The Cruise Ship and Cruise Line Discussion Thread!

[robbalvey]

Great, the same irrational "friends" and family that tried to talk me out of going to Japan, now don't want me to take a cruise next month.

Oh, trust me. Everyone is now an "expert" on cruise ships, their operations, and their safety. We've already bad to ban about ten of our Facebook idiot posters for being self-appointed experts in the field arguIng and freaking out about stuff they know nothing about.

 

In a way, it's great. The more annoying people that could be self-removed from annoying other TPR members, they better!

 

--Robb "They were probably Carnival Cruise Lines enthusiasts anyway!" Alvey

[DenDen]

I am in more danger, and in sheer terror, when taking a cab to Port Everglades, than getting on a ship.

Edited January 15, 2012 by DenDen

[robbalvey]

LOL!!! I agree Dennis!!!

[Xmeister]

As sad as this is, I really hope it doesn't scare people from cruising. It really is my favorite kind of vacation and disasters like these are very few in number.

 

In fact if you look it at it this is the first time a "modern" cruise ship has ever sank. Any others that have sank in the past couple of decades were old ships (most often converted ferries) that were run by second rate cruise lines. This I think is the first sinking of a ship owned by what we could call a "major" cruise line. The last cruise ship disaster was I believe the Sea Diamond in 2007 after she ran aground in Greece.

 

If this was going to happen to any cruise line, I'm not too terribly surprised it happened to one owned by Carnival Corp.

[BaMiTsPaT]

This is very sad to hear about, but it baffles me how a ship can run aground in this modern day with GPS and so many other technologies helping to guide the ship.

[TJ27]

It's so weird to see a massive ship like that just tipped over like a toy. I feel sorry for the people that were on that thing.

[imawesome1124]

This is very sad to hear about, but it baffles me how a ship can run aground in this modern day with GPS and so many other technologies helping to guide the ship.

Well, the report said that there was a power outage and a failure in the GPS system, which was why they couldn't steer clear of the rocks.

[cfc]

The latest reports say that the captain of the unfortunate vessel has been "deatined": http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/14/10156346-captain-of-cruise-ship-that-ran-aground-off-italy-arrested-report.

 

No word on whether or not his name is "Captain Jack Sparrow."

Edited January 14, 2012 by cfc

[ginzo]

^Italian criminal justice system = LOL. Just ask Amanda Knox.

[BelizeIt]

^^ Oh man, news report state that he under investigation for manslaughter and worse 'abandoning the ship'.

 

Hey isn't the Captain suppose to be the last one off?

 

Lets just hope he wasn't found to be under the influence of something. Who knows what happens during a emergency situation like this, but I would think the 'Captain' would stay onboard (at the risk of his own life) to direct the emergency procedures, thus ensuring his passengers safety.

 

Time will tell.......

[SharkTums]

Hey isn't the Captain suppose to be the last one off?

 

My initial thought as well!

 

Seriously though, based on what has been said/reported, here is my slightly educated opinion as to what happened.

 

Issue with power/electronics/etc. causes ship to wander off course without too much notice due to Captain and crew. Ship hits rock and rips open gash Titanic Style. Multinational crew and Italian officers have issues coordinating evacuation and passengers who had not yet completed a muster drill don't know what to actually do (no one bothers to call a mayday either). When the full extent of what's happening is realized, the captain makes the smart move of steering the ship towards the shore to try and save people that he knows will end up in the water.

 

This will be fascinating to follow and find out what really happened!

[SharkTums]

Cruise Critic has posted a collection of videos as well as some Cruise Critic Members first hand reports from the ship.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4711

[SharkTums]

Yeah yeah, triple posting, screw you all...

 

Latest report is that the ship hit the rocks, THEN power went out. That's a WHOLE OTHER scenario!!! One that puts total fault on the captain and crew. Wow.

 

BTW - I love that all of my Google Ads today have been for Costa and other cruise lines now! Ha ha!

