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Costa Concordia Collision

Captain Rhone

By Captain Rhone,
in Costa Cruises

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G.M.T.

G.M.T.

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the information.

 

According to the Concordia schedule, she should have left Palermo at 17:00 local time (MEZ - GMT +1), looking at the Costa Webcams she is still in Palermo at 20:00 local time. Will have to seen where she is tomorrow.

 

Ron

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carribeansol

carribeansol

Posted
Posted

It says it happened in the port.

 

No Maltese passengers were on board the Costa Concordia, although foreign nationals on board were shaken as attempts to manoeuvre the ship within the port led to it being rammed against the dock. Nobody was injured and repairs started soon after.

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emcc

emcc

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Posted

We were on the Concordia when the collision occurred. We were coming into dock in Palermo in strong winds. The thrusters were unable to control the ship and the bow of the ship hit a dock. We were on our balcony watching the ship come into port when the incident occurred. There was wreckage from the dock as well as "white pieces" which I think were parts of the ship where floating in the water. The ship then drifted sideways and hit a small tanker of some sort side to side denting both ships.

They finally got the ship into another dock but the repairs to the ship went on until almost midnight. The welders were putting large metal sheets on the bow where the damage was. It was quite frightening and Costa did not handle the situation with the passengers at all well.

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Morgsmom Great Review Rare

Morgsmom

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Posted

We just got off the Concordia this past Sunday (the sailing AFTER this occurred.) The crewmembers were all told to keep it hush-hush. This sailing that ended 23 November was about 6 hours late in docking in Rome so the next group (that'd be us!) was holed up at the port for hours, being given lukewarm pizza and even warmer soda. Costa would not tell us what happened, why the ship was late, etc. The crew was told to inform us that it was due to "rough seas"... The damage was rather bad; not just a fender bender type activity.

 

To note, we did NOT stop in Malta last week due to the rough weather. The port was closed so the poor Maltese passengers could neither get on or off. The really bad thing is that Costa did nothing to try to fill the gaps of the day. Since it was going to be a 8a - 5p port of call there was really nothing scheduled for the day. After the port was cancelled around 11am the only action was to move up the time of lunch to 12noon instead of 12:30. Since that was the only activity it seems that EVERYONE went to formal lunch to kill time. That it did!!! The lunch was not prepared for everyone to have a formal lunch that day!! It took well over 2 hours for lunch.

 

I did hear others complain not about the missed port of call -- which stinks, but happens -- but the lack of throwing in an extra excersize class, or playing a movie on the jumbo screen or SOMETHING. They blew it there, in my opinion.

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dingsterkat

dingsterkat

Posted
Posted

It was interesting to be on the next cruise after the damage occured. Unlike Morgsmom, they kept us waiting at the airport for three hours after arrival as they didn't want a huge crowd waiting at the port. Let's just say cold pizza and warm soda weren't offered: we had nothing much to do while we waited to go to the port to catch our late ship. There were two overly stressed Italian Costa employees that practiced their surliness on us all, but that amusement faded quickly. It did give us a chance to meet some cool fellow passengers from Puerto Rico and Michigan, but that's about it.

 

So that night the ship did sail from Civitavecchia as planned but when it hit the next port you could see the damage still - on that day I only saw big black 'rub marks' on the ship's side where is must have collided with the other small ship. By the time we got back on the ship four hours later, they were painted over. A second coat was added the next day in Barcelona.

 

It wasn't until we docked in Palermo that I was able to see the huge crater in the starboard bow (also painted over in white). It appeared to be pretty massive - I'm not sure what their plan is to fix that!

 

As for the crew being told not to talk about it, our cabin stewardess is the one who filled us in, but I never heard another word from anyone else. She told me that when the Concordia ran into the other ship that was already docked, all the crew on that ship immediately jumped off their ship onto the dock as they thought it might explode...

 

So, I think the reason our trip missed Malta is that the Maltese were way too leery of the Concordia. Can't blame them for that!

 

Since we picked this cruise just because it was going to Malta, we were a bit bummed out. Thank goodness for a balcony cabin and a good book that day.

 

I think it will be a long time before we go on another cruise - it is so confining to have others make all the decisions for you. Nevertheless, a bad day on vacation is still better than a day at work.

