Most of the recent media coverage of the Costa Concordia disaster has focused on the the captain, who, after disabling the autopilot and tearing the ship’s hull open, abandoned ship early and refused to return. When there are so many opportunities to contrast his apparent cowardice with the bravery of hundreds of other captains, I’m sure the media will drill into this and keep drilling until that well is bone dry. (Here’s a prime example from the Guardian, with bonus Falklands heroism.)
But there’s another factor in this story that’s a lot more important than a wimpy captain, and that’s the preparedness of the passengers and the tendency of the crews to minimize and deny when something goes wrong. It’s apparently still common practice for cruise lines to board passengers in the evening and delay lifeboat drills until the next day. The Costa Concordia sailed in the evening and the passengers were scheduled to get a lifeboat drill the next morning, the day after the ship sank. And the crew told passengers that the collision was an “electrical problem” and waited over an hour before ordering an evacuation even though the captain was informed by his engineers that his ship was going to sink a few minutes after the collision.
I was on a cruise about 15 years ago, and on that cruise, there was a fire in the galley. We sailed in the evening, and the fire occurred a few hours later, in the middle of the night. I had no idea where my lifeboat station was, where the lifejackets were, or what was going on–all I heard was the ship’s whistle blowing, paging of fire teams and crew running through halls. Luckily, the crew was able to put out the fire, but we were told nothing about the whole event until we had a very abbreviated and incomplete announcement the next morning.
My guess is that the few hours after a boat is launched are very busy for the crew, so it’s more convenient to delay the lifeboat drills to the next day. And there’s such a huge investment in pretending that ships can’t sink that cruise line personnel have an deep, inbred reluctance to attend to disasters quickly. I’ll bet that a lifeboat drill shortly after boarding would have saved a few people on that boat, because I know that I’d have been in deep shit if I had been ordered to abandon ship on that one and only cruise that I’ll ever take.
cmorenc
Last time we went on a six day cruise out of Charleston, SC headed for Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Key West, within an hour after everyone had boarded (and before we actually cast off from the dock) the crew DID conduct our safety, life jacket, and lifeboat evacuation drill. I understand that this is SOP with some of the better-run cruise lines when operating cruises originating within the US. This may not be the case with cruises operating in countries with cultures less inclined to regard regulations as sacrosanct.
kerFuFFler
It might be a nice time to go on a cruise. Prices are probably down and I bet crews are paying more attention than ever to safety issues. Not to mention it’s cold outside….it’s cold out everyday.
brettvk
It seems to me that these incidents always have multiple layers of fail. Even if the passengers had had their lifeboat drill, I understand that the degree of tilt after the capsize made it difficult if not impossible to drop the boats.
MikeJ
Typical liberal wanting job killing regulations instead of people killing laissez-fairee.
geg6
I can’t for the life of me understand the attraction of cruising. You’re stuck on this huge garish boat, you don’t really get a chance to really explore the places you stop, and the crime statistics on cruise ships are kept secret but are believed to be huge.
And now this. No thanks. I love boating and one of my best vacations ever was when my ex and I went from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati and back with friends on their boat (really classified as a yacht). However, we were in control, we are all experienced boaters, and we planned the trip (navigation and accommodations) for months before setting out. Even with all that, we ruined a prop ($1800!!) and almost ran out of gas in the middle of the river between West Virginia and Ohio.
Boats, whatever the size, can be very dangerous. I’d never trust my safety to others on a boat simply because I know too much about all the things that can go wrong.
Cat Lady
I’d rather go to work than take a cruise, unless it’s one of those fancy river barge things down the Loire or some such. Travelling with more people than is in my whole town is not my idea of vacation.
Vada a bordo, cazzo!
Sir Nose'D
Another aspect of the story no one seems to notice–most ships sail under a Liberian flag. Why? Well, having your ship registered in Liberia is easy on the purse. But what are the implications for inspections/safety? Freedom-haters like myself want to know.
Seth Owen
Airlines always get right into the safety briefing right off the bat. Still, there’s always going to be a window of vulnerability. In this case, the disaster unfolded slowly enough that even without a drill there would have been time for an orderly evacuation IF THE CAPTAIN DID HIS JOB.
scav
@Sir Nose’D: And they’re on the high seas.
