Live...mostly...from Anthem

Dry dock at last minute? Don't think that would be possible as these facilities are booked in advance. If I was CEO, I would have an open question and answer session scheduled for tomorrow with the media to give out factual information instead of speculation such as this. Damage control 101.

Sent from my X10 using Tapatalk

I'm not in ship and can't speak to experience, but rcl compensated more than required on all of the Feb cruises. I'm a contract nerd and always read what I sign to the chagrin of real estate agents and title companies when I buy a house! Our contract that we all had to sign online states compensations are not required. Good will gestures appreciated! In addition, insurance will compensate for lost days, flights home ect. As a traveler, insurance is huge! Imagine a medical emergency and cost of a life flight. Rcl offers when purchasing tickets. So many refuse the insurance. I buy through another company and it covers my transportation as well to and from port. I'm glad everyone as far as we know is safe and no major medical issues from the storm.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

General con census based on who I spoke to and reviews. How could you not be? We had the Same rough waters Friday night. Going back was not a picnic either. Extended a day with nothing to do. Deck and big gimmick attractions closed 4.5 out of 11 days. I respect your opinion Gaylemh but you are either blinded by the fact that you are a Royal CCL lover or you did not pay what others did for a vacation. Charge me 15K and I want a lot more then what i was given. I was on the Majesty of the Seas in 1992 as a kid on the first Sailing. Cruising is not what it used to be not even close. Nickle and dimed to death and unless you plan to pay food quality has fallen through the floor. I love the big ships and what its all about for my kids but raise the standards its fallen so far. Maybe i would feel different with only a few grand invested on an inside or Balcony stateroom. But as a Grand Suite guest they dont even come close to how you are treated as a Heaven guest on NCL. "Hence why RCCL is mimicking the program NCL has" They get one more shot I am going on the Harmony in January. If they don't deliver bye bye RCCL.

I can honestly say I didn't have any complaints, and as a solo cruiser I paid thousands for one person to sail in a JS. If you divide what you paid by the number of cruisers in your GS, my guess is we paid almost the same per person. Everyone has different expectations when going on a cruise and mine were met. Can't hold the cruise company responsible for weather. Sounds like you are much happier on NCL. That's why there are choices out there. As someone who has been cruising since the 1970's, I agree things aren't what they used to be. Back then, yes the food was wonderful, but they also didn't have all the entertainment, and food choices that we have today. I remember one place to eat, one lounge to go to at night, and they didn't even have lounge chairs at the pool. There were mats on the pool deck. In todays dollars, cruises are also much less expensive then they were back then.

In regards to the captain....This is not his first rodeo. This is the newest ship in the RC fleet. The best of the best get promoted to the new ships.

Yea well something tells me this guy is gonna be "downgraded" a little bit now ... maybe to the Miami booze cruises on Empress ... or worse ..

I echo the previous posters that to me it wasn't defensive at all. He gave a lot of good info and explained what happened.

Captain interview posted in another thread. Very defensive. Someone is worried about their future with the company...

 

 

here is part 1

 

part 2

 

part 3

Nobody has a full damage report, and only after they do a full inspection will they know how long it will take. The drop ceiling can be temporarily fixed quickly. The galley can be cleaned up and the broken glass in the bars cleaned up. The chairs and tables can be righted, all pretty quickly.

 

Apparently, one of the satellite domes or some other equipment on the deck was blown into the pool. At least one of the balcony dividers was blown away. This suggests more damage topside and they won't know the full extent until weather permits an inspection. They can certainly sail without the balcony dividers or one missing satellite dish, but if there is a lot of damage, they may need more extensive repairs.

 

What's really unknown is the state of the stabilizers, azipods, bow thrusters, and other below the waterline equipment. They likely sustained much more stress than designed for, and they will need to send divers down to inspect them. While they seem operational at this point, that does not mean they did not sustain damage. It's just too early to tell.

No one knows what mechanical parts were damaged so I think it's wise to return as they are doing and not just assume all is well.

