Ok, Lets hear it. Your horror cruise story.

[ShanZro]

I have read or watched videos of people who actually did have horrible cruises. Like the one that had a fire and lost power for 3 days (I think it was) they had no hot water, no food other than what was brought in. Or the cruises where everyone was sick and they couldn't come back to port.

 

Forgot missing ports. Forget not get $50pp comp. What did you do to make the bad situation as good as it could possibly be?

[BK512]

My worst cruise was an old Premier Big Red Boat cruise. Small ship, 3 nights to private island and Nassau.

This was my husband's first cruise ever. We had an outside cabin, but had the very front cabin on the ship. There was a queen sized lower berth, and an upper berth that raised up to the ceiling.

He was very much looking forward to the private island, where he could snorkel, windsurf and try out a Hobie Cat. At that time, you had to pre-purchase vouchers to use as cash on the private island, which we did.

 

We got to the private island, and the seas were choppy, but we were still able to tender in and out. However, all the water based activities were cancelled due to high surf. It was overcast, so my husband headed to the bar and used the vouchers to purchase scotch.

 

Back on board, we pulled up anchor, and the seas were getting choppier. It turns out we were on the edge of a tropical storm and had 12-15' seas. The poor little ship had no stabilizers to speak of, and being the front cabin, our room really moved! The latch on the upper berth broke, and spent a good deal of time lowering and raising on its own, loudly. We were both very seasick--my scotch infused husband moreso than I. Our cabin steward was very nice and brought him all kinds of saltine crackers, but he spent that night on the floor.

 

I had to make my way up to the purser's desk to cash some travellers checks so we could tip everyone. I was grabbing the railing in the hall, and the floor would pretty much drop from below my feet, and then slam back up under them. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I was told only 10% of the ship made it to dinner that night.

Somewhere in the middle of the night the seas leveled off, but it certainly was a night to remember.

 

The prepaid vouchers we bought for the private island had to be mailed back to Premier Cruise Lines. I honestly don't know that we ever got a refund...I don't remember--it has been at least 20 years.

 

I didn't get my husband on another cruise for many years--not until we sailed on the Baltic when we lived overseas. But he has been a few times since, and has learned that the big ships with the stabilizers are much, much better!

[Talisker92]

We were on the Silver Wind (a small ship) when we hit a 200 mile diameter storm crossing from Iceland to Canada. We were taking 30 degree rolls and had 50 foot seas. We had both taken Bonine and were OK.

The grand piano in the show lounge ended up in the orchestra pit and the piano on the Lido deck was duct taped to a post. We took anything we had that was breakable and put it on the floor.

We considered it an experience. A Seabourn ship had a bow door stove in and flooded 3 cabins, and the Vision of the Seas had cabin window blow in and flooded the cabin.

When we got to our final port we were all given T-Shirts commemorating the experience.

During the storm the Captain was giving us continuous updates.

[Carolin]

my first cruise was with my EX-husband. Nuff said.

[sail7seas]

As I looked at the list of threads on this forum, under this thread re: horror stories is a thread re: walkie talkies. Those are horror stories for everyone sitting at the pool or wherever on the ship next to people screaming into their static noisy walkie talkies. :eek:

 

We've been on about 90 cruises and can't honesty say we've had a 'horror story'. We've had cruises cut short by 3 ports and 3 days; we've had cruises that were supposed to call at 8 ports and only stopped at 2; we've had Caribbean cruise where it rained each of our 10 days aboard; we've had noro virus outbreaks that were big inconvenience to full enjoyment of our cruise; we've arrived late back at disembarkation port where people missed their flights and I could go on and on with the list but

 

none of those cruises were Horror Stories, for us.

[printingchick]

About seven years ago, when my daughter graduated from high school, I took her, her best friend and her younger brother on a cruise. No, I'm not that well-to-do...the friend paid her own way and I had saved up BUNCHES of credit card points in anticipation!

 

On a tight budget, we flew the DAY OF the cruise (no flaming please), which was a 5-day departing from Tampa. We were traveling during the President's Day week school vacation, but the weather in blustery New England was perfect that day. Unfortunately, the weather was less perfect where we were to pick up our connecting flight, in Nashville, Tennessee. They were experiencing snow flurries. Who would have thought weather would be a factor once we'd reached Nashville??

 

Believe it or not, Nashville has (or at least HAD at that time) only ONE de-icing machine. Every plane had to be de-iced prior to take-off. There was a LONG line...

 

Ok, no problem. We were set to land in Tampa 4 hours before departure and the 90-minute rule wasn't in effect yet. We'd make it.

