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The Cruise Ship and Cruise Line Discussion Thread!


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apologies. . can't believe my first post (after lurking for YEARS it seems), was snark. .

 

LOL. . sorry bout that.

 

love the site tho, and check it every day. Hope to one day join in on a Coaster Expedition!

 

(we have the Six Flags Passes, since we're close to both Fiesta Tx, ans Six Flags Over Texas)

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Cruises, theme parks, and air flights are the same in that once an "event" has occurred, everyone freaks out and worries too much. I'm just an engineer, not a psychologist, but I imagine people worry irrationally when they pay money for other people to worry about things (piloting ships, flying planes, operating rides). One thing happens, no matter how rare or remote, and it sends chills through the whole industry. Royal, Disney, Princess, Carnival, etc all don't want any sort of power outages, singings, or tippings to happen to anyone because it causes poor sales.

 

The loss of life, the poor safety briefings, the late muster drills, all are horribly indicative of this cruise line. It's shameful. I've only cruised once, in 2001, and we had our drills before we had our first meal on the ship. And yes, we went Royal Caribbean.

 

My thoughts are with the friends and family of those lost and missing...

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1 down, 21 to go, too bad it wasn't the Fortuna.

I've cruised with Costa once, and a mistake I shall never do again.

Shame there was a loss of life, though if it were to become a dive site, I would be extremely interested in going to check it out, as it would be incredible to check out a modern cruise liner underwater.

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Has there been any information yet as to WHY this Costa ship was even there in the first place? What was the ship even doing at the entrance to the Port of Giglio?

 

Information we know:

-The ship had just begun it's cruise - leaving the Port of Civitavecchia (Rome) and heading overnight up to it's first scheduled stop in Savona, Italy.

-The Island of Giglio was not on it's itinerary - the ship had absolutely nothing in it's itinerary that included a stop in the Port of Giglio

-Giglio is a funny word

-The Port of Giglio is on the Eastern side of the island

-All cruise lines and major shipping lines heading North from Civitavecchia stay far West of the Island of Giglio - where there is much more room to maneuver and (more important) deeper water

 

So - what the heck was the ship even doing this far off course?

 

Just speculating:

Was there a known electrical or navigational problem that the Officers were aware of and were trying to get the ship into the closest safe port in order to make repairs? (similar to a captain landing an airplane at the closest airport available if there are mechanical or electrical problems)?

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This is crazy! I couldn't believe it when I first heard.

 

I love cruise ships and actually had a blog on ships for awhile (until I got way to busy). For me, I think the power going out at night would be one of the worst parts (especially when you feel like your falling over in the water!)

 

Haha Elissa, you are so right!!! All the ads today are for cruise lines! Wth?! After I read that comment you made I immediately looked up at the ads here on the forum and sure enough an Azamara cruise ad was there!

 

Is it kind of ironic how this happens right before the 100th anniversary of Titanic?!

 

I just think it's weird how the side with the gash is facing up..? It will be interesting to see what happens to the ship!

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Amazes me how people wig out about this given how many fatalities happen every day on freeways.

 

Granted, a messed up car is not a huge cruise ship sitting half in the water. But really, for people to be too scared to cruise after this, yet fearless about the ride on the freeway to the airport for the flight to the port location, and then the ride from the airport to the port is really something.

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Has there been any information yet as to WHY this Costa ship was even there in the first place? What was the ship even doing at the entrance to the Port of Giglio?

 

Information we know:

-The ship had just begun it's cruise - leaving the Port of Civitavecchia (Rome) and heading overnight up to it's first scheduled stop in Savona, Italy.

-The Island of Giglio was not on it's itinerary - the ship had absolutely nothing in it's itinerary that included a stop in the Port of Giglio

 

I read somewhere that the ship had technical problems the day before it struck the rock, something happened and the ship ended up there.

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Has there been any information yet as to WHY this Costa ship was even there in the first place? What was the ship even doing at the entrance to the Port of Giglio?

 

Information we know:

-The ship had just begun it's cruise - leaving the Port of Civitavecchia (Rome) and heading overnight up to it's first scheduled stop in Savona, Italy.

-The Island of Giglio was not on it's itinerary - the ship had absolutely nothing in it's itinerary that included a stop in the Port of Giglio

-Giglio is a funny word

-The Port of Giglio is on the Eastern side of the island

-All cruise lines and major shipping lines heading North from Civitavecchia stay far West of the Island of Giglio - where there is much more room to maneuver and (more important) deeper water

 

So - what the heck was the ship even doing this far off course?

 

According to Gianni Onorato, managing director of Costa Crociere. The ship was on its correct course.

 

The captain of a luxury cruise liner that keeled over off Tuscany, killing at least three people was on Saturday arrested as survivors told of scenes "like the Titanic".

