There’s been a lot of bad press these days when it comes to Cruise Ships. In the past week there have been issues with Carnival Legend and Carnival Dream. A few weeks ago there was the Carnival Triumph….then of course there was the Costa Concordia disaster last year.
I’ve been getting questions almost daily from friends and family (many who have never cruised before) about whether it’s safe to cruise and if we would sail again. And although I prefer not to discuss negative matters and traumatic events like these I’m going to weigh in with my opinion. (I’m not going to discuss the tragedy of Costa Concordia as the matter is just too much for me to bear. Such a senseless loss of life…)
If you know me personally, or you’ve read my about page, you will know that I’ve been on more than 25 cruise vacations. Quite frankly, I’ve lost count its been that many. Hubby and I love it and to be truthful, if we can travel a destination via cruise ship – it will be our first mode of transportation.
Bad things happen sometimes
- You miss the bus going to work – You miss a cruise port due to rough seas.
- The subway you ride going to work has a malfunction and you are late to the office – The plane to Hawaii gets delayed.
- Your car gets a flat tire – A cruise ship loses it’s propulsion system.
- You misplace your keys – The plane loses your luggage.
You get my point….bad things can happen at home as well but because we are on vacation it gets magnified – we expect everything to be happy fun-time 24/7 and that doesn’t always happen. You just have to make the best out of things.
Don’t worry be happy
When I was following all the news coverage on the Carnival Triumph, I much preferred hearing about the stories where people pulled together to help one another and stayed positive versus the ones who spoke of how horrible it was, how they were mistreated by the crew and how people were hoarding food. There is just too much negative energy out there and it multiplies fast. Yes, I’m sure it was bad, I’m not saying it wasn’t, but did anyone die? Did anyone get hurt? It could have been much, much worse…
On our Holland America cruise this past December, we were waiting in line to check-in. When suddenly we heard loud screaming from a woman at another counter. She was screaming “I want my money back, this is unacceptable…”etc. After her rant, she grabbed her stuff and stormed up the gangway pushing past other passengers and got on the ship. Now, this is day 0 of a 7 day cruise and we haven’t even stepped on board the ship yet! I’m not sure what the issue was, especially given that we haven’t left the shore yet, but this woman just set her mind, body and soul into a bad mood that would surely last through her entire vacation.
When life gives you lemons
It all comes down to being prepared – both physically and mentally.
- Pay attention to the safety drills on the plane and the cruise ship.
- Have an escape route and know how to get to it from every location on the ship, hotel etc.
- Set a meeting place where all members of your party will go to in case of emergency.
- Plan for delays, factor in extra time just in case, have a back-up plan
- Pack some extra clothes in your carry-on
Most importantly, stay positive and upbeat and make some lemonade.
Will I go on a cruise ship again? Most definitely and I’m sure if you talk to the millions of other cruise passengers out there – they will too especially now that prices seemed to have dropped to encourage cruisers to come back. Check this article from Time Magazine’s Business & Money Section on Cruise sales in the wake of all this bad press.
Join the discussion but be kind…this is just my opinion and I mean no disrespect to those that were affected by these recent events.
For the most part, cruises are safe and fun modes of transport. Like anything, something unfortunate will always happen because, unfortunately, that is just the way life is. I like how you have addressed this. Thanks for posting.