Sunday,
March 8
Around
4:30 a.m. we were awoken by an announcement in the hallway requesting that a
passenger contact guest services immediately. The message was repeated…and
repeated again. Thinking the situation was taken care of, we were just drifting
back to sleep when the announcement was made again…only this time it was inside
our cabin at a very loud volume and very specific. ”Would passenger ______ from
cabin number _____ PLEASE call or report to guest services!” After this message
was repeated a second time inside our cabin, we were wide awake. The situation
sounded serious, but I assumed that most likely we would never know what was going on.
The
Glory was scheduled to arrive at Half Moon Cay (Carnival's private island) at 9 a.m. and information
delivered to our room the night before specified that tender tickets would be
handed out on Deck 5 starting at 8:30 a.m. After the tender mess at Grand
Cayman, we got in the ticket line around 8:15 and already it stretched a
long distance through the ship. As we waited, the line grew longer and longer,
but no staff were showing up to hand out tickets.
A
little past 8:30, the Captain made an announcement that a passenger had gone
missing and after reviewing security video, he was seen going overboard during
the night. You could hear the emotion in the Captain’s voice as he explained
that the ship would be turning around and sailing back to the point where the passenger went overboard to do a search…hence we would be missing our stop in Half Moon
Cay.
With
an unexpected sea day, Bob and I quickly went to the adult only pool at the
back of the ship and found two loungers where we spent the morning in the sun.
The area around the pool was very crowded but yet you could sense the heaviness
that everyone was feeling. We ran into our waiter from the previous week and he was very upset when we greeted him. He told us that the missing passenger had been “his guest” at his serving area in the dining room the
previous night.
By
lunch time we both felt like we needed to get out of the sun so we handed off
our chairs to another couple whose friends were sitting next to us. All of the
food venues on the Lido Deck had extremely long lines so we took a chance and
went to the Platinum Dining Room. Sure enough, since the port stop had been
cancelled they had opened up the main dining room for lunch. Not many people
realized that it was open so only a few people were there. What would have been
a hectic ordeal on the Lido turned into a quiet and relaxing meal. We were
seated with a group of teachers and another married couple…all who were there
because of spring break.
Rumors
were circulating throughout the ship all day regarding the circumstances of the
accident. From reliable sources that I have found, we do know that the
passenger was a college student from Virginia Tech. According to the Coast
Guard report, he went overboard from Deck 6 which is where his cabin was
located. The cruise ship railings are about 4 foot high so it would be
impossible for someone to accidently fall overboard, but it is entirely
possible that the rough seas we experienced overnight did play a factor.
Regardless of the situation, my heart goes out to the parents who received a
call from the ship that day.
Around
6 hours or more had passed from the time the ship was turned around until we
reached the area where the student had gone overboard…around 2:00 in the
afternoon. The ship circled the area for some time and we could also see
another Carnival ship (the Ecstasy) searching nearby as well. We visited with
another couple on the deck outside the lobby as the ship slowly conducted the
search. Although required by law, the search was not successful, as most
assumed, given the elapsed time and the sea conditions. The TV channel that
showed statistics reported the sea depth at the search site as around 2 miles
deep.
Eventually
the Captain made an announcement that the Coast Guard had released the Glory and
we would continue on. The next day (Monday) would be a sea day as planned and
we would get to St. Thomas on Tuesday. I was able to record most of this
announcement as it was being made…(audio only).
With
“Your Time Dining” (YTD) we were able to finally catch a sunset. (Our 6 pm
dinner time kept us from seeing any the previous week!) It was windier than
heck up on Deck 10, but I had fun trying to get some photos. A ship was silhouetted
on the horizon as the sun was setting…possibly a ship that had taken part in
the search earlier in the day.
Our
first impression of YTD was not the greatest. The greeter at the door said that
unless we showed up at 5:45, the wait would be at least an hour! What!!?? We
agreed to be seated with other people hoping to get in sooner and then
instantly a table for two was available. Not sure what was going on, but we
were seated right away. Most of the tables for two were about four inches apart
so it still felt like you were sharing a table with others. The couple next to
us was from Great Britain and we had an enjoyable conversation with them during
dinner…although the loud dining room made it difficult to talk without
shouting. We really liked the American Table menus, but eliminating the
tablecloths really made the dining room much noisier.
The
evening entertainment in the theater was the Hasbro game show. Cute, but not
really what I consider evening entertainment…and another indication of how
Carnival has cut back since our last cruise three years ago. Here is the entertainment schedule for the week...
Before
going to bed, the clocks got turned back to daylight savings time…a move that
had been postponed to give us more time at Half Moon Cay.
No comments:
Post a Comment