Gotta share this,
with everyone who knows him. Richard, a Viet Nam vet, was the shortstop on our men's and coed softball teams for MANY years, and now lives in CA. Just saw him this summer when he flew back for Tammie's 50th.
Hey there folks,
Well I finally got an opportunity to go on my first cruise. I signed up for the Mexican Riviera for 7 days aboard the Carnival Splendor. Yes siree bob, I was on that cruise ship that was stranded and helpless off the coast of Mexico and made the headline news.When the fire broke out and shorted everything, the ship shuddered and lost speed. The cruise director, John, came over the PA system and calmed everyone down. Throughout Monday they tried to fix it so we had power but the damage was too extensive. They officially terminated the cruise that night. We didn't have any power, electricity, the toilets wouldn't flush, no water, no lights, no cell tower to use our cell phones, no hot food. We were totally helpless and drifting 60 miles out of our course. Didn't think it was serious but when we stopped and thought about it, we were sitting ducks for any type of severe weather (we couldn't move the ship to face a rogue wave), terrorist, pirates, etc.
Tuesday, we were one of the lucky ones and our toilets finally worked and we had some very low pressure water in the bathroom, enough to wash our vital parts. There were no lights except the emergency lights in the hallways, and throught the ship. I was smart enough to bring a flashlight so we could see in the bathroom (Seen enough disaster movies where a flashlight was an essential item to survival, hee hee). Most people had to fumble their way in total darkness. Inboard people had to open their doors and get at least some light from the emergency lights.From Monday dinner to Wednesday dinner, our meals consisted of a great salad bar. For diversity, I had lunch with italian dressing, then dinner with thousand island, the lunch the next day with blue cheese, and dinner with ranch. Sure was the healthiest trip I ever took but somehow, I gained 5 punds instead of losing weight eating nothing but salads.There was nothing working and nothing to entertain ourselves other than ourselves. This was the great part of the broken cruise because it forced everyone to talk to each other wherever you went. Met some interesting people and felt sad with some because they used all their vacation time to go on the cruise, or had relatives, friends that were disabled and couldn't leave their rooms because the elevators weren't working and they couldn't climb the stairs. Can you imagine, sitting in total darkness for 3 days. Well had a great time considering the circumstances.Carnival also made this disaster forgiveable. We got a free cruise of similar value any time we want in the next two years, all our money back that we paid for the cruise, all the money back that we had on our cashless card (Since I charged $500 on my card Sunday night in the casino, and I get the $500 back), yes they refunded every cent we spent on the cruise, plus transportation home from the Long Beach dock. They went overboard to make up for this disaster.So what did I think of cruising? I already booked my free cruise on December 12 with the same ship. I figured that all the replacement parts destroyed in the fire would be brand new, and they would test the hell out of it to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Hey there folks,
Well I finally got an opportunity to go on my first cruise. I signed up for the Mexican Riviera for 7 days aboard the Carnival Splendor. Yes siree bob, I was on that cruise ship that was stranded and helpless off the coast of Mexico and made the headline news.When the fire broke out and shorted everything, the ship shuddered and lost speed. The cruise director, John, came over the PA system and calmed everyone down. Throughout Monday they tried to fix it so we had power but the damage was too extensive. They officially terminated the cruise that night. We didn't have any power, electricity, the toilets wouldn't flush, no water, no lights, no cell tower to use our cell phones, no hot food. We were totally helpless and drifting 60 miles out of our course. Didn't think it was serious but when we stopped and thought about it, we were sitting ducks for any type of severe weather (we couldn't move the ship to face a rogue wave), terrorist, pirates, etc.
Tuesday, we were one of the lucky ones and our toilets finally worked and we had some very low pressure water in the bathroom, enough to wash our vital parts. There were no lights except the emergency lights in the hallways, and throught the ship. I was smart enough to bring a flashlight so we could see in the bathroom (Seen enough disaster movies where a flashlight was an essential item to survival, hee hee). Most people had to fumble their way in total darkness. Inboard people had to open their doors and get at least some light from the emergency lights.From Monday dinner to Wednesday dinner, our meals consisted of a great salad bar. For diversity, I had lunch with italian dressing, then dinner with thousand island, the lunch the next day with blue cheese, and dinner with ranch. Sure was the healthiest trip I ever took but somehow, I gained 5 punds instead of losing weight eating nothing but salads.There was nothing working and nothing to entertain ourselves other than ourselves. This was the great part of the broken cruise because it forced everyone to talk to each other wherever you went. Met some interesting people and felt sad with some because they used all their vacation time to go on the cruise, or had relatives, friends that were disabled and couldn't leave their rooms because the elevators weren't working and they couldn't climb the stairs. Can you imagine, sitting in total darkness for 3 days. Well had a great time considering the circumstances.Carnival also made this disaster forgiveable. We got a free cruise of similar value any time we want in the next two years, all our money back that we paid for the cruise, all the money back that we had on our cashless card (Since I charged $500 on my card Sunday night in the casino, and I get the $500 back), yes they refunded every cent we spent on the cruise, plus transportation home from the Long Beach dock. They went overboard to make up for this disaster.So what did I think of cruising? I already booked my free cruise on December 12 with the same ship. I figured that all the replacement parts destroyed in the fire would be brand new, and they would test the hell out of it to make sure this doesn't happen again.
Comments
I've considered cruises, but haven't yet. Be interesting to hear his experiences on the Dec cruise.
I spend 2 full weeks w/o electricity, money, gas, ice in 1982 during and after Hurricaine Iwa on the island of Oahu. I'll tell you, it wasn't fun.