Hilliard couple’s nightmare cruise
Tim and Michele Baker recently returned from what was supposed to be a ten day cruise to the Bahamas, a trip that neither will soon forget…no matter how hard they try.
According to the couple, as they were preparing to leave port in New Jersey, a Port Authority security screener discovered a 7 round .45 magazine in Tim’s luggage. Tim says that he went on a trip some time ago and had planned on visiting a shooting range. The visit to the range never happened and he was later unable to find the magazine. He thought that it had been lost. And it had been…until Port Authority found it in his bag. After they had been interrogated by officers, Tim and Michele were allowed to board the boat (The Liberty of the Seas).
Later, the Bakers realized that they were missing two of their bags. They were told by ship personnel to go to another deck and that they would find their missing luggage there. As it turns out, Royal Caribbean had marked the suitcases as banned from the trip due to their contents. One bag was marked as “electrical” and another as “iron.” The bags’ actual contents? A power strip and a hair dryer.
Tim and Michele then had the following conversation:
Michele: “I want to go home.”
Tim: “It’d be an expensive plane ride from Bermuda.”
Michele: “Hmmm… Maybe I could go overboard and a dolphin could take me back to shore.”
Tim: “It’d be a bit cold. Maybe Jonah’s whale will spew you up on the Jersey shore.”
Michele: “Eeeeeeew! I’ll stay on the ship then.”
The couple then returned to their room. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Security guards took the Bakers from their booked suite down to guest services. At this point, the couple was moved into a tiny cabin and told that Michele was now on suicide watch. Apparently, Michele’s comment about ‘going overboard and riding a dolphin back to New Jersey’ was overheard and understood as her threatening to take her own life. Michele was not allowed to leave the small room the entire rest of the way to the Bahamas.
The Bakers were also informed that they would not be allowed to return to the United States on the ship and would have to make other arrangements to get home. So after having already paid for a suite on a ten day cruise to the Bahamas, they then had to spend an additional $750 to fly back to New Jersey. (And for the record, the Bakers’ flight out of the Bahamas was more than an hour late. Sometimes, you just can’t win.)
Tim and Michele are now considering a lawsuit.
Royal Caribbean has not responded to the Baker’s claims. (jj)
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