Scary experience on Oosterdam

[AKJonesy]

I book these staterooms all of the time, and I see maintenance working on the boats most cruises.  What is HAL to do when maintenance is needed; seriously?  You WANT maintenance on a cruise ship don't you?  I'm sorry to hear your kids were traumatized by this, but it seems a failure on the part of the parents to deal with it in a positive way and make it a teachable moment.  

[queen_kathy1]

3 hours ago, Bocker3 said:

Should they have informed you, absolutely.  But rather than whining about lack of "goodwill", Perhaps it would be better to teach the kids that sometimes life throws unexpected things your way vs. teaching them that they should expect "compensation" whenever something happens that they don't like.

Resilience is priceless!!

 

So very well said!!  Improvise, adapt, overcome. 

 

OP, if your children are so sensitive that they remain very upset after your attempts to reassure them, then you really need to plan your cabin location better next time. The cruiseline already compensated you by giving you that cabin at a discounted rate compared to similarly equipped cabins with unobstructed views.

[Hlitner]

At the risk of incurring the ire of many, life might be much easier for some parents if they simply tell their children, "get over it!"  These days, we know some parents that rush their upset kids to the doctor's office and demand anti-anxiety drugs!  ARGH.

 

Hank

[julia]

One of the (many) reasons for traveling with children is to expose them to the REAL world and real world experiences.  Life is not a video game. Travel can be fun, exciting, learning, and frightening... all at once.  Travel grows character.  While I can understand being frightened by loud bangs, I'm at a loss as to what took them to the worst case scenario of the ship sinking.  That needs some serious discussion....

[Crew News]

1 hour ago, queen_kathy1 said:

So very well said!!  Improvise, adapt, overcome. 

 

Learned those three word many years ago in Army Basic Training.

[dobiemom]

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

I can't think of a time when we were not given routine written notice, if work was being done around our cabin.

 

Has it been verified in fact there was no notice, or did it get lost in a pile other paper notices dropped off at the affected cabins? Did the adjoining cabins get notice? Post 8 am routine maintenance on a ship is a given, including blocked off areas,  paint smells and fumes. Ships are hollow metal boxes, sounds reverberate. 

Same. I’ve always received a notice in my cabin a day or 2 prior. 

[*Miss G*]

I’ve seen maintenance notices in the room upon boarding, or at some point during turndown service, or left in the mailbox if there’s no access to the room at that time.  I’ve also seen people grab someone else’s mail from the box as they’re passing by because they’re nosy.  Sometimes they are just forgotten to be given out by whoever was assigned that task.

[Lakesregion]

5 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

I agree with most others that no reparation is due, other than a sincere apology.

 

I also agree (having recently had a similar cabin on Westy) that their should have been a letter of notification of the work, especially if it was going to start as early as 8:00 am.  I don't consider that an appropriate time to start loud work outside a cabin when people are on vacation. Not everyone is an early riser.

 

Here in the US construction work begins promptly at 8 am even if someone may be on vacation.

[crystalspin]

I am guessing the children were in one cabin and the parents in another, NON-connecting room. As there are no connecting obstructed rooms (and no quads there either), on the O'dam. There is more than one reason minors cannot book a cabin by themselves.

 

Guess also the muster "drill" (video) was not paid attention to and the children coached on it. 

 

The good news is, there was not an actual emergency to be responded to so inappropriately.  

[colbe]

8 hours ago, komo said:

We have obstructed view cabins that have lifeboats in front of them. Today morning, at 7.55 

Am we were awakened by banging, welding and the sound of steel being cut. My kids - 8 and 12 - started crying as they thought the ship was sinking. A

Were your children in a cabin on their own?

[ontheweb]

5 hours ago, MISTER 67 said:

Guest services should have notified you on the maintenance to the lifeboat but everything else was an over-reaction, did you and your children really think that the ship was sinking, did you not hear or read that if there was an emergency that you would hear 7 short blasts followed by 1 long blast on the ships PA system in which case you would report to your muster station.

 

And if there was a real emergency, with the new muster procedure, everyone would have been instructed to report to their mister station at their convenience. 🤦‍♂️

[BermudaBound2014]

46 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

I am guessing the children were in one cabin and the parents in another, NON-connecting room. As there are no connecting obstructed rooms (and no quads there either), on the O'dam. There is more than one reason minors cannot book a cabin by themselves.

 

Guess also the muster "drill" (video) was not paid attention to and the children coached on it. 

 

The good news is, there was not an actual emergency to be responded to so inappropriately.  

