Krozi

Holy sh*t I thought you guys were kidding!?!

C's Bimmer

Once it hits 18 seconds, the man himself appears! LOL!!!!

DD_545i

75% refund AND a cruising credit, nice.

luigi524td

It's too bad your special event was cut short.

Maybe the cruise ship had an unfavorable sailing profile; Would a battery tender have prevented this issue!

I hope the rerun will be more memorable!

Iceman

It's very ineteresting to read that this is not the first time the very same vessel had power problems this year...

Ghostteck

AHH SCOTT sorry to hear you had a bad cruise experience. dont let it turn you off though cruises are way too fun!

Krozi

It's probably the alternator. They have to bring the ship back to the dealer now....hope they have CPO haha

v_therussian

"ship wa quickly diverted"??? That is not what I've heard. Besides, you don't really have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out it was not that quickly if people were actually forced to spend an entire night sleeping on the deck for Chrissakes! Now the PR machine's gonna try to put a positive spin, downplay the severity of the incident leading to no investigation on the ship... and I don't know, maybe I am paranoid, but isn't that how all the disasters start? Because some bean counting bunch decides to just "make the whole thing blow over" and then, having spent considerable money on containing the situation in the media, they'll have no resources left to actually fix the problem with the ship... I hope I'm wrong.

sdg1871

Yes that was indeed our ship. Yes I was interviewed by a local Miami TV station (WSVN7) at Miami Internationl Airport when we returned from San Juan and the video was distributed to CNN and local news affiliates.

Until the incident, the cruise was fantastic. There sure are not many E60s in the Carribean. I saw onto one -- a 525 in Bridgetown, Barbados (I took a picture of it).

Here is a link to the pics: http://greenspanphotoshare.shutterfly.com/

The power outage happened on Day 7 of the cruise when we were en route from our last port, St. Kitts, to Miami.

It was quite an experience. On the Friday after Thanksgiving at about 9 am, we were eating in a restaurant on one of the uppermost decks (Cagney's) when we heard a loud noise and felt a shudder. Black smoke started pouring out of the smokestack. The lights went out and the engines stopped. For six hours, the Dawn was without power or propulsion and was drifting -- at the complete mercy of the sea. Thank heavens that the water was calm and that we were not too close to land. Had we been, the ship could have easily run aground.

Due to the complete power failure, the ship lost all HVAC and the toilets did not flush. Temperatures inside the ship rose to about 100 degrees (outside air was about 85 with high humidity) and the ship stank like a sewer. Gross.

About 1/2 hour after the start of the incident, the emergency lights all failed and the interior of the ship was plunged into total darkness. Crew with flashlights were dispatched to the hallways and stairwells to help passengers navigate them. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched to take a look at our ship and buzzed us. The buzzing by the Coast Guard rattled the nerves of some passengers who were already nervous given that the ship was without propulsion and was just drifting.

About 6 hours into the incident, the lights all came back on and minimal propulsion (about 6 knots) was restored. But the HVAC never came back on and neither did the toilets in our cabin. Moreover, about 8 hours after the incident, the ship ran out of all ice and the water coming out of the faucets was very warm. Yuck.

For hours, the crew attempted to restart all of the power (you could hear the shuddering of machinery) but to no avail.

At about 9 pm (about 12 hours after the incident began), the Captain announced that the crew would not be able to repair the damage and that we were going to head for San Juan, Puerto Rico, which was about 95 nautical miles away. He told us that the ship had very minimal power and that it needed all of the remaining power to propel the ship back to port (at 6 knots per hour). He told us that, as a result, the HVAC would not be coming back on and warned us to conserve water because the ship's ability to purify seawater and turn it into drinking water was sharply reduced by the power shortage.

That night sucked. Due to the lack of HVAC, the temperature in the ship's cabins was about 100 degrees. Due to the slow speed of the ship and the calm seas, there was little to no wind coming into the cabin.

People with inside cabins (as well as the crew) slept on the decks of the ship in beach chairs. We slept on our balcony in beach chairs. Sleeping in the room was not an option because the room felt like an oven.

The next morning, we limped into San Juan, Puerto Rico and docked at about 830 am. At that point, although our suite's conceirge never bothered to tell us, the ship's crew circulated passenger lists for 4 charter flights that NCL had booked for Saturday and Sunday. We were not on any of them and so we concluded that there was little prospect of getting off that oven of a ship (even after we got into port, the AC did not come back on) until Monday. There was no rhyme or reason to which passengers got selected for the list of the first 4 flights out. NCL gave no priority to the old, the sick, the very young, the passengers who had spent big money on suites or to its frequent cruisers (Latitudes members).

Given the insanely hot temps on the ship which we'd dealt with for 24 hours, my son Victor was having trouble dealing with the heat. And given that it was not looking like we were getting off the hot ship until Monday, I decided to get the hell off the ship and book my own flight to Miami. I called up American Airlines and scored the last 4 seats on that afternoon's flights from San Juan to Miami. Given that I have heard horror stories from passengers who stayed about people fainting from the heat, I am sure glad that we acted and got out of there.

In the airport at San Juan, one of the other passengers who left the ship like we did told me that she had called WSVN7 in Miami and a camera crew would be waiting for us at baggage claim. She was furious because she had purchased a big suite and was a Lattitudes member but NCL did not put her on any of the first 4 charter flights back to Miami. So I knew that the camera crew would be there. The TV reporter interviewed me for about 3 minutes and, of course, all but 5 seconds was left on the cutting room floor. The part that I talked the longest about was the plight of the passengers who were still marooned on the hot ship in San Juan. Unfortunately, the reporter apparently did not think that that was newsworthy. I sure did because living conditions on the ship were deplorable.

The cruise was scheduled for 9 days, leaving and returning to Miami. The incident began on day 7 and we limped into San Juan and flew home on day 8.

Later, NCL informed us that it was refunding 75 percent of the cruise fare to us and giving us 50 percent off any NCL cruise in 2010 for any room (including the Garden Villa ).

As for me posting less, it isn't due to the cruise. I returned to NYC on November 30. Upon getting home, I took on the biggest case of my career and have been absolutely swamped at work. Given how many people in my profession have lost their jobs in this recession, I am very thankful. But I do expect to post less in 2010 than I did in 2009.

sdg1871

Actually, this ship has a long history of power problems. In November of 2006, my in laws (including my father in law who was terminally ill from lung cancer) cruised on the Dawn out of New York. Within hours of leaving New York, the ship suffered engine failure (although not electrical failure). The ship limped into Newport News, Virginia and the cruise was terminated. It was to be my late father in law's last "vacation".

And the ship has a history of bad luck incidents.

Several years ago, the ship was hit by 3 70 foot rogue waves which flooded about 70-80 cabins and ended the cruise.

And a woman died on the ship by either jumping or being pushed over the balcony railing.

I would cruise again, but I am staying the hell off the Dawn.

If my workload permits, I'd love to do a Mediterranean Cruise in 2010. Victor adored the cruise and did my mother.