Rain, rain, go away......

[Trip]

Carnival, RCI & NCl have rerouted their ships to the western Caribbean, to steer clear from hurricane Earl, doing his thing in the eastern,and southern Caribbean Should we start a pool to see if we get complaints from aggrivated cruisers? I hope they they realize this is the only option,and don't expect 100% refunds.

[Lakers Fan]

We went out to dinner tonight with friends who are veteran cruisers .The subject of discussion was when ships cannot tender due to inclement weather or high waves and how the passengers are compensated . I assume this varried from cruise line to possibly by ship .Should there be a universal policy ?

[Trip]

Your cruise contract states, and, I paraphrase, that the ship will take you on a cruise, no port is guarenteed, nor will compensation other then the port charges be refunded to you..

BUT, in most cases, the line will show good will, and, offer an onboard credit.

I remember a couple of years ago, when cruisers banded together in the atrium,and protested, if I remember right,over a change of itinerary..I am sure someone will remember the reason...they had a petition, they were feisty,and to my mind, pain in the butt,...

[Parrot Mom]

Yes Trip, I remember that incident well... We were also on a cruise from NYC when a storm was coming up and instead of heading to Bermuda we went to Canada.. If y ou saw the chaos, the threats, the tears...it is in the "fine print".. Now here is a "wild one".. friends are due to cruise o Bermuda this coming weekend with the threat of a hurricane coming east of Bermuda..(they are cruising out of Bayonne)..instead of just a seven day cruise they opted to to do back to b ack with the back part being the Canada itinerary.. Which means...they maybe doing the Canadian itinerary twice..this would be their third time in Canada.. it isn't what they have in mind..

[valtime]

What about the ships that are just doing the four day Key West, Nassau stuff?

[Trip]

The changes I saw were for 7or longer day eastern/southern itineraries.. Dream, Oasis and Enchantment.

[valtime]

Thanks Trip - I never care where they go - they can just float around and I can be happy. Leave tomorrow for a quick get-a-way. Imagine, someone to make the bed,

[AF1]

Unless I am sailing in Europe or the Med; the ship is the experience; especially Oasis or Allure; just to hang around on these ships is worth the money.

[Trip]

Well, first timer cruisers, may disagree with the ship being the destination. Once they find out, they are heading in a different direction, for saftey sake, they realize the Captain made the only decision he could....sail elsewhere.

I can understand the wanting to see the places they booked their ship for. It happened to us on our very first crusie.We wanted to see St Maarten...didn't happen, we had stableizer issues...we went to Nassau instead. No on board credit, but we got our pc's adjusted, if I remember right.Watcha gonna do

While intellectually, cruisers realize it had to be, when things happen, their disappointment to me, is understandable...the fix? book another cruise

[Donna]

Oh Trip,
You just know there will be complaints...I think this is the first of this season, lets hope its not too bad and doesn't do any land damage...

Its always a huge disappointment to miss a port, but not much you can do about mother nature, certainly, not the cruiselines fault, although there are always some that may think otherwise.

[Ron]

Sure there will be some gripping and grousing because of a change in the
itinerary--there almost always is. There's always folks that gripe and carry on when the ship can't tender because of the high water making it unsafe.
I truly wish that there was some way of taking the gripers right into a hurricane and let them ride it out for a couple of days aboard a ship. I'm sure that would be a cure for the gripers re / changes in itineraries.

[Trip]

YouTube - Carnival Miracle RIOT 8/29/08 - 2

Take a look, and listen, to all the wasted energy, from the pasengers on the Carnival Miracle. Sort of a mob mentality over what? The Captain removing the ship and passengers out of harms way? Geez!

This is the incident we we referring to in the thread, about the itinerary change.....

[LisaK]

the grippers about the weather always seem to amaze me, what would you rather have the captain do? steer you into harms way right into the path of a hurricane? oh i know so that you can complain that you had to be quarantined to your cabin, couldn't go out on deck because of the high winds, hard rain, a rough ride and islands that were damaged and had nothing open for you to visit

[Donna]

You just have to be aware of any possible weather conditions when booking a cruise at this time of year.. In most cases, there is no weather threat, but like now, unfortunately, there is.

[CarolinaGirl]

I think that I'd rather go to a different port of call then deal with a hurricane. I hate heavy rain. The captain knows what he's doing and doesn't want to put people in a dangerous situation. I watched a show about a captain of a sailing ship. He put the passengers off the ship before a hurricane to fly home, then he tried to save his ship but the entire crew was lost, along with the ship. I'll trust the captain.