Our Splendor adventure!

As many of you know, Rudi and I had planned a vacation way back in March. We were going on a cruise in November. Rudi's parents were so kind to watch Tys and Nieko for us.
So last week Sunday, the 7th, our adventure began.
Our ship was waiting for us at Long Beach, LA. A beautiful cruise ship called "The Splendor". Only 2 years young!
We were so excited, and as soon as we got on board, everything was so perfect! Our room was very spacious and even had two porthole windows. We went out on the lido deck to enjoy a delicious hamburger.
Later that night we had dinner in the formal dining room with 3 other couples.
After dinner we headed to the welcome-aboard show. Our cruise director was John Heald, and he was SO funny! We didn't know then that we were going to hear lots of announcements from him...
(I suggest you read John's blog for many details I can't give you; www.johnhealdsblog.com)

We went to bed late that night, not knowing that we would be woken up at 6 am.
Monday morning, the ship was shaking and we heard some strange sounds. Then we heard over the PA; Alpha team to the engine room! repeated several times.
What was going on? Why would the wake up the whole ship this early? Or did someone accidentally press the wrong button?

At 6.20 am we heard the following announcement from John;

Ladies and Gentlemen. My sincere apologies for waking you up but as you may have heard we have just used an Alpha Team call which is the alert for our fire teams to attend. At this moment the captain has informed me that there is lots of smoke in part of the aft engine room on deck 0. (A side note: I told the guests this in case they thought the engine room may be close to guests’ cabins which of course it isn’t.). Please would all guests remain in their cabins while we investigate and regardless of if there is any more information I will return in 5 minutes with an update. Please don’t worry and I promise I will keep you informed.

We decided to get in our swimsuits and enjoy the spa. But when we got there all the spa's and pools were closed. We had to go back down to change, because it was cold. When we got to our cabin some of the crew told us to hurry, because now they wanted all the people put of their rooms.

At 6.45 the following announcement;

JOHN: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WHAT I AM ABOUT TO SAY IS ONLY FOR OUR CREW MEMBERS AND I PROMISE IS MERELY A PRECAUTION SO PLEASE DO NOT WORRY AND TRY TO STAY CALM.

CREW – I NEED YOU ALL TO PLEASE NOW GO TO YOUR GENERAL EMERGENCY STATIONS. WE HAVE OUR ALPHA TEAMS INVESTIGATING A SITUATION IN THE ENGINE ROOM AND AT THIS TIME THE CAPTAIN NEEDS YOUR HELP.

PLEASE GO TO YOUR STATIONS. WE HAVE REHEARSED THIS TIME AND TIME AGAIN HAVEN’T WE? SO LET’S DO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO IN A CALM AND PROFESSIONAL WAY. ALL CREW TO THEIR GENERAL EMERGENCY STATIONS.

We realized it was pretty serious.. We could smell smoke in some places. Thankfully they got the situation under control. But we were left with no power.. Thankfully they got most of the toilets working that same night. Without power it was very dark on the ship, only emergency lighting. The chefs couldn't prepare any hot foods. So for the next three days we ate sandwiches, fruit, salad and yogurt. They gave away soda's and there was plenty of water. They had milk too. I believe there was one freezer that was working. The elevators didn't work, and since our room was on the 1st floor, we did a lot of stair climbing! Just think of the older people or people with disabilities. Or people with children and strollers. I missed the boys very much, but at that point I was very happy they were with their pake and beppe!

On Monday night John announced that the cruise had been officially terminated. We were waiting for 2 tugboats to pull us to Ensenada, Mexico. Of course we were very dissapointed. We kept hoping they would get the problem fixed. But the fire had been a lot worse than we thought. We found out we wouldn't get to Ensenada until Wednesday. That seemed like a long time..

On Tuesday we found out that in stead of going to Ensenada, we'd be going to San Diego, because of customs, and more importantly, because the damage to the ship was major, they had to fix it in San Diego. By Tuesday they had some entertainment going on and some bars were opened, the helicopter came to drop food, and lots of beer and wine. The Ronald Reagen was right beside us, so was the US Coast Guard as well as the Mexican Coast Guard. We felt safe and we had food plus some entertainment. People were in a better mood than the day before. (Probably because of the alcohol?) We made some friends and made the best of it.

By Wednesday the mood on the ship was even better, even though we were informed that we wouldn't get to San Diego until Thursday night. We had a lot of fun that day and played games in the casino. The dealers were there to entertain guests. Because we didn't play with money, it was really funny. They let us cheat and all the rules were out the window, which made it fun! Wednesday night we found out we were going to be in San Diego around noon, which was great news! Everybody started packing their suitcases in the hallways, because the rooms were to dark!

Thursday morning we arrived in San Diego. We could see all the media and people on the pier. People started cheering! We were very lucky to be in the bottom of the ship, because we were seom of the first people to get off the ship. There was a bus waiting for us to bring us to our hotel in LA. Even though we were glad to be back on the main land, we would miss being on the ship. We actually had fun through all the circumstances. We were really looking forward to some warm food and a cup of coffee though!

It's been an adventure we'll never forget! They reimbursed us for the cruise as well as the airfare. And Carnival is giving us a free cruise! We're looking forward to going again!

A few hours before we left.

monday morning, after they sent everybody outside.

The Ronald Reagan.

On Tuesday the helicopter dropped food and drinks. We never ever saw any SPAM!!!!!

This is what we ate for 3 days.

The crew worked so hard. They had to carry all this food up the stairs, 9 levels. They formed a human chain to bring it all up!

San Diego from our porthole

One of the famous tugboats, this one's called the Chihuahua (for real!)

Coming into the Port of San Diego

Lots of media!

There were a lot of little leaks on the ship

Right after we got off the ship. Look at the bottom row of windows. Our room was the first with portholes, right next to the bigger windows.

a little blurry, but there were a lot of media vans!

some last pictures of the ship

farewell, Splendor!

A cup of coffee never tasted so good!

Rudi enjoying a first hot meal after getting off the ship!