Thursday, March 12, 2015

Bahamas Halloween Cruise Ship Accident from Freeport to Florida

The Cruise Ship Casualty in the Bahamas!


So, I wanted to share my mishap from the Bahamas / Halloween cruise accident on the way home from Freeport. Ha! This collision was very interesting and time consuming. It surely was a good story to tell. The journey with the title of "The Bahamas Halloween Cruise Ship Accident on the Way Home" in the newspaper and on T.V.

I had a great idea for my girlfriend’s birthday to take her on her first cruise.  I called and booked our reservation and also purchased tickets to go through their very scary and haunted scare house.  The scare house was actually on the ship itself. I requested my days off from work and I also called her job and asked her boss if it is ok for her to take the days off as well.  Remember, this was all a surprise!  I had to wait for 3 weeks to tell her that we’re going away for the weekend.  Finally, the day before, I told her to pack for 4 days.  We’re going down south to the beach and pool, to dress comfortable and also bring a nice dress for an evening of dinner and wine… ;)

She kept asking and asking – where are we going babe?  I just laughed and replied with – just pack and let’s go!  The next morning we woke up early to pack the car, gas it up, put air in the tires, check all fluids, get snacks, drinks and to the bank.  Finally, we were on the way to the port which was about 2 hours away.  The ride went so fast because of the excitement and the anticipation of the whole trip.  Little did we know, we were about to be stars of an on a cruise.
We arrived at the port at around 2pm for a departure of 6pm.  When I drove up and we saw the huge cruise ship in front of us, my girlfriend’s eyes grew to huge owl eye balls.  Her first words were – No way!!??? I replied with – yes way!  We were both super happy.  I drove up and the cruise line had valet parking service.  We grabbed our stuff and we were on our way!

Bahamas Cruise Ship
The Bahamas Celebration Cruise Line before we departed West Palm

The first night on the cruise ship

Everything went smoothly for the check in process except that they asked me kindly to change my t-shirt because it read – I’m here to f*ck sh*t up. It was hilarious. I turned it inside out and then later I flipped back.  We went straight to our room to leave the bags.  The cruise ship was amazing.  They had Alcoholic drinks for free and I took 2 of those, but more for me!  

The first night was a blast.  We explored the whole cruise ship, which we were on for only 12 hours until we arrived at Freeport.  We woke up early so we can explore the island of Freeport.  We got off and I immediately grabbed another drink.  It was a coconut filled with coco water and rum, a Bahama specialty.  We grabbed a taxi that took us for my second surprise, which was for us to do a para sail session.  I paid for us to do the activity but the locals only charged me for one person.  I am guessing because we were part the cruise ship or a language barrier.  Either way, they took us to a floating platform in the middle of the ocean.  From there they would hook us up and launch us from there.  We reached over 800 feet in the air.  From the heights we can see our Bahamian cruise ship and all of the east coast of Freeport.  Beautiful!

Parasailing in the Bahamas looking at the beautiful water
The beautiful view of the clear waters of the Bahamas

 After hours of exploring, beach activities, shopping, and eating we had to return to the cruise ship.  We took a shower to freshen up and head to dinner.  Mind you, it’s actually Halloween night.  We headed down to the haunted house first that was located on the bottom of the cruise ship.  It was a very good scary house; I would have done it a couple more times if I could.  At dinner, we sat down to order our drinks and receive our plates for the buffet.  At this time we were leaving the cruise ship port of Freeport, to come home.  At the buffet the lights went out.  Everyone thought it was part of a Halloween activity that the cruise had planned or an accidental turn off of the lights.  I wish it was, but the lights did not come on for 5 minutes and then the captain came on and told us to head to our safety stations because the Bahama’s cruise ship was in a crash.  When that was said, everyone went crazy and went running to their room etc…  I ended up going to my room to get our most important documents just in case.  Eight hours later, we were towed back to the port so we can get off the ship.  It was hot and uncomfortable but the cruise employees were very professional.  The company put all of us in a resort on the beach of Freeport.  By the time we laid down, it was 4am.  We woke up at 10am to call the front desk and see what the plan was for us.  They told us that we had to meet in the lobby at 12pm because they were sending buses to take us back to the cruise port.  Finally we arrived at the port and they sent us another ship (Bimini Express) to take us home.  I have to say that the other ship was smaller but I had more fun on that cruise than the original.  It had to be because a lot of drinks were flowing, music, and stress was leaving our bodies.  :-p

The hunted house on the cruise ship
The cruise ship's scare house
The cruise ship is out of commission
Bahama's celebration out of commission
Everyone waiting for the other ship to pick us up
Freeport - waiting for our taxi cruise ship


This video is from WPTV News covering the cruise ship mishap

At 3am we finally arrived at the cruise ship’s port in Miami.  After our arrival we had to get on another bus to go to our original port in West Palm because that’s where our cars were parked.  At 6am we finally arrived at the original port of this wonderful ship extravaganza.  Unfortunately, the adventure wasn't over for us.  We had to drive an hour and a half back down to Miami to stay with my best friend.  After a couple of hours of sleep we finally woke up and he told us that we were on the news, the radio, and the net.  It was everywhere "there was a cruise hit something"

Everyone partying on the taxi ship on the way home
The party on the way home!!!


We were celebrities over night!  What a first cruise for my girlfriend, huh!?



This video is one of their commercials of the original cruise ship "The Bahamas Celebration"


WPTV News covering the new cruise ship