Here is another hoax???? I don't remember reading this on the threads.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,128066,00.html
A thousand cruise-ship passengers got the fright of their lives when a prankster took over the vessel's public-address system and told them to "abandon ship."
The Miracle, a Carnival Cruise Lines (search) vessel, was only hours away from arriving in New York last Saturday after a week-long Bahamas jaunt, reports the New York Daily News.
Suddenly, at 3:45 a.m., came the "abandon ship" announcement, jolting passengers out of bed.
"People freaked out," Chris Vig, 36, of New Hyde Park, N.Y., told the Daily News. "It was absolute panic."
Thinking terrorists had taken over the ship, hundreds of formerly relaxed vacationers in their pajamas gathered on the third deck, waiting for further announcements.
Ten minutes later, according to Vig, another voice came over the PA, telling passengers everything was fine.
It turned out someone had snuck into a room that, as Carnival officials later put it, was "normally locked and unoccupied," switched on a microphone and made the scary statement.
"Multiple announcements were made by ship's personnel, including the vessel's captain, assuring guests that the initial announcement was an apparent prank and to disregard it," a Carnival statement said. "The captain then personally met and talked with numerous guests to offer further reassurances."
In reality, said Vig, it took the captain about 40 minutes to show up to calm down the panicked passengers.
The identity of the prankster remains unknown.
There was a running "joke" thread on it somewhere on FR.