Were You Ever Scared On A Cruise?

[kittymom65]

I was scared to GO ON our first cruise, it was October 2001. It was our first time, and I was terrified to fly after 9/11, and then there was talk on the news about the terrorists blowing up cruise ships.....and then our friends who convinced us to book the trip to go with them CANCELLED (they had been on several cruises and wanted to share in our "first time"). At the time, it was too much money for DH and I to just throw away, so we went.

As soon as I set foot on that beautiful ship, I forgot all about being scared.

[disneygirl8]

I was in Windjammers and the lady in front of me took the last hamburger. I was terried for about 20 seconds, then a new tub came out and these were hotter! It was a rough 20 seconds.

:p :p :p :p :p

[cusyl]

The scariest night I've ever had on a cruise was when I had to go back to my cabin and tell my wife that I lost $1,000 playing playing blackjack and then another $2,000 trying to win it back playing craps. Bad, bad, bad, bad night.

 

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: GULP

[samtig]

This isn't scary like some of the bad weather stories but... We were on a cruise out of Galveston a couple of years ago. On the first night we were in bed getting ready to turn out the lights & DH being an old Navy guy says, you realize we've been dead in the water for about 30 minutes and there's a Carnival ship stopped not to far from us". I said, no. ... Then they announced some 3-letter code, I think, for the crew on the loudspeaker. We didn't know what it meant but I do know I haven't moved that fast in years!. Threw on our clothes & gathered essentials just in case. Called the front desk & they said it was engine trouble and they hoped to get it fixed soon. It was fixed in about an hr. and we & the Carnival ship were on our way. It was great to know that the Carnival ship was waiting for us. Someone on cc posted the emergency crew codes they announce for different reasons but I didn't write them down. Would be good to know if an announcement is made.

[LisaH]

The only thing that scares me is knowing that the cruise is going to end.

 

A few people mentioned looking out into the ocean when it is dark...I find it quite awesome to see how dark it actually is. I could gaze at the ocean anytime. Looking out into the night for other ship's lights is cool.

[Cruise_Couple]

On the 2nd day of our first cruise in Alaska we had the abandon ship alarms go off in the middle of the day... you know, the 7 short blasts and the long blast... bells, etc. all the stuff you heard at the muster drill the day before. There was no warning or prior announcements. Well needless to say my wife and I were a little tense and started moving quickly to get our life jackets... (bear in mind we were on the brand new Radiance of the Seas in Alaska... New Ship, Alaska, Icebergs... you get the idea!!!) Well anyways, after a couple minutes the alarms suddenly stopped and our captain (Bill Wright, now RCCL VP Marine Operations) comes on the PA and says... "This is Captain Bill from the bridge, oops, sorry about that... I've got to stop leaning on these consoles up here"!!! Had a big laugh but I have to admit it was scary for the first minute!

[reallyitsmema]

My first and only cruise was on the Sovereign of the Seas out of Port Canaveral in January 2005. Was just a 3 night cruise from hell. Was raining terribly when we left so no anything when we departed. Made it into Nassua and out with no problem. Then rocked and rolled until we docked. Missed Coco Cay because it was too rough. No shows because they were afraid for the dancers because it was soooooo rough. Pools closed, Crown lounge closed, upper decks closed because it was too dangerous to walk up there and too windy to stand anyways. People sick every corner you turned. Was rocked right out of bed in the middle of the night. The worse was, since we weren't sick, we went to dinner. Pianist was playing the theme to the Titanic, like I needed that running through my head!!

 

Gonna give it another shot and try the Mariner in June.

[Willum UK]

I am scared on every cruise. The last night they always bring my bar tab and put it outside of the door. I am ALWAYS terrified when my wife finds that paper.

Briliant!!!!!:D

 

In 2005 in St Martin I took a RCI deep sea fishing excursion with three other guys - my wife went diving separately. The weather turned nasty when we were about three miles offshore, a pretty violent storm produced seas which threw the boat around and had the screws coming out of the water regularly. The storm had hit very quickly and visibility was almost down to zero. Then the radar packed up and as we couldn't see land the skipper just had to run with the seas until the storm passed. We just hung on to anything which looked remotely solid. Because the storm hit suddenly we still had the rods out and baited. At one point whilst we were all hanging on one of the reels started screaming and paying off line. Without exception we all looked at each other and said "Well, I'm not going out there..."

Its the sort of thing you laugh about afetrwards but I was pretty scared at the time!

