CruisingUS

lol, the OP got super flamed.

However, do I believe the OP? Strangely, I do.

I have tons of horror stories. Staff make mistakes. They can be apathetic, careless, sleep deprived, or just straight up dumb. They are overworked after all, and I become an idiot after working many hours with no sleep. And the more you complain, the more they screw with you, which means you are only digging yourself a hole. It's frustrating, but nothing you can do about it except accept it for what it is.

Are they transferrable? Or is this just a scam?

Good Lord I would hope so but its sad..I'm not really sure. The girls I saw in the kids camp looked very young..my husband laughed at me because I did ask one of them how old they were..she was very sweet and laughed and assured me she was an adult. My daughter just wasn't into the kids camps. We're very fortunate that our daughter still thinks were cool and likes to hang out with us. I'm also very fortunate that when we cruise its usually with one of our parents. So we still do have an opportunity to go on a "date night." I have friends that love the camps and their kids love the camps. So much so that the kids get sad when they have to hang out with the parents..lol. This last cruise we went on though it was crazy the amount of young teens were off in corners after dark making out and stuff. I just asked my daughter to never be that girl..that kinda freaked me out..lol

 

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I am surprised when I see other teens doing their own thing too.

Yes, they are vetted. On NCL, the children's program counselors are hired by the King's Foundation, a UK-based registered charity that also provides children's programs for the US military bases located outside of the country. Royal Caribbean, P&O, MSC, and Carnival also use the same organization. The cruise lines do their own background checks, and any foreign seaman that sails into a US port is investigated by the State Department (US Embassy in their country) in order to get their seaman's visa, according to this article by Cruise Critic.

 

I don't know to what extent NCL goes in regards to background checks for cabin stewards.

good to know that there is at least some filter.

That's a tricky question for me..lol. As her mother..I was still really nervous. There was a lot of reassuring from my husband that she was fine and a lot of "this is where ill be.." "you won't let her leave on her own right?" And I was comforted in the fact that I completely forgot to add my mother in law on the account to be able to sign her out and they would not allow her to leave with her...For me...it was hard. And I will say on the last two cruises that we have been on..I was a little more comfortable that the majority of the staff were girls as well. My daughter is still super awkward around boys. She has only ever been in the care of family members or trusted family friends. She just recently within the last two years has gone to birthday parties without us...and to be honest...I worry. Maybe it's because she's an only child..maybe its because I don't trust strangers...I'm sure its because I was almost abducted when I was 15. I just feel at her age...she's still too young to be left alone. It works for us. This family just must not have the trust issues I do. That's ok...it just unfortunately led to a horrible thing happening and thankfully it was not worse. Being touched is bad enough.

 

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Thanks for sharing this with me. I don't have children, and I will be cruising with friends who will have children. In the past I have worked with children that have been molested, raped, or beaten <|3. I also found out someone whom seemed very normal and is around children a lot was a registered sex offender who raped a <13 yo. I would have never known.

Do you know if the children program staff has had a background check?

No...we didn't cruise when she was younger. We started cruising within the last few years. She did go to the ships children's program a few times, did not care for it too much and opted to hang out with us...which is cool.

 

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Did you feel like your daughter was safe there with the kids program?

Umm I have a 12 year old daughter and absolutely NO. I find it absolutely crazy that other people I know think I'm too overprotective or "she's going to rebel one day" because I have never allowed my child to go to a sleepover or I don't allow her to be left home alone. Ya know...I am not judging the parents, we all parent differently. If my daughter was too tired and wanted to nap..I would have taken the opportunity to either relax with her or read a book. Being on vacation..you are still in unfamiliar places, situations, and take the opportunity to enjoy the "down time" with your kids...we rarely get that anymore with the running around with sports and school activities. I hope the girl and her family find some peace and closure.

 

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Just wondering, did you leave her at the day care on cruise ships when she was younger?

signed confessions can be thrown out during criminal cases for many reasons.

Not a lawyer here.

So I have actually been inside these helicopters before. I have seen the ones that the coast guard uses and some other smaller variants. I know for sure you can only fit one stretcher in there at a time. So usually you only air lift one person at a time, which is what the US coast guard does 99% of the times. That way, if the patient goes into cardiac arrest, you have room to start cpr and etc.

So if both patients were air lifted at the same time, this suggests that at least one patient is in stable condition. This is good news for one person. :)

IMO, I think more likely is that the second patient isn't actually a patient at all is more likely a family member accompanying the patient.

not as often as other cruise lines in my exp

It was 2 separate passengers. Both went on the same helicopter.

Are you absolutely sure about this?

I honestly wouldn't buy them if you are busy. I bought 2 and I cannot book anything since my schedule is all messy. just food for thought

subscribed!

please actually read my comment

cash. i do that too.

