They bought their tickets Shayna, they knew what they were getting into...I say let them puke.

basemetal: The only thing that would make this more craptacular would be an outbreak of the norovirus.

http://gma.yahoo.com/passengers-text-dire-conditions-cruise-ship-081 00 5868--abc-news-topstories.html
"passengers were reportedly using buckets to relieve themselves"

Sounds pretty craptacular already...

We are going on a shall we say "adult oriented" cruise.  Of course our family doesn't know what kind.  This is the sort of thing which we expect to happen and make the news.

What are they whining about?  TFA says they are getting a full refund.  Free cruise man.

vpb: wxboy: If they're going to do that, why not just tow it to Galveston first to let the passengers off where they got on?  I'm sure after all of this they're looking forward to a 10-hour bus ride to get back to their cars.

Maybe they are having the ship repaired at the BAE shipyard in Mobile and it's cheaper to bus them than to tow the ship twice.

I wouldn't want to be on the last bus out.

I think cruises are a huge waste of money. But I guess others do not. My aunt is turning 70 and wants to take her kids and their kids on a 9 day cruise out of NYC in January. That's a lot of time at sea in rough waters. I'd rather meet her in Key West for a couple days. But she is as stubborn as the day is long and her mind is made up.

I might or might not go at this point.

vpb: people are getting sick and they're throwing up everywhere

What would they do if it was Mississippi?

Never would have left the dock.

CNN is reporting people are crapping off the side of the boat and there is shiat running down the hull.

Pocket_Fisherman: We are going on a shall we say "adult oriented" cruise.  Of course our family doesn't know what kind.  This is the sort of thing which we expect to happen and make the news.

Oh definitely. And the cruise ship company will call your family because they are your emergency contacts and the media will contact them for comment. Your employers will see you on tv. The whole house of cards will come down.

Carnival, huh?  I know someone in Belize that is probably having a schadenfreude overdose.

/"Your port facilities are too crowded. You really should start cutting back on our competitors' berths to free up some space, or we will have to dock in Mexico instead."
//At least, that's the rumor I heard.

They're going to need a bigger tow boat.

You could provably get carnival tickets at a mad discount right now.

If they make it to Mobile today, they could join in a pretty awesome Mardi Gras party.

wxboy: If they're going to do that, why not just tow it to Galveston first to let the passengers off where they got on?  I'm sure after all of this they're looking forward to a 10-hour bus ride to get back to their cars.

It's more difficult than that. They might have worked something out with customs, but... When you take a cruise that leaves from and returns to the same port, you don't need a passport - only a birth certificate and a photo ID. If you leave from one port and return to another, however, you have to have a passport to re-enter the country.

Really not sure why they aren't just towing them back to Galveston, if that's their port of departure.

/Then again, I'm not sure why anyone goes on Carnival Cruises
/Royal Caribbean forever!

H31N0US: vpb: wxboy: If they're going to do that, why not just tow it to Galveston first to let the passengers off where they got on?  I'm sure after all of this they're looking forward to a 10-hour bus ride to get back to their cars.

Maybe they are having the ship repaired at the BAE shipyard in Mobile and it's cheaper to bus them than to tow the ship twice.

I wouldn't want to be on the last bus out.

I think cruises are a huge waste of money. But I guess others do not. My aunt is turning 70 and wants to take her kids and their kids on a 9 day cruise out of NYC in January. That's a lot of time at sea in rough waters. I'd rather meet her in Key West for a couple days. But she is as stubborn as the day is long and her mind is made up.

I might or might not go at this point.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: H31N0US: vpb: wxboy: If they're going to do that, why not just tow it to Galveston first to let the passengers off where they got on?  I'm sure after all of this they're looking forward to a 10-hour bus ride to get back to their cars.

Maybe they are having the ship repaired at the BAE shipyard in Mobile and it's cheaper to bus them than to tow the ship twice.

I wouldn't want to be on the last bus out.

I think cruises are a huge waste of money. But I guess others do not. My aunt is turning 70 and wants to take her kids and their kids on a 9 day cruise out of NYC in January. That's a lot of time at sea in rough waters. I'd rather meet her in Key West for a couple days. But she is as stubborn as the day is long and her mind is made up.

I might or might not go at this point.

