Caribbean Ship in Storm

[kwahl1]

I am just off the CB this morning and I have one thing to say to a few of the posters on this thread..... SHAME ON YOU!

 

How dare you question the original poster on her question?

How dare you make light of what happened on board the CB yesterday ("oh gee.,... I hope the piano is still ok!") :confused::confused:

 

It was very scary. It was very dangerous.

 

We were standing at the International Cafe (Deck Five) when things started getting bad. My husband tried to catch a sculpture that slid off the counter before it crashed to the floor. Dishes and glassware were hitting the floor all around us. You very much had to hang on to anything nearby.

 

I have the photos showing broken crystal in the art gallery, and liquor bottles on the floors in the stores. Our cabin only had two broken wine glasses near the slider, and a broken glass on the floor of the bathroom. Friends next door had their room service breakfast all over their carpet (OJ, tomato juice, coffee... )

 

All said, we were fortunate that it wasn't a lot worse, but yes... there were some injuries.

 

Flame away if you take offense at my first statement, but I am truly tired of some posters with high post counts who don't have a damn thing to say except to make smart-a@@ comments. (Yeah, this'll probably get yanked by the mods, but I'm tired and it felt good to get it off my chest!)

 

 

Julie

When you say "just off the CB", what ship is that? Crown Princess?

[dzcruisers]

Julie

When you say "just off the CB", what ship is that? Crown Princess?

 

The CB is the Caribbean Princess

[billet]

I had the pleasure of commanding the Freedom of the Seas in simulation.

 

The real thing is an even greater pleasure! :)

[SomeBeach]

The real thing is an even greater pleasure! :)

 

While a cruise was included in my prize, the Captain wasn't ready to turn over the control of the ship to me. :D

[Bluwaterz]

I, too, just returned from the CB. As Julia stated, it was most definitely not funny and was quite frightening. I am not a seasoned cruiser; this was only my 3rd cruise. I am well aware that Mother Nature can rear her head at any time but was certainly not expecting the tilt. I also overheard other passengers who were in the Piazza at the time and some were quite tramautized from it. It is extremely fortunate that more people weren't hurt considering the number of elderly that take this cruise. I still love to cruise but the incident certainly shook me up and I find nothing amusing about it.

[LEtue]

Looks like the CB is some rough seas again today :eek:

 

[dwblaze]

We were on board last week during the "slight list" on Friday. Despite what the Princess news release said, the crew was NOT prepared for this - they are prepared for normal ship movement, not sudden, sustained 70kt winds. We were in Horizon Court -- most plates and a lot of the food ended up on the floor and they had to close down for an hour or two to clean up and repair. Shops closed most of the morning, lots of crystal and Lladro lost (along with maple syrup, glad I didn't have to clean that up!). Produiction show canceled due to the need to check all the Theatre equipment but they had the comedians going and as much of the regular activities as they could. One humorous note by the CD, "the clearance sale will be proceeding as scheduled today, great bargains at 75% off, oh and probably some broken bits at 95% off." By Friday afternoon mostly back to normal (other than the previously-reported piano incident in Explorers lounge) but it wasn't quite the "slight incident" Princess might want you to believe.

 

Today we are once again in a nor'easter. Call (tender) at Newport canceled due to weather. Lots of maneuvering to try to find the "smoothest" course but again we're getting 15+ foot seas and gusts to 70 kts.

 

HATS OFF to Capt. Patreeze (?) and the crew. Captain has done EXCELLENT job last week and this keeping everyone informed and trying to let us know what's happening and what they're doing. Crew working like dogs to keep as many activities going and keep everyone calm.

 

Traveling with two friends with 70+ cruises between us, including Hurricane Juliette in 2001, so we've seen worse but definitely have seen better. Wish Princess would be a little more honest but again can say nothing but good about captain and all the crew. Wish us luck and send more towels for our leaking balcony door! :-)

[SF]

Sounds like you're having a rough ride this cruise. Glad to hear you are trying to make the best of it. Hope the weather settles down as we are scheduled to be there in about a week.

