Emerald 2-21 sailing - tilting? customs holdup?

[debwebwall]

Does anyone know why the boat tilted so bad last evening around 8:30-8:45ish? Also the holdup with customs this morning? Curious minds want to know - thanks!!

[mikjr]

I remember the ship tilting before on one of our cruises.. we heard that someone had pushed a wrong button and it turned the ship's rudder in the wrong direction.

[christicruiser]

I would like to know the answer to both of those as well.... I was on this sailing also and our cabin neighbors on the Lido deck were under "house arrest" for 2 days - there was someone guarding their cabin door 24/7 the last 2 days of the trip. Not sure what that was about.

[CindyCT]

We also had quite a delay this morning getting out of our disembark location in Explorer's Lounge and then held off before getting our luggage and through Customs. We were fortunate to get to our 11 am flight just in time.

 

We did notice yesterday morning that there was a "Code ALPHA" exercise (which is ship code) for a MEDICAL EMERGENCY - perhaps this had something to do with the delay....

 

Pretty interesting that someone would be held in their room under "house arrest" for 2 days under guard - would really like to know more about that! How about it Princess Cruises?

[Coral]

Sounds like a memorable cruise!

[oldmancurtis]

we were also on the cruise. i asking a princess employee about the hold up getting off was because of imagration they had prolbems. we spent 40 minutes on stairs. we were on rivera deck and also saw the guard. did you notice any teens at the cabin or mayge a misbehaving adult. don't mean to pick on teens but had two and wife works at a school and have seen the worst in action, so smack the parents.

[BruceMuzz]

If YOU had been confined to your stateroom for 2 days during a cruise, it is safe to conclude that you were involved in something ALLEGEDLY pretty serious.

Lawyers and policemen would be involved at some point.

 

Would you like somebody from the cruise line to spill YOUR sordid details on a public website like cruise critic?

I'll bet your lawyer has a pretty strong opinion on that idea.

[mghurle]

Last night, I was out on the deck on the starboard side; and saw what we were veering away from.... another ship. It appeared to be a smaller freighter, around 25,000 tons or so? There were about 40-50 of us on the railing, in the blinding rain looking at that ship. One of the crewmemembers standing nearby noted he was surprised there had not been a message from the bridge regarding what had just occurred.

 

I took a picture of the water pouring out of the Calypso pool, and the deck chairs FLOATING up against the glass windows. It was also quite entertaining listening to the service carts in the hallway sliding up against the opposing walls!

 

Regarding the customs/immigration snafu, I have no clue... other than the standard response that 'we are at a different pier'. So? The processing is the same, and the complement of crew/passengers would almost be identical. No answer there.

[Pam in CA]

I've been on a cruise where someone was held, under guard, in their cabin until they could be off-loaded into the arms of the FBI. There was a very valid reason for him to be confined.

 

If the delay was due to a medical emergency, my heart goes out to the family involved. When we were in FL during the time of our medical emergency, there were at least 5 or 6 passengers or crew in the ICU from various ships.

[satxdiver]

I got off the Ruby this morning at pier 2 in FLL. I did the walk off and was off by 7:45. Our customs was going very smoothly. We did have a tilt last night due to the high wind. We tilted several times during the crossing from the Bahamas to FLL. The captain had warned us earlier in the afternoon. Sounds like the Emerald had another reason to tilt though. Sorry to hear your customs was not running as smoothly as ours was on Pier 2.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like Princess did their job.

Info regarding people confined to their cabin is no other passengers business. :rolleyes:

[mizLORInj]

The weather usually has to do with a tilt (list) to one side. Years ago the worst weather we'd experienced at sea was from St. Thomas back to San Juan, and Crown was really listing port-side! It was an adventure.

[cruiserone]

Was in DiVinci dining room when ship tilted. The water in our glasses went over the top. A young girl ran from the dining room crying. One of my friends was terrified at our table. Even the dining room staff was a little worried.:confused:

 

Other than that incident we felt it was the best Princess cruise ever. The Emerald is a beautiful ship with some of the best staff we have ever had! Our wait staff, Sandra and Joel, were attentive and we never had to ask for a thing. The head waiter, Stefan went above his job. Our cabin steward, Jayson, was in and out with all done in no time. Paolo on the Pursers Desk was charming and gracious. Joann in the future cruise office was helpful. We never saw anyone without a smile and a greeting. Disembarkation was held up but it was not bad. We had an early flight and made it with time to spare.

 

Anyone thinking about taking the Emerald DON"T HESITATE:D DO IT!!!!

 

And we did have the coveted E731 cabin and yes there was a lot of vibrating from the engines and NO noise from Club Fusion. the balcony was terrific and we used it for sailaway with friends at each port.

 

Happy sailing all.....off to the Caribbean Princess March 2011:D

[bhopal21]

Sounds like a memorable cruise!

 

I have not mentioned this before but we had a little excitement during the week of 2/7-2/14 on The Emerald as well.

