Safety? Kinda freaking out right now...

[ToddlerMom]

Opened up my yahoo page this morning and the number one story is that cruise ship sinking in Italy and the headlines "Multiple Deaths". :eek: If it was just DH and I cruising I'd be less worried. We're healthy and can swim. But DD is only 2 years old. Totally helpless in a crises like that.

[6rugrats]

How many cruise ships sink each year? Not many; I can't remember the last time I read about one sinking (maybe a small one in Alaska?).

 

Almost everyone safely got off this ship. Do you hestitate to get in a car after you read about a car accident? You can't guarantee everything. You just prepare the best you can and move forward. You or your husband would take care of your daughter, just as you do when not on a cruise ship.

[imjoyful2]

This accident got me wondering, what type of life jackets do they have for infants? We've cruised with our kids before so I know what size they have but we leave soon and will also have our 6 month old along (who is about 10lbs). Obviously she's too little for the typical child size life vest.

[cb at sea]

Swimming isn't really going to help much, depending on how far from shore you are, and sea conditions!!! Even super athletic swimmers would have a hard time in colder, rough seas.

 

They DO have childsize lifejackets....if it's not in your cabin, ASK!!!

 

You are more likely to be killed or injured on your way to the grocery store than on your cruise. Go to the muster drill....listen...and what happens, happens!

[kitty9]

Cruise ships have what they call "infant cots" for babies and smaller toddlers.

 

Like someone said, this type of incident is rare, despite two happenings within 5 days. This whole Costa thing is terrible with panic being the main problem. From what I've read out of UK newspapers, there are still 60 or so people missing.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

There are lifejackets available for toddlers and infants. On our last cruise, our room steward noticed we had a toddler with us and immediately brought one to us for our cabin when she introduced herself during embarkation day. I also agree that this sort of unfortunate event is extremely rare & few, but shows that muster drills should be taken seriously.

[B_Mc]

It is scary when you imagine being in a crisis like that with your child. I wouldn't change your vacation plans though, just like I don't cancel flights every time a plane crashes or stop driving every time there is a car accident. Make sure you have the child sized life jacket and be aware of the emergency plans!

[Mom2B&Z]

Ditto to what everyone else has said. Airplanes crash, we still fly one or two times a year. Cruise ships have events (remember the Carnival ship last year that lost power after a fire?), yet they are still safer than the commute we make each day in our car.

Go on your trip, have a great time, and listen carefully to the muster drill!

[crusinmama06]

Yep, ditto what everyone else said. Yes, the images are disturbing. (VERY disturbing). But like everyone else said, 100's of cruises sailing daily - accidents don't occur often. When they do, yes they make the news. etc, etc, etc

 

If I was worried everytime a plane crash, a car crashed, a ship listed -- I would never leave my home.

 

And yes, the cabin attendants have always given us "child sized" and "infant sized" life vests.

[ToddlerMom]

I think what is most disturbing about this to me are the passengers' claims about how disorganized the evacuation was and how untrained the crew seemed to be. Also that they didn't do a muster drill on the first day so none of the passengers knew what to do. I thought that the cruiselines trained their staff about what to do in an emergency but maybe I'm naive. And I don't think we can say that things would be different in the US since none of the ships are really American ships. How can I know that the the crew on our ship will be any better trained if there was an emergency?

[chipmaster]

I'm sure more will come out as the investigation goes.

 

Every once in a rare moment planes fall out of the sky with graver consequences and we take pause and move on and continue flying.

 

This as terrible but is a rare event and its no "Titanic"

 

It would make me question Costa as a company, no different than some arilines with questionable safety records. For the larger lines there are selfish reasons that the management looks to avoid this.

 

Its a mystery how with modern technology such a ship could have such a stupid accident like this. Take a look at the attached picture, who'd have thought an accident as stupid as the Titanic in scope, its a wonder the ship stayed afloat that long.

 

Opened up my yahoo page this morning and the number one story is that cruise ship sinking in Italy and the headlines "Multiple Deaths". :eek: If it was just DH and I cruising I'd be less worried. We're healthy and can swim. But DD is only 2 years old. Totally helpless in a crises like that.

[lrowe70]

I too have been worried about our upcoming cruise with our 6 month old, and we're on the Splendor which is the sister ship to the Concordia.

[Trev]

Hasn't Costa historically been known as a "dodgy" cruise line? Legit question, and I'm really curious to hear what sort of opinions you guys had before this incident.

[Trev]

Also, I've been lurking for a very long time. So, hello everyone! (better late than never?) :D

[kelpster]

Cruise ships have what they call "infant cots" for babies and smaller toddlers.

 

Like someone said, this type of incident is rare, despite two happenings within 5 days. This whole Costa thing is terrible with panic being the main problem. From what I've read out of UK newspapers, there are still 60 or so people missing.

 

Two happenings? I know about the Costa accident; what was the other one, please?

 

Thanks,

 

Sue

[Iluvcruising2]

All of us can blame Costa now.

 

But, if this had happened to another major cruise line, would their response have been better?

 

We never know. And hopefully we never have to find out.

 

Hopefully the cruise industry can learn quickly from this episode, put in place new measures to improve safety, and we move on.

 

I still want to cruise, but probably won't ever cruise with Costa.

[Mom2B&Z]

Two happenings? I know about the Costa accident; what was the other one, please?