Anybody mention ship design yet? (Oddest thing is, I’ve seen some of those Mediterranean floating bricks and found them quite ugly, whereas as soon as this puppy went tippy, it became hypnotically photogenic.)
beltane
The coverage of this story has irked me quite a bit. Yes, the captain was Italian, but the media is treating his Italianess as some sort of contributing factor towards his incompetence. The Guardian even had to mention that the captain was possibly born in “crime-ridden” Castellmare di Stabia as if this was relevant to anything.
Next time an American or British captain sinks a ship or crashes a plane I will be sure to harp on their ancestry as well.
Phylllis
My husband and his late wife took two cruises, one with Royal Caribbean & one with Carnival. He said they did the lifeboat drill right off the bat both times. He did say the Royal Caribbean drill was much more detailed and organized than Carnival’s.
brettvk
I am exceedingly, exceedingly working poor and am having trouble (as my asshole employer cuts my hours) covering my mortgage, so luxury vacations are never gonna happen. I take a tiny little measure of satisfaction in knowing that this means I’m highly unlikely to die in an air or sea disaster. Gutter, yes — drowning in the Mediterranean, no.
Yevgraf
Supervision, safety and training impact the bottom line for our Galtian overlords. There are reasons why good travel agents refuse to book Carnival or Costa, and you can look to the management philosophy and business methods of meritorious successful inheritors Mickey Arison to figure out why.
Bo Alawine
As a contractor who has worked for the U.S. Navy for nearly 25 years, I can tell you that, as a minimum, all civilian riders are mustered and provided with lifeboat assignments and lifeboat station locations, all within a couple of hours of pulling away from pier. I also can’t recall a single ship I’ve ever ridden that didn’t hold an abandon ship drill and/or a man overboard drill.
If I had to guess, it would be tantamount to SOSHULISM to require cruise lines to do the same.
beltane
When I think of cruises I think of being trapped in a floating motel surrounded by the most tiresome people in God’s creation. And gastrointestinal illnesses also. I cannot imagine going all the way to Europe only to be stuck on a barge out at sea. There are plenty of all-you-can-eat buffets right here at home, no need to go on a cruise to pig out.
Phylllis
@beltane: My sentiments exactly. Not to mention the kids* that are allowed to roam free because I guess their parents are idiots and think because they’re in an enclosed area, nothing bad can happen.
*Not blaming kids for being kids, btw.
Schlemizel
MIL went on a cruise out of Miami last year. The life boat drill was the first thing they did after they got underway. Apparently a lot of passengers whined about having to do that when they would rather have started exploring the ship.
chopper
mix, it’s easy to figure out the lifeboats. just trip, and you’ll accidentally and totally not on purpose fall into one. worked for the cap’n.
brettvk
Modern cruises seem to me to be marketed to moneyed but risk-adverse travelers who like cosseting and lotsa food but are okay with limited, supervised contact with the natives. Maybe the cruise lines will start emphasizing safety in their marketing; it would have built-in appeal. Of course, they’ll have to invest $$ to make it so.
David
The best description of a cruise:
A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace.
donovong
My wife and I have been on 7 or 8 cruises and all but one were on Royal Caribbean. The exception was on Norwegian. On EVERY one of the cruises we were taken through a life boat drill within a hour of sailing. I have also watched the Royal Caribbean crews take their life boats out on mandatory crew drills while the passengers were off doing their touristy thing.
The biggest distinction for cruise safety is the port from which you sail and the destination. Our “socialist Kenyan” country is very adamant about safety standards when ships sail into or out of our waters, and are very safe when compared to such countries as Italy.
While aviation standards are becoming much more universal in application, the same is not true of cruise ships. However, there is a great deal to be said for cruise lines that operate out of the US.
And I am not rich or abundantly well off. Dolllar for dollar, cruises can be a very good vacation value.
WereBear
But the free market will sort this out! I just go to that website that lists all the safety issues by company in a handy chart, and book with the safest…
What? There isn’t such a website?
Well then, I’ll go to a knowledgable travel agent and… what? They charge extra?
The heck with it! I’ll save a buck. My boat won’t sink… because shut up, that’s why.
