Remember the Carnival ship Legend that crashed into the other Carnival ship Glory in 2019? We were supposed to board the Glory two days later. Were we going or not?

It was the week before Christmas five years ago. We were driving to New Orleans to board the Carnival Glory for a Christmas cruise with my cousins from Kentucky and Wisconsin. As we were driving, we heard about the crash on the radio. That couldn’t possibly be our ship, we both nodded. As it turned out, it was our ship.

We stayed on the outskirts of New Orleans the night before we were supposed to board. We were desperately trying, as was my cousin and her family were driving from Lexington, to get information about whether the cruise would still sail. No luck. No information at all. Though all the TV networks as well as numerous news outlets worldwide covered the story, Carnival didn’t address the incident with their soon-to-be passengers.

We all arrived at the ship terminal in New Orleans the next day, not knowing whether we were going on a Christmas cruise or not. As we checked in, we learned the cruise was on. Little did we know it would leave 23 hours late due to repairs.

In the meantime, we boarded not knowing what was going to happen. Welding, hammering and sawing went on all night, and it kept us up. Carnival workers were feverishly pounding away to make this vessel seaworthy.

The damage was in the stern dining room. In Cozumel, Mexico, the other ship, the Carnival Legend, crashed its bow into the stern of our ship, the Carnival Glory. Eventually, the explanation from Carnival was that a sudden squall came through. After the crash, our ship sailed back to New Orleans to undergo repairs and pick up the next batch of passengers – us.

Dinner on the day we boarded the Glory was in the damaged stern dining room. The crash disabled about half the dining room. That meant that dinner that night was very crowded, disorganized and loud. The workers didn’t stop pounding and welding.

Late the next morning, 23 hours later, we sailed out of New Orleans. Thirty minutes before we sailed, an announcement was made that anyone who wanted to disembark the ship could do so, but they only had 30 minutes. A full refund would be issued. We were disgusted at this point, but not enough to pack our suitcases.

Incredibly enough, the rest of the cruise went swimmingly. The dining room situation got straightened out though the damaged area was never used.

After the initial shock of realizing it was “our ship,” that was about it for excitement.

Did we get anything free? Yes. We received $100 worth of onboard credits. We thought Carnival could do better than that for our inconvenience of missing a day at sea. The extra very, cold day in New Orleans with the hammering, sawing and welding was not compensated for much. We all said, “Couldn’t they spare a few free drinks?”

As a PR person who is always second-guessing major gaffes in crises communications, this was a disaster. As far as the cruise went, it was fine. We had a good time and a Merry Christmas.

As we pulled in and out of ports, we watched people and crews on shore and on other ships, pointing and laughing. Yes, that’s our ship … the one with the band-aid.

Melanie Staten is a public relations consultant with her husband, Vince.