 

Thanks,

 

Sue

The other Costa specific incident involved this same ship hitting a pier on November 22, 2008. My souce is page A1/2 of today's Ottawa Citizen.

There have been a few instances where cruise ships hit the news, the one that I remember best is a year ago when the Carnival ship had a fire and had US (coastguard? millitary? Can't remember) airlifting food onto the ship. Those were some spectacular photos.

[chipmaster]

Honestly do we think a crew of 1000 trying to manage a crowd of 3000+ can manage an orderly evacuation. I will venture we practice our muster drill and everyone including the crew have and line management review and improve but no-one really thought this kind of thing could happen again with such huge damange and need for fast response and as such...I suspect for this kind of fast moving disaster with a larger crowd I doubt any other line and ships/crews would have been so prepared that confusion and panic wouldn't have insued :eek:

 

There will be huge learnings and new policies just like after 9/11.

 

All of us can blame Costa now.

 

But, if this had happened to another major cruise line, would their response have been better?

 

We never know. And hopefully we never have to find out.

 

Hopefully the cruise industry can learn quickly from this episode, put in place new measures to improve safety, and we move on.

 

I still want to cruise, but probably won't ever cruise with Costa.

[JMG680]

I understand your worry, but all in all as a healthy couple you will be fine, the hardest part is keeping your head during something like this, it is not like your little one will be alone. If it was an older kid and you would have large parts of the cruise apart that would be my worry, not having a plan on where to meet up. Have a plan for a meeting place on ship if there is time and a place off ship if something happens. We use a Police station, there is always one no matter where you will be, and if there are a few, the police and contact the other stations to help you meet up.

[kitty9]

Two happenings? I know about the Costa accident; what was the other one, please?

 

Thanks,

 

Sue

 

An MSC ship hit a sand bar near Freeport in the Bahamas this past week. It took them hours to get the ship off the bar.

[kitty9]

There were so many "problems" with this entire incident. First, for some reason, Costa/Carnival allows people to embark on this ship at four different ports, and thereby not having muster drills for many passengers. According to many reports, the Concordia has a muster drill every 15 days, which means many passengers never get to have a drill. Why Costa/Carnival has this kind of itinerary is beyond me, but I have the feeling that they will stop this in the future.

 

The captain and other bridge officers left the ship before everyone was off, as evidenced by the fact that they found one couple alive in their cabin and two elderly men were found, still wearing their life jackets, but floating near the dining room and not too far from their muster station. And knowing there are still about 30 missing, and probably still inside the ship somewhere, proves that the captain left the ship before he should have and will most likely cause his prosecution.

[kelpster]

An MSC ship hit a sand bar near Freeport in the Bahamas this past week. It took them hours to get the ship off the bar.

 

Oh. Thanks! I totally missed that one.

 

Sue

[scotte]

We're taking 5 of our kids (leaving the 18 month old home) on the Mariner in three weeks (first time for all of them), so I had to be careful to screen all of the news in the house the last few days . . . I can't imagine what kind of nightmares an image of a giant cruise ship on its side would cause for our kids :eek:.

 

The incident won't make me change any cruising plans, but it is a good wake-up call for me to make sure I'm aware of where all the kids are. We'll probably have more frequent check-ins, more whiteboard communication, and walkie-talkies as a result.

[reallyitsmema]

There were so many "problems" with this entire incident. First, for some reason, Costa/Carnival allows people to embark on this ship at four different ports, and thereby not having muster drills for many passengers. According to many reports, the Concordia has a muster drill every 15 days, which means many passengers never get to have a drill. Why Costa/Carnival has this kind of itinerary is beyond me, but I have the feeling that they will stop this in the future.

 

The captain and other bridge officers left the ship before everyone was off, as evidenced by the fact that they found one couple alive in their cabin and two elderly men were found, still wearing their life jackets, but floating near the dining room and not too far from their muster station. And knowing there are still about 30 missing, and probably still inside the ship somewhere, proves that the captain left the ship before he should have and will most likely cause his prosecution.

RCL is also doing multiple ports of embarkation on a few ships. It is not just a Costa/Carnival thing. Musters are scheduled within 24 hours of embarkation so people do end up participating in multiple musters.

[lmg1230]

We're taking 5 of our kids (leaving the 18 month old home) on the Mariner in three weeks (first time for all of them), so I had to be careful to screen all of the news in the house the last few days . . . I can't imagine what kind of nightmares an image of a giant cruise ship on its side would cause for our kids :eek:.

 

The incident won't make me change any cruising plans, but it is a good wake-up call for me to make sure I'm aware of where all the kids are. We'll probably have more frequent check-ins, more whiteboard communication, and walkie-talkies as a result.

 

 

We have cruised a number of times and will definitely cruise again. I had tried to shield my 8 year old from the news of this accident, however, she saw it on the front page of the Sunday paper yesterday afternoon. She was concerned and we ended up having a lengthy discussion about what had happened in this case. She also immediately jumped to the question of what if this happens when we are on a cruise. I reassured her that accidents like this are rare and that it would be highly unlikely for it to happen again. We also talked about the fact that there are car accidents every day but we don't stay home as a result and that we won't live our lives worrying about something bad happening or we'd never be able to do anything. She was reassured by that and hasn't mentioned it since. I'm not sure what age your kids are but if they do get wind of this accident prior to your cruise then I would just talk to them in a straightforward way about what happened - I think most kids just want reassurance that their parents aren't worried about getting on a ship and then they'll feel it's ok too.

 

Lisa