The PVSA does not prohibit:

• foreign-flagged ships departing from and returning to the same U.S. port, provided the ship visits any foreign port
  
• foreign-flagged ships departing from a U.S. port, visiting a distant foreign port (something like Aruba or Kiribati), and then continuing to a second U.S. port
  
• foreign-flagged ships returning to their departure point without stopping
  

While you are correct that the PVSA does not prohibit a cruise to nowhere (your third case), CBP has decided that a foreign flag ship using foreign crew on crew visas, violates the laws regarding work visas. This is why planned cruises to nowhere have been discontinued.

I was actually going to take it a step farther and ask ADMIN if that poster could be remover from CC.

Yeah, I thought about that too, but in the end I have to admit (flawed person that I am!) that I do get some entertainment value out of it. I just remind myself not to react/respond. As grandma used to say, "You can't fix stupid and you don't even want to try to fix crazy."

Judy

It was COLD when we sailed into Ft. Lauderdale on Oasis a week ago. What is going on down there? However, 6 inched of snow just landed in my driveway. I think I prefer your crappy weather.

It's not too bad, I have all the doors and windows open in my house.

Our local Miami News just said Florida Senator Bill Nelson is calling for the NTSB to look into this because he said the captain knew it was coming. Royal Caribbean refused to comment about it. I'm pretty sure they know more than he does.

I think he's just trying to get people to pay attention to him.

The PVSA does not prohibit:

• foreign-flagged ships departing from and returning to the same U.S. port, provided the ship visits any foreign port
  
• foreign-flagged ships departing from a U.S. port, visiting a distant foreign port (something like Aruba or Kiribati), and then continuing to a second U.S. port
  
• foreign-flagged ships returning to their departure point without stopping
  

I'm fairly certain there was considerable chatter this fall about no more cruises to nowhere beginning in January 2016. As I tried to say, PVSA does not apply.

I will have two heartbroken little boys if that is the case. I really pray that everyone gets off this sailing safely and the extra days in port will be enough for Anthem to be back on track for Saturday.

Here's to hoping it works out the boys and you. :)

I wonder how long it will take to get the ship fully repaired. From deck chairs to galley equipment there are many things that need to be replaced. Most of that equipment is not going to be in New Jersey so I wonder how fast they can repair the ship. They have a couple days to stage equipment and likely can fly some maintenance people to the dock. Decorative things like potted plants don't need to be fixed before the next sailing, but the interior passenger spaces and galleys will need to be mostly functional.

The chance that this would require dry dock is low. I think they might put he crew in hotels for a few days to make it easier to work on this ship.

Wow!

It's not too bad, I have all the doors and windows open in my house.

 

Our local Miami News just said Florida Senator Bill Nelson is calling for the NTSB to look into this because he said the captain knew it was coming. Royal Caribbean refused to comment about it. I'm pretty sure they know more than he does.

 

I think he's just trying to get people to pay attention to him.

You will never convince any members of congress that anyone knows more about anything than they do.

Captain interview posted in another thread. Very defensive. Someone is worried about their future with the company...

 

 

here is part 1

 

part 2

 

 

part 3

shaun07 (the guy who posted the youtube clips), did you really take your original video down and then repost in three different minute and a half clips so you could get more views??? Ugh.

Nobody has a full damage report, and only after they do a full inspection will they know how long it will take. The drop ceiling can be temporarily fixed quickly. The galley can be cleaned up and the broken glass in the bars cleaned up. The chairs and tables can be righted, all pretty quickly.

 

Apparently, one of the satellite domes or some other equipment on the deck was blown into the pool. At least one of the balcony dividers was blown away. This suggests more damage topside and they won't know the full extent until weather permits an inspection. They can certainly sail without the balcony dividers or one missing satellite dish, but if there is a lot of damage, they may need more extensive repairs.

 

What's really unknown is the state of the stabilizers, azipods, bow thrusters, and other below the waterline equipment. They likely sustained much more stress than designed for, and they will need to send divers down to inspect them. While they seem operational at this point, that does not mean they did not sustain damage. It's just too early to tell.

I can tell you that unless one of the pieces of equipment stopped working during the storm, it did not "sustain more stress than designed for". And if something did fail, the divers could only confirm what the engineers would already know, what is broken and what needs to be fixed.