Edited January 14, 2012 by SharkTums

[QueerRudie]

CNN reports the captain of the ship has been detained 'for questioning' over the incident... which makes me think did the captain of the ship have tee few too martoonies at the time of the incidient?

 

(And I didn't realized that Carnival owned Costa Cruises... came as a surprise to me!)

[Chroniq]

Smart money says the captain was off the bridge during those hours as, based on his quotes, he wasn't even sure what went wrong. That is standard operating procedure when the ship isn't leaving port or it's that late at night. Based upon the informative article that ahrecht shared; Stuff can go wrong if you follow the computers that are supposed to tell you what to do. It does require a huge amount of other factors to make this happen though.

 

Either way; Your next cruise will be safer than driving to the terminal. Hopefully the captain isn't made out to be a scape goat in this situation.

 

-chris "is booking his next cruise in the upcoming days to save money" connolly

[SharkTums]

^I checked all of mine today and none went down in price! Maybe in a few days.

[MrMorgan]

Hey isn't the Captain suppose to be the last one off?

 

My initial thought as well!

 

Seriously though, based on what has been said/reported, here is my slightly educated opinion as to what happened.

 

Issue with power/electronics/etc. causes ship to wander off course without too much notice due to Captain and crew. Ship hits rock and rips open gash Titanic Style. Multinational crew and Italian officers have issues coordinating evacuation and passengers who had not yet completed a muster drill don't know what to actually do (no one bothers to call a mayday either). When the full extent of what's happening is realized, the captain makes the smart move of steering the ship towards the shore to try and save people that he knows will end up in the water.

 

This will be fascinating to follow and find out what really happened!

 

Very CSI-Italy of you This is exactly what I was thinking, too, but then I read the rest of the thread...

 

I have another interesting theory. I wouldn't be surprised if they say the captain was under the influence as a sort of P.R. clean-up procedure, (regardless of the truth). I mean, he is definitely out of a job anyways! If the G.P. thinks the captain was drunk, that is sort of a reasonable and forgivable explanation for something like this to happen. People who may have been scared of cruising or had doubts about the safety will think, "Well, there is no way this would have happened if the captain wasn't drunk. This won't happen again." But, if it sounds like the captain was on the bridge, not drunk, doing his job, everything was normal, and this STILL happened, I think that is REALLY bad P.R. for cruising altogether. Know what I mean?

[Chroniq]

^You have to remember though. On most ships the captain isn't expected to be on the bridge that late. He might be at a welcoming party for past cruisers or even introducing the broadway show going on in the theater. Captains wear a number of hats on modern cruise ships.

[robbalvey]

^ I've always thought of the "Captain" as more of a figurehead like a theme park "President." Where the day-to-day decisions at a park seem to be made more by the operations directiors than they are the president of the park. Not sure how similar that is for a cruise ship captain, but really, it seems like the captain does very little "driving the ship" and being more of a global figurehead for all of what's happening on the ship from operations to entertainment.

Edited January 14, 2012 by robbalvey

[SharkTums]

^Absolutely!

 

How many parties and dinners have we been to with the Captain? Obviously it's his head that will end up on the platter, but I wonder if we'll ever know who was REALLY 'driving' at the time of the accident.

[robbalvey]

^ Pretty much just like the "Park President." Jay Thomas got fired from Six Flags Magic Mountain as the scapegoat for being at fault for all the "family stuff" that didn't really work out for the park, even though he has very little to actually do with those decisions.

[Chroniq]

^What they said. Again. The captain has a staff that he trusts to actually drive the ship. It sucks that end of the day if one of them fails, it's his head.

[coaster-crazy]

Wow, this is really ironic timing, considering I just watched the 2006 movie "Poseidon" last night, which was about a sinking ship!

 

LOL!

[Cyber.Fiber]

And to think, I leave for my Carnival cruise in a month today...

[robbalvey]

And to think, I leave for my Carnival cruise in a month today...

Could have been worse... Imagine if you were booked on THIS ship!