An excerpt from a post I wrote in 2003:
“The cruise lines make the safety of their guests, crew and vessels their highest priority and are prepared to keep their passengers and ships out of harm’s way. It is quite unlikely that the Captain will seek out a hurricane then command the ship to go full speed ahead right through it while hollering “Yaaaaaahooooo!!!” on the ship’s loudspeaker system.”
Then came the grounding of Costa Concordia and all of the sudden that light-hearted treatment of the potential danger of a hurricane at sea became embarrassingly inappropriate.
About to stand trial in Italy for manslaughter among other charges, Captain Francesco Schettino is accused of going on a joyride with a cruise ship that resulted in the death of 32 passengers. Not funny.
Still, even after Costa Concordia, ship breakdowns and fires, I still totally believe that cruise lines do indeed have our safety as a number one priority.
Am I naive?
Someone could probably make a case that I am indeed naive. But that case would have to be presented in a way similar to that of CNN’s supermarket tabloid-style coverage of all things cruising these days.
So today, we take a more sober tone when talking about hurricane season, a time that presents the possibility of a dangerous situation at sea. Oddly, that tone produced some bold tips:
Your Odds Of Living Through A Hurricane Are Probably Better At Sea-
- At home we have a sense of confidence that gets thrown off when at sea. At home, we know were to go, what to do, etc.
- Cruise lines, however, do live in the sea, know all about it, what to do, where to go and what is likely to happen when we throw a hurricane into any given itinerary.
- This is where the choice of a cruise ship (which can be moved) over a vacation on land (which can not be moved) was a wise choice. That all-inclusive Caribbean Island resort was leveled during the storm. Your cruise ship just went somewhere else.
The Technology Gets Better All The Time-
- Cruise ships have many of the same devices that land- based weather-forecasting stations do and they know how to use them.
- As satellite technology continues to advance, there are more “eyes” on every ship in the ocean all the time and those eyes communicate
Forget About Hurricanes, Cruise Lines Have This Under Control
- Cruise lines have contingency plans for every imaginable weather situation.
- When the unimaginable weather situation develops, cruise lines will handle it.
If they err, cruise lines err on the side of abundant caution, not the “Yahoo!, let’s ride this one out” mentality.
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