Of course any such message across the PA is unlikely to fool the crew as I assume there are relevant codes and alert signals. However it could have distressed guests.

Of course any such message across the PA is unlikely to fool the crew as I assume there are relevant codes and alert signals. However it could have distressed guests.

When I sailed on MAASDAM last year, our cabin was right next to the Cruise Director's office. Her desk had a PA microphone built right in. The office was open all the time, even in the middle of the night with just a curtain closing it off. Unfortunately, she (the Cruise Director) took advantage of that convenient PA and made sooo many revenue producing announcements. I wanted to rip that thing out of her desk! I've heard far fewer announcements on the Carnival cruises I have taken.

quote:

---

Originally posted by nycruiser:
I can't beleive this. Ship security needs to be tighter? That had to be a very scary situation. Apparently this did happen a freind of mine saw this on the news this weekend. I only ran across it in a newspaper article from the Daily News. I recently returned from NCL's Dawn and I noticed that ship had many cameras in the public areas. I guess all ships should adopt this.

---

It's sad really. We need more and more policies, restrictions, rules, cameras, security, etc. just to keep society in order .... even on vacation! Is it that difficult for people to behave in a civilized manner in this day and age?

Carnival do not seem interested in bothering to find whoever did this, stating "It was a thoughtless and
inconsiderate act on someone's part. We have taken some actions to ensure that it never happens again." They could have held everyone onboard and taken fingerprints. No less of a crime than a bomb hoax. They are lucky no-one suffered a heart-attack or similar. How come nothing is showing on the CCTV cameras?

quote:

---

Originally posted by sunviking82:
First they missed the boat and Princess sent a lauch back to St. Thomas to get them. Apparently, if you throw your shoe at the boat they will do that. They should have left them...

---

Yes. They should have left them.

Contrast Princess' action with that of QE2's Captain on a Med Cruise on September 29, 1983.

QE2 was making her maiden call at Ibiza and was anchored about half a mile out. A little further out Maxim Gorkij was also anchored but at times was not visible from the dock from where local tenders were servicing both ships. QE2 was scheduled to sail at 11 pm with the last tender leaving the dock at 10:30 pm.

An american couple who I shall simply call Jim and Joan were on their honeymoon. Joan was indisposed that day and stayed in bed while Jim took the shore excursion they had intended to take together. I was on the same excursion. Jim returned to the ship at about 2:30 pm. Joan was still not feeling well and was still in bed.

At 6:30 pm while Jim was getting ready for dinner, Joan announced that she was feeling better and was going to go ashore and she she would grab a bite to eat ashore. Since Jim had already been ashore he didn't go with her but he did advise her of the last tender time and told her to make sure she didn't miss it.

At about 10:15 Joan arrived at the dock. At the time Maxim Gorkij was completely hidden from view by QE2 and Joan had no idea that QE2 was not the only ship "in port". She saw people boarding a tender and asked "Is this the boat back to the ship?". On getting a positive response she boarded the tender which left the dock about 5 minutes later. Looking around she did not recognise any of the other passengers but thought nothing of it. After all, QE2 was a big ship and this was only the 4th night of a 12-night cruise.

The tender pulled away from the dock and started to head out. When the tender started to swing wide of QE2 she wasn't concerned until she saw Maxim Gorkij. Soon her new found fears were confirmed as it became obvious she had caught the wrong tender. Despite assurances from the tender operator that they wouuld get back to the dock in time, the last tender to QE2 had already left by the time they got back. The shore side personnel then radioed QE2 asking them to wait but the Captain refused to wait and QE2 sailed for Barcelona on schedule.

The tour operators put Joan up at a hotel for the night and booked her on a flight to Barcelona for the next morning. The cost of the hotel and the air fare were charged to Jim's shipboard account. (She also almost missed the boat in Barcelona but that is another story.)

So, here we have a case where a person made sure not to be late but got left behind because of an unfortunate error and the Captain simply said "tough". In the Princess case, the couple seems to be the type that just don't give a damn but got away with it. Sad!

Just to show that this particular QE2 captain (name witheld here but it was mentioned in another thread a few days ago), played no favourites, he also refused to grant Sir Bobby Charlton (a national hero to many) permission to board QE2 as a visitor at Gibraltar 6 days later.