 

At 30-minute intervals, the captain would announce that we'd be in the air in another 30 minutes. By the time the announcement was being repeated for the third time, I was in a state of sheer panic!

 

I had NOT insured the trip. (again, no flaming please...I was a relatively new cruiser!) If we missed the ship, what was I going to do with these three kids in Tampa for a week?? And how would I afford it???

 

My youngest was on the verge of tears. I was feeling sick to my stomach, making more-or-less CONSTANT phone calls to Carnival.

 

I asked the flight attendant to poll the passengers, looking for others who were destined for our cruise. Carnival had asked for a number of people who would be impacted by the delay. I naturally exaggerated the number when communicating to Carnival. "PLEASE...HOLD THAT SHIP!!!"

 

We touched down in Tampa about 25 minutes before our scheduled departure. In a stroke of unusually good luck, our bags were the first off the plane. We grabbed them and ran for a cab. We asked the driver to FLOOR IT!

 

We arrived at the pier about 5 or 10 minutes AFTER the scheduled departure time. The ship was still there. We were not the LAST passengers to arrive. A Carnival shuttle bus was still on route from the airport.

 

Here is your THIRD flaming opportunity. I had NO documentation from the parents of my daughter's friend (age 17), allowing her to cruise with us. I think they were GOING to ask, but facing a group of obviously flustered and panicked passengers, they just let it go.

 

We could hear the muster drill over the loud speakers as we made our way to our cabins. Yeah, we missed that too.

 

In the end, everything was great. We MADE the cruise, the weather was perfect and we all had a GREAT time. But you can bet I flew in a day AHEAD for my NEXT cruise!!

[SadieN]

Not a cruise story--

 

Just sent DD back to college yesterday.

When she answers the Flight Attendent with her seat number the FA says, "I don't know why you were assigned that seat, there's no seat there." :eek:

 

Something happened to the cushions and they were removed. Luckily there was an empty seat on her flight.

 

***

Cruise Story.

 

In 2006 couldn't find DH's BC. He brought everything else (hospital records, babybook, etc.) Had Mom on standby incase he couldn't get on.

Carnival let him on. On the return we waited to be the last off the ship. CBP asked the kids who this man is. Of course he asked the child who won't answer anybody. DH gets thru with no problems.

We now have passports.

 

When we get home we talk with DH's parents how their cruise was. They cruised the immediate previous cruise to ours, a NYE cruise. Cruise was fine but FIL's passport was reported stolen in London. Problem was FIL had never been to that part of the world.

So while DH was trying to get on the cruise with his non-BC BC FIL was trying to prove himself to get back into the country.

Edited January 23, 2013 by SadieN

[indigosails]

We have been on many cruises with various lines. I think the worst horror story was not being able to dock in certain ports due to weather or political unrest. Honestly, that's the worst thing that happened. On the bright side, we got an extra sea day. It's all good.

[shredie]

Stewart walked in on me in the shower. Why he couldn't hear the water, I do not know. He yelped and apologized profusely, but I reported it to his supervisor who then came to our room every day to tend to it himself. The story was that he had seen my husband leave, so he figured I was gone, too. I have now trained DH to put out the Do Not Disturb sign whenever he leaves. And I think the horrifying sight of me in the shower was just punishment to poor old Stewart. ;)

[janetz]

my first cruise was with my EX-husband. Nuff said.

 

 

:p Now I have to clean the screen on my laptop...

[Mizzouaholic]

About 6 or 7 years ago our ship was set to leave the Galveston port at 4pm. Our flight was supposed to arrive in Houston around 10am, but due to weather delays and then a mechanical issue on our connecting flight we did not arrive in Houston until 2:35pm and by the time we collected our bags and got in a taxi it was 2:55pm. It is normally about an hour and 15 minutes drive from the airport to the pier, but we told our taxi driver(Pedro) our situation and boy did he earn his tip that day. I was looking over his shoulder many times to see our speed, but his speedomoter did not work. lol This was probably a good thing since our speeds were probabaly around 90 mph most of the time. It was the ride of our lives!lol. While we were in the vehicle we made a call to carnival to see if theres anything they could do and we were told to just hurry as much as we could.

 

Needless to say, Pedro got us to the port at 3:52 and as we were pulling up, you could see the guys attempting to untie the ships ropes from the dock. The porters rushed our luggage for us and we literally ran inside and luckily they had not pulled the gangway yet(probably due to us calling them and letting them know our situation). They rushed us through our check in process and we boarded the ship with only seconds to spare!

