Sudden thoughts? (a strange question I know!)

[it wont be long]

Following the recent Costa tragedy i m having a difficult time persuading my parents to cruise with my husband ,children and I. We have always cruised together and always had a ball. Since the tragedy my parents say that they would t want to spoil it for us as they feel their fearful thoughts would be too intrusive. I reassured them that we all have these thoughts from time to time but go anyway. It got me thinking....does anyone else get these random fearful thoughts when they re cruising ? If so ...when? Last cruise only time i had them was when our younger son slept in with his grandparents at their cabin and it suddenly didn't feel good that he was 2 corridors away. What do you do to overcome them? I'm interested anyway but may well show the thread to my mom to reassure her that most of us have these thoughts but we don t allow them to take root!! Thanks in advance.

[marci22]

My mother was a maniac about not getting on a ship and being surrounded by water. She finally went to Alaska, recently, and had a great time. Honestly, I didn't think she would, the way she was talking beforehand :rolleyes:

[ksuds]

Sorry, don't have those thoughts. If you obsess about all the possible things that could happen to you on a daily basis, you'll drive yourselft crazy.

 

I'd be more worried about driving down the road and getting in an accident. Your odds are much higher than a cruise ship disaster.

[mikemike404]

I sometimes become nervous that the ship will run out of beer. Other then that nope :D.

[cb at sea]

Nope...not really! Since both your AND your parents have them, perhaps there's a genetic proclivity to fearfulness! If they don't want to go, I certainly wouldn't try to force them. Perhaps they could keep your kids while you and your honey could have a nice "get reaquainted" cruise!

 

And do point out that this Costa thing was NOT a random "accident"....it was a human's disregard for safety that caused this. And, that particular captain had had mishaps before.....RCI has had NOTHING like that happen with any of their captains!

[it wont be long]

LOL!!! That really made me laugh Mikemike!!!

[jillyfish]

Our son is usually not interested in the kids center and I am ok with that.

I can't imagine something happening and him being there by himself and us somewhere else on the ship.

 

but ksuds is right......anything you do has risks. It's more likely you could get into a car accident but that doesn't stop you from putting the key in the ignition and taking the car out.

[johneeo]

I sometimes become nervous that the ship will run out of beer. Other then that nope :D.

 

OMG, thought never crossed my mind.:eek:

 

I have thought that the ship could hit an iceberg, sink, and we would all die.

 

Then I have a couple of beers, the feelings pass, and all is good.

[Sea Hag]

I sometimes become nervous that the ship will run out of beer. Other then that nope :D.

 

Even worse than that - we were on a ship that was out of bacon for two days. Oh, the horror of it! :D

[wolfcathorse]

Remind your parents of RCI's motto "safety first" and that RCI already follows procedures that exceed the SOLAS requirements. Then remind them they still get in a car, or fly in a plane and those have crashes too. I think more people are killed in a car wreck daily than killed on a cruise ship in the last 10 years.

[bigque]

NOPE! I read about it and see it on the news, but I don't even think about past that!

[newsier]

Remind your parents of RCI's motto "safety first" and that RCI already follows procedures that exceed the SOLAS requirements. Then remind them they still get in a car, or fly in a plane and those have crashes too. I think more people are killed in a car wreck daily than killed on a cruise ship in the last 10 years.

 

One time as I was on a final approach coming or going somewhere, and the pilot came on and gave us the usual "Thanks for flyin' with us.........." routine, this pilot started it by saying, "Now that the safest part of your trip is over........"

 

How true - as driving is very dangerous, you always have to watchout for the other guy!

 

I know some people still in this day and age that will not fly!!

 

Good luck with your parents, not sure how much this thread is helping.

 

g

[wwcruisers]

Never afraid to cruise -- wish I could say that about flying. Probably comes down to the fact that I can swim, but last time I checked... I couldn't fly! ;) :eek:

[Motleu]

I sometimes become nervous that the ship will run out of beer. Other then that nope :D.

 

 

Took the words right our of my mouth!

[pcur]

I go more by statistics, too: my own and the industry's.

 

As mentioned above, cruising is a lot safer than other forms of transportation.

 

Personally, I've got 39 years with RCCL and never a problem. I've had almost 4 decades to observe their staff and policies. I really feel good about them.

 

However, after Concordia we are now packing a "ditch bag" with 3 days of meds, windbreaker jackets, a flashlight, and energy bars. We are also putting all our important stuff in a single ziplock bag in the safe that can be grabbed and put in the ditch bag. I won't hesitate to keep cruising, but I can be better prepared than in the past.

