Grandeur Fire - My experience 100% positive

[scubadogbones]

For taking the time to post your experience!

 

But, for those familiar with the "other" thread...I bet these folks are happy about their experience only because their TV probably worked!!!!!

 

Also of interest...the fact that they kept folks at muster stations in order to guarantee these were no lingering sparks, flames or hidden hot spots.....seems the looooong wait the other thread mentioned did not mention that the Captain kept folks informed during this process.

 

Were you on the ship at the time of the fire? I know you are free to make comments in a public forum like this, but make sure you have the facts correct about what was said in the other thread:

 

Of course we were all either sitting or sleeping on the floor of the Casino - and we waited there - and waited, and waited - given updates that stated the crew was still trying to get the fire under control, then after 2 hours (5am) that they did get it under control, but that did not mean it was out, just that it was no longer spreading. Finally after 3 hours (6am) they announced that they believed the fire was completely out.

[Merion_Mom]

Were you on the ship at the time of the fire? I know you are free to make comments in a public forum like this, but make sure you have the facts correct about what was said in the other thread.

 

Dan, relax. Try to put this behind you: both the experience on the Grandeur and the thread about your experience. No need to waste emotional energy here. Just devote yourself to whatever emotional healing you both need.

 

Be well.

 

:)

[Arzeena]

OP,

Thanks for posting your experience. I am happy to come across people who make the best of a bad situation. I loved the pictures. The "Get Well Soon" one moved me. It is such a nice picture! I am happy to learn that you and the other passengers are all OK and made it safely. I can see from your review that Royal did its best. I feel for the crew members who worked so hard to put the fire out and will now be out of work till the repairs are done. I wonder if they are put on other ships or if they will be taken care of in some way.

Good luck on your future cruises! Thanks again for the review and pictures.:)

[Arzeena]

Dan, relax. Try to put this behind you: both the experience on the Grandeur and the thread about your experience. No need to waste emotional energy here. Just devote yourself to whatever emotional healing you both need.

 

Be well.

 

:)

 

Yes, Dan and Ken, I agree with Merion Mom,

Hope you heal well from your traumatic experience and good luck in all your future cruises. Sending good wishes your way.

[Arzeena]

This was my first time on RCCL. I have nothing but the utmost respect and praise for the crew that got us home safely. I mentioned this to every crew member I came into contact with afterwards. I'm looking forward to booking my next cruise and would never hesitate to sail again.

 

Happy to see positive posts like yours! Good luck with future cruises!:)

[scubadogbones]

Yes, Dan and Ken, I agree with Merion Mom,

Hope you heal well from your traumatic experience and good luck in all your future cruises. Sending good wishes your way.

 

Okay, Thank you! You're right. It's time to move on. Too much time wasted on being keel hauled here and the 'other thread.' I am the one that requested it be locked. Thank you, Moderators! I wish everyone here a wonderful future cruise and much happiness. Take care of each other.

[Razl]

Passenger and crew alike. I have cruised many times and the one thing I never want to hear is Bravo, Bravo, Bravo. I love your post and blog because I think it bring home the message of what was happening, even though you have to be somewhat afraid, but you observed with an open mind and heart. I would hope that I could do the same thing but I'm scared that I would be running Terrified! I feel that Royal has done an wonderful job with how they have handled everything -- learning for others experiences, no doubt. Kudos to the crew for what must have been a terrible time for them. Both those helping the passengers and the ones fighting the fire. I have been loyal to Royal for years, so much so we have stock, and I am happy to be able to pass your story on to the people I work with, and come in contact with, who know I am a cruise junkie.

 

Bless you all and I am so glad everyone is safe, I hope any emotional scars heal quickly.

[Arzeena]

Okay, Thank you! You're right. It's time to move on. Too much time wasted on being keel hauled here and the 'other thread.' I am the one that requested it be locked. Thank you, Moderators! I wish everyone here a wonderful future cruise and much happiness. Take care of each other.

 

You too! and happy and safe cruising in the future!

[jcl410]

A very interesting question! Your post brings me to a reminder of a comment I need to make back to RC. If you look at the back of the door in 7156 it tells you to use the crew stairs off to the side as your primary muster path to deck 6. Once there there are a series of doors marked, but it is way less than clear where the heck you're going.

 

When the practice muster drill went off we went that way and got stopped by staff telling us we were going the wrong way.

 

 

Judy -

 

A while ago, I was in an aft cabin on the Grandeur on deck 8. Like you, I attempted to use the primary escape route, which is adjacent to the cabin... I figured it would be best to practice th; tyhe actual route... Like you, I was also stopped by the crew, and sent up to the midship's stairwell... for the drill..

 

 

Later in the cruise I was able to chat with the Staff Captain about this... The reason they don't use the crew steps during the drill is because they are much steeper than the passenger stair wells. They are more worried about people being injured going down those stairs during the drill than having them follow the primary route.