 

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

[sailaway5]

I am just off the CB this morning and I have one thing to say to a few of the posters on this thread..... SHAME ON YOU!

 

How dare you question the original poster on her question?

How dare you make light of what happened on board the CB yesterday ("oh gee.,... I hope the piano is still ok!") :confused::confused:

 

It was very scary. It was very dangerous.

 

We were standing at the International Cafe (Deck Five) when things started getting bad. My husband tried to catch a sculpture that slid off the counter before it crashed to the floor. Dishes and glassware were hitting the floor all around us. You very much had to hang on to anything nearby.

 

I have the photos showing broken crystal in the art gallery, and liquor bottles on the floors in the stores. Our cabin only had two broken wine glasses near the slider, and a broken glass on the floor of the bathroom. Friends next door had their room service breakfast all over their carpet (OJ, tomato juice, coffee... )

 

All said, we were fortunate that it wasn't a lot worse, but yes... there were some injuries.

 

Flame away if you take offense at my first statement, but I am truly tired of some posters with high post counts who don't have a damn thing to say except to make smart-a@@ comments. (Yeah, this'll probably get yanked by the mods, but I'm tired and it felt good to get it off my chest!)

 

Ditto Julia - we agree with all of your comments. My cousins and DH were up at the Horizon Court when it happened. Although my DH caught his plate from going to the floor, other breakfasts were crashing to the floor all around him. The pitchers of milk made a big "kaboom" sound as they all hit the floor. One older lady fell and bruised her head. Most people were clinging to the side of the walls and afraid to walk. I had ordered room service and caught the tray of coffee and juice before crashing to the floor. Also the wine bottle and glasses fell over (was able to catch them too). I put the tray on the floor as the ship continued to list and was thrown on the bed. Everything on our dresser/desk went on the floor. Glasses etc fell in the sink in the bathroom. The view from our 14th floor port side balcony window was the sky. It was raining with 15-20 ft swells. My cousin went to her room (port side - 10th floor balcony) and water was coming into her cabin at the balcony door (from the rain). She had to put many towels there to stop the flooding.

 

Our friends were on Starboard 10th floor. Their view from their balcony room were the waves and rough seas as they tilted towards the ocean. If anyone had gone out on their balcony on that side of the ship, they could of very easily been thrown overboard. There were numerous announcements to stay INSIDE and avoid being out on any of the decks or balcony's.

 

I personnally was a little nervous about how far our tilt (list) was and would be very interested in knowing the "degrees" of our tilt. I did wonder if the ship could really "tip" over. Also the "creaking" sounds I was hearing from the ship was eerie -- like from the Titantic.

 

Julia, I only have pictures from my room. Would be very interested in seeing some of the pictures you took on Deck 5. Can you either post them or email them to me?

 

We had also signed up for and were selected for the "Ultimate Ship Tour" which was scheduled that afternoon. Because of the damages and clean up required, our Ultimate Ship Tour was cancelled. We were really looking forward to that tour. Hopefully, we can sign up again on another Princess cruise.

 

Hats off to the Captain and crew for heading into the wind and "righting" this ship. We have been on many cruises and will continue to sail!!!

[Nan1052]

We were also on this cruise with a large group from Miami. My husband went up to the Horizon Court for breakfast. The plan was for him to bring a plate down to me. Well, he was lucky to bring me a cup of coffee. Said everything was flying in the HC, and the toasters all came down. I only saw one set of toasters yesterday AM at breakfast, so guess they were damaged.

 

While he was up, when the big wind/wave hit, the table on our balcony ended up next door. We had the divider between our cabins opened up. The doors were swinging like crazy. Had to have the Steward close them. A bathroom glass fell from the counter and crashed on the floor.

