My son received a reply to his "message in a bottle" from Cuba

[Trplnckl]

While this might be really cool and a great educational experience for you and your son, imagine if everyone did this. There would be thousands of bottles floating and sinking in the oceans, gulfs, bays and seas every day. This act is polluting the waters:mad:. It's bad enough you can't walk on our beaches and national and state parks without litter, now we won't be able to go diving without encountering litter. There are many reasons why one should not throw objects off a ship and I wish you would be teaching those lessons instead of the lesson you chose to teach (It's OK for us to do this even though it's against the rules).

Who died and put you in charge?

[Disneycruisers]

While this might be really cool and a great educational experience for you and your son, imagine if everyone did this. There would be thousands of bottles floating and sinking in the oceans, gulfs, bays and seas every day. This act is polluting the waters:mad:. It's bad enough you can't walk on our beaches and national and state parks without litter, now we won't be able to go diving without encountering litter. There are many reasons why one should not throw objects off a ship and I wish you would be teaching those lessons instead of the lesson you chose to teach (It's OK for us to do this even though it's against the rules).

 

The fact is that NOT everyone does throw a message bottles over board.

[T. Advisor King]

Thanks for all the positive comments. As I said off the top, I'm not planning here to continue the debate about the appropriateness of launching messages in bottles. I will tell you how we did it.

We usually used plastic 16 oz water bottles. I chose plastic because I thought the risk of broken glass ending up somewhere was worse than the problems that plastics could cause if they don’t reach a destination. We always used clear plastic bottles with the labels removed. I thought a tinted bottle would be much less likely to be recognized as having a note included inside. I think we had one or two bottles with us when we boarded and made sure we either bought a water bottle in port, or found an empty bottle lying around the ship. One day, the only bottle we found was a larger 24 or 32 oz bottle, but otherwise they were always the smaller size.

We prepared the notes and labels at home, in advance. We created a label for the outside of each bottle, which said “Message in a bottle” in English, Spanish and French. We laminated the labels and fixed them to the bottles with clear packing tape. We laminated the messages (in case small amounts of water got into the bottles), which contained a greeting (in all three languages), my son’s name and email address, our home address and a unique date for each message.

I appreciate that the 8th deck might not have been the best place to throw the bottles from, but I really wasn't sure where else we could do it without drawing attention. The reasons not to throw things from a ship are related to trash and safety. Trash was not an issue (unless you’re anti-“message in a bottle”) and we were careful not to hit anyone.

I’ll post again to answer questions and to update on our correspondence with our new Cuban friend.

[WooWooGirl]

You're not permitted to throw anything off the side of a ship and you could be put off the ship for doing so. Not a good idea at all.

 

I think that is cool!!!!

 

 

And to those that say "you aren't supposed to throw things...." how many people do you see throwing cigs off the sode? kids running in the hall? etc etc...this is different IMO

[MTcruiser]

That's really cool. I bet your son was excited.

[Megan_Strick]

You aren't supossed to save deck chairs either and people do it :eek: Super cool idea. We are leaving Saturday on the Glory and I may do it. DD would think it was super cool. She wants a pen pal really bad!!

[Socref124]

Who died and put you in charge?

 

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I was allowed to disagree. Guess not.

[yogimax]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I was allowed to disagree. Guess not.

 

I applaud you for having the guts to express your opinon when you probably knew you would take heat!

[gracie65]

That is awesome, can't wait to hear if anyone else responds. I have a 9 year old son & we always try to tie in great learning experiences with our son.

[Socref124]

I applaud you for having the guts to express your opinon when you probably knew you would take heat!

 

Yepper, I knew I would take some heat. I could point out some other reasons not to throw things into the ocean, but it would only bring more heat.

[jbroons]

8th deck is kinda high to throw it from, but very cool that you got a response!! If I ever do this I may wander down to 3 and chunk it from there instead. :)

 

SU....WHY??? What a buzzkill. Throw the bottle from the highest part of the boat....just kidding....ship.;)

[T. Advisor King]

Hi.. I am spanish and I can help u out with your spanish, just let me know what you need to translate and I will help u out.

 

Thanks for the offer and I hope I haven't missed you, Marilole. I thought there would be a way to send you a message off-line, but I take it there isn't. If you reply with a contact email, I'll send you the text of the Cuban fellow's message and it would be GREAT if you could confirm the English translation we received.

[BBigfoot613]

While I don't want to engage in the childish bickering that was obvious in the other thread, I'm going to say I'm glad you recieved a message back. It can be a huge educational experience for your son AND you. Just the translation of spanish to english will help you learn a little bit of spanish. I'm happy for you and your son's response.

