The Liberty "Tilt"

[tquinn]

My DH and I were on the Liberty last week also. We were having breakfast and what a mess in the buffet area. Anyways we spoke to someone in a white uniform who said it was a malfunction of the electronics that regulate the stabilizers.

 

We also experienced the tilt, on the first morning after we sailed. I was in our cabin on the bottom deck towards the rear of the ship. Just before the ship tilted, I felt a heavy vibration in the ship.

 

At the same time, my sister was in another cabin with a balcony on the starboard side on deck 7. She had been watching a Celebrity cruise ship that was running alongside of us and on a parallel course on our right. She said that there was no question that we veered toward the Celebrity ship and tilted to the left when this incident happened. She said our ship then made a correction turn back toward the left, which brought our ship back to level, and back to running parallel to the Celebrity ship.

 

I concluded from these two observations that what caused the tilt was a hard turn to starboard, either by a crew mistake or malfunction or programming error in the autopilot. The vibration I heard was probably cavitation due to the rudder being turned hard while at cruise speed.

 

The Cruise Director came over the Public Address system shortly after this incident, and said something about Carnival wanting to be open with its passengers, and then said that something that had happened to cause the ship to tilt to port. He said they were still investigating. To my knowledge, no other official information was provided to the passengers about the incident for the remainder of the cruise.

 

Several times during the week, I spoke to white uniformed crew and asked what had happened. In all but one case, they either said they did not know because it was still under investigation, or they could not say. The one time I got an answer was when I asked someone who was surrounded by other crew and looked and acted like he was pretty much up the chain of command. I asked him what had happened, and he said that it was still under investigation. I then asked if it was something to do with the engines, and he said it definitely had nothing to do with the engines. Then I said then it must have been something to do with the autopilot, and he cracked a thin smile for just a second, then got serious and said that it was still under investigation. His body language suggested to me it was the autopilot that caused the incident.

 

I agree that it is a shame that they didn't eventually tell the passengers what had happened.

[DALSAL]

I was on the Princess Grand out of Galveston when we made a turn to meet the Coast Guard for a medical emergency, which caused a big list and lots of damage. Only problem was for the longest minute, we had NO idea what was going on. First the big list, then pool water (we had no idea it was pool water at the time) started coming in to the ship, glass breaking, casino chips flying, you get the picture! The ship was on automatic pilot at the time and on the captains orders, the ship was ordered to turn around and meet the coast guard.This was the scariest thing I have even encountered at the time...a short time later, same thing happened to one of their ships off of Florida. I think they just forgot to tell the ship to slow down before making that BIG turn! :eek:

 

While it was very scary at the time,Im still cruising, and loving it!!:D

[PittsburghGirlee]

If this happend on ANY SHIP that I was on.........

I would "ship" my pants:eek::eek::eek:

[broberts]

We also experienced the tilt, on the first morning after we sailed. I was in our cabin on the bottom deck towards the rear of the ship. Just before the ship tilted, I felt a heavy vibration in the ship.

 

At the same time, my sister was in another cabin with a balcony on the starboard side on deck 7. She had been watching a Celebrity cruise ship that was running alongside of us and on a parallel course on our right. She said that there was no question that we veered toward the Celebrity ship and tilted to the left when this incident happened. She said our ship then made a correction turn back toward the left, which brought our ship back to level, and back to running parallel to the Celebrity ship.

 

I concluded from these two observations that what caused the tilt was a hard turn to starboard, either by a crew mistake or malfunction or programming error in the autopilot. The vibration I heard was probably cavitation due to the rudder being turned hard while at cruise speed.

 

The Cruise Director came over the Public Address system shortly after this incident, and said something about Carnival wanting to be open with its passengers, and then said that something that had happened to cause the ship to tilt to port. He said they were still investigating. To my knowledge, no other official information was provided to the passengers about the incident for the remainder of the cruise.

 

Several times during the week, I spoke to white uniformed crew and asked what had happened. In all but one case, they either said they did not know because it was still under investigation, or they could not say. The one time I got an answer was when I asked someone who was surrounded by other crew and looked and acted like he was pretty much up the chain of command. I asked him what had happened, and he said that it was still under investigation. I then asked if it was something to do with the engines, and he said it definitely had nothing to do with the engines. Then I said then it must have been something to do with the autopilot, and he cracked a thin smile for just a second, then got serious and said that it was still under investigation. His body language suggested to me it was the autopilot that caused the incident.