And this, boy and girls, is why we have regulations.
cathyx
Just as many of you will not go on a cruise, I will not go to a campsite with my camper, park it at a utility hookup, which is right next to another camper. That to me is vacationing at a trailer park.
Baud
@Sir Nose’D:
None, I think. Cruise ships have to comply with the regulations of their ports of call. So a cruise serving American ports must comply with U.S. regulations.
jayboat
@geg6:
I’m with ya, bro. If I ain’t drivin — or know the driver — I am not interested. Cruises are just a lazy way to take a boat ride and not worry about spilling your drink. I’m guessing the industry will *maybe* make some changes in procedures, especially when it comes to disabling autopilot, if that’s even possible.
That Pittsburg to Cincy trip sounds fun. A lot of the guys I run with would smile at the $1800 prop, tho- the high-perf 6-blades can cost upwards of $20K. Each. I’ve done a couple of long distance runs. In 2008, we set the world speed record from Key West to Cancun- 404 mi in 8hrs-23 minutes (didn’t even stop to piss), and in 2010 I did a 1200 mile run across the Caribbean from Georgetown, Bahamas to the BVI. Now THAT was a cruise.
50′ Outerlimits cat
Baud
I’ve been on several cruises. Always had to do a safety drill, and never after the first day of departure. Aside from regulations, I think the cruise lines don’t for business reasons want put off the safety procedures because all that does is interrupt their passengers’ holiday.
WereBear
@brettvk: Every single person I’ve spoken to about their cruise makes it sound like Las Vegas on the high seas. The unlimited food, the opportunity to start drinking with breakfast, and the gambling. The shopping differs; Vegas offers pricey boutiques, while cruising offers native crafts at favorable exchange rates… and pricey boutiques.
Ken
In light of the Costa Concordia disaster, and history; somehow this doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
http://www.titanicmemorialcruise.co.uk/
qtip
What about personal responsibility? You should do your own evacuation drill as soon as you board. Find all the areas on the boat you are likely to be in, then locate life vests, life boats, routes, etc.
Soonergrunt
I took an Alaska cruise about 10 years ago. Before the ship ever left dock, we had a full-up evacuation drill, including launching a couple of the lifeboats.
This was from Vancouver, BC. I should think that the procedures requirements are different depending on the jurisdiction, but that’s just a guess. The cruise line was Holland-America.
Baud
@qtip: So true. Another problem are that seats on the lifeboats are given to everyone–for free! That’s soshulizm, and it’s economically inefficient. Lifeboat seats should be auctioned off, so the free market can ensure an efficient allocation of goods.
Jessica
I was actually on a cruise when the Costa disaster happened. I’ve been on 10 cruises (all with Royal Caribbean and sailing from either Florida or Puerto Rico) and the lifeboat/safety drill has always been conducted pretty much right after all aboard and usually before the ship even sets sail. On this last cruise I was on they even ran video of the safety presentation in multiple languages on the in-room TVs after the drill for the non-English-speaking passengers. The idea that the safety drill would be put off until the second day just never even crossed my mind.
As for the merits of cruising, it’s a great vacation for families that don’t want to be stuck together all day doing the same thing. Just don’t go Christmas week – twice the price and you can’t walk down the stairs without tripping over a school-aged child (and I say that having been a school-aged child the first few cruises I was on)
Observer
It’s somewhat more complicated than that. I was *personally* on the Costa Concordia the second year it was in service and the cruise I was on was the exact same cruise as this disaster (except Costa used to stop in Tunisia but they changed that).
First, for the west mediterranean cruise they are two general points of embarkation: Rome (Civitavecchia) and Barcelona. Basically the route is a counter clockwise circle around the west Mediterranean sea. The Costa cruise ships never stops. The Concordia is always circling the Mediterranean every single day. There are no “off days”. If you get on in Barcelona you’re not going to get a lifeboat drill until 5 days into your cruise because Rome is the anchor port.
Second, it’s a humungous ship. It’s hard to overstate how large the ship is. I had been on another Costa cruise on the Costa Mediterranea (same setup but circles the east Mediterranan sea instead) and that ship is large but it pales in comparison to the Concordia. The Concordia has eleven decks and is taller than most office buildings. There are 4 main languages spoken amongst the 3,000 or so guests (Italian, French, German, Spanish). All ship announcements take like 2 – 3 minutes to deliver because of the multiple translations (they throw in English at the end).