 

The ship was going to be having a big liquor sale that day and were setting up and they lost lots of booze and $$$. We had a few people in our group staying in their cabins because they weren't feeling well.

 

The Capt slowed the ship a little, which helped. They slowed the ship a little and seas did seem to improve a little as the day went on. We even had a cocktail party for our group in Skywalkers and all but one in our group of 61 was there and doing fine.

[DocM4]

WOW! You have all had a wild experience - I don't think I'd want to go through that (I'm not the adverturesome type!!). Glad there were not many casualties, there certainly could have been more from the sounds of it.

[RunningDeer]

Julia....thank you for telling it like it was! Larry and I were in the Horizon Court and it was a very scary 10 mins.....sounds of crashing equipment, breaking glass, people falling out of chairs. When I looked out of the window as we listed, I saw a very deep crevasse and a wave at eye level! I truly did not know whether we were going over or not........ We certainly had angels watching over us.

Joan (Running Deer)

[bamacrzer]

Julia and everyone else on the last cruise,

We too were on the CB and in Horizon Court when the ship tilted. I was not laughing at all. Matter of fact, I was doing a lot of praying. Besides all the plates and food crashing to the floor, the most frightening thing for me was how long the ship stayed tilted at that extreme angle and we looked into the deep trough of water. It just seemed as if the ship was at the point that if it tilted any more it may not be able to right itself and it seem to hang at that angle for several minutes. Even when it did began to right itself it still was not completely level. When I thought it was finally safe enought to walk I went to check on other family members. A crew member came running up the stairwell telling everyone to sit down where they were at. Everyone was okay but continued to be nervous for most of the day. I talked to probably half a dozen crew members later on and all said they had never experienced anything like this. They said the crew quarters downstairs was also really a mess. Was it my imagination, or did there seem to be more creaking sounds between floors after this incident? Does anyone know what the angle of the list actually was?

Thanks,

Bruce

[scared cruiser]

I've read these posts from fellow passengers with interest. My husband and I, as well as my sister and her family, were in our cabins on deck 5 (starboard) when the ship began to list. I will never forget the fear as I held on to the walls to stay on my feet and looked down at our window into the water and could see only water. This lasted at least 10 minutes. I am an ER nurse, paramedic, have flown many rescue missions, etc, but never had felt that I was in such a dangerous situation. I must say that I have no professional experience related to ships, but I can't help but wonder how it was that we ended up in such a situation. Our cabin steward told us that the coast guard was actually on the scene at one point and followed along for a period of time. Does anyone know any more about that? Is there any way to find out why the coast guard was called? It seems to me that if everything was under control, the coast guard would not have been notified. Does anyone know anything about this or how I can go about finding out more about the call to the coast guard? This was my 5th cruise, and likely my last, unfortunately.

[dforeigner]

Things are still looking rough!

 

[mar872]

I can bring my accordian also. We can have a polka fest!

 

LOL... for my sanity, please don't. I want a vacation of peace and quiet... hahahaha The year has been stressful with the markets. Hahahaah :p

[julia]

Hi to my fellow cruisers on the 10/10 sailing...

 

Thanks for the positive replies, and for sharing your details about what happened on Friday morning. We heard many similar stories throughout the day and evening, and now realize how amazing it was that there were no serious injuries (at least none that we know of). And yes, it appears the weather has worsened for this current sailing (10/17). I wish them well....

 

Sail... will touch base with you about sharing my photos once I get unpacked and can download them.

 

I hope everyone is home safely, and that you enjoyed this itinerary as much as we did.

 

We'll have some amazing memories, that's for sure!

[houch]

This is really frightening! I can't imagine being in the Horizon Court on that ship and looking into the water as one poster stated. YIKES! So glad that everyone is ok. I have never experienced that type of situation and hope I never do.

