June 4 Magic Cruisers-Question on Cabo Tender

[challada]

We were on the inaugural mexican cruise and have been bothered about this since it happened so need to ask if this was addressed by the following week in Cabo...

We were on one of the last tender boats back to the Magic in Cabo...and watched a little girl (probably about 4 or 5 years old) fall off into the water. Her mother jumped in behind her, then the disney person at the dock jumped in to save both of them (electronic equipment and all). The girl was saved as well as her mother, but I was highly shaken as the mom of a little girl the same age/size. I rode the tender back crying...and wondering why there were NO LIFE JACKETS on the tender.

While I have no doubt that "magic" happened in that minute and everyone involved is just fine now...I worry about future tender boats. I would guess that Disney addressed this immediately w/the tender company. So my question to June 4 cruisers is...were there life jackets or floats on your tenders in Cabo? Were there extra staff on the dock? I would hate to see such a potential problem turn tragic on another trip.

THANKS
Chris

 

[wccruiser]

Hi Chris-

Funny, I thought the same thing on our ride into Cabo. We were sitting in the middle of the boat and I couldn't see any life vest anywhere, but on the way back, we sat in the very back and no one was seated along the side yet, and I saw life vests stashed under the seat bench that runs along the side of the tender boat. They should of made an announcement as to their location or made us wear them to/from though. That is just awful about that little girl falling off!!!! She and her mother must of been traumatized, not to mention freezing on the way back!

 

[challada]

Thanks Margaret...I am betting they now cover that on the talk before the tender in Cabo!

The little girl seemed shaken, but OK by the time she was out of the water...mom was really holding it together well (or better than I would have).
Here we are over a week past that and I am the one still shaken by the whole thing. But I did note how magical I thought the disney crewmember was that jumped in to help them was on my electronic survey yesterday!

Take care & give Grace a hug from Emily!
Chris

 

[videogal1]

About the Cabo tenders:

There are more safety problems than just life jackets, although I have been on several tenders ferrying passengers for cruise lines other than DCL and have never seen people fitted with a life jacket as a condition of riding the tender. It does seem a little strange that the wearing of life jackets should be an "as needed" option, though....Once those little boats start to have trouble there are few options to help them recover. I am not surprised that someone went overboard after seeing how the tender operators defied the direct orders by the DCL (1st repo cruise) staff to unload the wheelchair users FIRST so that the tender would be steadied by a full load of passengers and less likely to bob around like a cork in the choppy seas AND would ride in the water at the same level as the ship's tender loading ramp. When several of us in wheelchairs returned to the ship from our Cabo excursions the tender crew did everything backwards and unloaded the able bodied passengers first, leaving those of us on rolling wheels to fend for ourselves while the tender pitched about nearly a foot above the loading ramp on the ship. When questioned about the debacle, the CMs stated that they had instructed the tender crew to unload the wheelchairs first and exactly why it should be done that way but the tender crew seemed not to grasp the problem and did it their own way. It looks like this will be a source of trouble for DCL unless they address the problem quickly. I give them a grade of F so far.

 

[dizneykids]

Did I meet you at DCA on Friday, June 3? I stopped to talk with a guest and her dog, Cash, who has a sibling named, Carry (sp?), as I'd never seen a service dog who wore a backpack. I was with my young son, Liam, who sat chatting while I filled a water bottle for Cash.

Where in Texas do you live? We're in Plano, north of Dallas.

 

[videogal1]

Did I meet you at DCA on Friday, June 3? I stopped to talk with a guest and her dog, Cash, who has a sibling named, Carry (sp?), as I'd never seen a service dog who wore a backpack. I was with my young son, Liam, who sat chatting while I filled a water bottle for Cash.

Where in Texas do you live? We're in Plano, north of Dallas.

