive drinks packages are causing more of these types of issues to occur :rolleyes: we did the 3 day cruise in Jan and we were quite uncomfortable with the amount of drinking the occured on the ship...esp the early morning people wandering around with an alcoholic drink in their hand. I wonder if we would have seen this if there are no drinks packages around?? :confused:

I've been on a 28 night cruise with no drink packages and still seen people at 10 in the morning with alcoholic cocktails and beers, it makes absolutely no difference, it's just unfortunate that some people have a problem and will drink no matter what and what time. Sad but true. I personally can't stand the thought of an alcoholic drink until it's at least dark!

I also think a lot of people here are way too quick to blame it on an "Australian" or a "bogan" when they have no clue who it was, could have been an international guest (Solstice has lots) or even a yuppie fuelled by a martini not a Bundy rum :rolleyes:. Lets lay off the blame game until we hear who it really was!

Having been on the Solstice for the next 8 night cruise after the 3 nighter everyone was very well behaved in great spirit +company :D Aside from a very small minority of elderly people that didn't understand the concept of waiting your turn for the bar and not pushing in :p

On the whole everyone was very pleasant though!

Aside from a very small minority of elderly people that didn't understand the concept of waiting your turn for the bar and not pushing in :p

Some people love to pick on kids, but this is stuff I don't see from anyone bar real littlies - and that's understandable.

Had the same on my Century cruise in the buffet, and it's not the first time. Dunno why they feel they are too important to wait their turn.

Some people love to pick on kids, but this is stuff I don't see from anyone bar real littlies - and that's understandable.

 

Had the same on my Century cruise in the buffet, and it's not the first time. Dunno why they feel they are too important to wait their turn.

Maybe because they know that they haven't got long left n this world so don't want to waste time in lines? :D

Aside from a very small minority of elderly people that didn't understand the concept of waiting your turn for the bar and not pushing in :p

Not to stereotype an entire demographic, but we noticed this particular trait with a minority of the same age group on the 3 nighter before yours. We kept smilling, but is was getting harder and harder...:D

I'm still searching to see if it was a crew member who threw the raft overboard, as the original announcement at the time suggested....?

 

The 'ambulance chaser' website [cruiselawnews] posted what they believe to be a RCCL source's post on their forum (based on ISP address):

"Nobody deployed the raft as its not so easy as everybody mentions above. .... The raft fell in the water as the strap failed. And no one deployed it as we did check the CCTV cameras on Deck and we also have the video already"

 

So, if true, all the discussions here about drunken bogans and the like were just an excuse to bash drunken bogans & make stereotypical comments :)

The 'ambulance chaser' website [cruiselawnews] posted what they believe to be a RCCL source's post on their forum (based on ISP address):

"Nobody deployed the raft as its not so easy as everybody mentions above. .... The raft fell in the water as the strap failed. And no one deployed it as we did check the CCTV cameras on Deck and we also have the video already"

 

So, if true, all the discussions here about drunken bogans and the like were just an excuse to bash drunken bogans & make stereotypical comments :)

I did wonder about that aspect , as those rafts are very securely lashed down and would probably need special tools to release them.

The 'ambulance chaser' website [cruiselawnews] posted what they believe to be a RCCL source's post on their forum (based on ISP address):

"Nobody deployed the raft as its not so easy as everybody mentions above. .... The raft fell in the water as the strap failed. And no one deployed it as we did check the CCTV cameras on Deck and we also have the video already"

Nice find. Another clue.

This suggests it wasn't a passenger, as stated on this thread, nor a crew member as suggested in the onboard announcement.

The comment from the cruise director at the time was "someone threw one of our pieces of lifesaving equipment overboard"

I never heard anything about it being a crew member or anyone else, just that it was a person and it was thrown.

I would have thought there would have been a lot more fuss if they thought it was equipment failure as they have a whole load of those rafts on board and if one failed potentially they all could have.

Guess we will never know!

The comment from the cruise director at the time was "someone threw one of our pieces of lifesaving equipment overboard"

 

I never heard anything about it being a crew member or anyone else, just that it was a person and it was thrown.

 

I would have thought there would have been a lot more fuss if they thought it was equipment failure as they have a whole load of those rafts on board and if one failed potentially they all could have.

 

Guess we will never know!

That guy named "Someone", sure gets a lot blamed on him/her at our place.:D:rolleyes:

Good to see he/she gets to go on a holiday.:D:rolleyes:

The comment from the cruise director at the time was "someone threw one of our pieces of lifesaving equipment overboard"

Don't believe everything your cruise director tells you! ;)

The comment from the cruise director at the time was "someone threw one of our pieces of lifesaving equipment overboard"

 

I never heard anything about it being a crew member or anyone else, just that it was a person and it was thrown.

Just checked with my partner. We both recall it as being "crew member" in the opening sentence. The following repeats of the sentence during the announcement didn't. We were discussing it with our neighbours on the balcony while watching it float further away as perhaps a demonstration, or learning drill of some sort had gone wrong.....still, was a bit of conversation at the dinner table anyway.

My neighbours were on the Solstice. The wife wanted her husband to try a cruise to nowhere to convince him to go on a longer cruise. It didn't work he said the people at the buffet were feral.

 

I don't really think a cruise to nowhere is a good indication as to what it was like on a longer cruise.

