Just off Freedom caught in storm October 9th

[SpeedGeek]

At the diamond breakfast I sat with the IT ops manager, James Brown, and he said it was 12 degrees. James also said the design spec was 45 degrees for a rightable list. During the cruise they aired the building of Voyager and in the video they said the ship had to return from a 45 degree list.

 

And you know it's the truth when it comes from the Godfather of Soul. :cool:

[K1200S]

And you know it's the truth when it comes from the Godfather of Soul. :cool:

Absolutely!

[BecciBoo]

I would believe something coming from a ship's officer way before anything coming from the service staff, that's no better than passenger scuttlebutt. The room stewards, bar tenders and MDR staff just repeat what they heard from someone else. Better be careful about repeating rumors, they are more than likely just that. On any one cruise, I have heard more stories than I can count on both hands from service staff, all different.

[Desertbelle]

I have been on a ship that did a 12-13 degree list (twice) and believe me it's scary...it feels like so so so much more than just 12 degrees. Things go crash, stuff rolls around and the scariest part is not knowing if it's going to continue. :eek:

[Pomperaugrr]

Seems like it does come down to that old indian addage:

 

You can't criticize unless you've walked a mile in his moccasins.....

 

 

That's great advice, because when you do criticize him, you are a mile away and you have his shoes! :p

 

Eric

[broberts]

The cause of the list was a severe Microburst (a tremendous downdraft that goes horizontal when it hits the surface) which is NOT visable on radar.

 

What is the source for contending that the cause of the list was a Microburst?

 

My understanding of this phenomena is that is is accompanied by a severe drop in temperature, relatively short lived and the winds are generally vertical or near vertical.

[Tonka's Skipper]

Now just where did you get your information about ballast tanks. None of the service staff would know anything about how full the ballast tanks were. That info would have to come from someone in engineering or the bridge. Which one of these did you talk to? Just wondering.:)

 

 

I was kind of wondering that myself?...........AKK

[Tonka's Skipper]

Now just where did you get your information about ballast tanks. None of the service staff would know anything about how full the ballast tanks were. That info would have to come from someone in engineering or the bridge. Which one of these did you talk to? Just wondering.:)

 

 

I was kind of wondering that myself?...........AKK

[xevioso]

What is the source for contending that the cause of the list was a Microburst?

 

My understanding of this phenomena is that is is accompanied by a severe drop in temperature, relatively short lived and the winds are generally vertical or near vertical.

 

I don't know about this being a mircoburst or not, but on land, and presumably also on the open ocean, the winds are vertical..until they hit the ground. The sudden downdraft spreads winds in all directions when it slams into the ground, like an explosion. Like a bomb hitting. I've seen the effects first hand on land. It would be hard for me to believe that this would cause a ship to tilt to the side, but even so we were listing for a good half an hour as the captain tried to turn the ship one way and then the other.

[SpeedGeek]

Three of our dinner companions from England were doing a B2B and would be on there now. The elderly man was in a wheelchair. Hope they are okay...

 

I just noticed this... They were our tablemates as well along with two other Brits. :D And he did just fine!

[crazy canadian]

Now just where did you get your information about ballast tanks. None of the service staff would know anything about how full the ballast tanks were. That info would have to come from someone in engineering or the bridge. Which one of these did you talk to? Just wondering.:)

 

I am not going to comment any further on this.

 

We had a great cruise and plan on cruising again in March!:)

[SpeedGeek]

I am not going to comment any further on this.

 

Really? Guess we know how good that info is. :rolleyes:

[reallyitsmema]

Really? Guess we know how good that info is. :rolleyes:

It is very common for people who have witnessed the same thing to have very different versions of the events. Many people, including yourself, who were on the Freedom during this storm, have spoken to many different sources. It is hard to decide who is 100 percent correct and who isn't. The information that we have all read in the posted news articles doesn't even agree with the details. One even said that the ship left port 3 hours late.

 

We just need to allow everyone to share what information they know and then we can all wait to see and official report in the months to come.:)

[SpeedGeek]

It is very common for people who have witnessed the same thing to have very different versions of the events. Many people, including yourself, who were on the Freedom during this storm, have spoken to many different sources. It is hard to decide who is 100 percent correct and who isn't. The information that we have all read in the posted news articles doesn't even agree with the details. One even said that the ship left port 3 hours late.