[blackpool belle]

Our very first cruise was to the Baltics. I am a nervous passenger whatever mode of transport to start with but my very first night at sea was in the North Sea en route from Harwich to Oslo. The fog was so thick you could not see a thing and the ships horn was blasting out all night long. Needless to say I had no sleep at all that night convinced we would hit something but as DH pointed out - Have you never heard of Radar :D

 

Been on several cruises since so it couldn't have been that bad.

[bob c]

My daughter was on the Jewel last Oct. returning to Boston from Bermuda in an outside cabin when they hit a bad storm. She got very sick as many people did. Then she got scared as some crew members came into the cabin and clamped a large steel plate over the window. They told her a window on another outside cabin had cracked in the storm. Things turned out ok though.

[molaurie]

Another scary time. We were on the Carnival Conquest in the gym (DW and I), for those who have not been on board the ship, the jacuzzi is behind the gym and has a large glass wall so it is visible from the room. We watched an older gentleman, who shall I say was wide of girth, walk from the locker rooms into the jacuzzi area. We were on exercise bikes and we could see eveything in the jacuzzi area in a mirror we were facing. Well, this gentleman was wearing a robe. No big deal. The guy takes off his robe and puts it on a bench facing the gym. I motion to my wife to look, and say look he is wearing a speedo. Well he turns around to get into the jacuzzi, only it was not a speedo..... It was a thong!!!! That was scary.....:p :D

 

 

THAT'S HILARIOUSLY SCARY!!!

[weezlesgirl]

I just wanted to say that I am going on my first cruise in August. I will be sailing on Explorer of the Seas. This board has completly terrified me....of course I will get over it. I just couldn't bring myself to stop reading about yalls experiences. :confused::confused:

[Alexis]

I just wanted to say that I am going on my first cruise in August. I will be sailing on Explorer of the Seas. This board has completly terrified me....of course I will get over it. I just couldn't bring myself to stop reading about yalls experiences. :confused::confused:

 

Yalls (you must be from the South) will be fine and you will have a great time. ;)

Remember, we are only about 50? people out of millions who cruise each year. So these are rare examples. :D

Not to worry. Enjoy!!

I have enjoyed 23 cruises since my experience. All were great too. ;)

[Iamthesea]

On our very first cruise, the Disney Wonder, our teenage DD did not come back in for her curfew at 12:00. It was the last night and the weather was very rough. We were in an inside stateroom and the bed curtains were moving steadily back and forth, almost to a horizontal position. :eek:

 

I awakened to the rocking and realized that it was 12:30. I could barely stand up as I tried to go check my DD's bed. She was not in it! I woke my DH and told him to go look for her. He came back about 15 minutes later and said he could find her and that he saw no one around the ship. I was really frightened! All I could think of was that she either fell overboard, or someone had thrown her overboard. I was in tears and told DH to go find the captain.

 

Being pre-911, DH was able to go directly to the bridge and talk with personnel, who then sent out a search of the ship. About another 30 minutes went by before DH and DD returned to the stateroom. :o

 

DD was found with some new friends that she had met earlier in the week. The group of 20 or so (including the youth director,) had been located in a stairwell. They had been talking, laughing, having a great time and DD lost track of time. We later learned that it was a "tradition" for the teens to stay up all night on the last night of the cruise. Our DD was suppose to let us know that she would be doing so, but forgot to come back and tell us. Needless to say, she slept the rest of the night in our stateroom. I am not sure I would have given her permission to stay up all night, even with the youth director present.

[Arizona Laura]

Weezlesgirl..don't let these stories take away from the excitement awaiting your first cruise. Few people worry more than me, and I loved every min of my first cruise in Jan. Remember you hear of unpleasant occurrences on these boards but look how quick they book another cruise. You'll have a great time. :)

Any more good stories?

[Natanni]

Well, it was no hurricane, just a pretty bad storm;

 

We were on the Grandeur of the Seas in March 2003 and had our first balcony cabin, mid ship. Woke up to lots of "up and down" feeling and hubby wasn't in bed, and our balcony door was wide open, the wind blowing the curtain all the way up. I sat up and got out of bed and realized we were listing big time toward the water, and my husband WAS OUT ON THE BALCONY loving every minute. Lots of wind and lightening, lighting up the the black waves. It was actually quite hard to get back into bed fighting wind and and worse, walking UP the incline of the ship. Weird feeling. I was a little nervous then, more about my husband losing footing and falling overboard than the ship! They had roped off all the outdoor decks the following day.

