NCL/Breakaway Security - letter following awful incident - opinions please

[Paul S]

Playing a bit of Devil's advocate here, but you don't know what kicked it all off, whether it was out of character and triggered by some exceptional circumstance, whether there were apologies to NCL, etc. The cash might have been handed to security for safe-keeping (maybe that was what the argument was about?). If NCL didn't throw them off or lock them up then presumably the explanation was accepted by NCL.

 

I wasn't there so am not in a position to comment upon the seriousness of the incident, and whether your reaction to it was in line, but regardless I can appreciate and see it was very distressing for you.

 

As others have said, the key issue now is the speed of the response from security and whether that was appropriate.

[luvtheships]

Playing a bit of Devil's advocate here, but you don't know what kicked it all off, whether it was out of character and triggered by some exceptional circumstance, whether there were apologies to NCL, etc. The cash might have been handed to security for safe-keeping (maybe that was what the argument was about?). If NCL didn't throw them off or lock them up then presumably the explanation was accepted by NCL.

 

I wasn't there so am not in a position to comment upon the seriousness of the incident, and whether your reaction to it was in line, but regardless I can appreciate and see it was very distressing for you.

 

As others have said, the key issue now is the speed of the response from security and whether that was appropriate.

 

 

 

Who would ever hand over cash to a security officer in the hallway?

 

If you want to keep your cash safely in a place other than the room safe then you make arrangements with guest services/purser etc and hand it over in an official manner

 

IMHO this op is overreacting and who really knows what happened but if the female pax did indeed hand over cash to the security personnel I highly doubt it was for safekeeping

 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that whatever this transaction was for it was not run of the mill

 

Now IMHO that is something NCL should be very very interesting in knowing about

 

 

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[Paul S]

Who would ever hand over cash to a security officer in the hallway?

 

If you want to keep your cash safely in a place other than the room safe then you make arrangements with guest services/purser etc and hand it over in an official manner

 

We don't know the circumstances, but if there was a fight over money which had been in the room safe you are not going to have an opportunity to strioll down to the purser, you do what you have to do. Anyway, this is all conjecture, we only know what the OP has told us, and whilst I have no doubt she told it as she honestly believed she saw it, there are always two sides, and sometimes more, to every story.

 

There used to be an advert on UK television for a national newspaper which showed what appeared to be a hooligan running after an elderly woman, then the camera pulls back and you see he is about to push her out of the way from something falling from above. The moral is that things aren't always what they seem to be.

[S&S Cruisers 1983]

We have called security twice on NCL cruises. Once for a huge fight in a cabin a couple of doors down from us. It was two men fighting. You could hear them yelling, hitting the walls, furniture being thrown and glass breaking. It took what felt like forever for security to get there. The two men were handcuffed and taken away. The cabin was totally trashed. The second time was when I was standing on my balcony and I could see down to the promenade deck and there was a guy that would smoke a pipe and then dumping the pipe burning ashes over the side of the ship. Each time I reported it and they asked me to try to call them when I see it again and they would send someone up. When it was like the third time I saw him doing this I called security and ask them to come up. I also told them that I took a video of him doing it. This is when I started wondering if they actually even tell security what is going on and what they are responding to. That poor security guard came running to our cabin and was ready to tackle my husband. He thought he had assaulted me or something I guess. Maybe the cruise line should inform them better of what urgency is needed for response.

[Cherries Jubilee]

I disagree with the people in this post who are making excuses for NCL's response time. Had either one of those passengers become injured NCL would have had quite a scandal on their hands.

 

I do however think that the response time is probably the only basis for your letter. They aren't going to monitor people's alcohol consumption because some people are rude and crazy. They didn't feel it was necessary to offer you any compensation on the cruise so they probably won't now either. They kind of did all they could for you when they switched out your room. They could obviously do more for the safety of passengers engaged in what is described as dangerous behavior though. I agree that your complaint is quite long and should include less of the emotion you feel and more of the details of what you actually heard. I do think that just the woman screaming alone should have triggered a more urgent response for security if in fact we are thinking of the same kinds of screams.

 

I had a couple have a VERY loud angry argument complete with what I guessed to be the man hitting the dresser/desk/wall in the room next door to me in the middle of the night. Their argument lasted a couple of hours. I didn't bother to call security despite my sleep being disrupted because it sounded like a "normal" drunk loud couple arguing and I didn't feel like anyone was in danger of getting physically hurt. If I had felt otherwise I would be angry and disappointed if security had taken forever to arrive.

 

In fact, as a woman who knows that NCL caters to solos I'm disappointed to hear that it took them so long to respond to this situation or to hear about the story above where the wife was being beaten. None of these stories make the idea of hopping on a ship alone sound safe. I'm sure the people who do that think security is fast and reliable.

[Budget Queen]

Also agree way too long and full of nonfacts. Also an element of over reaction. Really, fear for your life? You did the right thing by staying in your room and reporting it. You were moved, resulting in you having no further incident.

 

What specifically do you expect from writing this letter? Are you looking for some kind of compensation? (Which slants the whole narrative). You seem to have made a point of keeping track of them later, which is "interesting"???

 

A cruise is specific to that particular demographics. I've always mentioned, to my companions that I think, at least 5% of the passengers are felons. :)

[sanger727]

I can’t speak to this from a security perspective, but I can speak to it from a policing perspective. This call would be considered a ‘domestic violence’ in how it is treated. Domestic violence calls are by far the most dangerous situation an officer can be dispatched it. Officers who are well trained and equipped with several weapons still have strict policies to follow due to the danger - such as they never go in solo. If only one officer is available they will not respond until they have backup, even if it means the situation continues. To understand this you have to keep in mind that at the end of the day they are both adults that have gotten themselves into the situation they are in. Yes, we want to help, but these things are repetitive in nature. Almost certainly this has happened before with them and will happen again if they stay together.

 

Security guards are not highly trained or well equipped with weapons. Yet they are being thrust into the same dangerous situation. They undoubtedly have protocols to follow that you may be unaware of; and it’s entirely possible that waiting a bit for the situation to calm down is one of them. I understand that it’s upsetting to you but just trying to give a bit of perspective. These situations are dangerous to the person who attempts to intervene, not to the neighbor calling it in. This is not an ‘emergency’ the way someone being assaulted by a stranger or someone with a severe injury would be. So safety is more important than speed. The only person in danger from a slow response are the two people who put themselves there. And from a decade of responding to runs like this I can tell you that she is just as likely to turn on the officers that try to separate them and you can’t make any lasting difference if neither party wants out.

 

As far the response to you; you were in no danger. This is certainly a strong annoyance to being woken up in the middle of the night by this and it was nice that they were able to move you. If sending the letter brings you closure, then do it. But I wouldn’t send it expecting a response.

 

 

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