As a travel agent, we never encourage people to take a Sampler as an indication of a longer cruise. If they insist the we stress they should use it to sample food and cabins but not the lifestyle. I can't see the booze mentality on these short cruises changing much but it would be good if the ships provided more security. Expecting a 5ft Filippino to stand up to a 6ft drunken Aussie is crazy. Last short cruise I was on, there was a fellow bellowing and so drunk his mates had to help him walk, and that was befoe the gangway had even been brought in! But despite this he still had a drink in his hand and there ws no sign of any security despite how much he was annoying other passengers.

Start big and bold. My first cruise was 19 days. I must have admit I have done a few 2, 4 day cruises since on different cruiselines. But my days of doing the shorter cruises are over now. I think 7 day cruise would be the minimum now I would book.

Start big and bold. My first cruise was 19 days. I must have admit I have done a few 2, 4 day cruises since on different cruiselines. But my days of doing the shorter cruises are over now. I think 7 day cruise would be the minimum now I would book.

Quite often its much better value trying out a new cruise line with a longer cruise.

The 'ambulance chaser' website [cruiselawnews] posted what they believe to be a RCCL source's post on their forum (based on ISP address):

"Nobody deployed the raft as its not so easy as everybody mentions above. .... The raft fell in the water as the strap failed. And no one deployed it as we did check the CCTV cameras on Deck and we also have the video already"

 

So, if true, all the discussions here about drunken bogans and the like were just an excuse to bash drunken bogans & make stereotypical comments :)

Puts a totally differing slant on the story.

Quite often its much better value trying out a new cruise line with a longer cruise.

The short ones are still good for people with a lack of leave (weekend cruise) and just want a break or want to sample a newer or larger ship.:D

The short ones are still good for people with a lack of leave (weekend cruise) and just want a break or want to sample a newer or larger ship.:D

True. I would love to live in Sydney or Brisbane so much choice out of those two ports.

Start big and bold. My first cruise was 19 days. I must have admit I have done a few 2, 4 day cruises since on different cruiselines. But my days of doing the shorter cruises are over now. I think 7 day cruise would be the minimum now I would book.

We did a similar thing. Booked a 15 day trans Atlantic followed by a 7 day Caribbean on a different ship. With a short 7 days on land in the USA we then jumped on board again for another 7 days in a different area of the Caribbean and Central America and then 1straight into 14 days through the Panama Canal from Miami to LA. I have no idea what we would have done if we hadn't enjoyed our first experiences as much as we did.

As far as behaviour on board the worst we encountered were teenagers running around out of control and unsupervised on Carnival and a 6' 4'' muscle bound wannabe basketballer from the States who decided it was OK to try and smash a 60 year old Aussie (me) into oblivion on the basketball court on Oasis . I had some misconception that I would be treated as we in Australia would treat a player in a Golden Oldies rugby match.

Even 7 day cruises are a bit short for us as we find we enjoy the cruise even more after we have got to know more passengers and crew members.

Start big and bold. My first cruise was 19 days. I must have admit I have done a few 2, 4 day cruises since on different cruiselines. But my days of doing the shorter cruises are over now. I think 7 day cruise would be the minimum now I would book.

That's a big start!

But they do have an appeal to the market who are unsure and just don't want to commit to something longer.

Plus there's the group who take it as a great short break.

We did a similar thing. Booked a 15 day trans Atlantic followed by a 7 day Caribbean on a different ship. With a short 7 days on land in the USA we then jumped on board again for another 7 days in a different area of the Caribbean and Central America and then 1straight into 14 days through the Panama Canal from Miami to LA. I have no idea what we would have done if we hadn't enjoyed our first experiences as much as we did.

 

As far as behaviour on board the worst we encountered were teenagers running around out of control and unsupervised on Carnival and a 6' 4'' muscle bound wannabe basketballer from the States who decided it was OK to try and smash a 60 year old Aussie (me) into oblivion on the basketball court on Oasis . I had some misconception that I would be treated as we in Australia would treat a player in a Golden Oldies rugby match.

 

Even 7 day cruises are a bit short for us as we find we enjoy the cruise even more after we have got to know more passengers and crew members.

That was a great way to start cruising.

Your BB story reminds me of a soccer game on the ship. There was around 7 of us that turned up to win a prize of some sort organised by the activity staff. We had to score penalties, several of us were bare footed or in sandals of varying ages between 20-60 and both genders. One chap, a 25 year decided he wanted to win most and had a full soccer kit on including indoor soccer shoes. He was drilling this ball at the crew member in goals so hard that they ended up using the pads from the deck chairs as protection. Very funny but a little bit too serious and all for a drink voucher (I had the drinks package anyway).:D

The short ones are still good for people with a lack of leave (weekend cruise) and just want a break or want to sample a newer or larger ship.:D

Definately. Was a good way to create an atificial long weekend and break up a big junk of year (between cruises :D ), and a good "test-drive".

Definately. Was a good way to create an atificial long weekend and break up a big junk of year (between cruises :D ), and a good "test-drive".

Yes, we will be testing a few (companies and ships) next year as well with RCI and P&O.:D

I did wonder about that aspect , as those rafts are very securely lashed down and would probably need special tools to release them.

 

 

Hardly likely, if that was the case they would go down with the ship, they would need to be relatively easily deployed. Read the instructions on the next ship you go on, they tell you how to deploy IIRC.