 

Terrified passengers rushed to get into lifeboats and 100 people had to be rescued from the sea. Forty-one passengers are still unaccounted for.

 

The Costa Concordia with more than 4,000 people on board apparently hit a reef, tearing a 70- to 100-metre (230- to 330-foot) gash in its hull, just hours after setting off on Friday from Civitavecchia a port near Rome.

 

The ship quickly listed, leaving it half submerged in shallow waters near the island of Giglio off the west coast of Italy.

 

Within 24 hours of the accident, local prosecutors announced the arrest of the captain, Francesco Schettino, and first officer, Ciro Ambrosio. Italian media reported they could face charges of multiple homicide and having abandoned ship before all passengers were rescued.

 

The captain "approached Giglio Island in a very awkward way, hit a rock that stuck into its left side, making (the boat) list and take on a huge amount of water in the space of two or three minutes," Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio told reporters.

 

Fire chief Ennio Aquilino told AFP his men had "plucked 100 people from the water and saved around 60 others who were trapped in the boat."

 

At least 42 are injured, including two seriously -- a woman with a blow to the head and a man struck in the spine.

 

Medical sources said most had suffered broken limbs and hypothermia.

 

 

 

Coastguards meanwhile said divers had recovered the ship's "black box" which should contain records of the precise route and conversations among the crew. The search for survivors was suspended late on Saturday.

 

But 41 people who had been on board were still missing, said Grosseto governor Giuseppe Linardi and port officials, although it was not clear whether they had made their own way to safety without checking in with authorities.

 

But he told journalists: "There are three certified dead."

 

France's embassy in Rome said two French passengers had died, and ANSA news agency reported the third victim was a Peruvian member of the crew.

 

As passengers were sitting down for dinner Friday, they felt an impact as the cruise liner hit something.

 

Passengers said they were initially told the ship had shuddered to a halt for electrical reasons, before being instructed to put on their life-jackets and head for lifeboats.

 

"The captain was saying in five, six languages 'Don't panic'," recalled 74-year-old Joel Pavageau who was with his wife in one of the ship's restaurants when the ship hit something and the room was plunged into darkness.

 

"I got the feeling I was living my last moment," he said.

 

"There were scenes of panic like on the Titanic. We ran aground on rocks," passenger Mara Parmegiani was quoted by Italian media as saying. "We were very scared and freezing."

 

"We heard a loud noise, the plates and cutlery fell on the floor and the lights went out, but the staff told us not to worry," said Roberto Bombardieri, a hairdresser.

 

Another survivor, cruise ship worker Fabio Costa, described the rush for the lifeboats.

 

"Everything just started to fall and everybody started to panic and run," he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

 

"We had no idea how serious it was until we got out and we looked through the window and we saw the water coming closer and closer. Everything happened really, really fast," he said.

 

"Everybody tried to get on the boats but people started to panic so they were pushing each other and the crew was trying to help. A lot of people were falling down the stairs," he added.

 

Indian Mondal Mithun, a 26-year-old restaurant manager who was on his first cruise with the ship, said that in his area there was only "one lifeboat for 150 passengers".

 

Earlier Saturday, Captain Schettino told Italian television that the vessel had hit a rocky spur while cruising in waters which, according to the charts, should have been safe on Italy's west coast.

 

"As we were navigating at cruise speed, we hit a rocky spur," he told Tgcom24 television station.

 

"According to the nautical chart, there should have been sufficient water underneath us," he added.

 

An executive with the company that owns the Italian cruise ship also insisted that the vessel had not strayed off course.

 

"It is not correct to say that the boat was off its route," Gianni Onorato, managing director of Costa Crociere, told reporters on Porto Santo Stefano island, a resort town near the site of the accident.

 

But according to Giorgio Fanculli, a journalist on Giglio island, the vessel was too close to shore.

 

"It was the classic passage, the cruise liners do it often, all lights lit up... but here, he went too close, a lot more than usual," said Fanculli, who saw the vessel sink and also witnessed the rescue operation.

Among those on board were about 52 children under six.

 

While some 60 nationalities were represented among those on board, nearly a third of the passengers were Italian and most of the others French and German.

 

The boat was carrying 4,299 people, more than 3,000 of whom were passengers, including 989 Italians, 569 Germans, 462 French nationals and 177 Spaniards.

 

Officials at the US State department said 126 US nationals were on board.

 

An environment ministry official told AFP the risk of an oil spill was minimal, because of the vessel's double-hull design. An estimated 2,380 tonnes of oil remain in the ship's tanks.

 

After being put up in Giglio islands hotels, a local church and sometimes at the homes of local people, many of the passengers were making their way home Saturday.

