The NCL Dream has struck a barge

[iamseahorse]

My sister is on the Dream and sent 3 pics today of the damage she surveyed. By the time she left the ship this morning at 11 local time welding repairs had already commenced. They are staying another day in Montivedeo and awaiting a new compensation package/itinerary to be issued by NCL.

[AChris999]

New email from my sister, she says:

"We get 50% off our cruise fare for this trip - plus the $150.00 each room credit. If you want to get off the ship, you still get both, but you have to find your own way back home - nothing to pay room or travel.

We will leave here about 4:00 or so tomorrow afternoon - we sail for 3 days - we sail around the horn and we make 2 ports on the Atlantic side."

 

I just wanted to let everyone know that NCL is trying to make the best of a bad situation.

[Cruising Ken]

Insidevoicemp

 

I'd keep a low profile if I were you, as I understood it. NCL takes a dim view of it's employees using these boards.

 

Take care and best wishes.

[CanadianTwosome]

New email from my sister, she says:

"We get 50% off our cruise fare for this trip - plus the $150.00 each room credit. If you want to get off the ship, you still get both, but you have to find your own way back home - nothing to pay room or travel.

We will leave here about 4:00 or so tomorrow afternoon - we sail for 3 days - we sail around the horn and we make 2 ports on the Atlantic side."

 

I just wanted to let everyone know that NCL is trying to make the best of a bad situation.

 

Thanks to your sister for keeping us updated!

 

I think this sounds like great compensation. From her previous email, it sounds like NCL was not at fault, also, so it's nice to see that they are making an effort to lessen the impact anyway.

 

So... in addition to the free hour of bar service (which may sound trivial, but for some I'll bet it amounted to a lot more than the $150 OBC!), and the $150 OBC (plus they may also be refunded the port fees from the places they missed), they now get 50% of their original fares refunded as well. Considering that the accommodations, food, and amenities originally paid for are still being provided, I think that's more than fair.

 

Certainly the delay and the altered itinerary cannot be replaced, and I would have been unhappy to have missed them, but as Don Haynes noted, this is a unique experience that the passengers will be able to talk about for the rest of their lives. Thank goodness is was only a major inconvenience and we're not discussing injuries or worse!

[fin]

At the risk of being branded an NCL cheerleader, I will agree with Canadian Twosome that IMO NCL got it right with this offer. If I were on board, I would be satisfied.

[Cosmopolitan]

THANK YOU MARKANDREWS

As a crew member in the cruise ship's last almost 30yrs,,, i can assure to you all that we have to face all kind of quest's onboard(not in here)but in my time in different vessels,, even those incident’s where NOT crew's fault or even the ship's, Insults, personal insults, verbal assaults, even in the one ship, few quest getting violent and assaulting reception staff, i mean come on, you don’t kill the buss driver if he is causes accident, or do you??

Just let the "BIG" people deal with those issues and don’t insult us crew member's every small thing, we doing our best to make every single quest's vacation "The best vacation ever"

 

What happens in the Dream is one of those accidents, where the ship was wrong place at the wrong time.

 

That is why every company have insurances, like i said let the "BIG" boys dealing this and you dear quest filling out your report to them and your losses, CREW has not done anything wrong.

Thank you for taking your time to read this and i hope that you get my point and let us make your vacation as memorable as possible even in the bad times.

 

Good post.

I agree, we have seen passengers abuse the staff over incidentals, i.e. towels, ice, accents (?) etc.

Just plain RUDE passengers!

 

We always cruise most appreciative and thankful for a wonderful cruise on NCL which is mainly due to the never-ending work of the crew/staff.

 

Wish all would do the same:rolleyes:

[CanadianTwosome]

I agree, Cosmopolitan. I read a post from an ex-staffmember on another board once that described much worse things happening - often times when the staff person was alone and felt very helpless to do anything about it. It doesn't surprise me, sadly. I mean... there are people who hit their spouses and children, why would they blink at assaulting a mere 'servant'? :(

 

When I meet new people, I am always interested to see how they treat servers, clerks, flight attendants, etc. I tend not to enjoy someone's company if they make a distinction between humans who buy drinks and humans who serve drinks, for instance. I've had those jobs, though, and I've had those people treat me poorly, so I'll never do it to anyone else. I'm much more likely to brush off the people who think they're above it!! :)

[packman266]

:) My wife and I were on a cruise to Bermuda on the Dreamward (now Dream) and a hurricane closed the port. We met at sea with other ships headed for Bermuda that day and we went North and the other ships went South. Many of the people on board were so nasty that the cruise director was in tears. They wanted to play golf, scuba, etc. NCL compensated us with 50% off on a future cruise, free happy hour, etc. We had a great cruise to Halifax etc while the other two ships spent most of their time in a rough sea and ended up in Nassau. Hats off to NCL! We will be onthe Dream on March 2 and we will keep our fingers crossed.