 

We just need to allow everyone to share what information they know and then we can all wait to see and official report in the months to come.:)

 

Oh I know that; I just find it amusing when someone goes "This is what happened" and people want to know where the information came from because of so much misinformation out there, and the same person zips their lips as if their information came from a super secret source. Generally when this happens, it's because the information is bunk. Thus my reaction. :D

[garlinn]

Im surprised the curtains werent closed in the MDR......

 

When we saw the curtains closing that issue we knew it was getting bad.

[PH8]

. One even said that the ship left port 3 hours late.

 

Knew that wasn't true......I was watching and looking for William:D:D

[StrikeEagle]

My family and I were also on the same cruise (10/19 – 10/16/2011). Even though this vacation may have started out in bad weather, overall, we have a great time. Great time that we have the ability to spent time with each other no matter what obstacles are out there.

 

We have a party of 3, my wife, daughter and I. This is my 6th cruise with RCCL. Spouse and I we are in our early 40’s. Daughter 3rd cruise she’s 6 years old. This is our daughter 2nd time on the Freedom of the Seas. Last time was on late October of 2009.

 

We always book the Cruise vacation on the very last week of October to get a good price. We always have good weather in the past. This time because of my wife job, we cannot book the cruise in the last week of October therefore we book it on the early October.

 

As usually on other cruise vacations, before the cruise, we flew in on the Wednesday before the Sunday sailing to Orlando and visit Disney and Universal Studios before the cruise. We rented a car from Orlando airport and drop it off at Cape Canaveral.

 

Flew in Wednesday 10/5 late afternoon the whole day the weather was great. Settled in our motel and spent the rest of the day in Disney Downtown. Thursday, most of the day the weather was ok, got several on/off showers. Friday we went to Magic Kingdom, at around 10:00am it start to rain hard and it kept rain hard on and off during the morning throughout the afternoon. Then it started to continuous rain from Friday evening. Because we have bought the parks tickets ahead of time and also I let wife and daughter have the vote of whether they want to go to the Universal Studios in this heavy rain (they both voted yes) therefore on Saturday even though it was pouring the whole day we got in our ponchos and visit Universal Studios. Our daughter told us she likes the rain and like to play in the rain.

By the way, we are from Houston, Texas. Here in Texas it is severe drought this year. We were wishing that this rain could go to Texas.

 

On Sunday, we left our motel at 8:00 am and drove to Port Canaveral to drop off the luggage, then to return the car at Thrifty in Cape Canaveral, then the shuttle bus back to the terminal. The drive from Orlando to Port Canaveral was pouring with heavy rain. I have to drive much slower because the windshield wiper could not keep up. Luckily when we arrive at the terminal around 10:15am, the rain has temporary stop. We were able to stay dry dropping off the luggage, returned the car and got on the ship without getting wet. Checked in and got on the ship around 12:30pm headed directly to Windjammer for lunch, then walking around the ship.

 

At the Muster drill at 4:00 pm it starts to rain hard again. The floor where the Shuffle board game where the Muster drill deck is very slippery several people slipped and fall. Crew member tried to tell people not to walk on the Shuffle board. In the end it was very crowded and therefore people cannot avoid it. Now it is raining hard and windy, my daughter is getting cold and shaking. Even though the crew member told her to get in the front of the line, I told them that I need to stand in front of her to block the wind and rain, because she is getting very cold and shaking.

After muster drill, we went down to the Promenade deck stop Café Promenade and got our daughter some hot chocolate drink to warm her up. She is really shaking.

 

The ship did leave Port Canaveral at the scheduled time at 4:30 pm. We were on the Promenade deck for the sail away party. The cruise director did a countdown for the departure to start the vacation.

 

There is a welcome aboard show at 7:00 pm in the Arcadia Theater which we were planning to attend. We have My Time Dinning and because we ate the buffet, my daughter, wife and I agreed that we are not hungry yet and we could eat after the show. At around 6:30 pm we were walking around the ship, me with a camcorder in my hand video my daughter and wife walking around. The ship was tilting left and right. You can actually tell the building structure was really leaning to left, then to the right, sometimes it just stuck there leaning to one side. My daughter thought it was fun. She kept on saying do it again. I told my wife watch me. I’m doing my martial arts Shaolin stance to negate the tilting and rocking of the ship.