[clancy43]

:rolleyes: I remember many "cruises" with my parents in our 18' V hull boat ~ it seems my dad had a habit of going out & getting caught in our intense thunderstorms here in west central Florida! I remember my mom putting my life jacket on me and telling me to get into the hull of the boat and hold on tight!

 

Last year, on GOS out of Tampa, we hit a patch of rough weather on the way back ~ I got nauseas but not skeered!:cool:

[sea-cruise]

 

THIS IS WHAT WE WILL BE TAKING OUR TOUR IN JUST IN CASE ONE OF THE VOLANO'S DECIDES TO BLOW! WE NEEDED AN ARMORED BUS!:D LOL

__________________

[Sue L]

 

THIS IS WHAT WE WILL BE TAKING OUR TOUR IN JUST IN CASE ONE OF THE VOLANO'S DECIDES TO BLOW! WE NEEDED AN ARMORED BUS!:D LOL

__________________

 

 

Where is this picture from and WHY is it armored like this?

[sea-cruise]

It's a joke that Aqha posted on our roll call board. She got it off of a site that has funny buses. :D

[Sue L]

It's a joke that Aqha posted on our roll call board. She got it off of a site that has funny buses. :D

 

 

Now I have seen everything a site for funny buses? Too strange!! Thanks for the laugh though!

[aqhacruiser]

It's a joke that Aqha posted on our roll call board. She got it off of a site that has funny buses. :D

 

OMG Seacruise! Did you have to show everyone our secret weapon?!!!!! :D ROFLMAO! Ok, here's the story! In Dec. we are going to the Dominica on a 12 night southern. If you go to the Dominica website it talks about hot sulphur springs, THE BOILING LAKE, bubbling oceans, hot steam vents, black sand beaches, etc. :eek: WELL I KNOW a volcano has to be around there somewhere after reading those little hints! Sure enough there's an under water volcano that accounts for some of these strange things you may see in port. So we have a fantasy ship called the Insanity Of The Seas on our roll call and I figured we may need a more enforced tour bus in case there is any volcanic activity when we are in land for our excursions, so I found that picture on the web. LOL! The Dominica has many lovely features that we are looking forward to seeing first hand and it is the jewel of the Caribbean as they call it but we were all a little surprised over the other features as well! :D Like they say IT'S NOT A VACATION! IT'S AN ADVENTURE!!!!!!!! I have to try and remember that! LOL!

[sea-cruise]

Oh Aqha...We HAVE to cruise together again....I fear my cruises may be dull without you! :D

[Sue L]

OMG Seacruise! Did you have to show everyone our secret weapon?!!!!! :D ROFLMAO! Ok, here's the story! In Dec. we are going to the Dominica on a 12 night southern. If you go to the Dominica website it talks about hot sulphur springs, THE BOILING LAKE, bubbling oceans, hot steam vents, black sand beaches, etc. :eek: WELL I KNOW a volcano has to be around there somewhere after reading those little hints! Sure enough there's an under water volcano that accounts for some of these strange things you may see in port. So we have a fantasy ship called the Insanity Of The Seas on our roll call and I figured we may need a more enforced tour bus in case there is any volcanic activity when we are in land for our excursions, so I found that picture on the web. LOL! The Dominica has many lovely features that we are looking forward to seeing first hand and it is the jewel of the Caribbean as they call it but we were all a little surprised over the other features as well! :D Like they say IT'S NOT A VACATION! IT'S AN ADVENTURE!!!!!!!! I have to try and remember that! LOL!

 

 

I got to swim in one of those hot spots while on a bike excursion through the rainforest on Dominica, it is a beautiful island. And thanks for the explanation.

[TahoeBob]

A little while later the ship's captain came on the speaker and explained that there was a pod (family) of whales sleeping on their backs right under the surface of the water so they had to make an extremely sharp turn to avoid them.

 

http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/ask97/0397.html

Question: I am also curious about how whales sleep. Is it true that some

whales sleep vertical with their heads down in the water and their tails up

in the air?

 

Answer: Whales sleep by shutting down half their brain at the time. So,

while one half is shutdown, the other half stays awake to monitor their breathing, body etc. From my experience with large whales (sperm, humpback), they sleep at or just below the surface. They slow down their breathing quite a lot something like one breath at the surface every 2-3 minutes. They can sleep for hours. I have never heard of whales sleeping in the position you mentioned, maybe what you heard was relating to humpback whales on the breeding ground, where they are observed singing in a similar upsidedown position.

 

Martine Berube

Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

University of California

Irvine, CA