 

 

To the others that want to drag up to morallity of the throwing a bottle....get a grip!!! How many of you drive an SUV, smoke, drive, buy things in plastic bottle, etc. That IS hurting the enviroment?!?! I'll answer for you...EVERYONE! and how many of you that responded with "holier then thou" responses can read or think the op wants your comments on if it"s ok?!?! AGAIN EVERYONE!!! The op clearly stated that they didn't want to start up the old thread again......move on!

 

 

 

ZZZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPPPP.....flame suit on.....

[CarrieJ]

That is so cool. What type of bottle did you use, I am sailing in Sept. and think I will give it a try.

[bigboatrider]

While this might be really cool and a great educational experience for you and your son, imagine if everyone did this. There would be thousands of bottles floating and sinking in the oceans, gulfs, bays and seas every day. This act is polluting the waters:mad:. It's bad enough you can't walk on our beaches and national and state parks without litter, now we won't be able to go diving without encountering litter. There are many reasons why one should not throw objects off a ship and I wish you would be teaching those lessons instead of the lesson you chose to teach (It's OK for us to do this even though it's against the rules).

 

 

Yeah, and if a frog had wings, he wouldn't bump his a$$ when he jumps.:rolleyes:

[cuted126]

This is so cool!!! I bet your son was so excited!!

[PhotoPete]

I've tossed a few messages in bottles in my day. Most where from the USS John F Kennedy....never got a reply, Oh well. I don't see anything wrong with this practice. Pollution? Why the car, plane or train you took to get to that big oil burning ship pollutes way more. The green nuts that are trying to control everybody elses behaviour are nothing more than big hypocrites. Now that I'm off my soap box.....continue to toss.

[YayGirlsTrip]

You're not permitted to throw anything off the side of a ship and you could be put off the ship for doing so. Not a good idea at all.

 

Do they kick you off the ship for accidentally dropping something??? :rolleyes:

 

And were you ever a child?

[YayGirlsTrip]

I've tossed a few messages in bottles in my day. Most where from the USS John F Kennedy....never got a reply, Oh well. I don't see anything wrong with this practice. Pollution? Why the car, plane or train you took to get to that big oil burning ship pollutes way more. The green nuts that are trying to control everybody elses behaviour are nothing more than big hypocrites. Now that I'm off my soap box.....continue to toss.

 

Well said!!!!! :D

[bigdaddyvoges]

Nice Story!!! Congrats on the response.

[tbjl24]

I guess I'll be one who disagrees that this was a good idea. It's one thing to throw ONE bottle over the ship, but every night?????

 

I still disagree with one bottle being thrown over. Sorry, but this is the same as throwing trash overboard. More than likely the bottles will never see another human.

 

One of the reasons I love cruising is the untouched nature that is the oceans.

[Islandbear]

Congratulations!

 

What a great story your son will have and if we ever get rid of the stupid Cuban Embargo your son will have a new friend to visit someday.

[Kurbanfan]

OP that is way cool!:) Hope you get a response from some of the others you launched........

I know someone that will be looking in Barbados for one;) Although that is quite a distance from which you launched:D

Thanks for posting!

[dan40]

There have been a few threads recently about whether it is okay to launch a “message in a bottle” off a cruise ship (i.e., is it “littering” or not. If so, is it still okay. If you do it, is plastic potentially more harmful than glass, etc.). I don’t want to reignite that debate, but my son just received an email from a fellow in Cuba who received the message in a bottle we sent from the Conquest in March.

 

We were on the Western Caribbean itinerary from March 22-29. Each night around 10:00 pm, we launched a bottle (by throwing it off our 8th deck balcony) and recorded the position of the launch.

 

We’ve emailed the finder back and asked him to confirm the date on the message he found (each one was uniquely dated). In his original message, he mentioned that he found it April 6 and said that was 10 days after we launched it. That would make it the March 27 bottle, which we launched Friday night, about four hours north after leaving Cozumel, Mexico. The coordinates of the launch were N21 Deg 45’ by W86 Deg 45’.

 

The finder said he found it on a beach called Bailén Beach, which I believe is on the south side of the western tip of Cuba near the town of El Sebalo and is at approximately N22 Deg 10’ by W83 Deg 58’ (which is about 25 miles SW of Pinar del Rio, which itself is about 90 miles SW of Havana).

 

Assuming I have all this info right, the bottle travelled about 200 miles, almost due east, in 10 days (or less, depending on how long it was sitting on the beach before it was found).

 

Now my son and I are both sending message back and forth to this Cuban fellow, but neither of us speaks any Spanish so we’re doing our best with one of those on-line, automatic translators!

 

And the reply from Cuba was,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Stop littering!!!!!!:D:D:eek:

[jamers22]

The message in the bottle from the ship is such a neat idea!

I'm glad you got a response from one of them and maybe a new friend.:)

I'll be watching to see if you get anymore responses.

Thanks for posting.