 

As we were walking down the Royal Promenade deck I kept my camcorder on and hear things crashing around us. I walk past one of the store and saw things fallen and smashed I point my camcorder toward it. One of the employee in the store, he was not security personnel, he was a sales person, he started yelling at me, made a rude threaten remark that he is going to take my camcorder from me if I keep video what’s going on in this ship. Because “we are on the same boat” same situation I co operate with him, turn my off camcorder and walk away. But as soon as I’m away I turned back on my camcorder.

 

We got to the Arcadia theatre at around 7:20pm, then the announcement say that due to the weather, we have to cancel tonight show because it is unsafe for the performer. As we are walking out of the theater, the rocking of the ship is getting worst now. I just hope that the ship doesn’t tip over to one side. I can really see the whole ship structure is leaning to one side. We then heard the announcement on the PA telling that they are shutting down everything (all the dinning, shows, and things to do around the ship) and everyone go back to their room. They blocked the promenade deck to prevent people from walking through it.

 

Because we are on the 2nd deck which is the lowered deck and in this weather situation and the possibility of the ship may tip over one side, I was thinking that if they ordered us back to our room and if something bad happened we may be trapped down there. RCCL should have a dedicated room which is either 4th or 5th floor where easy access to the life boat or to escape from the ship for this kind of situation for people who are on the lower deck to ride out the storm. They have shutdown the elevators and many people were trapped in the hallway cannot go back to their room.

 

Once we are back to our room on the 2nd deck, we have an ocean view room with a window. The seas is very rough I was able to video it. Looks kind of blurry on the video because it was dark outside. I can see high wave smashing at our windows.

 

For those people who flame those who smuggles alcohol or why bring alcohol, this is where my Rum Runners comes handy, when all bars and dinning shutdown. I still have my Rum. :D :cool:

 

Daughter and wife went to bed. One idea for the cruise line is to make a seat belt for the bed or called it bed belt so that you can stay on your bed during this kind of weather.

 

Wife took some sea sick pill. Daughter and I we never got sea sick. They went to sleep I stayed awake to look out for the situation in case we have to abandon ship or something bad happened. I kept in the in room Public Announcement volume on maximum to hear any announcement from the captain. At around 10:00 pm. The captain made the announcement that during the storm he put the ship into the wind and got us off track to our destination , but now the weather is getting better he got us back on track to Coco Cay. Dining room was reopened but only on the 3rd deck. I wake wife and daughter up. Went up to 3rd deck and they were serving pizzas and sandwiches. They were passing out free cans of sodas.

 

Next day arrived at Coco Cay on time, it was a beautiful Sunny day at the beach. The rest of the cruise the weather is pretty good. Sunny days on St. Thomas and St. Maarten. On Sea days we went to the pool. Daughter loves the H2O zone, the round pool which goes round and round (not the hot tub there is pool shape like a donut with the water pressure which force the kids to float round and round). She called it the lazy river. We enjoyed the sports deck, mini Golf.

 

Overall it was a great vacation and we will sail with RCCL again, but probably we’ll avoid the early October month. ;)

[ditom]

What is the source for contending that the cause of the list was a Microburst?

 

My understanding of this phenomena is that is is accompanied by a severe drop in temperature, relatively short lived and the winds are generally vertical or near vertical.

 

The source was Captain Rob. The winds (very severe) are vertical UNTIL they hit the surface at which point they become horizontal at pretty much the same speed.

 

By the way, in my earlier post I said that the Carnival Ship would have had to make a 360 degree turn in the basin. I meant a 180 degree turn.

tom

[StrikeEagle]

They have shutdown the elevators and many people were trapped in the hallway cannot go back to their room.

 

Reading over my post I saw that I forgot to put in a few words in the above quote. What I meant to say was "They have shutdown the elevators and many people who are in wheelchairs were stuck in the hallway near the elevators cannot go back to their room.

[awboater]

During the event, the cruise director came on over the PA system a couple of times, and the captain did once.

 

Due to the confusion I cannot remember which, but either the cruise director or captain mentioned "microburst".

[broberts]

The source was Captain Rob. The winds (very severe) are vertical UNTIL they hit the surface at which point they become horizontal at pretty much the same speed.

 

Thanks. Microbursts would certainly help to explain the lack of warning concerning the very severe conditions that were encountered.

[Blurgh]

My family and I were also on the same cruise (10/19 – 10/16/2011). Even though this vacation may have started out in bad weather, overall, we have a great time. Great time that we have the ability to spent time with each other no matter what obstacles are out there.

