June 18th: The Fire Aboard the Royal Princess-- Part 2

Continuing. The fire aboard the Royal Princess.

About this time, I started hearing announcements over the pa system for crew to report to different sections of the ship. Definitely something going on. I opened the door to the stateroom, and there were crew members standing in the passage way with life vests on. If I wasn't sure before, I was now. Something's afoot to be sure.

They told me to return to the state room. I wasn't too worried about that as I could at least jump overboard if necessary, even though a five deck fall would be frightening in itself.

A few minutes later, a knock came at the door, and I was informed that I needed to report to my muster station with life vest, warm clothing, and a cap. People were walking quickly, but calmly down the stairs, the two decks I had to go to down to get to the restaurant on the fifth floor where we ate dinner every night.

The place was full of people and lots of orange from the vests. I couldn't help but think of what the comedian had said the first night of the voyage about how the name of Royal Princess on the life vests might not be of the best interest in advertising. He could just see people on another ship looking at the vests and saying, "Let's book our next voyage on the Royal Princess." Definitely not so funny now.

I was very happy to see Julie and Annsley on the stairs. Julie was going back to her room to get her medicine. Annsley came with me and we found Graham, Vicki, and Mom sitting at a big table near the entrance to the room, so, at least we were all together. That would have made the situation much worse to not know where your family was at a time like this.

It Was a Sinking Feeling. --RoadDog