Adventure Christmas Cruise

[WAAAYTOOO]

Finally.  A lone vehicle putting down the pier.  No sense of emergency which hopefully is a good sign. Hopefully that means the patient is well enough not to require urgency.

[~1 hour passes] 

Things are eerily quiet in Grand Turk on a Thursday night.  Other than the vehicle presumably here to remove the sick passenger, there is not another vehicle on the streets as far as I can see. I don’t even see a single person walking around !  Note to self:  Grand Turk is not a hotbed of nighttime partying/shenanigans….     I estimate we were at the pier for over an hour, altogether…so far.

I will give credit to our Panoramic Suite.  You couldn’t ask for a better view of the events….however, we were unable to see anything happening on the pier directly below us.  Some people had gathered on the ship’s bow and I suspect they could see down below (on the pier) where we could not.

We’ve been cruising for 17 years and this is the first time we have ever been diverted for a medical emergency.   Very sad and as @asquared17 said, becoming all too common.  
 

In other news, our second BOGO dinner (Chops) went smoothly.  You may recall the confusion around our first BOGO event and our concern with whether or not the second one would go smoothly since we were not asked to pay for it on nights 1 or 2… but it went perfectly.  Got a -0- bill with no drama.  Our only disappointment was that we were denied a MDR lobster tail (it’s Royal Night in the MDR)  to create  a surf & turf combo….but that’s most likely my fault as I violated my own rule by not giving them a head’s up earlier in the day.  They may well have denied it even if I had asked earlier.  I guess we’ll never know.  Maybe I’ll try it again next week only ask in advance this time.

Maria, the Suites Concierge made all of our specialty dining reservations for next week so we’re all set for another cruise !

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, fireclan said:

This is definitely a strange emergency.  Only an unmarked passenger mini van came out to meet the ship. Not an emergency vehicle in sight.

You said it !  Still sitting at the dock with no apparent movement.  I couldn’t tell from here what type of vehicle had arrived (assumed it was an ambulance so thanks for that information).  No idea what’s taking so long !

[asquared17]

37 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Finally.  A lone vehicle putting down the pier.  No sense of emergency which hopefully is a good sign. Hopefully that means the patient is well enough not to require urgency.

[~1 hour passes] 

Things are eerily quiet in Grand Turk on a Thursday night

this is so bizarre. 

when we finally docked in falmouth, i swear to you, we were not there even a full five minutes before we pulled away. 

i’ve no idea how they were greeted because we were on the port side, facing away from the dock, but it took more time to pull ashore because of the shoals and shallows than it did to actually get the pax and family off the ship. 

39 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

We’ve been cruising for 17 years and this is the first time we have ever been diverted for a medical emergency.   Very sad and as @asquared17 said, becoming all too common.  

it’s just getting to be so strange; we had the fire department grab the pax off our odyssey sailing last december, so we came into miami a night early and just docked overnight. 

[SweetPea]

Your room sounds like it's a great spy seat. That was a strange medication evacuation. Hopefully you're correct in that the lack of urgency indicates that the patient is reasonably stable. 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I have absolutely no idea when we finally departed the pier at GT last night.  We gave up and went to bed...but it was a number of hours.  Hopefully someone else on this sailing (@fireclan ?) has more info than we do.

In other news, most of the Christmas decorations are gone this morning .  Some poinsettias still adorn some staircases but most everything else is gone.  Also gone is the unending Christmas music, for which I am grateful.  Enough was enough, already...

[WAAAYTOOO]

Oh yeah.  We had another A, A, A in the middle of the night.  No idea how that turned out.

[fireclan]

31 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I have absolutely no idea when we finally departed the pier at GT last night.  We gave up and went to bed...but it was a number of hours.  Hopefully someone else on this sailing (@fireclan ?) has more info than we do.

In other news, most of the Christmas decorations are gone this morning .  Some poinsettias still adorn some staircases but most everything else is gone.  Also gone is the unending Christmas music, for which I am grateful.  Enough was enough, already...