 

We have a party of 3, my wife, daughter and I. This is my 6th cruise with RCCL. Spouse and I we are in our early 40’s. Daughter 3rd cruise she’s 6 years old. This is our daughter 2nd time on the Freedom of the Seas. Last time was on late October of 2009.

 

We always book the Cruise vacation on the very last week of October to get a good price. We always have good weather in the past. This time because of my wife job, we cannot book the cruise in the last week of October therefore we book it on the early October.

 

As usually on other cruise vacations, before the cruise, we flew in on the Wednesday before the Sunday sailing to Orlando and visit Disney and Universal Studios before the cruise. We rented a car from Orlando airport and drop it off at Cape Canaveral.

 

Flew in Wednesday 10/5 late afternoon the whole day the weather was great. Settled in our motel and spent the rest of the day in Disney Downtown. Thursday, most of the day the weather was ok, got several on/off showers. Friday we went to Magic Kingdom, at around 10:00am it start to rain hard and it kept rain hard on and off during the morning throughout the afternoon. Then it started to continuous rain from Friday evening. Because we have bought the parks tickets ahead of time and also I let wife and daughter have the vote of whether they want to go to the Universal Studios in this heavy rain (they both voted yes) therefore on Saturday even though it was pouring the whole day we got in our ponchos and visit Universal Studios. Our daughter told us she likes the rain and like to play in the rain.

By the way, we are from Houston, Texas. Here in Texas it is severe drought this year. We were wishing that this rain could go to Texas.

 

On Sunday, we left our motel at 8:00 am and drove to Port Canaveral to drop off the luggage, then to return the car at Thrifty in Cape Canaveral, then the shuttle bus back to the terminal. The drive from Orlando to Port Canaveral was pouring with heavy rain. I have to drive much slower because the windshield wiper could not keep up. Luckily when we arrive at the terminal around 10:15am, the rain has temporary stop. We were able to stay dry dropping off the luggage, returned the car and got on the ship without getting wet. Checked in and got on the ship around 12:30pm headed directly to Windjammer for lunch, then walking around the ship.

 

At the Muster drill at 4:00 pm it starts to rain hard again. The floor where the Shuffle board game where the Muster drill deck is very slippery several people slipped and fall. Crew member tried to tell people not to walk on the Shuffle board. In the end it was very crowded and therefore people cannot avoid it. Now it is raining hard and windy, my daughter is getting cold and shaking. Even though the crew member told her to get in the front of the line, I told them that I need to stand in front of her to block the wind and rain, because she is getting very cold and shaking.

After muster drill, we went down to the Promenade deck stop Café Promenade and got our daughter some hot chocolate drink to warm her up. She is really shaking.

 

The ship did leave Port Canaveral at the scheduled time at 4:30 pm. We were on the Promenade deck for the sail away party. The cruise director did a countdown for the departure to start the vacation.

 

There is a welcome aboard show at 7:00 pm in the Arcadia Theater which we were planning to attend. We have My Time Dinning and because we ate the buffet, my daughter, wife and I agreed that we are not hungry yet and we could eat after the show. At around 6:30 pm we were walking around the ship, me with a camcorder in my hand video my daughter and wife walking around. The ship was tilting left and right. You can actually tell the building structure was really leaning to left, then to the right, sometimes it just stuck there leaning to one side. My daughter thought it was fun. She kept on saying do it again. I told my wife watch me. I’m doing my martial arts Shaolin stance to negate the tilting and rocking of the ship.

 

As we were walking down the Royal Promenade deck I kept my camcorder on and hear things crashing around us. I walk past one of the store and saw things fallen and smashed I point my camcorder toward it. One of the employee in the store, he was not security personnel, he was a sales person, he started yelling at me, made a rude threaten remark that he is going to take my camcorder from me if I keep video what’s going on in this ship. Because “we are on the same boat” same situation I co operate with him, turn my off camcorder and walk away. But as soon as I’m away I turned back on my camcorder.

 

We got to the Arcadia theatre at around 7:20pm, then the announcement say that due to the weather, we have to cancel tonight show because it is unsafe for the performer. As we are walking out of the theater, the rocking of the ship is getting worst now. I just hope that the ship doesn’t tip over to one side. I can really see the whole ship structure is leaning to one side. We then heard the announcement on the PA telling that they are shutting down everything (all the dinning, shows, and things to do around the ship) and everyone go back to their room. They blocked the promenade deck to prevent people from walking through it.