With 4,000 people and multiple languages, the Costa Concordia is not the place you want to be during a marine disaster. Chaos would reign. It doesn’t matter which day the drills would be. There’s no way for an orderly evacuation with a ship that physical size, with that many passengers and that many different languages. Not gonna happen.
People who go on that cruise generally need to accept that risk and any passengers griping about “we didn’t have our drill yet” are only being political.
scav
@qtip: Not to mention, take the initiative and crawl into and drop the life boats any time you feel threatened! Don’t wait around for the captain and crew to make any official announcements, either to you or the Coast Guard!
Clark Stooksbury
So, why does anybody ever take a cruise?
Auldblackjack
But there’s another factor in this story that’s a lot more important than a wimpy captain, and that’s the preparedness of the passengers and the tendency of the crews to minimize and deny when something goes wrong.
Baud
@Clark Stooksbury: I like being on the water. No worries about food or moving from hotel to hotel. Get to see a lot of different locations on one trip.
scav
@Clark Stooksbury: People enjoy different things. And, for my uncle with MS and wheelchair-bound, it can be grand.
MikeJ
@Observer:
Many of them aren’t being anything because they’re dead now.
Brachiator
This does not even rise to the level of uninformed speculation.
There are reports that passengers were told nothing serious was wrong and to go back to their cabins. This would compound the problem even had safety drills occurred. And the point is not to do stuff to save a few more people in the case of a disaster, but to do your utmost to provide for the safety of all passengers.
Maybe, just maybe, the results of professional investigators might be illuminating. Otherwise, it’s about as useless as amateur speculation about plane crashes.
WereBear
@David: You made me click on John Cole’s Amazon link and put that title in… and danged if I didn’t indulge on it. What a wonderful writer!
Looking forward to reading it while high on Azithromycin and cough syrup (in bed with Pneumonia.)
Thank you.
cmorenc
One week-long “boat cruise” I would heartily recommend that’s NOTHING whatever like the big-cruise-ship trip experience is the eight-day rafting trip through the complete length of the Grand Canyon, from Lee’s ferry to Pearce Ferry. YES you can actually bring a personal stock of beer along (cans only)! You do get intimately up-close with the scenery, in fact you sleep in and on it for seven nights, and yes, you do get thoroughly soaking wet going through the hundreds of rapids along the way. No cell phones, no internet, no teevee, NO TOURIST TRAPS whatever along the way (no place to buy anything whatever for that matter, you must bring all charged batteries for the hundreds of pictures you’ll want to take, no way to recharge them). Food is plentiful and great, and the guides are knowledgeable, wonderful (best there is, else they don’t get to work in such a plum but challenging place full of danger if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing), and you get to know them very, very well.
Truly the “cruise” of a lifetime.
shoutingattherain
Cruisin’. Yuck. Too many goddamned kids. I would probably kill myself if I had to spend a week on a Disney cruise.
cmorenc
@Baud:
Which is sort of what happened on the Titanic when they began making their initial attempts to evacuate the ship, at least until it became abundantly apparent just how truly quickly and thoroughly fucked most of the ship’s passengers were going to be anyway, and how disorganized such evacuation as existed was unfolding. Didn’t they initially try to give priority to the first-class passengers (women particularly?)
Villago Delenda Est
@WereBear:
All one needs to do is apply some common sense to understand why there are regulations.
Unfortunately, common sense is not common, at all. Or people are paid a pittance to ignore it.
grandpa john
@cmorenc: This; I have been on 9 cruises and we have ALWAYS had life boat station and life jacket drill before leaving port. I couldn’t believe that they sailed without having these mandatory drills first, and they are mandatory, rooms are even checked to see that no one is try to skip the drill.
grandpa john
@beltane: Of the 9 cruises I have been on, every one had an Italian or foreign captain, and most of the officer corps is also foreign
Larkspur
Why go on a cruise? Well, it’s not for me, but as Jessica points out at #31, it can serve as a family reunion venue. I can see that: you get all the family together, even the oddballs, and you don’t have to mess up your own house, scrabble around for hotel and motel arrangements, spend every minute with the family, or go crazy trying to plan fun activities.