We left late, 11:30 to midnight I believe. It seemed, from our balcony, quite a bit of medical support equipment left with the patient.

@WAAAYTOOO gave a great description of the almost eeriness of pulling into a dark, abandoned dock. Very odd.

On a lighter note, we saw Elon's second   launch of the night go over Grand Turk while watching the medical evac.

[WAAAYTOOO]

43 minutes ago, fireclan said:

We left late, 11:30 to midnight I believe. It seemed, from our balcony, quite a bit of medical support equipment left with the patient.

Thanks !  I knew it must have been late.  Prayers for the patient as well as the one early this morning.

[WAAAYTOOO]

The Cap came on the intercom a little while ago, announcing that we would be arriving at Port Canaveral a bit later than our scheduled arrival time - most likely around 8:30 AM. (Tomorrow, 12-30).   This is due to combination of our unscheduled stop at Grand stork last night and some upcoming inclement weather.  This will have minimal impact on us since we are B2B but I’m sure others will be affected, unfortunately.

[asquared17]

this is not news i like to hear for you, but at least you are B2B and don’t need to catch a flight

[WAAAYTOOO]

Finally a winning session in the casino !  I’ve been a big fat loser all week….finally walked away with a little coin tonite !

….and speaking of the casino, I have never EVER seen a deader casino than on AD this week.  I’m sure it’s b/c this is a family cruise but MAN…deadsville.

[LandstromCruise]

14 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Finally a winning session in the casino !  I’ve been a big fat loser all week….finally walked away with a little coin tonite !

….and speaking of the casino, I have never EVER seen a deader casino than on AD this week.  I’m sure it’s b/c this is a family cruise but MAN…deadsville.

So did the win help get you back positive for the week, or still loserville for the trip. Good thing you have another week to get some more winnings!! 

[WAAAYTOOO]

37 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

So did the win help get you back positive for the week, or still loserville for the trip. Good thing you have another week to get some more winnings!! 

Still down overall but much, much better than I was yesterday !

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Hi Raye and Dan.  I missed a good chunk of this blog while it was being written and finally caught up this morning.  Happy to know you had a Merry Christmas and a sweet comeback in the casino!  If you are not live blogging your NY cruise…Peter and I wish you a very Happy New Year!  We hope to find ourselves on another one of your cruises someday…I know we are missing you in September by a week!  Rich and Rhonda send their best wishes for a Happy New Year too!

Loved reading this blog…
Hoping we will meet again…someday!   

[WAAAYTOOO]

52 minutes ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Hi Raye and Dan.  I missed a good chunk of this blog while it was being written and finally caught up this morning.  Happy to know you had a Merry Christmas and a sweet comeback in the casino!  If you are not live blogging your NY cruise…Peter and I wish you a very Happy New Year!  We hope to find ourselves on another one of your cruises someday…I know we are missing you in September by a week!  Rich and Rhonda send their best wishes for a Happy New Year too!

Loved reading this blog…
Hoping we will meet again…someday!   

Ahhh…thanks.  I will be updating for this next cruise if anything worthy transpires.

Happy New Year to you guys, too.  Looking forward to our next cruise together !

[WAAAYTOOO]

Turnaround day in Port Canaveral.  This will be a 6 night NY cruise.  Labadee, Nassau and Puerto Plata.

[WAAAYTOOO]

So a bit of an update on the medical evacuation on our last cruise.  Apparently the significant delay at Grand Turk was due to the fact that the patient required a full air evacuation (plane) so we had to wait for the aircraft to arrive from whence it was dispatched.  I don’t know the origination of the flight so I cannot say for sure where the patient was ultimately taken.  To say would be pure speculation.  From someone watching the entire event first hand, it was well after midnight by the time we left GT so we were alongside at GT for at least 3.5 hours.  I certainly hope that the patient is well and will fully recover - but can you imagine what an aircraft medical evacuation from a foreign country would cost ?  Buy your cruise insurance, people !  Make sure it covers medical evacuation !