 

Happy travels...

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  • 2 weeks later...
emcc

emcc

Posted
Posted

I posted several weeks ago regarding the collision as we were on the ship, actually on our balcony, watching the entire mess. As to the remarks about the Costa keeping everything quiet, I would concur very strongly.

 

We were due in port in Rome at about 8 AM but did not arrive until after 1 PM. This meant that we missed all of our flights home. Beginning the evening of the crash when it became very clear that we would not leave anywhere near on time, we started asking the staff about what arrangements were being made so that we could get home even if a day late. When we mentioned that travel in the US is difficult on the week of Thanksgiving, we got blank looks. No one could or would tell us anything!

 

The next morning we gathered in the theater waiting to get off the ship and the staff there refused agressively to answer any questions; they said that they were busy with passengers leaving on excursions. I can sympathize with that but we were getting extremely anxious about travel home.

 

We finally got off the ship and were told that a "tour desk" was on the dock as we disembarked. Quess what, no "tour desk" and questions for staff on the dock were met with surly replies. Then we were assured that the "tour desk" was outside of the tent where we were to collect our luggage. Of course, no tour desk. We were herded into a bus which dropped us of at the Rome airport with no one from Costa on the bus and no one to meet the bus.

 

I was left standing with a pile of luggage in the airport while my husband and chldren searched for help from Luftansa or anyone. It was actually frightening. Finally they found someone on another level and we hustled there to wait another four hours standing while on unhappy Costa person gave us information about new flights for the next day. We were taken to a hotel near the airport where we had the best dinner that we had tasted since we left home. After getting up at 3 AM to get to the airport and get a flight, we spent 30 hours on planes and in airports. We did arrive home but any rest and relaxation from the cruise were history.

 

This was our fourth cruise on Costa but will be our last. The quality of the food, the service, the quality of the excursions has declined dramatically since our last trip with them. Our experience before with Costa were eight years earlier and the food, service, etc was excellent. Perhaps the sale to the Carnival company is the problem. The final straw was the realization that Costa only wants the next dollar; they have lost us as repeat customers and I would encourage anyone to carefully consider whether they want to take this cruise line. Look agressively for alternatives.

 

My husband is from Sicily and we have traveled often in Italy and other western and eastern European countries. The smoking, lack of politeness from other passengers, and lack of "line manners" was not a surprise to us but did make the trip less enjoyable.

 

Our next trip will be to the Scandanacian countries but NOT on Costa.

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MrsLeo

MrsLeo

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Posted

EMCC, I am so sorry you had to deal with that. We got on the ship when you got off and I was not too terribly impressed with Costa, though I did enjoy many aspects of our trip, I am sure we would have enjoyed it more had we chosen a different cruise line. I am glad you made it home safe and sound, though I am sure exhausted from your ordeal. On a positive note, it seems we did have good timing in other respects. Rome is experiencing terrible flooding right now, and the riots in Greece we heard about are now spreading to other parts of Europe. Sure glad to be home. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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KBAJ

KBAJ

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Hubby and I were on the Nov. 13th Mediterranean sailing of the Brilliance. We missed two ports due to high seas, Cannes (where we would have had to tender) and Malta ( where the above incident had just happened.) Many passengers were upset and complaining. I hope they now understand just how dangerous this situation could have been and appreciate the Captain's concern for safety.

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Twaincruisers

Twaincruisers

Posted
Posted
The truth is that the good weather in the Med really ends in October and after that you are generally taking a chance. There are just so many Cruise Ships that they are just looking for places to use them.

 

Brian

 

Now you tell me! :) We were on the cruise after the accident. It was a beautiful ship but a disastrous cruise...the worst being that I got food poisoning, or something, after eating in the dining room. I missed Tunis the next day and then Malta because of the weather...these were the two main reasons for taking the cruise! It was bad from the beginning as we had a room that was like staying on the dance floor with the horribly loud music. We would have left the cruise in Barcelona if we were not moved to another room the next day. The ship's accident seemed to portend the bad character of the cruise. We are interested in Costa's cruise out of Dubai but couldn't stand another experience like this one. Just learned a few minutes ago that RCI's Brilliance will be doing the Dubai area in 2010...I think we'll wait!

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