 

I see his point.

 

Of course, in your case - if you *had*looked out the window, I think you would have chosen to head forward on your own. :-)

 

Aloha,

 

John

[jchiefs13]

A while ago, I was in an aft cabin on the Grandeur on deck 8. Like you, I attempted to use the primary escape route, which is adjacent to the cabin... I figured it would be best to practice th; tyhe actual route... Like you, I was also stopped by the crew, and sent up to the midship's stairwell... for the drill..

 

 

Later in the cruise I was able to chat with the Staff Captain about this... The reason they don't use the crew steps during the drill is because they are much steeper than the passenger stair wells. They are more worried about people being injured going down those stairs during the drill than having them follow the primary route.

 

They are definitely steeper. We were met with surprise to the effect of "you aren't suppose to be there what are you doing" rather than the explanation you just gave, which makes sense on one hand, but on the other - you are more likely to go the route you "learned" in a real emergency.

 

I did fire a quick email to RC w/ this feedback because if we needed to go that route we would have been lost (it was a series of doors and no personnel guiding).

 

Also of interest...the fact that they kept folks at muster stations in order to guarantee these were no lingering sparks, flames or hidden hot spots.....seems the looooong wait the other thread mentioned did not mention that the Captain kept folks informed during this process.

 

I know some folks onboard were frustrated that he didn't have something new to say each time, but just hearing an update rather than silence was, for me, reassuring. I really appreciated the warnings "we will be sounding the general alarm" and "we will be preparing the life boats" before taking the action, which I think would have frightened more people had these actions not been verbalized.

 

I don't know how Captain Been stayed so evenly toned. God bless him.

Judy

[Cindy]

I really appreciated the warnings "we will be sounding the general alarm" and "we will be preparing the life boats" before taking the action, which I think would have frightened more people had these actions not been verbalized.

 

I don't know how Captain Been stayed so evenly toned. God bless him.

Judy

 

We were on a plane once when the captain determined they needed to deploy the oxygen masks as a precautionary measure (we had descended to a lower altitude because of pressurization problems).:eek: I'm so glad we got a warning...I was pretty calm, but I think the startling noise of the compartments opening would have freaked me out.

I think letting people know what to expect or what's coming in a crisis situation helps keep people calm. It lets them know that someone is in control and is going to do their best to make sure everyone gets through the situation OK.

[TEXASMUNK]

But I was definately being sarcastic regarding the priorities (ie, TV). Heck, I even avoided commenting on the evacuation of pasengers based on the status or class structure of passengers.

[BecciBoo]

Thanks for posting your experience and your pictures. From other posts I have read about deck 7 aft, I had expected that everything was melted and destroyed. Your pictures really tell a different story, quite a bit of smoke, soot and overall "yuck" but not the picture that is being painted elsewhere.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Yes, isn't it interesting that we got no photographic evidence from the "elsewhere" post!;) While this gracious poster had plenty of time to record it!:D Thanks Judy!

[Grandpaof4]

My wife and I were passengers on the Grandeur of the seas. I would like give kudos to the captain and his entire staff for a job well done. They made us feel much more at ease in this bad situation. RCCL keep up the good work as it showed in our bad situation.

[shippmates]

We also were on the Grandeur and could not have asked for better treatment from the entire crew. The crew made such a scary situation so much easier to handle with the updates as to what what was happening with the fire. The crew and the company went above my expectation during and after the fire. We are booked to cruise on the Grandeur again in November. Hope to see the ship all back in tip top shape by then.

 

Kudos to Royal Caribbean.

[kikki21]

Thank you for your post and your pictures.

 

It's good that you remained pretty calm through this experience and that everyone was safe and sound and no lives were lost.

 

It sure does sound that RCCL tried to keep everyone happy and calm and to keep service going as much as possible, the crew must have been exhausted, they deserve a bonus in their pay packets for sure. I hope they did have a ceremony somewhere to respect what they did as it seems things could have been a whole lot worse!

[alligeek]

I don't know how Captain Been stayed so evenly toned. God bless him.

 

I don't know either, but he did an amazing job. That had to have been a difficult call, and from every account, he handled a high-pressure situation flawlessly.

 

I never understood why people seemed so interested in ship captains and who was assigned to what ship until now. :)

[JMG]

This was my first time on RCCL. I have nothing but the utmost respect and praise for the crew that got us home safely. I mentioned this to every crew member I came into contact with afterwards. I'm looking forward to booking my next cruise and would never hesitate to sail again.

 

Welcome to CC and Cruising!

 

Your first cruise on Royal will always be a memorable on and I am so glad that you are planning to do another cruise that you can complete as planned because you were able to appreciate the efforts of the crew on the GOS.