[asquared17]

57 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

but can you imagine what an aircraft medical evacuation from a foreign country would cost ?  Buy your cruise insurance, people !  Make sure it covers medical evacuation !

oh my lord. 

that is insane. i hope they are okay but WOW. 

[Jax]

Ignore. Posted in wrong blog.

I’m going to catch up on your blog promise! 

[SweetPea]

I'm sure I'll find time tmw to wish you a more timely happy New Year,  but .... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And yes, buy insurance! Our credit card includes $10k/pp but buying Medical insurance plans only thus far has only cost us between $60-70. Get it!

[WAAAYTOOO]

7 hours ago, SweetPea said:

I'm sure I'll find time tmw to wish you a more timely happy New Year,  but .... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And yes, buy insurance! Our credit card includes $10k/pp but buying Medical insurance plans only thus far has only cost us between $60-70. Get it!

Happy New Year to you and Batman, too !!!!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Interesting new onboard cut-back.  This has changed since last week !

Last week, when you arrived at your dining table (no matter which venue you were using), there would be a metal container with a few pats of butter.  Now, the number of pats present has been dwindling noticeably even before now...but as of this week, that container of butter is now completely missing when you sit down.  I noticed yesterday (our first day of our second B2B leg) that the waiter would ask you if you wanted/needed butter but I didn't really realize until this morning that butter would no longer be provided without you having to ask for it.  Our waiter at breakfast this morning confirmed that the new edict came "from the shore side" that butter would not be provided automatically and that if you wanted butter you would have to ask for it.  Our wonderful waiter asked us if we wanted butter so we didn't have to beg for it, but she said that they are no longer allowed to put butter out, proactively.

While our waiter said that this was a fleet-wide edict, my guess is that it may take a while for it to be fully implemented or perhaps some ships will defy this ridiculous micro-management policy entirely....but it seems as if it is meant to be a fleet-wide change.  Rather silly and it will undoubtedly place extra work on the [already overworked] wait staff to have to go and retrieve butter from the kitchen when, inevitably, passengers will want it. 

Perhaps butter is more precious than I previously recognized !

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

13 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

While our waiter said that this was a fleet-wide edict, my guess is that it may take a while for it to be fully implemented or perhaps some ships will defy this ridiculous micro-management policy entirely....but it seems as if it is meant to be a fleet-wide change.  Rather silly and it will undoubtedly place extra work on the [already overworked] wait staff to have to go and retrieve butter from the kitchen when, inevitably, passengers will want it. 

Perhaps butter is more precious than I previously recognized !

On my gosh!  Butter is one of 2 fats (cream in my coffee is the other one) I just cannot go without!  Perhaps it was a growing up Irish sort of thing?… but please don’t take my butter!!!!   

[LandstromCruise]

53 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Interesting new onboard cut-back.  This has changed since last week !

Last week, when you arrived at your dining table (no matter which venue you were using), there would be a metal container with a few pats of butter.  Now, the number of pats present has been dwindling noticeably even before now...but as of this week, that container of butter is now completely missing when you sit down.  I noticed yesterday (our first day of our second B2B leg) that the waiter would ask you if you wanted/needed butter but I didn't really realize until this morning that butter would no longer be provided without you having to ask for it.  Our waiter at breakfast this morning confirmed that the new edict came "from the shore side" that butter would not be provided automatically and that if you wanted butter you would have to ask for it.  Our wonderful waiter asked us if we wanted butter so we didn't have to beg for it, but she said that they are no longer allowed to put butter out, proactively.

While our waiter said that this was a fleet-wide edict, my guess is that it may take a while for it to be fully implemented or perhaps some ships will defy this ridiculous micro-management policy entirely....but it seems as if it is meant to be a fleet-wide change.  Rather silly and it will undoubtedly place extra work on the [already overworked] wait staff to have to go and retrieve butter from the kitchen when, inevitably, passengers will want it. 