 

It was a little stressful, but hey we made it there alive and once we crossed the gangway and entered the grand atrium, boy were we relieved!

[Magico]

Kinda long but please read on.

On my very first cruise, 9/11/05, my friend and I planned for months ahead, or so we thought. I am a widow; she was divorced and had just become a USA citizen. We had traveled previous times to Mexico I had found that I had to take my deceased husband’s death certificate whenever I drove over and continuing in to Chihuahua, She was asked to have proof of her divorce or her Ex-husbands permission to travel into Mexico, So we wanted to prevent any problems, so we applied for a passports. I live in another town from her so we filed our paperwork separately, In June I received my passport, and she still had not received hers. Mine came from Miami, FL. We did some checking and found that she needed another document and it had to be sent to the INS in New Orleans, LA. We got the documents and sent them in via registered mail. We waited the required 6 weeks and then began to get frantic and kept calling and writing to see what was going on. As August 10th approached we really began to panic and finally had a friend of a friend with the INS check for us. We were promised that the Passport would be on its way and we should receive it with enough time for our trip.

THEN KATRINA hits 8/29/05. We call the next day and are told that they are unable to verify the passport went out and that all records were in water or may have been destroyed by Katrina. We begin to call everyone we can think of to get the passport and find out information about the trip, thinking it would be canceled.

Carnival was great they changed the outgoing port from New Orleans to Galveston, changed our flight and hotel for us. However, still no passport for her. We finally get a call from INS that they are sending a temporary Passport overnight FedEx to arrive on 9/10/05 by noon. Our flight is scheduled to go out at 2pm that same day.

We patiently wait outside her home our bags in the car her daughter sitting at the drives seat ready to take us to the airport 20 mins away.

Yeah, FedEx as they drive up she signs for the package, we jump in the car and I grab the envelope out of her hands open it to be sure it the passport. We get to the airport just in time to make it thru the security check point in time.

We stayed overnight in Galveston, had a nice breakfast and then got on the ship.

The nice ending to this story is that………Drum Roll…….on our second night on the ship my friend was playing the slots and won $7,000.00. She paid for not only her trip but mine too. We have been on 4 other cruises since then.

[Capt_BJ]

Cruise horror stories

 

On a very early cruise of our's a table mate arrived the first nite so drunk that he passed out during the main course and fell face down into his plate. The waite staff carried him out of the dining room and thankfully we never saw him again (he was traveling alone) - circa 1984

 

On a more recent cruise a table mate started every long dissertation about what was wrong in the United States with "I'm from Canada and . . . " So sad he did not know we were laughing @t him, not with him.

 

Having ordered a NICE bottle of Champ', it was in a wine bucket serving multiple tables. Adjacent table, a travel agent was trying to impress members of a group he was with and grabbed our bottle to fill the glasses of his group - he'd bought cheap stuff. Wine stew' saw it happening and slapped his hand and scolded him - his customers all averted their eyes ....

 

and then there's

 

Carn' ship on fire while departing Port of Miami

 

hittin the pier in Costa Maya was it?

 

 

Princess .... smoking on the balcony and/or leaving things to dry out there

 

AND ..... OMG

 

Poor Driving

 

OR - from under the sea

Edited January 23, 2013 by Capt_BJ

[Nebr.cruiser]

Not a cruise story--

 

Just sent DD back to college yesterday.

When she answers the Flight Attendent with her seat number the FA says, "I don't know why you were assigned that seat, there's no seat there." :eek:

 

Something happened to the cushions and they were removed. Luckily there was an empty seat on her flight.

 

We had something similar happen on a flight back from Egypt. All the computers (and maybe the electricity) in the airport at Cairo were down and there was a big mess, with everything having to be done by hand.

 

When we got on the plane, one entire row of people--9, 11? had no seats because that row didn't exist on that plane. Of course, we were in that row. We took off with us in the flight attendent's jump seats and eventually they managed to stick us here and there in empty seats around the plane.

 

The good news; when we got to London all in that 'ghost' row were upgraded to Business Class for the flight to Chicago.

 

The bad news; we were spoiled forever with those Business Class seats. We don't always fly business, but we sure do try!

Edited January 24, 2013 by Nebr.cruiser

[venicia]

Big Red Boat, remember her?

New Years Eve cruise, now I know I am going to get flamed for this one, but here goes

 

many, many years ago we were on the Big Red Boat for a New Years eve cruise. We were very new to cruising and had just been transferred to Florida, the capital of cruising. Excited that we could both get away for a Holiday together and on a CRUISE SHIP!