Yep, that was us. (I cannot think of anyone else who would make such a bad joke of their dogs' names....) I enjoyed visiting with your son while you tackled the water bottle/fountain task....We live in Leander, just North of Austin. The afternoon temps were pretty warm for Cash and later in the week he had to have his shoes (from the backpack) put on him because of the hot concrete. He actually pouted for several hours afterward...I do believe he thinks it's undignified.....
We had a great time on the Panama Canal trip and the DL visit afterward, meeting many friendly people, like you and your son, who went out of their way to help us out...Thanks!

 

[MousseauMob]

On the June 4th cruise they were still doing wheelchair and strollers last. Seems odd to me -

I must say, I'm glad I didn't read this before our cruise. DH went deep sea fishing in Cabo and I took DS9 and DD2 into Cabo alone. I was very nervous about the tendering alone with the kids - but everything was fine, we took our time and accepted the helping hands.

 

[challada]

That does not sound like any improvement on the Cabo tenders in the 3 weeks they have been doing this! YIKES!

I was alone w/my kids and another mom and her kids were with us as well (we hung out at the beach together while her hubby deep sea fished and mine stayed home to work!). While Cabo was a beautiful beach, if that is the continued case on the tenders, I won't be returning!

We also had trouble w/our tender driver not able to get his boat up to the Disney ship. We circled for over 15 minutes as he attempted to get up to the boat (he made at least 20 attempts). We watched the anchor completely come up and everyone else board. I figured we were going to be stuck following the ship in this rotten little tender! I agree that this tender company deserves a grade of F!

 

[dizneykids]

Just read your message to Liam. He giggled at the thought of Cash's wearing shoes. I hope you don't mind, but I saved a copy of your picture to add to our scrapbook to remember meeting you and Cash.

It was a pleasure meeting you...perhaps we'll meet again someday at Disney World.

Beth

 

[windermerejudy]

I never heard about this on our June 4th cruise and no there were no visible jackets on board. I would have been more careful if I had known about all this. We totally took its safety for granted. I had my daughter in her stroller parked on the platform part of the boat while returning to the ship. Imagine her rolling off strapped into a stroller! In any case I would have been horrified to have either had it happened or to watch it happening.

So was it as the tender was pulling away form the tender dock? Did the boat stop or just keep going? How in the world did they get back up on the dock it seems so far down to the water? Was she attempting to cross over into the boat? Sorry so many questions. We are going back to Grand Cayman in April and they are a tendered port as well so I want to learn pitfalls.

Not that one is worse than another, but I personally think falling in the ocean way out where the Magic docks would be even more terrifying. Also not as many people around to help. They are almost all inside the boat or at the top of the stairs.

 

[CoastalCA]

Good Grief! This whole thing sounds horrible!! I am a nervous Mom to begin with. Maybe we should just stay on the boat while at Cabo.

 

[videogal1]

Just read your message to Liam. He giggled at the thought of Cash's wearing shoes. I hope you don't mind, but I saved a copy of your picture to add to our scrapbook to remember meeting you and Cash.

It was a pleasure meeting you...perhaps we'll meet again someday at Disney World.

Beth

Cash has collected many devoted followers...The repo cruise was his fourth cruise in the past year...three DCL...and he has the distinction of being the answer to a DCL trivia question. You can see more of him, including one of him hot on the trail of a mouse in a patch of Hyatt MCO driveway-side landscaping in my photos from the repo cruise at http://kivadesign.smugmug.com/gallery/593319. Maybe you'll find a better one there....one, #261, shows him wearing his shoes in Cabo! I was not allowed to take my scooter on the tender from the ship. I was only able to see Cabo when a fellow passenger arranged for a wheelchair and found someone to push me around in it....Another tender problem...

 

[challada]

I never heard about this on our June 4th cruise and no there were no visible jackets on board. I would have been more careful if I had known about all this. We totally took its safety for granted. I had my daughter in her stroller parked on the platform part of the boat while returning to the ship. Imagine her rolling off strapped into a stroller! In any case I would have been horrified to have either had it happened or to watch it happening.

