Ship disasters

[yarlenna]

You can do find LOTS of ship disasters. Think of the Princess ship that burned just a few years ago. How about the Norway? If you go back further, I remember the news of the Andrea Doria, Just before my time there was the Morro Castle, in full view of the New Jersey shore. Before then, The Lusitania helped the US get into a world war. Disasters come in air, sea and land. Yes, things will change. New laws and practices try to make travel one hundred percent safe. But NOTHING can be hundred percent safe. Yes, I will continue to cruise. I enjoy it. But the cruise lines of the world must try to do the impossible - to try to make cruising hundred percent safe

[jhale]

I agree with you 100%. These things do happen, unfortunately (and including today's incident ith the Allegra) it seems lately has just been very unlucky for the industry as a whole, beginning with the Spendor fire. To make things worse, the cowardly actions of some on the Concordia has also made people question those who do their jobs correctly on a daily basis. There is almost nothing in this world that is 100% risk free.

[BalconyBumz]

How about the robbery in PV on the bus with 22 cruise passengers this weekend? How about the crew member going overboard on one of the Carnival ships this weekend? All these things that keep happening are adding up in the media to give cruising a bad name. None of it is good. Obviously, I know these are far and few between and stuff happens, but even an avid cruiser like myself isn't even looking to book a cruise right now.

[Host Mick]

You're right. There are always been cruise ship accidents. The difference now is that they have the media's attention and the media will persue them giving the public the perception that everything is going to he-double-hockey sticks. After all, if it bleeds, it leads and the cruise industry is bleeding with the very high profile Concordia foundering.

 

Remember the Summer of the shark a few years back where it seemed that sharks were eating people at an alarming rate? Every shark attack got national attention because it was big news. That was the perception. The reality was that shark attacks were statistically normal that year but the media got the public excited and fed off of it.

 

The same thing with Hurricanes, three hit Florida in one year and it looked like Gia was on the rampage, global warming was going to kill us, etc. It's unfortunate that the media mostly failed to note that zero hurricanes landed in the U.S. for the next two years. It's the media driven public perception that drives the news, not the reality.

 

Unfortunately, the media is going to make big headlines out of every cruise accident or illness for the next year or so or until the Concordia is out of sight. We just have to ride it out and hope for some really awesome cruise deals.