My parents would have loved going on a cruise. Neither of them was outdoorsy or especially fit. They liked to drive to visit relatives. They would pull over to scenic overviews; that’s as close to sightseeing as they wanted to get.
They were also very wary of new places and situations, and they didn’t want to go to foreign countries. A cruise would have flirted with that sort of novelty, but in a controlled way. They wouldn’t have to worry about language differences, the facilities would have been familiar to them, and the opportunities for recreation and dining would have assured them that they’d gotten their money’s worth.
And there’s nothing wrong with any of that. It doesn’t sound fun enough to be worth it for me, but I could have been on that ship to attend their 50th anniversary (we went to Disneyworld instead, which is very like luxury cruising, but on land).
Take that missing Minnesota couple. They were off having a grand adventure: an exotic Mediterranean cruise. They’d raised four kids and sent them all through college. They wanted a fun, pretty getaway. They didn’t want a rigorous, character-defining adventure. I totally get that.
brettvk at #12: you’ve pretty much described my situation, too. But I can’t help thinking that if I were offered a job on a cruise ship, I might very well take it, and then I’d be a poor dead person.
One thing that creeps me out especially is that I know I would have tried to remain calm, and that means I’d have been intent on not panicking. I’d have tried to help, and I certainly would have followed instructions. And I’d die. Just like as I’d have died at the WTC, because when the loudspeaker told me to return to my office to shelter in place, I’d have done it. I would have figured that to do anything else would be panicking, and that it would be foolhardy to run out to where glass and debris were falling, or to get in the way of emergency personnel.
At least that’s how I guess I’d react. Sort of the anti-Mark Wahlberg.
Captain Howdy
You know what’s really missing from the Costa Concordia coverage? Cruise ships’ dirty little secret: they pay no frigging taxes.
Privatise profits and socialise the risk and external costs–like Coast Gurad protection and rescue operations. (Not to mention externalities like environmental costs.)
I got your floating Galtian libertopia right here, arseholes.
grandpa john
@Jessica: Like you , I have been on multiple cruises with Carnival and Norwegian and have had the same experiences that you have, We usually go either the last of Nov. or first part of Dec although Jan is not bad, but you are right we try to avoid the times when school is out. We have found for us that cruising is just as inexpensive a vacation as other things would be . Of course since we are retired and can go anytime, we get on line and shop around for bargain prices. for the crowd haters, there are always places you can slip of to that are not crowded
Brachiator
During an interview with a reporter about this incident on NPR last night, there was a mention of a Maritime related site called GCaptain, which has some interesting posts about the accident, including this one: Costa Concordia – The 3 Most Fatal MistakesThere are also some useful videos and recreations
grandpa john
@Clark Stooksbury: try one and you will discover why. we take at least 1 a year and I am a retired teacher. if you shop around you will find that cruising is no longer a a rich folks thing, you can find very reasonable cruise prices if you do some shopping.
lol
I did a cruise a couple years ago with my girlfriend and it was a lot of fun. 8-9 cruise to Bermuda. Had about 3 full days in Bermuda. We purposely didn’t book any activities ahead of time because we knew it’d be overpriced. Just went on the island and looked for activities and beaches ourselves. Had an absolute blast wandering around the island and the cruise itself was relaxing.
aimai
During an airline strike I once had to take a cruise ship full of drunken aussies between fiji and tonga–really. What a disgusting display of everything that is horrible about people who need to get away from their ordinary lives in order to “enjoy” themselves. It was non stop eating, drinking, and gambling. Those of us who had essentially just hopped the freighter in order to get between the islands, since there were no flights, were just kind of staggered by the miasma of mass, drunken, stupidity for its own sake.
That being said I understand that in some places its a pretty effective way to get from foreign port to foreign port without having to unpack your luggage and repack every time. I’ve always wanted to do it to get in and out of St. Petersburg, see the Hermitage, and etc… without having to consider myself staying in Russia overnight.
aimai
aimai
@cmorenc:
Thanks for that tip. I am putting this recommendation in my list of things I really would like to do before I’m too feeble. It sounds wonderful.
aimai
Judas Escargot
I’m more curious as to how such a cowardly, craven piece of shit got a command in the first place.