 

One afternoon while playing trivia the emergency signal was given with instructions for the "assessment team" to report to the engine room. This ocurred while we were docked in Grand Turk and about 90 minutes before we were to sail. About two minutes later a second alarm was given for all crew to report immediately to their stations. At this point our trivia leader took off and you could see crew running as fast as they could all over the ship retrieving their PFD's.

 

Needless to say, people began to get excited. We kept our seats awaiting further instructions and about 4 min or so later the command was given to "stand down".

 

It took some prying but we were finally able to find out that there had been a fire in the engine room which was rather quickly extinguished with minor damage.

 

Our trivia leader returned and we managed to finish the game before sailaway.

 

Mike:)

[geoherb]

We were on the Sun Princess when it made a sharp turn. The pictures on the walls in the art auction area were hanging about a foot away from the wall at the bottom.

 

Our Emerald Princess cruise in November also had a Customs delay, according to what we were told. Our flight after that cruise was in the afternoon, so we did not worry--just enjoyed the Platinum lounge area a little longer and the airport a little bit less.

[pcruz4ever]

I was on this sailing and would not hesitate to go again!! The Emerald is a beautiful ship, the services was terrific, and even though we had the "LIST" and the delay at disembarkation, as well as a little bad weather, it was a great cruise!! Now I'm back in the cold weather in Connecticut, with possible snow in the near forecast - I want to go back to the islands!!!!

As to the customs delay, the Princess staff were very vocal (maybe a little too vocal??!) about there being insufficient customs inspectors on duty, but there were certainly plenty of rumors flying, which I won't repeat here since they were just rumors.

[mmsoko]

I have not mentioned this before but we had a little excitement during the week of 2/7-2/14 on The Emerald as well.

 

One afternoon while playing trivia

 

Mike:)

 

 

Still playing those trivia games??? How are you doing? We just returned from the Ruby, and are once again going to sign up for Panama Canal next year.

 

How was your complete transit..last year, right? Send me e-mail with any hints.

[danacline]

You don't have to do a tight turn to tilt a ship. Remember stabilizers? They're little wings that stick out from the bow under the water, and they can tilt. Normally they're under computer control which tilts them "in real time" to counter the wave/swell action. However, the software is not perfect - sometimes the stabilizers get set a certain way (one side up, one side down) and the ship will tilt (list?) until they reset the system or disconnect it.

 

When a new ship does its sea trials, one of the standard maneuvers is to send the stabilizers hard over and see how much she tilts. Apparently they can safely tilt up to 5 degrees but I've heard of ships tilting as much as 15 degrees.

 

There was a video a while back of a ship's dining room tilting back and forth for a few minutes - by the end not a chair or table was left standing.

[Snorkel girl]

Hi

I also was on this cruise when the boat listed on our last evening. I was in the International Cafe at the time. The staff there were scared, dishes crashed and the quartet stopped playing. Would welcome any info re this as this was my first cruise and I would like to know if this is common. Thanks!

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi

I also was on this cruise when the boat listed on our last evening. I was in the International Cafe at the time. The staff there were scared, dishes crashed and the quartet stopped playing. Would welcome any info re this as this was my first cruise and I would like to know if this is common. Thanks!

 

 

Welcome to CC!!

[KreinKrunker]

Hi

I also was on this cruise when the boat listed on our last evening. I was in the International Cafe at the time. The staff there were scared, dishes crashed and the quartet stopped playing. Would welcome any info re this as this was my first cruise and I would like to know if this is common. Thanks!

 

From the deck of Emerald Princess: We were in Botteceli when this happened. Lost a couple of plates of food that were stacked high. Is this common, not really. But, you are on the ocean, and it does happen. We were waiting in the International Cafe the next morning when the Captain came in. Someone asked about it, he said high winds caused it.

[billet]

Last night, I was out on the deck on the starboard side; and saw what we were veering away from.... another ship. It appeared to be a smaller freighter, around 25,000 tons or so? There were about 40-50 of us on the railing, in the blinding rain looking at that ship. One of the crewmemembers standing nearby noted he was surprised there had not been a message from the bridge regarding what had just occurred.

 

If you were on the starboard side and looking at another ship it is likely they had the right of were and were standing on in which case the Emerald would have to manoeuvre to get clear. However with todays technology there should be plenty of warning to avoid violent turns. Odd and luckily it is not a common occurence at all.

[bermuda triangle]

On our ultimate ships tour when we were in the infirmary one of the ships docs said that if a person is in distress on a smaller vessel, such as a freighter, they will assist in whatever way possible. Especially since you mention bad weather it may not have been possible (or the distance to far) for a helicopter to evacuate the person.

If emergency medical care was needed it is likely the person was transfered to the ships infirmary from the freighter. I don't know how visible this would have been to most passengers. Whoever having a stranger aboard could be the answer to both the immigration hold up and the medical emergency.

 

 

 

As for the guard outside the door...........I can only imagine

 

Laura