"Later I learned the protracted silences weren’t due to any sweep of the ship to get all passenger

This week I ran across a really fairfield inn santa clarita interesting article by Karen Wormald who is an award-winning business writer and author, as well as a contributing editor to PC Solutions. Her work has appeared in many publications including, interesting enough, Cruise Travel.
Ms. Wormald had some very critical observations about the muster drills during a Carnival cruise she went on after the Costa Concordia disaster. Her article is below and is worth reading a time or two. The intriguing thing about Ms. Wormald is that, certainly compared to me, she is a fan of cruising and is sympathetic of the cruise lines which have faced bad press this year, writing:
. . . in reality, cruising is FAR safer than virtually any land-based fairfield inn santa clarita vacation. But every time there s an incident on a ship, the media goes into a frenzy. People get norovirus fairfield inn santa clarita and food poisoning every day in a LOT of places we never hear about.
Costa Concordia certainly deserved all the bad press it got, but something like 13 million fairfield inn santa clarita Americans cruise every year and experience only a tiny fraction of the crime and injury experienced by people on land . . .
Read her article fairfield inn santa clarita about the life boat drill aboard the Carnival Glory , Carnival Still in Denial on Passenger Safety , and ask yourself whether Carnival is ready for the next Concordia type of disaster? Ms. Wormald was nice enough to let me re-print her article:
After Costa Concordia capsized in January, exposing slipshod safety practices that contributed to 32 fatalities, you d think Costa s parent, Carnival Corp., would be fanatical about safety now. Especially on Carnival line ships, whose Italian captains must overcome the shame of Concordia s incompetent master, Francesco Schettino.
My cabin TV welcomed me with a safety video on endless loop, with Captain [Italian fairfield inn santa clarita Name] delivering the intro and closing. I must have heard a dozen times to look for crew members wearing green fluorescent caps in an emergency.
This 952-ft. ship was divided into only 8 muster stations, 4 on each side, leaving wide open expanses with no signs (screw the near-sighted). Nobody knew where to go. At 4:40, a few young crewmen in orange vests (not green caps) began straggling in and herding us.
The drill/lecture was conducted from the bridge not by the captain, but by a young English-speaker. (Nor did the captain verbally preside over the 3 crew drills fairfield inn santa clarita they presumably fairfield inn santa clarita had during that voyage. I assume his Italian accent is considered a problem.)
The bridge voice kept saying drill attendance and our complete silence were mandatory. Then he d go silent for so long, it seemed he d forgotten us. In the meantime, we were just standing in silence, being told nothing on Deck 4.
Later I learned the protracted silences weren t due to any sweep of the ship to get all passengers to the drill; I met a couple who stayed in their cabin. Nor was roll taken at muster stations to verify our presence. I ve seen both procedures on other ships.
We didn t wear life jackets, nor did anyone learn how to don and tie one because the crewman who demonstrated was standing in a dark area in the bow and made no effort to be seen. Lockers of life jackets lined the deck (locked, presumably, and I imagine rotsa ruck finding anybody with a key), but we were told to return to our cabins for our jackets in a pinch because that worked so well for the obedient Concordia passengers whose corpses were found underwater in theirs.
Interesting article about the Norovirus being caused by bad food and bad water. Every norovirus outbreak I've seen on my 28 + cruises fairfield inn santa clarita has been because passengers brought it onboard with them. Thereby contaminating the ship and anything they touch. As far as life boat drills, my hats off to the crew for trying to get a bunch of inebriated fairfield inn santa clarita self entitled individuals to grow up for 15 minutes and shut up. Don't know how many times I've stood on the deck with other passengers drinking, talking, shouting etc so why don't some of these folks take personal fairfield inn santa clarita responsibility for their safety and shut up? As for the able bodied comment some people may appear able bodied but aren't. fairfield inn santa clarita My wife is an example fairfield inn santa clarita she's legally blind and can't do the stairs for obvious reasons. Maybe if some people stopped and thought about it for a bit that not all handicaps are physical or require a wheelchair. Nevermind the fact that a wheelchair can't fight the crowds in the elevators and on the stairs even.
Jim, given your profession, it's understandable you'd want to promote the fallacy that cruising is life-threatening. I'm a veteran of 37 cruises (23 on the SS Norway - surely you're familiar with that protracted legal saga and longstanding, unconscionable behavior by her owners that led to crew deaths and the ship's ultimate demise), and I've sailed on 5 other mass-market fairfield inn santa clarita lines.
Agreed, horrific things happen on ships. However, in many cases of illness, injury, or death, passengers themselves often bear at least some responsibility. I cite the Hagel disappearance as an example.