BruceFromOhio
As an avid cruise virgin, this tragedy is an assurance that I will remain thus. Packed like lemmings into big, shiny freighters has all the appeal of vacationing in a mall.
To aimai’s point, a sailing journey on a smaller vessel with a more personalized experience would be marvelous.
Brachiator
@aimai:
Throw in some nonstop sex and it sounds like the perfect getaway.
BruceFromOhio
@jayboat: What an awesome flickrstream. Nicely done, sir!
Kathleen
@geg6: I once heard a Business Law professor say that if people really knew what went happened during cruises they would never take one. Being of the wimpy persuasion, I probably will not take a cruise.
scandi
It reminds me of my time singing on cruise ships in the South Pacific. As “entertainment crew” it was our job to direct the passengers to their particular lifeboats.
Because in an emergency, you really do want to follow the guy in the red lamé shirt and sequined vest.
trollhattan
I was never a fan of the whole cruise concept and then I learned about the NRO cruises. The threat of being inadvertently stuck on a boat–no matter how large–with the likes of KLo, Jonah Goldberg, Jimmy Lileks and the like instills a dread in me that no trip to the hospital can match.
Throw in norovirus outbreaks and the occasional gashing open of the hull and, well, a nice car trip sounds swell. Also, too, it’s a good thing the Concordia keeled over in the Med and not off Alaska. 34-degree water and they’d have lost a LOT more folks.
Hungry Joe
@David: I used to just not take cruises, ever, but since reading David Foster Wallace’s essay I enjoy not taking cruises, ever.
Gust Avrakotos
So looks like mistermix is Monday morning quarterbacking when he’s not looking into the future connecting dots to suit his narrative.
Were you there you ignorant fool? Here is someone who was on the bridge with the captain when it was happening. Her story is quite different than what the media is trying to run with. Just one person but at least she were there. You are just repeating the same nonsense the rest of the media is repeating.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9027129/Cruise-disaster-Costa-Concordia-mystery-blonde-defends-captain-Francesco-Schettino.html
So what does the media do with someone who doesn’t fit their narrative. They question her motives of course.
But wait, you were on a cruise once….so I guess that makes you an expert………..PPffffff.
trollhattan
@jayboat:
Heck of a photo set, even if it looks like a promo for the new season of “Ow, My Balls”. You shoot them from a heli?
Chuck Butcher
A couple members of the bike club were touting a Harley Cruise. I wanted to know how they dealt with all the bikes, silly me. “Oh no, you can’t take the bike,” its apparently about shared interest as opposed to the doing it sort of thing. My question, “Then why the hell would I want to go?”
What the hell, spend time on the water talking about bikes and bike trips and then get somewhere new and ride a moped for a couple hours? Oh goody, somebody go do that for me…
trollhattan
@Chuck Butcher:
One of my bestest tshirt evah nominees is “I Attended Trailer Week–Sturgis, SD”
just me
Other posters are right about RC cruises – the safety drills, which are quite well done, in my limited experience, are done very early on sailing day. Cruises are also most definitely not for the rich only. The most affordable cabins are very affordable. As for the issue of kids – that varies a lot. RC sets aside some ‘teen only’ areas and some adult only areas.
just me
Other posters are right about RC cruises – the safety drills, which are quite well done, in my limited experience, are done very early on sailing day. Cruises are also most definitely not for the rich only. The most affordable cabins are very affordable. As for the issue of kids – that varies a lot. RC sets aside some ‘teen only’ areas and some adult only areas.
Susan S
No one has mentioned SilverSeas. I love to travel by myself..on small ships with 300 or so passengers. All liquor is included in the SS prices..which are far lower than you would think. I am not an intrepid travelor, but I have seen Africa, Egypt, Italy, the South Seas [take a trip sometime between Singapore and Australia..incredible!] I cruise for roughly $500-$650 a day..I can seldom travel for less money. As for Captains, I have yet to encounter a SiverSeas captain, all Italian, who wasn’t intent and serious and devoted to the safety of his passengers and crew. Do not let this prevent you from sailing..just pick a ship with far fewer passengers. For the same price, insane to go with a mob.