 

I agree that it is a shame that they didn't eventually tell the passengers what had happened.

 

Thank you.

 

We were in St Thomas with Liberty. We spent a few minutes in a cable car with some passengers who were somewhat traumatized by the experience. One suggesting that the tilt had been 40 degrees. Another saying that someone in a hot tub had been thrown out.

 

Certainly dishes sliding off the breakfast tables, something we heard from several different parties, indicates a significant tilt. As does water sloshing out of the pools.

 

While I understand a reluctance on the part of any company to say anything for which they might conceivably be sued, providing some facts early might go a long way to calm fears and prevent wild accounts from getting out of hand. A "technical glitch" with no follow up information is not sufficient.

[VegasCrossfire]

La, la, la I'M NOT LISTENING!

 

I knew I should not have opened this thread. I am on the Liberty in 12 days.

 

Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts.

 

If this happend on ANY SHIP that I was on.........

 

I would "ship" my pants:eek::eek::eek:

 

 

Funniest 2 posts I have seen on this board in a long time!

I agree with both of them.

Thanks for the giggles.:D;):D

[Rottweiler Puppy]

Does anyone know what happened to the Liberty on Sunday, January 8th. We are seasoned cruisers (48 times) and have never had our ship tilt like that! We heard many stories and I thought when we got home I could easily hear what really happened. Of course with the tradegy of the Costa ship it seems minor.

 

 

[monicajay]

I have a girlfriend who was on this Liberty 'tilt' cruise. It was her first cruise and she was very scared by the experience. She insists that they never really told them what happened but it was enough that a lot of water was emptied from the pools. Then when they got off and found out about the Concordia, well chances are she won't be cruising again.

 

I came to this Carnival board hoping to help her find answers but it seems Carnival is not addressing what happened.

[javamom]

.

 

I came to this Carnival board hoping to help her find answers but it seems Carnival is not addressing what happened.

 

This is not a Carnival board. It's a board where we guests share info about Carnival.

[cdamion]

Thank you.

 

We were in St Thomas with Liberty. We spent a few minutes in a cable car with some passengers who were somewhat traumatized by the experience. One suggesting that the tilt had been 40 degrees. Another saying that someone in a hot tub had been thrown out.

 

Certainly dishes sliding off the breakfast tables, something we heard from several different parties, indicates a significant tilt. As does water sloshing out of the pools.

 

While I understand a reluctance on the part of any company to say anything for which they might conceivably be sued, providing some facts early might go a long way to calm fears and prevent wild accounts from getting out of hand. A "technical glitch" with no follow up information is not sufficient.

 

If you look at the various threads on this, a few people say the 'tilt' was 40 degrees. Obviously it wasn't that much, or it would have been another big news story.

 

I do agree that if I was on board, I would appreciate some kind of announcement regarding the cause - even if it was just a preliminary suspicion.

[DaytonCruiser]

Good thing 20/20 didnt see this thread.

[SMSACE6]

For many years, I worked for an airline, and I did fly frequently, so over the years, there were many times that I was on board aircraft when "something obviously" happened. Im talking about sudden aborted landings and takeoffs, as well as hard landings, and in air sudden drops in altitude, among other events. Even as a company employee, it was very hard to find out later what actually happened, and often was told different accounts of what happened. Very often it was explained as a technical problem. Well, duh...yes even us passengers know that! When no injuries or damage occurs specifics are rarely given with respect to what actually happened, regardless of the mode of transportation.

[NorthGeorgiaCruiser]

This is not a Carnival board. It's a board where we guests share info about Carnival.

 

 

Which by definition makes it a Carnival board.

[monicajay]

Which by definition makes it a Carnival board.

 

Thanks I was feeling like I was stupid or something. :rolleyes:

[ferfoodle]

For many years, I worked for an airline, and I did fly frequently, so over the years, there were many times that I was on board aircraft when "something obviously" happened. Im talking about sudden aborted landings and takeoffs, as well as hard landings, and in air sudden drops in altitude, among other events. Even as a company employee, it was very hard to find out later what actually happened, and often was told different accounts of what happened. Very often it was explained as a technical problem. Well, duh...yes even us passengers know that! When no injuries or damage occurs specifics are rarely given with respect to what actually happened, regardless of the mode of transportation.