Cruises can be fun when done right. 5 days is about the maximum time you want to spend on a cruise. Take advantage of any drink specials. Take a good book. Eat a lot, and don't feel guilty about all the calories. If you wind up in Freeport, stay on the ship.

Cruise ships are basically floating altars to Bacchus and Dionysus. If you're into relaxing and indulging a good number of supposedly deadly sins, cruises are great.

xaratherus: wxboy: If they're going to do that, why not just tow it to Galveston first to let the passengers off where they got on?  I'm sure after all of this they're looking forward to a 10-hour bus ride to get back to their cars.

It's more difficult than that. They might have worked something out with customs, but... When you take a cruise that leaves from and returns to the same port, you don't need a passport - only a birth certificate and a photo ID. If you leave from one port and return to another, however, you have to have a passport to re-enter the country.

Really not sure why they aren't just towing them back to Galveston, if that's their port of departure.

Farther to tow...just a guess...I imagine tugboats charge by the (nautical) mile.

Cruising is fun if you're sailing on an actual cruising sailboat. These huge metal monstrosity tourist barges are incubation zones for illness, huge annoyances of crowds of entitled visitors to otherwise quiet destinations, and basically disneyland shopping entrapment on the ocean. I've never sailed on a tourist cruise, and I never intend to. However, I am planning a sailboat cruise through the south pacific on a nice 30-50 ft cutter someday soon.

Yeah a cruise ship just reminds me of a floating strip mall filled with the morbidly obese and their terrible food and germs. Except you're trapped in it.

That's about three times the size of the town I grew up in. I'm not talking population-wise. The road sign said "Welcome to Crete" on both sides.

/lame old joke

It makes sense on a couple of different levels.  As noted earlier, there is plenty of shipbuilding/repair capability in the area.

It also gives purpose to the shuttered cruise ship terminal that was built a few years ago.

And a lot of empty hotel rooms to fill after everyone checks out tomorrow post-Mardi Gras.

Abe Vigoda's Ghost: Cruises can be fun when done right. 5 days is about the maximum time you want to spend on a cruise. Take advantage of any drink specials. Take a good book. Eat a lot, and don't feel guilty about all the calories. If you wind up in Freeport, stay on the ship.

I'd rather be at an all inclusive resort on the beach than  paying $9 a drinkon a boat full of thousands of voracious omnivores. The pool is always mobbed and loud, the rooms are small, all with the possibility of drowning in shark infested waters...I just don't see the appeal.

As for ports of call: you've seen one cruise ship dock; you've seen them all. I can buy trinkets in Chinatown for the price of a subway ride.

I know someone on the boat right now, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies.  So far, she has not seen anyone crapping off the side of the boat.  She has not yet denied doing that herself though, so I'll keep everyone posted on the status of the hull, as I hear updates!

monoski: CNN is reporting people are crapping off the side of the boat and there is shiat running down the hull.

From the poop deck?

Without a functioning sanitation system and foreign crewmembers' less-than-Western standards of hygiene, norovirus is guaranteed.

We've been on Royal Caribbean, MSC, and Carnival lines. The first two can have our business again any time; Carnival would have to pay me to sail on them again.

Cruise pros: work can't easily call me; no driving; sexytime without distractions
Cruise cons: mouth-breathers at the buffet; cattle-call loading/unloading

Snarfangel: Carnival, huh?  I know someone in Belize that is probably having a schadenfreude overdose.

/"Your port facilities are too crowded. You really should start cutting back on our competitors' berths to free up some space, or we will have to dock in Mexico instead."
//At least, that's the rumor I heard.

I've been on one cruise, which included a stop over in Belize, and I will never go there again. My family and I ventured into the capital, a scary and depressing maze of slums. At that night's show in the auditorium, the cruise director came out and practically apologized for stopping there.

Big Man On Campus: Cruising is fun if you're sailing on an actual cruising sailboat. These huge metal monstrosity tourist barges are incubation zones for illness, huge annoyances of crowds of entitled visitors to otherwise quiet destinations, and basically disneyland shopping entrapment on the ocean. I've never sailed on a tourist cruise, and I never intend to. However, I am planning a sailboat cruise through the south pacific on a nice 30-50 ft cutter someday soon.

Precisely this.