[RickEk]

We were on board last week during the "slight list" on Friday. Despite what the Princess news release said, the crew was NOT prepared for this - they are prepared for normal ship movement, not sudden, sustained 70kt winds. We were in Horizon Court -- most plates and a lot of the food ended up on the floor and they had to close down for an hour or two to clean up and repair. Shops closed most of the morning, lots of crystal and Lladro lost (along with maple syrup, glad I didn't have to clean that up!). Produiction show canceled due to the need to check all the Theatre equipment but they had the comedians going and as much of the regular activities as they could. One humorous note by the CD, "the clearance sale will be proceeding as scheduled today, great bargains at 75% off, oh and probably some broken bits at 95% off." By Friday afternoon mostly back to normal (other than the previously-reported piano incident in Explorers lounge) but it wasn't quite the "slight incident" Princess might want you to believe.

 

Today we are once again in a nor'easter. Call (tender) at Newport canceled due to weather. Lots of maneuvering to try to find the "smoothest" course but again we're getting 15+ foot seas and gusts to 70 kts.

 

HATS OFF to Capt. Patreeze (?) and the crew. Captain has done EXCELLENT job last week and this keeping everyone informed and trying to let us know what's happening and what they're doing. Crew working like dogs to keep as many activities going and keep everyone calm.

 

Traveling with two friends with 70+ cruises between us, including Hurricane Juliette in 2001, so we've seen worse but definitely have seen better. Wish Princess would be a little more honest but again can say nothing but good about captain and all the crew. Wish us luck and send more towels for our leaking balcony door! :-)

 

Captain Fortezze... an excellent captain.

[WYNOHJO]

Last weeks cruise was a gift to me for my 50th birthday by my wife and the very first cruise we have ever been on. We enjoyed it very much and had a great time. Friday unfortunately turned out to be a very active day at sea. I knew it was going to be rough when we woke up in the am and we were already shaking quite a bit. We went down to have breakfast at the Coral and then decided to go to the casino at app. 9am. Within 15 minutes the ship began to list to the point that all the bottles and glasses in the casino bar rolled off the shelves crashing down on the floor, the free standing signs were falling all over the place and folks that were out on the deck walking bearly got back in through the door. So if anyone states that they knew this was going to happen and prepared themselves is quite bogus. When the ship finally straightened back up my wife and I walked over to the Piazza where we noticed most of the stores had quite extensive damage and have pictures to prove it. Many statues in stores broken, tables turned over and even honey jars broken all over the carpet. We did notice workers running around trying to move whatever they can but this indeed was a surprise to all and was not anticipated as the Princess spokeswoman has been quoted on another site. If they were I am sure what we seen going on would have happened way before. I do give credit to the captain and crew for getting us through the storm aand back home safely. We will definitely be going on another cruise even after this incident.

[FritzG]

Thanks for the pictures. How sad; there must be thousands of dollars of damage in the shops. Aren't they franchised rather than being owned by Princess? I hope they have good insurance.

[Maraprince]

First of all let me express my sympathy for those of you on the C. Princess. We were on the Carnival Triumph and left Halifax the same day as you -- not sure who left first. God must have been smiling on us and spared us your horrible ordeal.

 

We knew we were in a storm and heard the creaking in our cabin on deck 7. Walking was difficult as we made our way up to deck 9 for the buffet area. The elevators behaved like the inside of a washing machines throwing you from side to side. You could feel the ship going up and down like a see saw with the horizon disappearing and then reappearing. Passengers were clutching onto the furniture not to lose their balance. We could see the waves behaving as if it was the reversing falls at St. John at full speed. Surprisingly, the visibility wasn't bad like my sailing on June on the Caribbean Princess where we had pea soup fog for over 14 hours with the fog horn blowing non-stop. If we had had the same misfortune as you did, we would have been flooded out of our cabin since the balcony doors on the C. Truimph open like a regular door (not sliding) and do not have a tight seal to begin with! Our ship was very drafty and cold since none of the Carnival ships have heat -- just a blower on the ceiling to adjust the amount of air.