Perhaps butter is more precious than I previously recognized !

This is probably my fault because I use too much butter.....my family says I just use the bread as a vehicle to get the butter into my stomach 

[Neesa]

5 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

This is probably my fault because I use too much butter.....my family says I just use the bread as a vehicle to get the butter into my stomach 

This was 100% me....until my tummy put a stop to it. I still miss it, but for us this is a good move. We would feel like we were wasting what was on the table, so especially in the beginning of the voyage we would ask them to hold the butter all trip. That way, I would not be tempted, my crew doesn't eat it so no more wastefulness. 

Happy and Wonderful New Year everyone!!

[Neesa]

@WAAAYTOOO & @SweetPea do you believe we have always sailed with zero insurance? Mr. Cabash always put a big no on it, but now I'm taking a stand!! We are not getting any younger and all of these medical mishaps have convinced me, no more. I just researched an annual Allianz policy that even covers transportation. I am going to purchase it before our June sailing & tell him when he see's the bill, I am convinced more now then ever it is something that is non negotiable moving forward. Thanks for helping me see the light! 

Our Adventure sailing isn't until June 7, 2024 but I am living for and loving on all these live reports, keep them coming & thank you in advance!!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Insurance is one of those things that is a waste of money….until it isn’t.  We traveled for many years without it, too.  We were lucky and we continue to be lucky, but I’m not willing to bet our future that we will always be so lucky.  A medical emergency overseas would ruin us, financially.  I’m not willing to take that chance anymore. 

[GregD]

On 12/30/2023 at 9:15 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

So a bit of an update on the medical evacuation on our last cruise.  Apparently the significant delay at Grand Turk was due to the fact that the patient required a full air evacuation (plane) so we had to wait for the aircraft to arrive from whence it was dispatched.  I don’t know the origination of the flight so I cannot say for sure where the patient was ultimately taken.  To say would be pure speculation.  From someone watching the entire event first hand, it was well after midnight by the time we left GT so we were alongside at GT for at least 3:5 hours.  I certainly hope that the patient is well and will fully recover - but can you imagine what an aircraft medical evacuation from a foreign country would cost ?  Buy your cruise insurance, people !  Make sure it covers medical evacuation !

The costs are astronomical. My cousin was injured in Jamaica many years ago, ended up paralyzed. He needed to be flown back to the US. That flight was $30,000. I can’t imagine what it would be now. Because of that, I always get insurance.. 

[tonyfsu21]

On 12/31/2023 at 9:05 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Interesting new onboard cut-back.  This has changed since last week !

Last week, when you arrived at your dining table (no matter which venue you were using), there would be a metal container with a few pats of butter.  Now, the number of pats present has been dwindling noticeably even before now...but as of this week, that container of butter is now completely missing when you sit down.  I noticed yesterday (our first day of our second B2B leg) that the waiter would ask you if you wanted/needed butter but I didn't really realize until this morning that butter would no longer be provided without you having to ask for it.  Our waiter at breakfast this morning confirmed that the new edict came "from the shore side" that butter would not be provided automatically and that if you wanted butter you would have to ask for it.  Our wonderful waiter asked us if we wanted butter so we didn't have to beg for it, but she said that they are no longer allowed to put butter out, proactively.

While our waiter said that this was a fleet-wide edict, my guess is that it may take a while for it to be fully implemented or perhaps some ships will defy this ridiculous micro-management policy entirely....but it seems as if it is meant to be a fleet-wide change.  Rather silly and it will undoubtedly place extra work on the [already overworked] wait staff to have to go and retrieve butter from the kitchen when, inevitably, passengers will want it. 

Perhaps butter is more precious than I previously recognized !