But sign a vacation hero card for those that were actually good to you. i think they are used for promotion (per what staff say to me....but who knows) and imo they are much more happier to get that then a cash tip.

I was busy on my laptop and the 2nd guy who usually gets you water was my head waiter, since I was sitting by myself. He got me my prime rib in less than 5 minutes of me sitting. no joke. I wrote him a great vacation hero card and he was almost jumping for joy.

I really don't know the answer to that one, and it is a great question (because you are asking what does it mean to cause "injury" such that the claim falls within section 9(a) rather then section 9(b) of the guest ticket contract). I only commented earlier on the terms of the travel contract vis-a-vis the general class action prohibition assuming no death or "injury" to a passenger.

 

A good lawyer, with the right client could make a good case I think. The difference there would be each passenger would have to bring their own claim (as the nature of their harm would vary person to person, I assume) and could not have a class certified.

 

But I'm really not qualified to say more than that. I would just say what I tell family and friends when they ask me for advice outside my area of practice ... if someone feels like they have been harmed and wants to talk about their rights they should seek out an attorney to discuss further.

 

 

 

 

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Very interesting indeed. this is what makes the law so hard for laymen such as myself so confusing. I wonder if punitive damages would/could be capped in a maritime law. lol, more questions than answers here. i guess they will have to go unanswered for now.

litigation is very frightening for me personally. it shapes the way how my profession does things on a minute by minute basis for some.

You said "sea water is not saline".

 

I quote the USGS at https://water.usgs.gov/edu/saline.html, "Naturally, when you think of saline water you think of the oceans." and "and all that saline water sitting offshore of our coasts".

 

Seems clear, ocean water, aka seawater, is saline.

devil is in the details. as they said, NaCl in pure sterile water suspension is saline (NS). i know that NS can be processed from sea water or other natural water resources. but sea water =/= NS.

if you squirt sea water into your contact lens, you may get a psuedomonal infection, eye may ulcerate, and you can go blind. if you squirt NS into your eyes with contact lens, nothing will happen (maybe irritation if you squirt it hard).

by your definition, soda, which has NaCl too and other tasty "impurities," can be NS too. I can understand the confusion, but sea water with all its impurities is not NS in the real world as they have very different effects on the body.

It is, in fact, true. I typically do not discuss my educational background because I find people make all sorts of incorrect assumptions about me when they do (call it some long unresolved cognitive dissonance [emoji6]).

 

As for the disclaimer, I honestly never gave it any thought until someone commented on one of my thoughts and I thought I should set the record straight. Just trying to provide another point of view.

 

 

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i have tons of lawyer friends and they plaster disclaimers left and rt....even when discussing things casually with acquaintances irl. granted they are younger.

now, i didn't go to harvard (yet ;) ), but i don't flash my credentials either. it does bother me when ppl introduce me and immediately name my profession. ppl can put me on a pedestal (which is weird) or immediately go nuts b/c they have an axe to grind with others in my profession whom they have worked with (which is very annoying b/c they are trying to prove how i am wrong). a woman, no joke, walked up to a group of my peers and showed us pictures of her daughter and son and asked us if we would go on a date with them. super awkward. :') ppl need to calm down.

Do you think ppl could get compensation for emotional damages for adjustment disorder/PTSD (for bills if they go to the doc, therapy, and etc.) or punitive damages? or would that all be done via arbitration?

Untrue.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saline_water

 

https://www.webmd.com/allergies/tc/saltwater-washes-nasal-saline-lavage-or-irrigation-for-sinusitis-topic

 

 

I saved the best for last.

 

 

https://water.usgs.gov/edu/saline.html

Reread my original post.

SEA water (unsterile) is not saline (sterile). you can get tons of infections from sea water. it's dirty.

Saline (salt) will kill mold spores, provided the saline is kept in liquid form. The mold has the same dilemma as a person, drink the salt water and dehydrate only the mold is compelled to drink and will. It will die due to dehydration. The issue is, they want the ship dried as quickly as possible so there may not be time enough for this to work, saline is corrosive to wood, metal and textiles. I will be closely watching the reactions of people on the ship, I may be having a conversation with NCL regarding our March cruise.

what? sea water is not saline. two totally different things.

You want by BBO#? Copy of my Harvard Law diploma? Copy of my admission certificate? Something else? Actually, I couldn't care less what you think. I didn't work my butt off putting myself through school to prove anything to anyone other than myself.

 

And to respond to your dim-witted comment, yes actually, I opened 100s of law books and read and studied them 12+ hours a day for 3 years in law school and then studied 15+ hours a day for 3 months studying for the bar. And I have spent every working hour of every day since "opening a law book" or two to make myself a better complex multi-national/cross border M&A partner for my fortune 50 clients. The moment one stops learning is the moment they allow latent arrogance to fill the void.