Cermet
@WereBear: Don’t forget your 4000 IU/day vitamin D! It causes the white blood cells to far better work together against an infection – if Vit D levels are too low, the cells don’t and the infection can get far worse.
jayboat
@BruceFromOhio:
Thanks. My friends think I am kinda obsessed.
@trollhattan:
Ha! More like “My back will never be the same.”
Actually, those shots are fairly tame, water-wise- that’s Card Sound, which is part of the Intracoastal.
Since this thread is about cruise ships, here’s a cool pov shot of one in Grand Cayman. Gives a sense of how monstrous they are.
I gotta say, the more I think about this wreck, I’m gobsmacked at how the captain got away with what he did. Turning off the autopilot and hotdoggin a ship that size in that area. Where the fuck was the rest of the crew??? Makes me wonder how many times this sort of thing has happened with no bad result. I would appear that he may have been thinking with the little head, which would explain a lot.
Bubblegum Tate
@Judas Escargot:
Well, see, there was this Supreme Court case called Bush v. Gore….
Bubblegum Tate
@BruceFromOhio:
Or you could take a journey on a large vessel, but still with a more personalized experience, but you need to be a 1-percenter (or be good friends with somebody whose dad is a that rare breed of benevolent, non-asshole 1-percenter and who is an onboard owner) to do that. I called it “rich people fantasy camp,” and while I would never take a commercial cruise for all the reasons listed upthread, I would go on this one again in a heartbeat. Ah, to dream….
Beauzeaux
I’ve taken a bunch a cruises on ships as small as the Wind Spirit (144 passengers max) and as large as the QE II. All had lifeboat drills within an hour of so of embarking.
Costa has (had) a good reputation.European ports with mostly Europena passengers. The behavior of the crew on the Concordia was bizarre and scarey.
I love the smaller ships because you’re on a ship, not a floating apartment building. I don’t need shows or casinos to have a good time. I want good food, good books, and interesting ports. The best trips I’ve taken were Tahiti and Antarctica and I’d do them again in a heartbeat — unfortunately the Antarctic ship sank a couple of years back.
opie jeanne
@shoutingattherain: I’ve been on a Disney cruise and it was wonderful. My kids are grown and the youngest talked us into it because she was one of the entertainers. Lots of people with no kids on the cruise, and lots of places to be where there were no kids. We saw kids only when we wanted to. The food was good, we stopped in Nassau for a very long day; I think we were there for more than 12 hours, ate conch at a place that was not full of tourists, visited the market but it was like visiting Tijuana, but also explored the downtown and some of the historical district, and checked out the truly stupidly overpriced Treasure Island, go inside the aquarium without paying for entry somehow (didn’t know there was a fee, swooned when we found out how much they wanted) but they eventually caught my husband so we all left.
I don’t know how many people were on the cruise, probably more than 1000 but it felt like only 300.
The next day we spent on a beautiful little island (quay?) that the cruise line either owns or leases, and yes, there were a couple of Disney characters to greet us, but it wasn’t overdone. I think we only saw Captain Jack Sparrow, and the cast member who portrayed him was excellent; they don’t pester you because there are so many people who do want to interact with them. We walked past the kids only beach, past the families beach, and plunked down in the water on the adults only beach. There was a teens only beach too, past ours. Lunch was a great barbecue on the adults only beach and we had a great time. The following year they decided to give everyone a second day on the island but we have no reason to go back.
The crew were/are on Disney cruises are paranoid about safety and health issues and EVERYONE has to wash their hands when entering the dining rooms. No one got sick, and if anyone had gotten that nasty cruise stomach virus the cruise would have ended, which is why they made us wash our hands every time we entered the dining room.