 

We get onboard this amazing ship and have a fantastic cabin that has a little hole that looks outside. AMAZING.... we meet our cabin steward and he is fantastic.

 

We go looking around this ship and find everything quickly and it is now time for the muster drill. Grab our life vests and find the location on deck where we are to be. FLAMERS GET READY, oh....my....gosh.....who...are....we ...cruising with???????????? All the complaints from these persons that are finally coming up on the deck for the drill. And they are all LOUD!

 

We look at each other and begin to laugh, this has to be a comedy by the ship, this really cannot be for real!

 

Oh yea it was.......I think almost every old folks home in Miami that had any old timers from New Jersey dumped them on this cruise. At the time we thought this was the WORST CRUISE anyone could ever endure. It in a way was, but more for the ship personnel than for us. These were the most ill mannered persons we have ever in our lives, and now we are seniors and have traveled extensively, ever, ever been in contact with. They would push in front of you, push your chair away from you. But what was awful was the treatment they did to the crew.

 

After the third day, there were 2 groups on this ship the old timers and the us group. It reached a point where the us group would intervene when these "olders" would be truly outrageous.

 

At the port discussion, a child began to cry and the man holding the child stood up and before he could even move the "olders" were yelling, get the kid outa here! Standing in line at the buffet they would either just push past to get up to their friends or push on your back. After 3 days of being pushed by purses in my back I could not take anymore. I turned around and looked at this lady with the big nose and big glasses and told her, "if you push me in the back one more time with that purse, I am going to throw your a** overboard and you can swim back to Miami." Now, this was back when I had been trained in self defense and I guess she realized I had enough. My husband turned around, smiled, and said, boy lady, if I were you I would stay way back from this one (meaning she should stay away from me). She did. You know how sometimes things just happen spontaneously, all of a sudden the "us group" was applauding and I looked at my husband and said, oh my gosh what did I just do. He smiled again and said, I guess you let her know not to push you around. yep, should not have done that, I got tagged, but then, who remembers but us group that were on that ship

 

One of the most comical aspects of this group was watching the food fly as they interacted with each other with full mouths of food. Yelling from one table to another and food flying out of their mouths. I mentioned above about the big purses, we found out they were carried so the bread trays could be emptied into them. We watched so much food being wrapped in tissues and then being put into the purses, never understood that or why not just call for room service.

 

Every day on this cruise was an adventure and almost caused us to stop cruising. But after a few years, we decided we would try it one more time.......now about 50 or more cruises later, still the best way to get away and relax.

 

To this day, of all the travels we have done, none have ever compared to this New Years Eve cruise and I must say I hope none ever do. BUT, after many years it is still one of our conversation pieces when a topic such as this comes up.

[gertiesmom]

The worst I got is...

 

I didnt get to go!

 

Supposed to be on the Breeze right now and we had to cancel 3 days before sailing due to a family emergency. Needless to say, family is more important but I am sad that I am not enjoying the spa suite we paid for.

 

Thankfully, we did have insurance, but it can take up to a month to get a refund. Maybe we can book something else when we get our money back.

[Atlanta07]

We've seen a few horror stories play out in front of us - but our horror story happened not that long ago after going to Bermuda on a 7 day cruise. The cruise, the cabin, the service were all great. What wasn't great was the text message we received once we got back to Boston after the cruise. The text said that we had gone over our data limit and that our data for both International and US would be turned off until we called AT&T. Now we used several apps and didn't really monitor how long we were on over the 3 days we were in Bermuda. So after being notified that our WORK phone data bill was close to $3,800 we now just turn on airplane mode before going out of the country. Lesson definitely learned. :) At least we were able to enjoy the rest of our cruise before we got the bad news.

[Magico]

I forgot to add that back in 2005 you did not need a passport to travel to Cozumel, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, however in order to apply for the passport you had sent send all the original birth certificates, social security cards, regulation pictures, and her case the original INS USA Naturalization certificate and regulation fingerprints.

She did not have anything to use for the required Identification to board the ship since they will not take a Driver’s License. We were at the mercy of the INS.