 

I can't believe I am still reading this thread (but only with one eye - through the opened fingers on my hands - that are covering my face).

 

We had an aborted landing once back in the 80's - and although a bit unsettling at that moment, I still crack up laughing when I think of the Captain's announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to try this landing one more time...only this time with the landing gear locked in place. I'm thinking it will make the landing a bit smoother than it would have been the first try. Don't y'all think so?" I think his "truthful" candor calmed all the passengers quite quickly.

[DaytonCruiser]

 

We had an aborted landing once back in the 80's - and although a bit unsettling at that moment, I still crack up laughing when I think of the Captain's announcement. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to try this landing one more time...only this time with the landing gear locked in place. I'm thinking it will make the landing a bit smoother than it would have been the first try. Don't y'all think so?" I think his "truthful" candor calmed all the passengers quite quickly.

 

With youtube out there today, doubtful a pilot would do that, for fear of the video going viral.

[ferfoodle]

With youtube out there today, doubtful a pilot would do that, for fear of the video going viral.

 

I don't think they are allowed to say stuff like that today.

[CactusDweller]

Just got off the Sensation last week, No tilt, great trip, however I'm sure there were a few who had a couple too many that swore the ship was tilted. lol :D:eek:

[Gingee]

Okay you have me scared. Two incidents around the same time. How long did these lists last?

[cdamion]

For many years, I worked for an airline, and I did fly frequently, so over the years, there were many times that I was on board aircraft when "something obviously" happened. Im talking about sudden aborted landings and takeoffs, as well as hard landings, and in air sudden drops in altitude, among other events. Even as a company employee, it was very hard to find out later what actually happened, and often was told different accounts of what happened. Very often it was explained as a technical problem. Well, duh...yes even us passengers know that! When no injuries or damage occurs specifics are rarely given with respect to what actually happened, regardless of the mode of transportation.

 

I had an incident in Vegas once where we had to abort a landing after the plane had a scary loss of lift where even the flight attendants looked very scared.

 

Once we landed and were taxiing to the gate the pilot came on and said we probably got into a 757's jet wash.

 

I appreciated knowing what happened.

[broberts]

We had a rough landing on our flight back from my recently completed cruise (the one where I met Liberty tilt passengers in St Thomas). To my shock and pleasure pilot comes on as we start to taxi "Ladies and gentlemen I'd give that landing a six . . ." He earned a round of applause from the passengers.

[CaseyAnn]

Several years ago I had just gotten on a flight in Chicago. I had very thin soled sandals on and once in my seat my feet got extremely hot. I reached down and felt the floor and it was almost too hot to touch. I called a flight attendant and asked her if this was normal. She then felt the floor and got a funny look on her face and walked up to the cock pit. The Captain came back and checked it out and walked away. A few minutes later we were all taken off that plane. He said thank you to me as I was getting off. Never told us what was wrong but I felt like I saved my own life that day. This was back in the late 80s.

[halos]

I think most people appreciate honesty...if no info is given it is sure to lead to distrust.

Between this and the Concordia incident, I am hoping that the cruise lines reevaluate their policies on what they are to tell passengers when something occurs. I don't like they way they handle things right now....

[dna1990]

"Ladies and gentlemen I'd give that landing a six . . ."quote]

 

Any landing you walk away from...is a good landing.

[pickles1942]

This happened to us on the Liberty back in 2009 as well. From what I recall... The captain made an announcement stating we were going into international waters (something along that line, I remember it was water we were not permitted in) and we had to make a sharp turn. I believe there was a post about it back then. I need to make search to refresh my memory exactly. That is the only cruise that we experienced that on so I'm wondering if the ship has the same Captain?

We were on the same cruise (my first) we had a ocean view that looked over the front of the ship and we were packing and all the drawers flew open and we were told jewelry shops glass broke. Pool water running all over and chairs askew. I say it was like 20-30 tilt as I could see where the line that is at the front of the ship was way over. We also heard we got to close to cuba and they turned sharply. Didn't stop me from cruising in fact going on the liberty next Sat.