firegal2539 Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 I am sure many of you read Matt's Post Roundup of the Grandeur of the Seas problems, "Grandeur of the Seas had to go in for immediate repairs to fix an issue with her rudder earlier this week. During a sailing, Royal Caribbean notified guests that Grandeur of the Seas was experiencing a technical issue which limits the operation of one of the two rudders used to steer the ship. As a result, the ship would be delayed in returning to Baltimore by two days. The repairs took place on January 11, with the ship returning to Baltimore on January 13. This caused the current sailing to be extended by two days and the next sailing to be shortened by two days." I am not here to complain but when friends and coworkers asked me about this cruise I honestly couldn't say it was a great cruise, a good cruise or a bad cruise, it was just a cruise. I enjoyed myself somewhat with the limited things there were to do. I actually had time to read 5 novels because Royal doesn't give movies to watch in your cabin. According to Captain Thor the rudder went out at 2 a.m. but many passengers including me, at 2 a.m. heard a very loud, long bang, the ship shook and immediately slowed down. It felt like we hit something. From that time on we limped around in the ocean. First Captain Thor was directed to take the ship to Freeport, but after turning around and heading towards Freeport for 5 hours, he was told that he wouldn't be able to work on the ship there and was told to go to Port Canaveral. Two days later we made it. I elected to get off of the ship, since it was the day we should have returned to Baltimore, and I needed to be at work the next day. Many other things happened on this cruise. We were scheduled to go into Charleston, SC, first port, but Charleston closed the port and the only reason we docked there, three passengers were taken by ambulance to the hospital. Captain Thor asked passengers to not get off the ship since the whole city was closed down and he felt serious injury could happen if we did, but still many passengers got off to find a city totally closed. The next stop was Port Canaveral, which was having record low temperatures and all excursions that were outside, airboats, etc., were cancelled and part of Disney wasn't open. Next port was Freeport, it poured down rain, Nassau came after that and because of the weather we couldn't use tenders for CocoCay so we stayed in Nassau for two days. Then on the way back is when the ship had it's problems. To add more misery, over 250 passengers had Norovirus and over 100 had upper respiratory infections, all were quarantined if they went to the ship's doctor. Only 2,000 passengers and 1/4 of them sick. I don't blame Royal for any of this, Captain Thor couldn't control the weather, the ship problems, sickness, but he could control his crew and many of them were over worked, stressed, because of the illnesses on board and were very short, sharp and curt to all passengers. I understand this, but it doesn't make it correct for crew to treat passengers that way. I was one of the few passengers who tried not to go to Guest Services because there was always a line of 50 or more people and most were so upset all they did was yell at the crew working the desk. I realized how bad it was when I discovered all of the dancers and singers were working the soda machines, in the buffet clearing tables, doing washy-washy. Even the galley staff that I never see helped out at Guest Services. Voom was mostly non-working because all passengers were trying to use it at the same time. The manager of the Internet Café tried to explain this to all but they didn't listen and still tried to get on the internet. I finally gave up after spending an hour just trying to connect to Yahoo so I could get my TA to find me a flight home and never connected. I had a nonexistent cruise director, no passengers ever saw him, he didn't do the production shows, he didn't do the parties, the only thing I saw him do was the Love and Marriage game show and his television show. He was the worst cruise director I have ever had. To say it was an interesting cruise, that would be correct. Again, I can't say I had a great, good or bad cruise, it was just a cruise. I truly did feel sorry for Captain Thor, he didn't deserve the passengers wrath. And sorry I guess I did complain. Candie Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Wow, sorry you had such a bad experience this time around. Talk about a perfect storm of bad luck! Why was the whole city of Charleston, SC closed, and the captain giving warnings about people who left the ship risking injury? I hadn't heard anything about that on the nightly news, you'd think a city closing would have made headlines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 hour ago, JLMoran said: Why was the whole city of Charleston, SC closed, and the captain giving warnings about people who left the ship risking injury? I hadn't heard anything about that on the nightly news, you'd think a city closing would have made headlines. Snow. SC doesn't do snow well. Lived there for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLMoran Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 minutes ago, twangster said: Snow. SC doesn't do snow well. Lived there for a while. Heh. Native New Jerseyan and four years living in Maine while in college. Had to drive to a job interview up in Bar Harbor one time in what was rapidly becoming a blizzard. I still shake my head at people here in NJ who can't seem to grasp that snow requires a different driving style than mid-summer. So I guess I can see how a place like SC that gets snow really infrequently might