Edited January 24, 2013 by Magico
mispelled

[Gunner22aa]

I'm not sure how many have ever seen this show but I had Mrs Bucket (she pronounces it Bouquet) at our table. Her hubby was a plumber by trade and an absolute delight to have as a table mate. She on the other hand was a snobbish braggart and a boar! Nothing was ever cooked right, either too hot, too cold, over cooked, undercooked... you get the point. She was rude to the staff every chance she got. We ordered a rather nice and fairly pricy bottle of red one evening and offered to share it with the other six at the table. Her comment was "how could we drink swill from Austrailia" I told her with ease and said that perhaps the following night she would prefer to by the wine and educate us "poor colonials" (I'm from Canada). She flat out told me it would be difficult to educate any of us not from the UK on the finer things in life. That remark caused her husband to cringe and another great couple to loose it. They called her everything from a sham to a cheap floosy. I changed some of the terms because repeating the real ones would likely get me banned. Thankfully they left in a huff and we had a great table of six for the remainder of the cruise. Don't get me wrong. Some of my best friends to this day are Brits but not Mrs Bouquet!

[CraftyEC]

Ah, that's what my parents-in-law's neighbour was talking about!

 

She was clearly a prototype for Mrs Bucket (splendidly played on TV by Patricia Routledge, a great character actress) which I discovered when she called round to my parents-in-law when we were staying with our then young family. It was an unusually shaped house, and the guest bedroom was just inside the front door, so I could clearly hear her proclaiming about how distressed she was by the difficulty in deciding whether or not to go on another cruise, as cruising "just isn't the same, these days." This was, apparently, because "they let all sorts cruise these days, not like it used to be" and apparently her criteria for 'all sorts', by which she implied those from the lower / lowest strata of society, included "northerners, you know!" Now, she had never met me, and while she knew that DH was from the south of England, she also knew that we had travelled down from (God's own county, as it is known up here!) Yorkshire, and I could have been from Yorkshire (a Tyke), Newcastle (a Geordie) or any other part of what she clearly regarded as 'the frozen wastes of the North'. Historically there has been a class / wealth divide between the north and south in England, but we are a long way from those days, and we actually live in one of the 'poshest' towns in Britain. We're lucky, that's where we landed with DH's job, most people have little choice about where they work, and none about where they are born!

 

Now, I'm sure she would have been, in her own eyes, a very discerning table companion. In everyone else's she would have been the table partner from hell! Luckily we have met a few fellow cruisers who have bordered on being pretentious, but usually in a fairly amusing way, but I really would not have wanted to be stuck with her at dinner for a week or more!

[Gunner22aa]

... my grandparents. Him from Yorkshire and her from Cumberland.

[mdcrim]

We were on a Western Caribbean cruise from Tampa over Thanksgiving a few years ago. We had a middle aft balcony. The last day before the cruise ended was a sea day. I went out on the balcony to get some towels and bathing suits that had been drying out there when I heard a woman quietly saying "help". I peeked over to my left and there was a woman two balconies over who was very distraught (the aft balconies are angled so you can see across if you're standing at the railing). I said hello and asked her if she was okay. She said she wasn't okay. I asked her if she wanted me to come over to her room and she said no. She then proceeded to climb up on her little table and hop onto the balcony between ours. Once there, she climbed over onto our balcony. I seriously almost had a heart attack. I thought she was going to fall to her death as I stood there helpless.

 

Once she was on our balcony I could see she was bleeding. Turns out she was on her honeymoon and her new husband got jealous of her and decided to show her who was boss. We gathered up some towels to clean her up and escorted her down to the main lobby area to see if we could get security involved. What a huge, gigantic waste of time. Apparently the woman and her husband had smuggled some beer onto the ship and the guy had too much to drink. All security was worried about was confiscating the smuggled beer out of their cabin. They didn't care that she had been beat up, that she had climbed over two balconies to get to us, only that she had beer she wasn't supposed to have...

 

We offered to let her sleep in our cabin that night (the ship was apparently full and security didn't care if she went back to stay with her husband). She declined and went back to make up with the tool that beat her up. It was definitely a memorable way to spend a sea day...

[christinalvt]

Bumping this up so I can continue to have amazing stories to read while I wait the 90 days until my cruise...

Anyone have any more bizarre, weird, or just plain horror stories about your cruise?

[lrowe70]

 

 

OR - from under the sea

 

What the heck is this!?!?!?

[Grannycb]

We have the most unusual luck with hurricanes. Our first cruise in the South Pacific hit a cyclone. That's when we discovered no one in the family got sea sick. If we are on a Caribbean, Canada/New England, or transatlantic cruise there is bound to be a hurricane or nor'easter some place along our path. The first five times we tried to visit a cruise line owned island we missed the ports due to hurricanes or tropical storms. Grand Cayman, yep, another hurricane. Transatlantic, Hurricane Sandy. On one memorable cruise we managed to find Hurricanes Gustav, Hannah, and Ike. Our next cruise is the end of May. Any guesses when the first hurricane of the season will be?