[slothandle]

I was with family on the Dream last year. We flew to London, then embarked the Dream in Dover and sailed 17 nights to other countries then back to US.

 

We loved the Dream. The crew, officers were just the best you could ask for. NCL is one of the cruise lines where officers are visible, personable, and participants in ship scheduled activities. I have been on 4 NCL cruises with 5 coming up Christmas. I have been on 2 other cruise line cruises, and I have not seen the involvement with other cruise line officers and staff, one of which I never saw an officer, not even the Cruise Director.

 

Hate to see the Dream leave NCL's fleet as I hated to see the same for the Wind. The size of these two ships are perfect, not too big and certainly not too small.

 

I am so sorry this incident has happened and hope it will turn out satisfactorily for all.

 

Pat

[CruisinMaterial]

To the crew member who posted on page 4, I agree with you about the passengers not taking this out on the crew. Commonly that happens when it's no fault of the crew involved! I sailed on the Star Princess in 2005 when Hurricane Wilma went through the Western Caribbean and destroyed everything in it's path. People onboard were livid about the cancelled Western Caribbean cruise and demanding a refund and / or compensation for the altered itinerary.

 

The line at the passenger service desk, reception desk and shore excursion desk were long and the people I heard when I walked by were far too nasty. Mother Nature cannot be controlled by a crew, staff or captain of a cruise ship. Furthermore, if you sail during hurricane season... what on Earth do you expect? I was stunned to see how low humanity, especially these cruisers would go to insult the staff.

 

If anyone turns out to be at fault in this incident it would be the Captain and him only and whoever was on the bridge. I agree with other posters that going to Guest Services onboard and screaming at them isn't the best course of action. More civilized ways of handling these things can be done and it looks like a petition being signed is one way of doing that! Other crew members should not be penalized for this unfortunate incident. Bartenders, bar staff and dining room servers have no control over anything Miami does about this situation. To those onboard, please treat the crew with respect. They work hard and get paid very little.

 

There's my two cents on it all... have a splendid Thursday!

[Alexat2]

Ok - I'm on the Marco, the Captain on board the Dream when the crash happened was Capt. Nenad Mogic (yes, former Orient Lines), the Captain on the Dream as of yesterday Dec. 12 (after the current Marco's Captain, Aage Hoddevik, "left on leave" in Buenos Aires...) is capt. Aage Hoddevik.

 

Here's what happened - there was a tug towing a barge filled with containers and cars, the rope between the tug and barge broke. The Dream was going to fast to avoid the collision. There were high winds at the time.

 

Hope that helps with everyone's curiosity.

[ILoveScotland]

Ok - I'm on the Marco, the Captain on board the Dream when the crash happened was Capt. Nenad Mogic (yes, former Orient Lines), the Captain on the Dream as of yesterday Dec. 12 (after the current Marco's Captain, Aage Hoddevik, "left on leave" in Buenos Aires...) is capt. Aage Hoddevik.

 

Here's what happened - there was a tug towing a barge filled with containers and cars, the rope between the tug and barge broke. The Dream was going to fast to avoid the collision. There were high winds at the time.

 

Hope that helps with everyone's curiosity.

 

Was the Dream going too fast for its location or just too fast to avoid the collision? If the former then perhaps the Captain's fault; if the latter then how is this any person's fault but instead the fault of the rope between the tug and the barge?

 

Add me to those who believe all crew should be treated with respect. On the Galaxy in October DH and I had tablemates who were never happy about anything, and our head waiter was beside himself. He and his assistant waiter were both just wonderful, and he told us he'd never had such treatment from guests. It was difficult for the rest of us at the table to say the least.

[franu]

Why are people looking to blame the captain without knowing the whole situation? I am certain that this incident will be thoroughly investigated by very competent experts and the insurance companies. The time for comments will be after all of the facts are known.

 

It seems to me that the postings by Alexat2 and the AChris999 have both told the same story which puts the blame on the tow rope.

 

I for one have the utmost confidence in the captain of the Dream.

Fran

[Globaliser]

Why are people looking to blame the captain without knowing the whole situation?

Because, for some reason, many people seem to expect that everything will go according to plan and according to schedule, and that any deviation or change from the plan is (a) a mishap and therefore (b) someone's fault.

 

Frequent travellers know that the only thing that one can confidently expect when travelling is the unexpected. But CC forums demonstrate that very many cruise passengers don't travel with this attitude, and that ships are full of people who cannot be happy unless everything is exactly as planned. (In fact, as anyone who's worked on ships will tell you, ships are full of people who simply cannot be happy. But that's another story.)

