Viking cruise ship adrift without engine power; 8 passengers injured

[True Dough]

Yikes!

Eight people have been injured after a cruise ship's engines failed in stormy conditions off the west coast of Norway.

The Viking Sky, carrying about 1,300 passengers and crew, sent a mayday signal as it drifted towards land.

Video posted on social media showed furniture sliding around inside the ship and debris falling from the ceiling as it listed heavily to one side.

Those on board are being hoisted one-by-one from the deck and taken by rescue helicopter to a village just north of the town of Molde.
It is slow work, and is expected to continue through the night.

https://news.sky.com/story/cruise-ships-1-300-passengers-to-be-evacuated-after-engine-failure-11673395

[catbyte]

1. You couldn't pay me enough to get on one of those floating prisons.

I guess I shouldn't have seen "The Poseidon Adventure" when I was a kid, but I've always hated the idea of a cruise. I dont like mingling with strangers and I don't like crowds, so no thanks.

Whatever floats your boat, though!

[True Dough]

2. My wife and I have been on six cruises

Rough seas one night out of about nine weeks combined from all the trips. No norovirus encounters. Nothing serious at all. We've been lucky and we really enjoyed the experiences.

But if we endured something like what happened in the video above, I can't imagine we'd be boarding another cruise ship again.

[Igel]

4. Remember that news is news.

The headline wasn't "Sun rose today!" or "Normal Traffic on Freeway."

If it's not unusual in some sense, or important as a public service, it's not news.

[True Dough]

7. You're right

Just like millions of successful flights every year but very few of those make the news (unless someone gets drunk and starts a fight on board).

[catbyte]

6. I think you need to be an extrovert to really enjoy a cruise. At least everyone

I've known who has loves going on cruises were very social. My late husband and my idea of a perfect vacation was to scout out a secluded beach on Maui and just hang out watching sea turtles surfing and whales breaching.

I'm glad you've had good experiences on cruises. I agree if I was trapped on that ship, I'd be terrified. Also, I got sicker than a dog on a 90-minute ferry ride on Lake Michigan from Charleviox to Beaver Island when I was a kid, so I'm not good on the water anyway. 🤢

[Aristus]

14. Cruises are enjoyable for both extroverts and introverts.

I'm shy, and my wife is very sociable. We went on a long cruise to Hawaii a number of years ago. She spent the first few days of the cruise in our cabin, crippled by seasickness. She insisted she didn't want to spoil the cruise, and told me to go out for meals, and to meet people.

Shy as I am, I met a lot of very friendly people, and between being a good trivia partner and bringing down the house at karaoke, I found myself very popular. The whole time, I talked about how my wife was stuck in the cabin with seasickness. I talked about her constantly, how beautiful she is, how much I loved her, and she never put in an appearance. I felt like I was talking about my gorgeous girlfriend that you don't know because she...um..... lives in Canada.

Finally, my wife felt well enough to come out and join me for meals and the on-board activities. I introduced her to all of the friends I had made while she was sick. They never did quite get to know her as well as the knew me.

For the rest of the cruise, people would say: "Hey! There's Bob! And......his wife!"

[malaise]

9. Same here

Have had more than a few family arguments over this - I'll take a ferry from point A to B - you will never find me on a cruise.
I don't mind crowds but being confined with strangers for days is not my idea of fun.

[Chin music]

15. +1

"Running an unstable ship at full speed is dangerous."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. How horrifying!

This is one reason I LOVE river cruises! You could lose an engine in a river, and it wouldn't feel like this.

[bcool]

13. River cruises can have problems, too!

I guess it depends on the river, but we took a cruise on the Delta Queen once when it got caught in a current, rotated sideways, and slammed up against one of the dams on the Mississippi.

We had just been seated for the ‘captain’s dinner’ when we noticed out the window that the water was moving in the wrong direction We then felt a big bang and several people fell out of their chairs. My father-in-law (a WWII Navy vet) jumped up and said “let’s get to our evacuation stations”, so we headed topside, put on our life vests, and stood outside our rooms. It was then we saw we were stuck against the dam and thought “this doesn’t look good”.

After several hours of staring close-up at the dam, they evacuated everyone by a ramp on to the shore and drove us all back by school bus to downtown St. Louis, where they put us up for the night.

It was quite the adventure!

[Chin music]

16. Ho-ly.....Are you kidding me????

pinned against a dam....omg. An adventure indeed!!

[dustyscamp]

5. The Poseidon Adventure comes to life

[yortsed snacilbuper]

8. I was in the Coast Guard,

it's hard to save people!

[True Dough]

10. Do us a favor

and don't send that message to the people on board the Viking ship!

[yortsed snacilbuper]

17. I've boarded sinking boats with pumps,

It's not easy, it's hard work!

[Arazi]

11. Stupid idiots need to head into a safer space than the open deck with heavy furniture sliding around

They're literally sitting ducks waiting to get injured

[snort]

12. Disappointed no one was playing the piano.

[edhopper]

18. "Nearer My God toThee"?