About 4 a.m., on December 29th, everyone on the Dream was awoken with an announcement over the intercom: "Bright Star--6529." Yes, every intercom, including the cabin intercoms, went off. According to our servers the next morning, that is a health emergency. I am assuming this is the incident. I may have the number wrong (which I assume is a room number) but apparently a health emergency like this requires the ship wide alert, for some reason. I was irritated at the time to be woken out of a sound sleep, but not anymore.
I feel for the family, but I must agree that it's not a bad way to go. I hope the family grieves in a healthy manner, with the spirit that this is probably one of the best ways an older person could pass away, surrounded by family the night before disembarking after a cruise and a perfect day on Castaway Cay. If it was my family, I would hope that in future years they would take cruises to honor my memory. I would want them to remember me on the beach, having fun, slowing down, with "Grandpa look at me" ringing in my hears. Not a bad image of heaven if you ask me. Feel free to read Heaven by Randy Alcorn for a Biblical view of what heaven is like. As for me and my family, a nice day on Castaway Cay is about as heavenly as this world can get.
Please pray for the family with this in mind, and knowing that an older man who spends part of Christmas break with grandkids on a Disney ship is the kind of person I would want to become--rich enough to take a very nice trip, loved enough that his family wanted to be with him, and timed well enough to go at the end instead of the beginning. Some day, that's the ticket that I want to buy.