[Amlee]

The first report I read said that the barge was adrift when it was hit. To me that ment the barge was at fault.

 

The way some people treat crew members is stunning. I saw one couple lose it on a Carnvial ship once because a crew member wouldn't let them stand at the door when we were dismimbarking on the last day. I missed the first half, but it seems the family had demanded to be the first ones off and was down in the lobby while the crew was setting up. This girl asked them to return to one of the public areas.

 

The couple then returned to the gate once it was announced that we could leave. The same girl was standing there greeting us as we left. This couple went NUTS. Both of them were in her face screaming at her. Telling her if she was from their neighborhood they would take care of her. The girl by that time was bawling and trying to tell them she was just doing her job. I had enough. I stepped up got her by the arm and just started walking away with her. She wasn't getting anywhere with them. Someone had called security and the cruise director by then. Security had to force the couple off the ship (funny since that was the whole point of them being nasty). The couple left screaming and cussing at the little girl and the cruise line. The poor girl was so upset.

[FranKes2000]

We loved the Dream. The crew, officers were just the best you could ask for. NCL is one of the cruise lines where officers are visible, personable, and participants in ship scheduled activities. I have been on 4 NCL cruises with 5 coming up Christmas. I have been on 2 other cruise line cruises, and I have not seen the involvement with other cruise line officers and staff, one of which I never saw an officer, not even the Cruise Director.

 

 

Pat

 

I cruised on the "Dream" and was treated rudely by the hostess for the main dining room, I am a mild mannered white haired old lady who has had no problems on other ships, and no problem with other crew on this ship. She took an instant hate for me! I prefered the main dining room but ate in the self-serve often, to avoid her. I sailed the next year on Norwegian Jewel and every one was wonderful in every department. I never saw the Cruise Director on the Dream but on the Jewel he was at the gangway to wish us a good tour and on our return asked if everything was okay.

[letsgomets]

Anyone know if they are still "on schedule" to sail today?

[flapr]

I have never cruised NCL, and by my number of posts on CC boards, I am mostly a lurker seeking information about cruising in general; not a loyalist to any particular line.

 

It is really amazing the number of folks that, without any expertise in the field of maritime accident investigation, are quick to fix blame without any proven facts. The accident will be thoroughly investigated by NCL, their insurers, and appropriate maritime authorities for months, if not years, before a final report is issued.

 

IMHO, to lay blame on Dream's bridge personnel, the barge's captain, or even the alleged snapped rope, is plain unfounded speculation.

[letsgomets]

Five minutes after my post, I spoke to my parents and got a full report.

 

They are sailing tonight -- the latest is that they are supposed to leave at 7pm. It seems that a number of passengers complained about missing Cape Horn as originally announced so NCL has reconfigured the itinerary to include Cape Horn, which means cutting out an additional port (a trade-off that disappointed my parents since there is a lot of spectular scenery without the Cape and they already are missing so many ports). So they are going to spend the next 4 days at sea and end up on Tuesday at Punta Arenas a day behind schedule. They'll then skip Puerto Chacabuco and stop at Puerto Montt. So Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt will be the only two remaining ports. They'll arrive in Santiago on time.

 

As you can see from the pictures posted by someone previously, the collision took about a 10-15 foot chunk out of the bow. NCL has been working rather feverishly to fix it -- my dad said that right now they are simultaneously welding and painting.

 

They confirmed the 50% credit -- it's going to go back to people through the travel agents after the cruise so they don't know any other details.

[fin]

Anyone who has ever been to Puerto Chacabucco without an arranged tour is going to smile at the thought of missing Stanley and Ushaia in return for a stop at same. There must be a lot of hidden treasures beyond walking distance from the pier!

[FBFLORIDA]

As of a message today at 11:00 am today, Dream was on her way with Captain Aage Hoddevik at the helm.

[letsgomets]

It wasn't as of 11am today (because my parents called me from the port at Montevideo at 3pm there) but it is underway now. The webcam on NCL's website shows it finally sailing toward the sunset.

[AChris999]

I don't think they left at 11 based on what my sister emailed me. Will let you know next time I hear from her.

[DragonflyCruiser]

I just checked the NCL web site and found nothing mentioned. Strange thing is, if you try to bring up our cruise in Feb on the Dream the page won't go to the itinerary for the trip. Hmmm!

[deepnite10]

NCL went above board IMO..50% refund on passenger s fair as well

as the $150 OBC..i understand that those who want to book a future

cruise that they re going to give each of them a 15% discount as well..

 

i think that with such compensation i d just forget about *who s to blame* and continue having a good time..let the lawyer s figure it all

out..:p