 

The Crown and the Caribbean Princess are more prone to swaying/tilting due to the way the ships are builit. The Carnival ships are very square and boxy in design while the 2 Princess ship taper (get narrower) as the decks get higher -- making them less balanced than the Carnival ships.

 

I only heard about the Caribbean Princess situation after I came home. Thankfully for the Truimph passengers we didn't encounter the same problem. As bad as things were, it could have been worse. Damage to property is better than injuries to people. How scarery it must have been for the passengers. I would have been kissing the ground in Brooklyn!

 

Again, my sympathies for your ordeal.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[emileg]

Last weeks cruise was a gift to me for my 50th birthday by my wife and the very first cruise we have ever been on. We enjoyed it very much and had a great time. Friday unfortunately turned out to be a very active day at sea. I knew it was going to be rough when we woke up in the am and we were already shaking quite a bit. We went down to have breakfast at the Coral and then decided to go to the casino at app. 9am. Within 15 minutes the ship began to list to the point that all the bottles and glasses in the casino bar rolled off the shelves crashing down on the floor, the free standing signs were falling all over the place and folks that were out on the deck walking bearly got back in through the door. So if anyone states that they knew this was going to happen and prepared themselves is quite bogus. When the ship finally straightened back up my wife and I walked over to the Piazza where we noticed most of the stores had quite extensive damage and have pictures to prove it. Many statues in stores broken, tables turned over and even honey jars broken all over the carpet. We did notice workers running around trying to move whatever they can but this indeed was a surprise to all and was not anticipated as the Princess spokeswoman has been quoted on another site. If they were I am sure what we seen going on would have happened way before. I do give credit to the captain and crew for getting us through the storm aand back home safely. We will definitely be going on another cruise even after this incident.

Thank you for sharing your account of this harrowing time and for the first pictures.

[emileg]

First of all let me express my sympathy for those of you on the C. Princess. We were on the Carnival Triumph and left Halifax the same day as you -- not sure who left first. God must have been smiling on us and spared us your horrible ordeal....

 

The Crown and the Caribbean Princess are more prone to swaying/tilting due to the way the ships are builit. The Carnival ships are very square and boxy in design while the 2 Princess ship taper (get narrower) as the decks get higher -- making them less balanced than the Carnival ships.

 

MARAPRINCE

I'm sure your pitching and rolling were no fun, either.

 

For the Caribbean Princess, Princess took the design of the Grand, Golden and Star Princesses and added the Riviera deck. This would raise the center of gravity of the ship and make the ship more vulnerable to rolling and healing, unless it was compensated by extra ballast. I would have to think that naval architects who designed the ship know a lot more about this concept than I do.

 

I know that some posters were fearful that the ship would roll over. We used to have a 32 foot boat. I asked an experienced captain how much roll the boat could take before it tipped over. His answer: "A lot more than you can."

 

I don't think I have ever heard of a case where the ship tipped over due to rough seas and high winds. Tipping over has happened in case of structural failure, water entering the hull or major load shifting on large ferries. I doubt the movement of furniture could cause enough shift in weight load to make any difference.

 

The fact that so many people have said that their boat or ship almost tipped over attests to the fact that their vessels did not roll over. I am not in anyway suggesting that heavy rolling or healing in bad weather isn't frightening. I'm sure I would have been frightened as well. - Emile

[jbrambach]

To all the posters on the last sailing of the CB,

I am glad you are all back safely.

If you took offense to a few off topic comments I will say I am sorry, no maliciousness was intended. When the incident was first reported, it was made to seem like a very small and short lived incident with minor damage and just one crew member who was injured, but doing fine and "already back at work"

 

I was on a ship that listed once and it was just for a minute or two and drums fell while we were watching the show, no damage and a short lived incident, as I thought yours was from the inital reports. Unfortunely, what was reported and what really happened are two different things. Again, I think I can speak for everyone when saying, we are glad you are back safely.