The cut back methodology at RC is hilarious. The decision to hold back the butter tray is the best one yet! 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Happy New Year everyone !!  I am in full recovery mode.  It's been a REALLY long time since I got "big" for NY eve but I did it right last night....I guess.  Don't recall much except that I somehow found my way back to our room, had $700 in cash (I don't have any recollection of winning...but I guess I did) and fell into bed with all of my jewelry on LOL.  Dan had his first hand pay last night on video poker so we both came home with money.  It is a bit of a NYE miracle.

In all of the NYE hooplah, I managed to lose my Pinnacle plank.  I found the magnet this morning but the plank was nowhere to be found.  I guess I must have slept with it on, as the stateroom attendant found it and left it on the bed.  UGH.  Very grateful that it has been recovered.  I am feeling pretty rough today.  I do recall spilling champagne all over the Ultimate table.  I'm sure I will be on the Casino's naughty list for next Christmas.

[LandstromCruise]

11 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Happy New Year everyone !!  I am in full recovery mode.  It's been a REALLY long time since I got "big" for NY eve but I did it right last night....I guess.  Don't recall much except that I somehow found my way back to our room, had $700 in cash (I don't have any recollection of winning...but I guess I did) and fell into bed with all of my jewelry on LOL.  Dan had his first hand pay last night on video poker so we both came home with money.  It is a bit of a NYE miracle.

In all of the NYE hooplah, I managed to lose my Pinnacle plank.  I found the magnet this morning but the plank was nowhere to be found.  I guess I must have slept with it on, as the stateroom attendant found it and left it on the bed.  UGH.  Very grateful that it has been recovered.  I am feeling pretty rough today.  I do recall spilling champagne all over the Ultimate table.  I'm sure I will be on the Casino's naughty list for next Christmas.

sounds like you had a great night!!  congrats on somehow winning money.  usually they want you drunk to lose all your money. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Sounds like a great night to me!

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Sounds like a great night to me!

The night was great.  Today's aftermath, not so much.

[asquared17]

if we were sailing together, i would be armed with coconut water and hydration packets to nurse you back to life!!

[SweetPea]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Happy New Year everyone !!  I am in full recovery mode.  It's been a REALLY long time since I got "big" for NY eve but I did it right last night....I guess.  Don't recall much except that I somehow found my way back to our room, had $700 in cash (I don't have any recollection of winning...but I guess I did) and fell into bed with all of my jewelry on LOL.  Dan had his first hand pay last night on video poker so we both came home with money.  It is a bit of a NYE miracle.

In all of the NYE hooplah, I managed to lose my Pinnacle plank.  I found the magnet this morning but the plank was nowhere to be found.  I guess I must have slept with it on, as the stateroom attendant found it and left it on the bed.  UGH.  Very grateful that it has been recovered.  I am feeling pretty rough today.  I do recall spilling champagne all over the Ultimate table.  I'm sure I will be on the Casino's naughty list for next Christmas.

Happy New Year!

Love it: Got "big"

YOLO! That will be a (lack of) memory for the ages!

[Ampurp85]

Happy New Year

If you believe in the superstition of having money into the new year means having money all year. Then you are golden with you and Dan's wins 

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

Would have loved to be there to see your “antics” throughout the night!  Peter had a good laugh when I read him your account of the night!  Congrats on the cash surprise!  Keep it up!   

Happy New Year  

[JustMeJoe]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

The night was great.  Today's aftermath, not so much.

Must have been a 6 voucher + night!  

[kenwvt]

13 hours ago, GregD said:

The costs are astronomical. My cousin was injured in Jamaica many years ago, ended up paralyzed. He needed to be flown back to the US. That flight was $30,000. I can’t imagine what it would be now. Because of that, I always get insurance.. 

So far every travel insurance company that I have looked into have horrible reviews when it comes to paying for covered expenses. I don't know which one to use!  

-Ken

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, JustMeJoe said:

Must have been a 6 voucher + night!  

Even worse.  Complimentary casino drinks !