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Costa Concordia - I survived

mickey_d_mouse

By mickey_d_mouse,
in Costa Cruises

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jolyroger

jolyroger

Posted
Posted

Michelle, after all that you and your family have been through, thank you for taking the time to fill us in on what happened. Know that you have an extended family as well here on Cruise Critic...Take care and hopefully you get home soon.

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Host Star

Host Star

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thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts on CC... we wish you a safe home..

 

just a thought here... all cruise ships practice emergency drills.. however, these drills are all praticed in the best of conditions.. now we know what hapens in a real emergency.

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Russell in MD

Russell in MD

Posted
Posted

Michelle thank you so much with taking the time to share your experience and as all the rest have added I am so glad you are safe and will be home shortly.

 

Ive been following this since I heard of it and I have believed that the story of chaos was something the media had sensationalized to some degree to sell the news. After you first hand account it saddens and concerns me. As seasoned cruisers we all have seen the drills the crews do while we are in ports etc. to prepare for emergencies and to see how this was executed is quite shocking.

 

But my message is, that we can all learn a lot from this kind of tragedy. We all need to have an emergency plan. Where are we going to meet? At our cabin or at our muster station? We need to have "virtual copies" of our passports, but we also need to have our credit card numbers in case you need to buy a plane ticket. Have a small backpack with a flashlight and first aid kit ready at your cabin closet.

 

I am the prepared type and thinking this type of thing out will be on my to do list between now and when we sail in a couple weeks. I always pay attention at the muster drill unlike most others. I always travel with some small stuff in case of emergencies but it has not been anything dedicated or thought out. I will be putting together a very small kit for myself and the wife (cash, passport photo copy, flashlight etc). Very minimal in a grab-and-go water tight container like you would take to the beach or something. As has been proven here in this instance and in the past everyone needs to take some minor level of preparedness to take care of yourself because relying on someone else is just not a good idea.

 

Best wishes and a safe journey home Michelle.

 

R

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nbsjcruiser Great Review Rare

nbsjcruiser

Posted
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Thank you Michelle for sharing your story. One can not imagine the fear that you and your daughter went through and the other passengers.

 

The management of Costa and Carnival need to hang their heads in shame, what a disgrace. Do Costa think it is okay to dump you at a hotel and forget about you? Thank goodness the Australian embassy has helped you out.

 

Wishing you and your daughter a very safe trip home to Australia.

 

Indeed. Have a safe trip home and shame on Costa/Carnival. Somewhere I get the feeling that they're in a board room somewhere with a herd of lawyers playing CYA instead of helping their stranded and injured passengers. Disgraceful.

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Cruisesquatch

Cruisesquatch

Posted
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Glad you're safe and I hope you can get home soon. Thanks for sharing your experience, it has really shed some light on the incident for me. Not to be redundant but it was VERY similar to the TITANIC, as far as situational response.

Just goes to show us that when the poop hits the fan, its every man for themselves and procedures be damned. Terrible...

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Zeno

Zeno

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Michelle:

 

Thx for taking the time to share your dreadful experience with us. I hope you will be on your way home very soon. All the best to you and your daughter - after this - you REALLY deserve it. I wish I could give you and her a big hug.

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Wildcatllamas Holiday Sharing Rare

Wildcatllamas

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Michelle may you and your family be blessed with a safe and uneventful journey home. Thank you for sharing and make many of us aware of what was going on. May all who survived make it home safely as well. May the families who lost loved ones find solace.

 

My family and friends depart next Sunday and there is a new kit going into our luggage. It will travel with us from now on.

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Lyncruiser

Lyncruiser

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Sounds like a safety drill would have been useless. People couldn't get to their muster stations, the crew told people not to get in lifeboats, then after people insisted on boarding lifeboats anyway, the crew had trouble lowering lifeboats. There are reports of waiters in charge of lifeboats who had no idea how to operate or steer them and were crashing into the other lifeboats. Sounds like all the safety drill stuff meant nothing (as is usually the case in a catastrophe).

 

I cannot imagine the sheer terror people must have felt, with the ship listing in the pitch black, and announcements that it is merely an electrical problem when they can feel the ship sinking. When your cabin windows are now the floor of your cabin, and you can't see a thing and everyone is screaming and crying and no one, including the crew, has any idea what to do, and people are jumping into the sea and swimming for the island, and people are trying to climb against the power of gravity to get to a deck where there are lifeboats, I think the horror must be unimaginable.

 

I am so sorry for the passengers and crew. I hope those missing will be found alive.

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ltalessi

ltalessi

Posted
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thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts on CC... we wish you a safe home..

 

just a thought here... all cruise ships practice emergency drills.. however, these drills are all praticed in the best of conditions.. now we know what hapens in a real emergency.

 

I agree. I have been on three cruises. I know I barely paid attention. Many people did not go, pay attention or listen. There is/was approximately 1000 cremembers for 4000 passengers. So if you assume that 1/4 (250) of those cremembers are fluent in the majority passenger language, and of those 250 how many are 100% certified to abandon ship?

 

Before you cry 'foul' look it like this. How many of the 4000 made any effort to make themselves responsible for their own safety? Im willing to bet on the cruises I went on at least 1/2 of the passengers paid any attention to the life jacket drill. So 2000 people, would need little to no help, getting life jackets. The boats? Who knows.

 

You end up with 2000 people being totally helpless hoping to find 250 totally squared away employees.

 

I base this on my experience as a former marine, former police officer, current husband and father.

 

My children can't find their clothes for school every morning. Let a tree fall in their room in a storm and all bets are off. And they have lived here for 11 years and know where everything is.

 

To the OP, I am glad you are ok and I hope you and those that read your story can take something from this and keep the lessons learned.

 

We are all creatures of habit. We need to make a habit out of preparing for accidents.

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