 

I just love your attention to details!! If we are picking teams I want you on mine 🙂 

[crystalspin]

15 minutes ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I just love your attention to details!!

It's a blessing and a curse!

[BermudaBound2014]

3 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

It's a blessing and a curse!

 

I totally understand, more than I care to admit. 

 

But i still want you on my team 🙂

[rafinmd]

I have to wonder.  It may be that either no notice was given or that the notice was missed but I'm thinking of one other possibility.  It may be standard procedure for the crew to check the lifeboats on a daily or regular basis.  I'm thinking they could have found an issue in routine checks and decided that the best course of action was to fix it right away.

 

Roy

[OlsSalt]

The trend for ships to feel more like floating hotels and not unique sea going vessels with their own set of quirks, creaks, sounds and motions, can  create more people surprised when they experience what it takes keeping these huge floating metal boxes in good working order.

 

Hope this family take in the Captain's behind the scenes video program - a city at sea? -- because the breadth and depth of services required for these self-contained, 24/7 mini-cities is awesome to appreciate. 

 

I also wonder if these kids closely and emotionally  followed the recent story about the very horrific Titanic submersible tragedy. That said, mother's reaction and demands did come across as over the top.

 

Hope this does turn into a good teaching moment for the kids, and provides new respect for the being at-sea environment.  

 

Once in my much earlier life I said I preferred being on a ship compared to flying .....since I knew I could always swim, but I could not fly if anything went wrong. Then one dark night I was out on deck after leaving Australia by passenger ship, and saw waves and troughs that appeared to devour the entire ship itself.

 

I then realized I was not going to be able to swim out of that one. Choosing sea travel is not for the very faint of heart.  Choosing cruising today at least ups the odds it will be a safe journey. But Mother Nature always plays the last card.

 

Fair winds and following seas to all. (Whatever that means.)

[Riversedge]

We have the saying “It’s all part of the adventure” every time something is

 not quite as expected.  Learning to roll with the punches is a good learning experience.  Thinking you are “owed” for the little things is not.  What a teaching experience that could have been….about careers, what it takes to maintain a ship, how the lifeboats are used and how important it is to know what they’re for and how important they are.  

[iceman93]

Okay, I think the OP has taken their fair share of abuse here (not that I think it was unwarranted).  But it does strike me as amusing how the theme of these posts has been that one needs to go with the flow yet we are deluged by constant threads complaining about how every tiny little thing has ruined one's vacation, how HAL is a shadow of its former self, and on and on.  The site *is* called Cruise CRITIC, after all...

[CruiserBruce]

2 minutes ago, iceman93 said:

Okay, I think the OP has taken their fair share of abuse here (not that I think it was unwarranted).  But it does strike me as amusing how the theme of these posts has been that one needs to go with the flow yet we are deluged by constant threads complaining about how every tiny little thing has ruined one's vacation, how HAL is a shadow of its former self, and on and on.  The site *is* called Cruise CRITIC, after all...

Conversely there are many here who couldn't say a good word about HAL if their life depended upon it, yet they are 4 or 5 star Mariners, have difficulty with any changes at all, and keep booking more cruises on HAL...

[Florida_gal_50]

I’ve stayed in those cabins and I swear I got woken up around 6:30 by them poking around.  Ships make noise.  They creak too. 

[Guest ldtr]

9 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

I can't think of a time when we were not given routine written notice, if work was being done around our cabin.

 

Has it been verified in fact there was no notice, or did it get lost in a pile other paper notices dropped off at the affected cabins? Did the adjoining cabins get notice? Post 8 am routine maintenance on a ship is a given, including blocked off areas,  paint smells and fumes. Ships are hollow metal boxes, sounds reverberate. 

 

Agree, how did the kids miss the actual lessons required upon boarding, and reinforced by the parents, that they should have committed to memory in case there was ever a real emergency.  Safety drilling by parents, for reinforcement of lessons learned - when, where and how to respond is critical.

 

Instead of crying hysterically, why didn't they automatically run for their life jackets?

Pretty much not my experience. The only notifications I ever recall seeing in advance has been when they wash the windows in port. I think that is more to prevent guests being surprised by a window washer on a mobile platform appearing outside their window, especially if they were not fully dressed. Other than that only if service to the cabin were being impacted.

 

If one wants to avoid the potential of loud noises from the outside, book an inside.

Edited July 14, 2023 by ldtr

[Host Kat]

Since numerous posts had to be removed, this thread is closed.