freak out a little over what to do with a major storm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellcee Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Sorry about your trip. Hope you can schedule another soon to make up for this one. Norovirus is the absolute worst, got it at work a few years ago and I'm still freaked out. I wash my hands constantly. My friend who is from NY moved down to Charleston and the city was basically shut down for days. She thought it was hysterical at first because we in NY got so much more snow then got pissed since so many days went by and they were all stuck in their houses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DunkelBierJay Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 1 hour ago, JLMoran said: Wow, sorry you had such a bad experience this time around. Talk about a perfect storm of bad luck! Why was the whole city of Charleston, SC closed, and the captain giving warnings about people who left the ship risking injury? I hadn't heard anything about that on the nightly news, you'd think a city closing would have made headlines. Cities in South Carolina and Georgia closed down since they aren't equipped for this kind of cold weather. The northern press would either make fun of them and ignore them. As a southerner, we like being ignored by the northern press! As far as Norovirus, it only takes one person who is sick and didn't sanitize or wash hands touching the serving ware at the Windjammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Sorry to hear the cruise wasn't the kind of experience you could brag to friends and family about, but like you said, still a cruise. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the sailing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneyraven Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 I wouldn't say you were complaining ..... you were basically telling facts and sharing observations (like the passengers yelling at guest services) ... Charleston had snow.... Florida had cold temps, it's like the entire cruise was cursed .... Can you chalk it up to "Sh*t happens?" --- Sure --- but my one take-away from this was controllable ..... Where was the cruise director? When we were on her back in September, we had to deal with going over, then under Hurricane Jose..... to say it was "interesting" would be an understatement, but that didn't affect the Cruise Director (Paul Rutter) and the Activities Director, Tino (who transferred to Serenade after our cruise) from being out there and visible...... They never lost their desire to show everyone a good time ..... Who is the current CD now? I'd be curious if this was a one-time issue or if it's a trend. For all we know, he/she could've been sick..... Who knows. But as for your report, I don't see it as a complaint at all ..... and those that know me know that I love Lady G and will come to her defense every time. But this one seemed to be 8-balled from the moment you left Baltimore. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 3 hours ago, JLMoran said: Heh. Native New Jerseyan and four years living in Maine while in college. Had to drive to a job interview up in Bar Harbor one time in what was rapidly becoming a blizzard. I still shake my head at people here in NJ who can't seem to grasp that snow requires a different driving style than mid-summer. So I guess I can see how a place like SC that gets snow really infrequently might freak out a little over what to do with a major storm. No surprise. Even here in Ontario, where snow is pretty much a given at some point during the winter, people forget how to drive during the first snow fall. Always tons of accidents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyC Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 5 hours ago, JLMoran said: Wow, sorry you had such a bad experience this time around. Talk about a perfect storm of bad luck! Why was the whole city of Charleston, SC closed, and the captain giving warnings about people who left the ship risking injury? I hadn't heard anything about that on the nightly news, you'd think a city closing would have made headlines. It did make our news, but as some of the others mentioned not so much as in a factual way but with humor in the voices of the meteorologists. I find myself sticking to News12NJ and ignoring the NYC stations. News12 gives me what I need to know and I can move on in 10 minutes. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firegal2539 Posted January 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Coneyraven, The CD is Bob Leininger who is the oldest CD I have ever sailed with, he is 57. Nothing wrong with his age but not for a CD. The only time I saw him was on his TV show. He didn't attend anything else. The AD was Tornado Tanya. Bob spent most of the time on his TV show plugging his book about being a CD that is for sale on Amazon . Candie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coneyraven Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 26 minutes ago, firegal2539 said: Coneyraven, The CD is Bob Leininger who is the oldest CD I have ever sailed with, he is 57. Nothing wrong with his age but not for a CD. The only time I saw him was on his TV show. He didn't attend anything else. The AD was Tornado Tanya. Bob spent most of the time on his TV show plugging his book about being a CD that is for sale on Amazon . Candie Wow ---- That's all I can say is "Wow" ---- I hear GREAT things about Tornado Tanya though ...... but this guy needs to go and promote his book elsewhere...... And you're right, this has NOTHING to do with age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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