Fire Cruise

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gottacruz

Guest
Hi guys,
Does anyone remember being on the Rccl Song of America cruise, the 11-06-88 sailing? Well i was, i thought that cruise would be wonderful, but on 11-08-88 at 7:58 p.m. there was a fire in the engine room, and the captain came on the p a, and said that there is a fire, please get your life jackets on and go to your life boat, this is no drill, the sirens went off and everyone jumped into action. I grabbed my camera and life jacket and on the way up to the life boat stations, i took pictures, cuz who would ever believe it, We had just left cozumel mexico a couple of hours before. We all gathered at our life boat stations, to wait for further instructions. We waited. They finally got the fire out and let us back inside the ship, where there were two lounges on deck 9, that we could sit. The ship was dead in the water all night long, later, we had to limp back to cozumel, to wait for parts to be flown in from norway. They let us get off in cozmel, the next night, rccl gave out a letter to all on board, that said, if you want a full refund take the letter to your travel agent, or if you want to take another cruise, on rccl, take the letter and show it to your t a. The ship had to cancel the rest of the cruise and go back to miami a day early, on sat, but since all the incoming ships were returning to miami on sat, we had to wait our turn to tie up at the dock, after all the ships had left. Fortunately, no one was injured or hurt on the ship, no passengers or crew. The passengers renamed the song of america, to flame of america, and that cruise became known as the "Fire Cruise." Five months later, i was back for my free cruise, on the sun viking. Oh yeah, i got dinner at midnight that night, lukewarm spagghetti, and the maidre d when he saw me, asked if i was ok, and i said yes. Its been awhile,like 19 years,now. Hope all of you have a wonderful day.

gottacruz
 
N

nieciez

Guest
Thanks for sharing that experience with us gotta.....glad to hear it didn't put you off of cruising :thumb
 
R

reggae

Guest
I do not remember hearing about the fire, but back then there was no internet.

But I do remember the Song of America with wonderful memories. It was the very first time we took our children with us on a cruise. They had so much fun on that "huge" ship. At the time we went, it was very new and the biggest of the fleet.

Our children had a great time in the "new" kid's program. They came home with all kinds of gifts from the cruise line. As memorabilia, we still have some of those things....a small radio with the RCCL logo, a jigsaw puzzle of the ship, the "ship-shape" sun visor, etc.

Sorry to hear you had to go through the upsets of the fire, I'm sure it brings back some bad memories. But I am glad that RCI gave everyone a free cruise at a later date.

Thanks for sharing your story.
 
R

rooy

Guest
Greaat storytelling. i could picture the whole thing as you told it.
Glad everyone was ok.
 
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korinalacount

Guest
Wow,that is something you will always remember,nice to get a free cruise,but not so nice to relive the memories.
 
C

Calgon1

Guest
Ahoy There gottacruz !

As nieciez said, we're glad to see that you're still hooked on cruising.

Your posting prompted me to place a post on the Community Q&A forum about fire crews on the ships. Thanks.
 
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connie seabee

Guest
Thanks for telling your story, very interesting, I enjoyed reading about it.
 
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maw

Guest
Thanks for sharing this memory of a cruise with us. so glad that al was well for you.
 
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gottacruz

Guest
hi guys,
Just thought i would let you know, that no one heard about the song of america being on fire, as it was on election night, and the fire was in the engine room, of the four engines aboard, the pistons in three of engines blew, forgot to mention that.
 
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BRENNL

Guest
Thanks for the info....our first cruise experience was in 1996 on the Song of America to Burmuda. What a great experience...and 4 cruises later...still hooked.

Laurel
 
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