 

The ship had been headed for the port of Savona in northwest Italy and had been scheduled to visit the French port of Marseille and Barcelona in Spain.

 

The cruiseliner boasts 58 suites with balconies, five restaurants, 13 bars, five Jacuzzis and four swimming pools.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/cruise-ship-aground-off-italy-4-000-passengers-235744825.html?fb_action_ids=10151166148110444%2C2147997838958%2C10150590934726948%2C2147999078989%2C10150590676376948&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&code=AQDlZ3Q9XgPYXPHj8pLRou0OEOArO0EGUGXymWAB1ndP9DN_CriNsiCWIeaZfE-oMzhyzqIBdznPL8J0yBNXzAY558GAoEkou9BonhphEYj22b3koyhhHA48d4B2KcfNx2tP3Dn6ElsOV1HJX9Acg8cZIDDHt5Zr-VEs1dgFcTXrPGrI1k0YL12ZWg9F6T9q0h0

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Well, the "official" death toll is now up to 5....

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57359426/2-bodies-pulled-from-wrecked-cruise-ship/

 

 

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) — The Italian Coast Guard said its divers have found two more bodies aboard a stricken cruise ship off the west coast of Italy.

 

The discovery of the bodies brings to five the number of known dead after the luxury liner Costa Concordia ran aground with some 4,200 people aboard on Friday night.

 

The Coast Guard said Sunday the bodies of the two elderly people were found in the submerged restaurant.

 

Three survivors have been rescued from the hulk of a luxury liner Costa Concordia, after it ran aground off the island of Giglio, as prosecutors confirmed they were investigating the captain for manslaughter charges and abandoning the ship.

 

An Italian who worked in cabin service was pulled from the wreckage of the Costa Concordia Sunday, after a South Korean couple on their honeymoon were rescued late Saturday in the unsubmerged part of the ship when firefighters heard their screams. They were hoisted to safety by helicopter.

 

Asked Sunday by Sky Italia TV about allegations that the captain had left the ship before the last passenger had been rescued, Grosseto prosecutor Francesco Verusio replied, "Unfortunately I must confirm that circumstance."

 

Police divers and rescue crews on Sunday circled around the wreckage of ship off the coast of the island of Giglio. Crews in dinghies were touching the hull with their hands, near the site of the 160-foot-long gash where water flooded in and caused the ship to fall on its side.

 

Coast guard officials have said divers will try to enter the belly of the ship in case anyone is still inside.

 

Wrecked liner's captain detained by police

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^ I'm not sure of what methods will be used to temporarily patch the hole, but afterward, I imagine a fleet of tugs will stabilize, and then pull it into port?

 

Yeah, maybe they will try to get it back to Rome? It will be interesting to see if they actually repair it and sail it again or just...sell it?

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This freaked out my grandparents since they remember the last disaster that got this much coverage and more. The last luxury liner to sink like this I think was the SS Andrea Doria in 1956 and they were supposed to come to North America on that voyage but took a different ship instead....thank goodness.

 

Regardless, still really looking forward to trying out a cruise one day, maybe with RC

 

History (Wiki)

 

SS Andrea Doria was an ocean liner for the Italian Line (Società di navigazione Italia) home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956, when 46 people died.

 

Andrea Doria had a length of 212 m (697 feet), a beam of 27 m (90 ft), and a gross register tonnage of 29,100.[2] The propulsion system consisted of steam turbines attached to twin screws, enabling the ship to achieve a service speed of 23 knots (43 km/h), with a top speed of 26 knots (48 km/h). Andrea Doria was not the largest vessel nor the fastest of its day: those distinctions went to the RMS Queen Elizabeth and the SS United States, respectively. Instead, the famous Italian architect, Minoletti, designed the Andrea Doria for luxury.

 

Because it sailed the southern Atlantic routes, Andrea Doria was the first ship to feature three outdoor swimming pools, one for each class (first, cabin and tourist). The ship was capable of accommodating 218 first-class passengers, 320 cabin-class passengers, and 703 tourist-class passengers, and 563 crew on ten decks. With over $1 million spent on artwork and the decor of the cabins and public rooms, including a life-size statue of Admiral Doria, many consider the ship to have been one of the most beautiful ocean liners ever built next to the two Queens, RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Mary.

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^ I'm not sure of what methods will be used to temporarily patch the hole, but afterward, I imagine a fleet of tugs will stabilize, and then pull it into port?

Yeah, I will be VERY curious to see what they do with it. Clearly, it's not sunk enough to have destroyed everything...and that was a $600 million ship just 6 years ago, so I cannot image that they would just scrap it, and would salvage as much as they possible can. And let's be honest here, this is "Carnival" we are talking about. They aren't going to throw something like that away!

 

I think following the post-accident details should prove to be fascinating!

Edited by robbalvey
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