But I don't defend the cruise lines. I've seen more behind the scenes than a typical passenger; I was once essentially thrown to the dogs by a cruise line during discovery in an EPA investigation. They're good corporate citizens only to the extent fairfield inn santa clarita of what they can't conceal.
However, the statistics don't lie. You're safer on almost any cruise ship than on land because so many typical hazards don't exist. Just read a newspaper. When was the last cruise ship mass shooting? How many deaths from auto accidents on ships? Fires? Bombings? Terrorist attacks? The numbers simply aren't there.
Some interesting thoughts, fairfield inn santa clarita but it seems Ms. Wormald was looking for some kind of sensationalist story and is being rather over-dramatic about a lot of things. I see an awful lot of "I assume" and "I suppose" in there and not a lot of factual info.
"My cabin TV welcomed fairfield inn santa clarita me with a safety video on endless loop, with Captain [Italian Name] delivering the intro and closing. I must have heard a dozen times to look for crew members wearing green fluorescent caps in an emergency."
Yes, and...? Most people need information repeated to them several times. That's not an indictment of their attention spans, it's just human nature for something most people aren't really interested in, but need to know. I don't see why this is anything worth noting.
This indeed shouldn't happen. However, evacuation personnel fairfield inn santa clarita are also instructed to accommodate guests with disabilities as best as they can, and if a passenger informs them that they can't navigate the stairs, the elevator is allowed. fairfield inn santa clarita (If a passenger fairfield inn santa clarita is lying, that's on their conscience.) Not all disabilities are immediately visible to the naked eye. Also, on most ships, even if the main power is knocked out, the back-up generator has enough power to keep at least one elevator in operation specifically for this purpose. Failing that, there are crewmembers trained to carry disabled guests to the lifeboats.
fairfield inn santa clarita How, exactly? It seems pretty fairfield inn santa clarita clear to me...stations A, C, E and G are to the right. These are standard-order emergency signs that pax will see on any cruise ship, not just Carnival. They are designed to be understandable to speakers of any language, and have a minimum of text so people don't waste time trying fairfield inn santa clarita to read them, delaying the evacuation.
"This 952-ft. ship was divided into only 8 muster stations, 4 on each side, leaving wide open expanses with no signs (screw the near-sighted). Nobody knew where to go. At 4:40, a few young crewmen in orange vests (not green caps) began straggling in and herding us."
Having been on the Glory, I know there are very large signs on the lifeboat deck, both overhead fairfield inn santa clarita and posted on the walls. As to the vest/caps inconsistency, it is a fair point...Carnival needs to update their safety video.
Ms. Wormald seems to be forgetting about the existence of life RAFTS onboard the ship, by which the majority of the crew are evacuated. Each one typically holds 25 people, meaning, for about 1000 crew (some crew, like medical and evacuation personnel, leave via the lifeboats with the guests), there are a total of 40 rafts onboard. So the actual fairfield inn santa clarita number of people in her station would have been much closer to 400.
"The drill/lecture was conducted from the bridge not by the captain, but by a young English-speaker. (Nor did the captain verbally preside over the 3 crew drills they presumably had during that voyage. I assume his Italian accent is considered a problem.)"
This would likely be the Cruise Director, or in rare cases the Assistant fairfield inn santa clarita Cruise Director (if the CD is sick, etc.). fairfield inn santa clarita Again, I fail to see why this is a problem, and as Ms. Wormald even noted, is actually a BENEFIT to the pax since they don't have to decipher instructions through a heavy accent. The Cruise Director reads the safety information from the bridge, with the captain standing nearby in case he needs to relay any further info beyond what is in the prepared script.
Mistakes happen. Perhaps it was a new officer. A lot goes on behind the scenes on a ship that guests don't see...if the officer was simply inattentive or incompetent, it's very likely he was later reprimanded fairfield inn santa clarita and/or retrained.
"The bridge voice kept saying drill attendance fairfield inn santa clarita and our complete silence were mandatory. Then he’d go silent for so long, it seemed he’d forgotten us. In the meantime, we were just standing in silence, being told nothing on Deck 4."
Again, a lot happens behind the scenes. In a real emergency, the captain and crew must perform several procedures to assess the situation...pax fairfield inn santa clarita could be out there for a while. Frustrating, I agree, but necessary.
"Later fairfield inn santa clarita I learned the protracted silences weren’t due to any sweep of the ship to get all passengers to the drill; I met a couple who stayed in their cabin. Nor was roll taken at muster stations fairfield inn santa clarita to verify our presence. I’ve seen both procedures on other ships."
There are crew (mostly stateroom stewards) whose purpose during an emergency is to personally check every stateroom to make sure it is