CruiseMates Cruise Bargains

by Paul Motter

Life at Sea
Life happens at sea. With well over 12 million individuals taking a cruise every year, it is silly and impudent to believe nothing bad could ever happen on a cruise ship. They are the world's largest transportation vessels, some of them three football fileds long and twenty stories tall. Everyone onboard has a unique experience, and brings their own personalities along for the ride to affects how they perceive everything and also the cruises of other people.

The last two weeks we had two different ships hitting piers while attempting to dock, the Queen Victoria in Malta and the Norwegian Sky in Manhattan. As I report the news, I see all of these incidents. In reality, the sheer size of the ships makes them events, and the infrequency of occurence makes them somehow newsworthy, but in reality they are little more than large scale fender benders. No one is hurt; the vessel is dented but not disabled; repairs are executed very quickly.

Just last night another NCL ship, Norwegian Majesty, rescued three sailors floudering in a sea storm about to sink their 24-foot sailboat. They had been pushed farther and farther out to sea until they ran out of gas. They had to abandon the boat but spent last night eating lobster on their way to Bermuda.

We had two cases of people gone missing from cruise ships in the last two months. In both cases the last word has been "the FBI is still investigating." In both cases the FBI stated they have found no evidence of foul play. In the second case, the boyfriend says his girlfriend was "clowning around" tryong to cross over a balcony railing to another cabin when she lost her grip. Neither person was found and searches at sea were eventually called off.

What really happens in these cases? As long as any case remains open it isn't prudent for the cruise line to comment. Ships do have extremely safe barriers, however, and accidental slips do not happen; no child has ever fallen from a cruise ship, for example. There has never been a proven case of someone being accosted and tossed overboard from a cruise ship, but obviously grownups have gone overboard, and in a few rare cases foul play seems likely.

Naturally, these are tough situations for the friends and family members. We all sympathize, but keep in mind some 12,000,000 people cruise every year, and considering a population of that size the crime rate on ships is extremely low. Accidents happen, and sometimes people do bad things. often-times they do very good things as well. That's life, at sea.

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