So was it as the tender was pulling away form the tender dock? Did the boat stop or just keep going? How in the world did they get back up on the dock it seems so far down to the water? Was she attempting to cross over into the boat? Sorry so many questions. We are going back to Grand Cayman in April and they are a tendered port as well so I want to learn pitfalls.

Not that one is worse than another, but I personally think falling in the ocean way out where the Magic docks would be even more terrifying. Also not as many people around to help. They are almost all inside the boat or at the top of the stairs.

Yes, I was freaking out as we approached the boat a few hundred times worried about kids falling in way out there in the deep waters! It was evident that DCL knew about the little girl by the time we were approaching as there were about 5 crew members on the lower platform where the tender docks and more at the top of the stairs.
The only details I do know (we were in the cuing line when it happened and not up by the boat)...little blond girl fell in the water on BOARDING the boat, she was on the side of where the planks down to the tender boats are...so I would guess she went through the gap b/w the railing and the lower dock. Mom jumped off the lower dock to get to her and the Disney crew member jumped off the higher dock area into the water. Everyone in the cuing line ran over to the edge (which made me more worried of others going in) and I just kept my own kids back in the cuing area so they would not watch the whole thing.

 

[dreamflight99]

We never heard a thing about this incident! Some of the tenders are a bit "weathered" and the crew is seemingly "half-hazard" when it comes to helping people on/off the boat. I felt "somewhat" comforted by the presence of the Disney officers onboard, until It became evident they were not truly "enforcing" any standards, etc. (more of a presence).

I am stunned to read about the TENDER incident on the inaugural Cabo visit! I probably would have jumped in after the pair myself. I was not impressed with the efficiency of these transports, and wish Disney was a bit more discriminate when it came to this aspect of the cruise/ports.

Thanks for the info!

 

[ivanova]

Just a general observation on tendering....

I tendered into a different port (non-Disney cruise) and although there were life vests on the tender (stowed away under the seats) NO ONE wore them on the tenders.

Which then begs the question, what are they good for? In the case of the little girl falling overboard - even if life vests were aboard, she wasn't wearing one, so they were useless when she fell into the water.

How high (low) are the sides of the tenders that someone could easily fall overboard in Cabo??

 

[tchoney]

I am so shocked! We were on the inaugural cruise and did not here anything about this! Thankfully everyone is okay.

 

[challada]

Just a general observation on tendering....

I tendered into a different port (non-Disney cruise) and although there were life vests on the tender (stowed away under the seats) NO ONE wore them on the tenders.

Which then begs the question, what are they good for? In the case of the little girl falling overboard - even if life vests were aboard, she wasn't wearing one, so they were useless when she fell into the water.

How high (low) are the sides of the tenders that someone could easily fall overboard in Cabo??

She fell off the dock getting in to the tender, not off the tender itself, but they were seating people on the upper portion where the driver is (and there is little rail or support up there).

Someone mentioned Disney crew on board the tenders...which is an improvement as there were none on them when we went on the inaugural.

 

[windermerejudy]

challada---everytime I read one of your posts I get hungry for enchiladas (challada) Sorry but I do. Grew up eating them atleast a couple times a week.

No DCL people on our tender in fact only 1 person by himself.

 

[challada]

Thanks, but that's not actually what my screename is about...it's actually just a blend of my first and last name (was my first login name at work 12 years ago and has stuck)....but enchaladas sound good to me too! LOL

 

[rsjj]

does anyone know...are the tenders at cabo similar to the ones at grand cayman? we had no problems at grand cayman...was a bit worried with our DSs who were 2 & 4 at the time. we had DH step into the tender/vice versa, and i just "handed" DS2 to him, while he was more on solid footing. and i walked onto the tender/vice versa, with DS4 in my hand! (i was holding onto him tight!!)

i'm glad to hear that everyone is ok, and everything turned out ok! that poor girl & her mom! i would've been screaming/crying...jumping in! gives me the goose bumps, just thinking about it!