Love Boat (not) addendum

Not sure how much info everyone is getting elsewhere, but we are following the Triumph saga with a lot of interest.  Perhaps it is because it is because the ship sailed out Texas (Galveston).  Perhaps it is because there are some people from the area who are either on board now or have family onboard.  Perhaps it is because we know of two co-workers who are currently onboard.  Or perhaps the group of friends (Red Hat Society) who are onboard as well.  Or maybe it is because we have taken a similar cruise from the same port 5 years ago (different ship).  Or maybe it is because we just completed our own little 10 journey across the Caribbean last fall. 

Regardless, this whole saga has gotten a lot of attention down here.  People are lined up waiting to watch the boat come into port in Mobile (not Galveston).  So far, we have heard nothing from the people on board, but they should be within cell phone range in a few hours (if not already).  They are not slated to make port until later this evening (need to be towed 30  miles upriver to Mobile).  From the new feeds, sounds pretty ugly, but I am not sure how much of the media hoopla would believe.  I can see the difficulties with losing power on the ship and how it would make life miserable.  On our PC cruise, when we docked in Curacao, the ship cut power on the a/c system to do some adjustment/maintenance.  We took the  opportunity to hit the tour, do a tour, get lunch off boat.  When we got back around 3, they had turned the a/c system back on but it was still stifling below decks.  The one good thing is we had a cabin with a balcony that we got a breeze.  Lose power on a ship that size and nothing works.  No a/c.  No elevators.  No water.  No working toilets.  Pooping in bags, peeing in showers, long lines for food, no showers.  That’s a recipe for a really nasty time.  This was supposed to be a short 5 day “down & out” cruise.  Leave Galveston on Thursday, head down to Mexico to hit one or two ports and then head back to Galveston.  They were supposed to dock early Monday morning.  This has turned from a 5 day cruise into an 8 day cruise and I can tell you, even with power, after 5 days, things get old.  Even more so when you are dead in the water.  They have been on the boat without power since Sunday. 

This was one of the fears some expressed to me about our recent cruise and I don’t blame people for being concerned.  Cruises can be fantastic opportunities to see new sights, explore the world.  But when things go wrong, no matter how rare, things get ugly real fast.  Will be interesting to hear all the stories and see the pictures.    

Addendum:  Tim from IT who runs the a lot of the websites for our company.  He is one of the co-workers I mentioned who is on board.  What I did not know until this afternoon is that he is on his honeymoon.  Wow.  What a way to start out.