Pocket_Fisherman: We are going on a shall we say "adult oriented" cruise.  Of course our family doesn't know what kind.  This is the sort of thing which we expect to happen and make the news.

Party foul for not having a pic of Hedonism bot.

Haven't those poor people suffered enough?

Farking New Guy: Snarfangel: Carnival, huh?  I know someone in Belize that is probably having a schadenfreude overdose.

/"Your port facilities are too crowded. You really should start cutting back on our competitors' berths to free up some space, or we will have to dock in Mexico instead."
//At least, that's the rumor I heard.

I've been on one cruise, which included a stop over in Belize, and I will never go there again. My family and I ventured into the capital, a scary and depressing maze of slums. At that night's show in the auditorium, the cruise director came out and practically apologized for stopping there.

I had a native tour guide, which made it a lot more fun. The traffic scared me, but I didn't have to drive. :)

BTW, you said you stopped in the capital. Did you go to Belmopan?

/IMO, Belize City is the least interesting part of the country. If you get out of the city, the rivers, ruins, and countryside are very pretty, especially when you travel with someone who knows where they are going. :)

Snarfangel: BTW, you said you stopped in the capital. Did you go to Belmopan?

/IMO, Belize City is the least interesting part of the country. If you get out of the city, the rivers, ruins, and countryside are very pretty, especially when you travel with someone who knows where they are going. :)

No, we took a taxi to the city center, got accosted by lots of taxi drivers who wanted to take us to see ruins, but we didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from any of them, so we walked back to port. We just had a few hours there, so once we got back to the port area, i had a couple of beers and then back to the ship ( forget the name, but it was one of Royal Caribbean's). I have a colleague who spent a week there last year, at a farm type resort place, and he liked it, but he never ventured off the reservation, which seems like a good idea for much of the Caribbean.

enik: Don't forget to pack the guitar, birkenstocks and an extra dose of smug, bro!

If knowing what you really want is smug, then guilty as charged, consumer.

The crew reports hearing banjo music...

monoski: CNN is reporting people are crapping off the side of the boat and there is shiat running down the hull.

So the ship was designed by Lord Edmund Blackadder?

xaratherus: /Then again, I'm not sure why anyone goes on Carnival Cruises
/Royal Caribbean forever!

Same here. Never had an issue with RC, and most if not all of these incidents seem to be with Carnival companies.

Farking New Guy: Snarfangel: BTW, you said you stopped in the capital. Did you go to Belmopan?

/IMO, Belize City is the least interesting part of the country. If you get out of the city, the rivers, ruins, and countryside are very pretty, especially when you travel with someone who knows where they are going. :)

No, we took a taxi to the city center, got accosted by lots of taxi drivers who wanted to take us to see ruins, but we didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from any of them, so we walked back to port. We just had a few hours there, so once we got back to the port area, i had a couple of beers and then back to the ship ( forget the name, but it was one of Royal Caribbean's). I have a colleague who spent a week there last year, at a farm type resort place, and he liked it, but he never ventured off the reservation, which seems like a good idea for much of the Caribbean.

My wife and I had an awesome time during our stop in Belize. We hired a private guide to take us and another couple cave tubing about an hour outside the capital. We went to the same cave system as Carnival was selling; however, we got there first, there wee only four of us (carnival's tour had 60), and it was half the price.

Been on one cattle-car cruise - never again.  Overpriced drinks (even if you're NOT boozing it, I was 8 weeks pregnant and it cost me $10 a day for a "soda" card, seriously?), teensy little rooms, brief little stops in port where you have to be back at the ship in x hours like you're a teen on curfew.

Did the all-inclusive thing a few times too, it was better.  Even that isn't "travelling" - it's taking your first world comforts to a tropical location - even the food is blanded down for mass consumption, unless you're lucky.  Plus you're surrounded by ignorant, loud-mouthed, obnoxious people.

Now we book everything ourselves and rent local condos wherever we go (Belize (Ambergris Caye, not Belize City), Guatemala, Costa Rica).  Shop and eat local, try to learn a few words of the native language, don't wave your money or your stuff around, and try not to be obnoxiously North American, and you'll truly enjoy a fabulous vacation.  And you won't have 75 fat bored white people in your photos of the sites you visit.  Just the fat white people you love and care for.