January 30, 2023 – Emergency Evacuation

Early on Sunday morning, we had an announcement throughout the ship, of a medical emergency in a certain cabin.  We all hoped and prayed it was not something serious but could be resolved by medical quickly.  We soon went to church service  and said a prayer for this passenger.  Of course, medical information is confidential and we heard nothing until Monday afternoon when the Captain made an announcement.  We are changing course slightly and will prepare for an emergency evacuation for one of our passengers at 4:00 pm this evening.  We had a slight delay due to weather.

The entire crew was preparing.  All the lounge chairs have been removed from the pool deck.  Fire hoses laid out.  Furniture on some balconies were brought inside. Passengers asked to go inside if you were in certain zones.  A lifeboat was brought out but not lowered into the sea since we were still moving. There is no landing area for a helicopter on this ship so it will be an interesting process to watch.  We found out we were in zone 2, so we were allowed to remain on our balcony.  

We watched out across the ocean and soon a double rainbow appeared (good sign).  I brought up GPS to see where we were and where the help was coming from.  We can see the bridge from our balcony so when we saw an officer looking through his binoculars, we knew it was time.  Suddenly, we heard the helicopter and it went flying past the ship, turned around and put nose into the wind.  It hovered over the side and then out came someone from the military (guessing Marine since it said that on the side of help).  He or she secured a line to the ship and out came 2 medics and a stokes stretcher.  The line was released and off flew the helicopter.  The medics went to medical to prepare the patient for transfer.  It took about 40 minutes and the helo showed up.  We watched the process again as the pilot hovered over the side, secured a cable, raised the medics, patient and marine back into the safety of the helicopter.  It was a well orchestrated process and fascinating to watch.

We are thankful to the evacuation crew that performed the transfer and to the crew of Princess for their preparedness!