 

I'll have nothing further to say on this topic. The gall of some people.

 

 

 

 

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Wow. I am IMPRESSED. my mouth salivates just reading your credentials (esp if you went to harvard and aren't lying, which I am 95% sure you aren't, but it's the internet so you know...).

ppl have dinged me for saying something that is essentially factually correct about my profession/credentials. This is why i won't explicitly state what it is even though it is quite apparent if you piece together my posts (no body would go through my post history as i haven't posted in a while). i know it's true, even though i cannot prove it. but ppl were lobbing insults, which don't phase me b/c i know it's true. in fact, it is so true that all countries around the world write laws about it. yes....vague and confusing paragraph :D

I was a lil surprised how that disclaimer statement didn't come up earlier d/t malpractice concerns, which albeit are admittedly minuscule for lawyers. that statement really should reaffirm to skeptics that you are a lawyer.

"The gall of some people." <----I agree with this statement 100%. psyche 101 - these ppl are obviously projecting onto you their insecurities about how uneducated/ignorant/flat out dumb they are. (i'm not a psychologist i swear :D i'm not) what scares me is when they become arrogant given what lil they know, and they go around doing things outside the scope of their practice. Can get very disastrous and dangerous. I see it all the time, and it becomes YUGE mess to clean up. it FRUSTRATES me to no end and causes such a huge headache b/c it just complicates things endlessly. UGH!

Back on topic - Thanks for your insight, as they actually are meaningful compared to the rampant speculation on how maritime law works (does it work? lol). it will be interesting to see what people do. i guess there could be monetary damages from the stress maybe. idk. not a lawyer.

Thank you. Maritime law is very confusing indeed, probably because it roots in the law go back further than almost anything. I only tangentially get involved with maritime issues (to the extent my client buyer's/seller's assets include a shipping fleet). And the one thing I learned about maritime law ... when the issue comes up, walk down the hall and talk to an expert! Ha

 

 

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i always ask for help from experts too, lol. no shame in my game.

I hadn't looked at it from that angle. Thank you for the perspective.

 

 

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(y)

glad we see eye-to-eye and were respectful to ea other. :)

I admire what you, and thank you for your perspective as a JD. maritime law is very confusing to say the least.

I totally agree with that and I understand the contemporaneous videos I viewed through that lens. My only point is that now that the facts are known, we should stick to those and not what someone "thought" happened.

 

 

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That is not how someone deals with PTSD (or rather adjustment disorder in this case, but it can become PTSD). you cannot tell someone to just deal with the facts. what people are experiencing is a bona fide DSM5 diagnosis and they should get the proper treatment for it.

Just as you cannot tell a rape victim or army vet to just deal with the facts, you cannot tell others with adjustment disorder/PTSD to just deal with the facts. life threatening (as perceived by the individual) cannot just be forgotten so easily devoid of the emotional trauma.

but i understand where you are coming from, which why you work in a field that deals mostly with the pertinent facts of the case

Some of us have stated several times that we are very sorry that passengers had to go through what they did. We even acknowledge their subjective fear. However, many people question the objective viability of such fear and that is also fair.

 

For me, I just try to stick to facts ... not hyperbole or opinion. What drives me crazy are the people who are constantly repeating inaccuracies to justify their fear and make the situation seem worse than it was.

 

No matter how many times someone states in multiple threads, the captain most certainly did NOT direct the ship into the storm. He trailed a safe distance behind it, balancing the needs/safety of the passengers, crew and ship against multiple factors ... and YES including the ship's schedule as well as probably a dozen factors none of us are qualified to evaluate. He is a licensed professional and I highly doubt the people on here giving their "opinion" are nearly as informed.

 

 

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I am just saying that the fear is very real for them. i empathize with them. and fear can be heightened d/t the lack of info.

we have all the facts now, but they didn't. i cannot fault someone for how they acted based on how little info they had.

I don't think anyone should make light of someone else's trauma. You do not know what people went through, sitting behind a keyboard bashing someone because they were scared makes you a bully. I've seen a lot of the videos and I would not want to get on that ship after seeing that. What about the mold that is now growing because there's no way that much water can be dried in a day. Heading into warmer climates where it will just multiply? What about all the vomiting that occurred? It's good to have an opinion, but to bash people because of what they (not you) went through is not classy. Imagine being on there with your kids and they're scared... are you going to bully them too! The world is becoming a scary place where everyone can sit anonymously behind a screen and say whatever they want. And now I'll wait for y'all to start bashing me. Whatever!

agreed with everything you said.

ppl here are vicious

this is why i prefer inside cabins.

Ppl scoff and look down on inside cruisers, but i am always concerned of water flooding my stateroom. doors are only plastic, rubber, and glass, which degrades and doesn't do much against big waves and strong winds.