 

***

A really good read on cruise history is a book called Devils on the Deep Blue Sea. In the beginning of the book there is the story of the Yarmouth Castle that caught fire and sank in the Florida Straits. The General Manager of that cruise line was Ed Stephan who later founded RCCL. When RCCL started, Stephan designed the ships himself. Remembering the horror of the Yarmouth Castle, his ship design placed safety as a top priority. (He even took inspiration from the Seattle Space Needle and built a decorative superstructure)

 

On every cruise on a port day we will hear them announce that they will be conducting a drill for staff training. ship designs that focus on safety are important but having well trained crews is what really makes the difference. We are all so fortunate that RCI and the other cruiselines continually train their crew for emergency conditions.

[jchiefs13]

It sure does sound that RCCL tried to keep everyone happy and calm and to keep service going as much as possible, the crew must have been exhausted, they deserve a bonus in their pay packets for sure. I hope they did have a ceremony somewhere to respect what they did as it seems things could have been a whole lot worse!

 

They certainly were exhausted and deserve a great big shindig as well as bonuses.

 

They had a get together in the Centrum for all of us to see the firecrew in person. It was very moving to me as some of them looked shocked at the crowd and cheers. One was holding up his camera, it looked like video taping the crowd.

 

I'm getting teary writing this. I can't even imagine the extra complications and challenges in fighting a fire onboard. They were truly heroic and humble.

 

Judy

[cruzincurt]

Sounds like the crew did a terrific job. I will continue to sail with Royal. I'm also proud to read that the men and women of the US Coast Guard have our backs.

 

"Coast Guard Sector Miami issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast (UMIB) and diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Cormorant, the Coast Guard Cutter Sitkinak, and the Coast Guard Cutter Robert Yered to respond to the emergency. The Coast Guard also launched an Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft and an Air Station Clearwater MH-60 Jayhawk to respond."

[impatientlywaiting]

I know there were a few people who really snapped during and after the muster on the 24May sailing fire. Aside from having a self-healing ship or the power of fortunetelling to have prevented this fire there is nothing else I could think to ask of from Royal Caribbean in the manner they handled things.

 

My group of 4 was in the very center aft on deck 7, right above where the fire was taking place. It is scary in hind sight knowing where the fire was and after seeing the ship from outside, but none of us ever were more than tense during the event.

 

I'm happy to answer questions as I can, be it about the ship post-refurb, in general, or the event itself. I can only give my experience, comments of the different speculation going around onboard (which there was a lot), what I learned from talking to staff, and whatnot.

 

The staff was amazing. I cannot say that loudly enough.

I've posted my experience here:

 

http://staynegative.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-23rd-we-headed-down-to-baltimore-for.html

 

Judy

 

Thanks for sharing! I, also, am Loyal to Royal and always will be! :D

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

They certainly were exhausted and deserve a great big shindig as well as bonuses.

 

They had a get together in the Centrum for all of us to see the firecrew in person. It was very moving to me as some of them looked shocked at the crowd and cheers. One was holding up his camera, it looked like video taping the crowd.

 

I'm getting teary writing this. I can't even imagine the extra complications and challenges in fighting a fire onboard. They were truly heroic and humble.

 

Judy

 

How nice. I am teary reading your post! :)

[GiannaD]

Welcome to CC and Cruising!

 

Your first cruise on Royal will always be a memorable on and I am so glad that you are planning to do another cruise that you can complete as planned because you were able to appreciate the efforts of the crew on the GOS.

 

***

A really good read on cruise history is a book called Devils on the Deep Blue Sea. In the beginning of the book there is the story of the Yarmouth Castle that caught fire and sank in the Florida Straits. The General Manager of that cruise line was Ed Stephan who later founded RCCL. When RCCL started, Stephan designed the ships himself. Remembering the horror of the Yarmouth Castle, his ship design placed safety as a top priority. (He even took inspiration from the Seattle Space Needle and built a decorative superstructure)

 

On every cruise on a port day we will hear them announce that they will be conducting a drill for staff training. ship designs that focus on safety are important but having well trained crews is what really makes the difference. We are all so fortunate that RCI and the other cruiselines continually train their crew for emergency conditions.

 

Very interesting post which gives great information on RCI ship design and crew training. We plan to be on the Grandeur in August and hope her repairs are completed in July. We are confident that RCI will continue to do a great job.

[Watery Dan]

Great job Judy. Excellent comments! Thanks.

[Micky1]

Due to sail in 2 weeks and I am so glad I read your post. Firstly let me say thank you for taking the time to write it. Secondly I am so glad you spent so much time praising the crew because, as we shouldn't forget, although they are trained and well drilled for this type of situation doing it for real is something completely different and if the situation was to be a lot worse, while we would all be terrified at least the majority of us would be with the ones we loved while they are separated from their families and loved ones trying to ensure everyone else's safety.

It's good to know my family and I are going to be in such good hands for our coming trip.

Thanks again.