I can honestly say I didn't have any complaints, and as a solo cruiser I paid thousands for one person to sail in a JS. If you divide what you paid by the number of cruisers in your GS, my guess is we paid almost the same per person. Everyone has different expectations when going on a cruise and mine were met. Can't hold the cruise company responsible for weather. Sounds like you are much happier on NCL. That's why there are choices out there. As someone who has been cruising since the 1970's, I agree things aren't what they used to be. Back then, yes the food was wonderful, but they also didn't have all the entertainment, and food choices that we have today. I remember one place to eat, one lounge to go to at night, and they didn't even have lounge chairs at the pool. There were mats on the pool deck. In todays dollars, cruises are also much less expensive then they were back then.

That is one of my gripes my two little guys are 6 and 4 and the price is no different then if they were adults. What you are saying is 100% towards each persons expectations. RCCL cant touch NCL and how they treat a suite guest and food quality and perks but NCL cant touch Ship coolness and how 5 start our room was. Never sailed in something so grand. So its a give an take. I rated the ship well I just expected more for that type of coin.

No matter what your expectations you have to admit they are nickle and diming every cruiser to death its so insulting. Pretty much a surcharge for anything of quality food wise Then Surcharges for "Popcorn, glow items, restaurants and then special items in those restaurants, room service really? The list goes on. Its in very poor taste.

WOW!!!!!:eek::eek:

That picture of the glass, underneath the railings, out on the deck is scary.

They are definitely going to have to get that fixed ASAP, before the ship moves on.

Not necessarily. They can screw some plywood over the damaged area temporarily. It only takes a few minutes. Not a big deal.

How can anyone thank god?

 

I blame god for sending this storm to try to destroy this ship!

Obviously your god is not my GOD who doesn't do this type of thing.

I hope for the next cruisers on Anthem their cruise happens. But the speculation front in here? Don't abide by any of it, just listen to what's said on Royalcaribbean.com and keep your eyes open for press releases. ONLY those press releases by the company. Cruise Critic will probably post those releases as well. Just don't listen to the so-called "experts" in here about speculation on Anthem.

I cannot imagine that heading in any general direction of said storm system would be in best interest of the passengers or the ship. Sure maybe they thought they could navigate around the storm, but it seems like a pretty big risk given the modeled strength at the time. .

When we were on the NCL Star last October, heading to Iceland, we had 3 storms converging on us. We spent about 36 hours in seas between 30 - 45 ft, on a ship 1/2 the size of Anthem.

This is what it looked like:

Captain told us later it was a category 2 hurricane

Thanks everyone. Obviously we are mostly glad that people are being cautious and safety is most important- but this was supposed to be our first big family vacation. My husband and I are both teachers, so our vacation time isn't very flexible- we were so thrilled to find this cruise that fit perfectly into our winter break.

If they cancel, we will have to wait a long time to book again.

Considering driving to Florida if things do end up getting cancelled... Not ideal but can't get a flight with this little time.

NTSB should have the final say if this could of been prevented.

 

Sent from my X10 using Tapatalk

Why would the NTSB have any say about whether a foreign ship in international waters, successfully sailed through a storm? Was there an accident? Was there loss of life? Even if they had jurisdiction, there wouldn't be an investigation.

Please, yes RC and the Captain didn't expect the storm to be this bad but they knew we would be going through a bad storm (warned us during the life boat drill yesterday) and they gambled with our lives. As you point out they are very experienced (this is their newest ship so most likely their most experienced captain) surely they know how storms off the east coast can be very unpredictable and severe with the ability to intensify quickly and they chose to try to out run it, period. Do you remember what happened to the El Fargo? Enough said...

And if it wasnt as bad you would complain over a changed itinerary.

Some of this thread makes me sad. Last night it was all compassion about the passangers and their safety. Today it's all about blame.

I'm sure family members are reading this, so please can we just stay a little more positive?

I have no family or friends on this cruise, but truly concerned that they all arrived safely back at their home port. Just my opinion.