 

Because we are on the 2nd deck which is the lowered deck and in this weather situation and the possibility of the ship may tip over one side, I was thinking that if they ordered us back to our room and if something bad happened we may be trapped down there. RCCL should have a dedicated room which is either 4th or 5th floor where easy access to the life boat or to escape from the ship for this kind of situation for people who are on the lower deck to ride out the storm. They have shutdown the elevators and many people were trapped in the hallway cannot go back to their room.

 

Once we are back to our room on the 2nd deck, we have an ocean view room with a window. The seas is very rough I was able to video it. Looks kind of blurry on the video because it was dark outside. I can see high wave smashing at our windows.

 

For those people who flame those who smuggles alcohol or why bring alcohol, this is where my Rum Runners comes handy, when all bars and dinning shutdown. I still have my Rum. :D :cool:

 

Daughter and wife went to bed. One idea for the cruise line is to make a seat belt for the bed or called it bed belt so that you can stay on your bed during this kind of weather.

 

Wife took some sea sick pill. Daughter and I we never got sea sick. They went to sleep I stayed awake to look out for the situation in case we have to abandon ship or something bad happened. I kept in the in room Public Announcement volume on maximum to hear any announcement from the captain. At around 10:00 pm. The captain made the announcement that during the storm he put the ship into the wind and got us off track to our destination , but now the weather is getting better he got us back on track to Coco Cay. Dining room was reopened but only on the 3rd deck. I wake wife and daughter up. Went up to 3rd deck and they were serving pizzas and sandwiches. They were passing out free cans of sodas.

 

Next day arrived at Coco Cay on time, it was a beautiful Sunny day at the beach. The rest of the cruise the weather is pretty good. Sunny days on St. Thomas and St. Maarten. On Sea days we went to the pool. Daughter loves the H2O zone, the round pool which goes round and round (not the hot tub there is pool shape like a donut with the water pressure which force the kids to float round and round). She called it the lazy river. We enjoyed the sports deck, mini Golf.

 

Overall it was a great vacation and we will sail with RCCL again, but probably we’ll avoid the early October month. ;)

 

LOL, I thought I was the only person that thought of "bed belts", at least for the upper berths. The only time I had an upper berth, I slept on the floor. Figured I would wake up half asleep, get up of bed and proceed to break my leg/blow out my knee.

[CruisinfromTexas]

I've been on eight (or nine) cruises and never had any bad weather. In fact I often find myself wishing I could feel a little more of the motion of the ocean. So my question to anyone is: If, like me, you've longed to feel a little more movement, and now find yourself in this more severe weather, are you frightened or excited? Is it fun or scary?

 

We have been on 20 and only once was it bad enough to really scare me. My husband was in the cabin taking a nap (didn't bother him) but it was up in the North Atlantic on the Canada New England Cruise and we had a Noreaster (never been in one before) I was in the atrium area looking out the windows on the 5th floor and the waves were hitting the windows and suddenly dishes started crashing out of the atrium bar and even though somewhat strapped down, the grand piano started turning over. Captain ordered everyone to stay where they were and it should be over in about an hour. I was really scared, it was rocking and rolling so bad and the crashing waves and crashing dishes. But just as he said we came right out of it safe and sound thankfully. We are about to leave next week on our first transatlantic and I am sure hoping for calm seas!

[pjtmay]

We got on when you were leaving. I had heard that Allure went thru a terrible storm that last evening. We felt rocking during ours a few nights but nothing like you had or OP.

[snapaxp]

Hi, I took the family on the Carnival Sensation and the boat stayed docked in Port. I've read a number of the pages, but not all of them so forgive me if this is repetitive.

 

The Sensation never moved an inch the entire time the storm was coming through. We were tethered to the dock and had a wonderful evening at dinner, the shows, watching football, and the nightclub. We noticed the winds were bad and one of the TV said 58 or 60 knots.

 

The Sensation left the next day for Nassau (flipped the itinerary) and the captain took us due East from the Port. The seas were pretty rough and the boat was rocking pretty good (surely nothing like the RCCL boat) and people did get sick. Roughly 1 hour out to sea the captain turned the ship and sailed SSW toward Florida and hugged the coast all the way down toward the Bahamas and the ride was fine, the boat stopped rocking, and everyone had a great time.

 

Once we arrived in the Bahamas the weather is perfect for both ports of call and the ride back overnight.

 

We were bummed not to leave port, but tremendously happy not to be out to sea in 60+ MPH winds.