The only negative experience was being in the hot tub with my daughter and being invaded by a group of right-wing fundamentalist home schoolers, women, from Oregon. What the heck were they even doing on that cruise? They sat there and yapped about Hollywood and California and Los Angeles, and it was obvious that they knew absolutely nothing. I tried to talk to them, politely, explained that Hollywood is part of the city of Los Angeles, a neighborhood, and that Disneyland is NOT in Hollywood, it’s in a different county. My daughter couldn’t take it for very long and excused herself because they were so obnoxious. I left a little later when they started going all Bible-ish between themselves in order to exclude me, but I do remember what I learned in Sunday School and I corrected them a couple of times, gave them the chapter and verse so they could look it up later. Then I left. Those were the only unpleasant people that we met on the cruise. The people at our table at dinner every night were just wonderful. Grandparents and parents of an adorable little boy, age 4. He was never a pill at supper, and a joy when he was awake. Our daughter met him (out of character) at supper the first night, which is why she knows his name in the video, but he didn’t recognize her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZwt4XfdkjQ&list=UUg_nRL0SR4rCgnWW4wlRFgQ&index=11&feature=plcp
The only other cruise ship we were on was either Royal Caribbean or Norwegian, can’t remember which, and while it was a good experience, I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t gotten bullied into it. Our girls were teens and this was an activity that a large group of our friends decided to do together. That one was more like Vegas on a boat, and I had no intention of feeding the one-armed bandit. I really fail to see the point of the duty free shops because most of the time the stuff is so overpriced that it’s ridiculous. I was forced to spend much more time with little kids, or any kids, on that cruise than I was on the Disney cruise.
Joe Max
@cmorenc:
Sam e here – in the only cruise I’ve ever been on (Carnival), the safety drill was held in the evening, first thing after the ship was underway. The crew told us as we were boarding to be ready to don our life vests and come up on deck shortly after we embarked. We all got directed to follow certain colored lines and everybody ended up standing directly in front of “their” lifeboat. There was an evacuation map on the door of our cabin.
This was over ten years ago, so I don’t know if the crews have become lax about this since then.
Bubba Dave
@Soonergrunt: Summer ’10 I took the same cruise (Alaska out of Vancouver on Holland America), same experience with immediate lifeboat drill. Of course, most of the passengers were drunk already, so no guarantees we’d actually remember anything, but that ain’t the cruse line’s fault.
(Cruising is NOT MY THING, but when my 99-y/o grandmother wanted to take the family on a cruise, we went on a cruise. Beautiful scenery, but $2/minute for Internet is like charging me for oxygen. By the pint.)
Rome Again
@cmorenc:
Same for me. I went on a Carnival Cruise (Fantasy) to the Bahamas in 2000 and we boarded at 11 am and had a safety drill an hour later, before we cast off.
Mnemosyne
@Chuck Butcher:
Hobby cruises are very popular. I’m sometimes tempted to go on one of the knitting ones, but almost all of them leave from the East Coast (if not Europe) so the added expense of the airfare puts them beyond my reach.
Larkspur
@opie jeanne: I like your account a lot. Thank you. Also, as weird as your hot tub companions were, you must have been thinking, “Hey, this will make a good story”.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: This is the first time I’ve told the story, other than when I got back to our cabin and unloaded on my husband.
Steam was coming out of my ears.
We talked to our steward quite a bit, learned about his life and what the job means to him. He was a nice guy and we made sure to tip him very well because people who work on the ships make peanuts, but to him it was a lot of money.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: This is the first time I’ve told the story, other than when I got back to our cabin and unloaded on my husband.
Steam was coming out of my ears.
We talked to our steward quite a bit, learned about his life and what the job means to him. He was a nice guy and we made sure to tip him very well because people who work on the ships make peanuts, but to him it was a lot of money.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: This is the first time I’ve told the story, other than when I got back to our cabin and unloaded on my husband.
Steam was coming out of my ears.
We talked to our steward quite a bit, learned about his life and what the job means to him. He was a nice guy and we made sure to tip him very well because people who work on the ships make peanuts, but to him it was a lot of money.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowwhite/1041875326/in/set-72157601157390402/
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: This is the first time I’ve told the story, other than when I got back to our cabin and unloaded on my husband.
Steam was coming out of my ears.
We talked to our steward quite a bit, learned about his life and what the job means to him. He was a nice guy and we made sure to tip him very well because people who work on the ships make peanuts, but to him it was a lot of money.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowwhite/1041875326/in/set-72157601157390402/
Larkspur
@opie jeanne: I am laughing, opie jeanne. I have never been referenced so many times in a row before on this or any other blog.
opie jeanne
@Larkspur: Sorry, I don’t know how that happened.