[BecciBoo]

Never enters my mind, even after the accident....let's see now, I figure there are at least 10 major cruise lines (there are really many more with small fleets) that have around 10 to 30 ships in their lines that sail each week. This has been happening like clockwork 24/7 for say 50 years or so. Heck the stats on ship arrivals for the Bahamas alone is 1.8 million a year!:eek: And how many accidents like the Costa have we had in that time???? Not worried Dude:cool: The odds are astronomicaly against anything happening.

 

Better advise your parents NOT to get into their vehicles!!!!!!!!!!!

[tsconley19]

.......

[Big_G]

Maybe they just don't want to cruise with you and your kids and they couldn't be honest about it. Could be they're more afraid of becoming on-board bay sitters than they are of running aground and sinking:D

 

PS: There is often truth in jest.

[telecruiser]

This is not something to be joked about. Running out of beer can be traumatic.

[Familygoboston]

All the funny stuff aside...( and it is funny; running out of beer:p) but it is the difference between a person having anxiety or not. The actual threat or not doesn't actually matter.

 

And while there are some folks who age and seem less inhibited and anxious (like the 80 yos I saw flow riding or climbing up rock walls in record speeds on RCL ships!) the normal process of aging includes a normal (and from an evolutionary point of view, probably pretty wise) increase in fear about " risk" and a narrowing of ones world and less taking chances.

 

OP, your parents are probably responding to the idea that they realize they can't " take care of themselves" in an emergency as well as they may have been able to when they were younger, and that discomfort makes it not as much fun, even if rationally they know the emergency is very unlikely to happen. Those pictures of older couples struggling to get off the ship with each other doesn't help!

 

I work with seniors, and having experienced this phenomena first hand is part of the reason my DH and I choose to take more adventurous trips now, (Galapagos snorkeling, and African safaris) while we are younger and plan to take relatively safer and shorter trips ( European capitals, American National Parks, and cruises!)

 

It's not even about how safe or not a particular trip is ( as was noted by the pilot!) but more about ones ability to continue to feel " comfortable " out of ones regular element.

 

Does that make any sense? Again, don't flame- there are plenty of seniors living on the edge till the end...but developmentally, thats not the usual course!

[north29]

Older people tend to watch tooooooo much media and how they blow so many things out of proportion, sorry not to say the Concordia was not a near Titanic disaster, and feel for the loss of life, but watching the news like that, with near irresponsible reporting, with not citing the safety record of the industry except in small doses, or in the wee hours of the morning, can make many people feel unsafe. My wife's family is like that, and would not want to cruise because, quote, pirates, earthquakes, accidents, people falling overboard just to name a few. I sometimes think that it is an excuse for not doing anything but we cannot control that.

The feeling must be wide spread especially for Costa, I just got a e-mail from a TA for a buy one balcony get one free for for a Transatlantic i March I think the price was about $1400 it also include air home from I think Rome and two post days.

If I was not already booked I would have jumped on it.

[freeruthie]

I always have these thoughts and then I dismiss them. My experience is that if I worry about something, however briefly, it never happens. It is the things that had never entered my mind that always happen.

My grandchildren (8 and 4 years)were worried about us after the Costa tragedy and insisted on getting their picture taken with us the night before we left on our cruise in February. The little one was a bit confused and wondered how they were going to get the boat out of the water so we could cruise on it.

[Catperson]

The thought of a fire on board does cross my mind but I don't obsess about it. However, I do freak out about flying; I hate flying and it practically ruins all my anticipation for my cruise!!!

[Happy ks]

I would never want to downplay the tragedy and fear of the people onboard the Concordia. I cannot imagine how they felt that night, days after and probably for years to come. I sympathize with all those families and friends of those who lost their lives. It will be remembered for many years to come.

 

But when you look at it realistically and statistically, it is such a rare occurance that it made world wide news. It's not likely to be repeated again for a long time...if ever. Not to say there won't be incidents occurring on a cruise ship, just like anywhere else in real life things happen. How many times do we read about Noro-virus? Every year it hits a few cruises. We hear about a handful of foolish people who drink and believe themselves to be invincible and climb over railings and fall to the sea. We hear an occasional crime committed at sea.

 

But, since these things happen on cruise ships so infrequently, the media plays it up making people think it is dangerous to cruise. And then they repeat and especially the next time an incident occurs, they bring back old stories that may have happened years ago.

 

Can you imagine if the media reported every murder, rape, stolen car, theft, car accident, etc...everywhere? We'd never leave our homes...except you have to remember there are sometimes home invasion robberies... My point is that the cruise industry is unfairly treated by the media, the reporting of cruise lines/ships can be innacurate and irresponsible.

 

I didn't give it a second thought when this Concordia tragedy happened to not cruise again. It will not stop us.

[smoosh21]

Even worse than that - we were on a ship that was out of bacon for two days. Oh, the horror of it! :D

 

 

We were all out of Limes one time, no Mojitos for 2 whole days.