Travel plan idea blog

Drama on the Norwegian Pearl (last night at sea)

Yesterday I talked a bit about getting removed from a cruise ship. An hour or so ago I got an idea of just how hard it is to get thrown in the brig or removed from the ship.

We were eating dinner (waiting for our food actually) in the only restaurant that was open. One of the 4 or 5 women at the table next to us starts screaming. "Maggot! Maggot! There's a maggot in my food! Do something! Maggot! There's a maggot in my food!" She walks around a little bit yelling about the maggot to everyone in the restaurant. She says that this was the worst cruise she's ever been on and that the food has been horrible all week. She wants a manager who can do something about the maggot in the food she feeds her baby, etc.

Now she really did have a baby but the baby was drinking from a bottle not eating mom's salad. So the whole thing seemed overly dramatic and kind of untrue. My first thought was that all they wanted was a free cruise and that maybe they made up the maggot.

My wife saw her ask the woman sitting at the next table if she saw the maggot and that woman nodded. Did she really see it or was the little old lady scared of the big violent crazed lady? Or did they plant the maggot to try to get a free cruise? Or was I being too harsh in my snap judgement and was there really a maggot? I still don't know. They also had the definition of maggot nice and ready: "A maggot! Do you know what that is? A bug lar

But I do know the drama that happened next. The women were all screaming and moving around and bothering everyone and demanding to see a manager. "Call a manager!" I said, "Call the captain to kick her off the ship."

Anyway, soon one of the women throws a plate into the waiter area. Then she throws another plate. My wife says it looked like she was aiming (poorly) at a waitress who was walking by. Luckily no one was hurt. "Mom, stop!" She stopped but my wife and I couldn't believe how crazy these people were.

I asked one waiter to call security. When security came they broke out the camcorder, but there was no fighting or anything so the camcorder went away. Eventually they talked to the food and beverage manager, probably for about 20 minutes. Then they left peacefully, taking pictures and getting names of the waitstaff.

I'm told that the public health officers checked all the lettuce after the complaint and it was fine. They say the lettuce is never kept more than 3 days and the temperature is regulated and everything. They don't understand how it could have happened and since the women chucked the plate with the maggot the staff couldn't check it out.

Next thing I know they're telling me that the waiter's job may be in danger so I'm handing out business cards and explaing that the waiter did the best possible thing - he called security.

Well it's late. I was going to try to stay up a couple of hours to use up the internet time I paid for but I'm tired and I have to wake up at 5:30 tomorrow to talk to the accountant about a $90 bottle of wine chraged to my room when my wife and I don't even drink, not even the free wine when we had dinner with the captain... I don't really need to wake up at 5:30 but I'm guess that the line for the accountant will be very long, slow moving, and unpleasant so I aim to get there early. Plus the breakfast buffet will also be crowded and uncomfortable if I'm not early enough.

I guess I just have to accept that I'll have wasted some money by purchasing too much internet time.

Too tired to spellcheck...

Posted by James Trotta at July 13, 2008 5:27 PM | TrackBack