911

I know this is an emotional subject so I appologized in advance....

This question is for the seasoned cruisers. How did 911 affect cruises? Increase popularity bc people did not want to fly? The security with the boarding proccess? Ect..

I read in an article somewhere about how one town in Canada pulled together to care for the passengers of 3 or 4 huge ships that were ordered into "safe harbor". So you had folks who were stuck in places they did not expect to be. All flights etc were stopped and it took days to come back. There was no way to escape the effects as no one could tell when or if more Americans would be endangered or hurt. Every American old enough to understand much had a heavy heart, a bit of fear, many had and have anger, and some --so many -- had to deal with absolute devastation and heartbreak. Many of our allies and many decent loving people of all races, religions, ages, and nationalities cried with us in the USA as we mourned and fought to "get back to normal". I am sure that cruise passengers also were shocked and saddened and depending on the situation knew people who died or loved someone who died.

In honor of those people who lived and loved and hoped and dreamed and were cut short of their own beautiful potential, we remember and we must work for peace and prosperity for all the peoples of the earth. It is a small planet and we must all get along or we will all perish.

The number of cruise passengers dropped significantly after 9/11. Most people have to fly to ports and since so many were afraid to fly, they cancelled cruises.

I was on a cruise that began on November 6, 2001 and the ship was less than half full. They had hundreds of cancellations because people did not want to fly. It took nearly a year for the cruise industry to bounce back.

As for the security, it was something to be seen. At every port they had patrols from the local military that cruised beside the ship to make sure that no other boat came along side. They just sailed back and forth and stopped any small boats that got close to the ship. They had divers that checked the hull of the ship to check for explosives. On shore, they had armed military all along the side of the ship.

Cruise industry was hit very hard with people not booking and it led to cruises sailing from more homeports. Cruise lines started sailing out of ports that large numbers of people could drive to.

It is since 9-11 that the really low prices became the goal for many cruisers. As cruise lines had no choice but to lower the cost of many cabins, they also reduced what was included and the quality of the product...... in many cases.

Cruises have evolved dramatically IMO since 9-11.

We were on Zaandam November, 2001 and even that soon after 9-11 knew cruise lines would be making dramatic changes and they have.

Cruise industry was hit very hard with people not booking and it led to cruises sailing from more homeports. Cruise lines started sailing out of ports that large numbers of people could drive to.

 

 

It is since 9-11 that the really low prices became the goal for many cruisers. As cruise lines had no choice but to lower the cost of many cabins, they also reduced what was included and the quality of the product...... in many cases.

 

Cruises have evolved dramatically IMO since 9-11.

 

We were on Zaandam November, 2001 and even that soon after 9-11 knew cruise lines would be making dramatic changes and they have.

Thoughtful response -- never really considered it in that light. I think the cruise industry and travel in general is still evolving. Perhaps they have overbuilt as have hotels. Too much capacity and now folks getting tired of same tired places so prices are going down. If your house underwater and haven't gotten a raise in 4 years but can't complain cause at least you have this job :( and it does not mean thriving vacation market. If medicare or health insurance costs go up or social security goes down in relation to prices of living -- cruise industry will take a hit on that too. Your adult children come back home or you pay to keep them in their own place takes money out of your piggy bank. It is hard to type these words but cruising is a want to have NOT a have to have (Ok Kids you know that is true even if it hurts).

Near term it increased cruising for places such as Alaska for North America residents as many wanted to avoid flights all together or at least long duration flights.

Keith

We flew to Florida, a month after, recall the flight had lots of seats available, made for a very comfortable flight. Not like today, with planes being very full and crowded. We were also flying after the crack down on liquids in carryons. That was fun, we were in Paris and had to repack and get rid of items we would usually carry in a carryon. That really changed how we travel a lot. No more carrying liquor on a carryon. We buy sun screen, etc., when we arrive.

911 is the emergency number for the US. 9/11 is the date of the WTC attack.

We went to the western Caribbean in November after 9-11. There were tons of ships in each port. People didn't want to fly to the Med so many ships came there. In most ports some ships had to tender in as there was no pier space for them.

I know this is an emotional subject so I appologized in advance....

 

This question is for the seasoned cruisers. How did 911 affect cruises? Increase popularity bc people did not want to fly? The security with the boarding proccess? Ect..

The wife & I took a cruise leaving from Miami in Feb of 09 There was a Coast Guard small boat armed with a 50 cal on the bow. They followed our ship until we got out of the harbor long with other small boats blocking all of the channels leading into the area our ship was sailing through. The picture of the Coast Guard made an interesting souvener .

Bookings dropped and prices went down.

I think one of the biggest changes Americans noticed after 9/11 was the need for them to clear immigration at the end of the cruise (that returned to a US port). Prior to that, it was only non-Americans who had to go through that process. I remember the morning of September 22, 2001, as we were preparing to leave the Carnival Victory in Boston, all of us foreigners had to be down at such and such a lounge at 7am, as was the usual case on debarkation morning. Since there were maybe 20 of us in total, it was a quick clearance and we thought we'd be on the road home in no time. Up to the Lido for breakfast we go, and while sitting down, the announcement came that the immigration officials needed all American citizens to report to that same lounge for clearance. Man, the grumbling I heard, but the lido cleared out quite nicely. I remember seeing some of our dinner table mates, and joked with them "Now you get to experience what we always do lol".

A few people mentioned security in ports. One of our ports of call on that cruise was Halifax. My family lives down there, and one of their friends is a diver in the Canadian Navy, and his job those first few weeks after the attacks was to check the hulls on the cruise ships in port. I have no idea if he was checking our ship out that day, but I did see a diver near the ship, so I yelled "Hi Mike" and waved anyway LOL.

My dad did tell me that Halifax had a few cruise ships that stayed in port a couple days after 9/11 so I'm guessing that was what was referenced above by Bowie MeMe. More significant that day were the towns that had transatlantic flights land as they weren't allowed to enter the US. Gander Newfoundland was the most famous in that regard. They took in 53 planes, carrying more people than the town's population. Many people on those flights still go back to Gander to mark the anniversary every year.

911 is the emergency number for the US. 9/11 is the date of the WTC attack.

Interesting that Ari Fleisher, who was White House Press Secretary at the time of the attacks, and has been spending a lot of time doing interviews this week, calls it "nine one one", not "nine eleven" like practically everyone else.