[Travelandtourism] Costa Cruises Updates blaming or making excuses

[Peter Donahue]

Good morning Cheryl and everyone,

    For my money both the captain and the company are to blame. It's the 
company's responsibility to train all crew members in all aspects of 
ship-board responsibilities including how to handle emergencies at sea. 
Likewise the captain was in the wrong for blatantly allowing the ship's 
course to be altered without a valid reason such as to avoid hazards and 
rough waters and abandoning ship after the accident occurred. I hope both 
Costa and the captain of that ship face charges and are punished for their 
failures that resulted in this accident. JMO.

Peter Donahue


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cheryl echevarria" <cherylandmaxx at hotmail.com>
To: "travelandtourism" <travelandtourism at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 8:08 AM
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Costa Cruises Updates blaming or making excuses



Just an FYI to all, I am testing other blog sites, and if you are 
interested, we have a blog on
http://echevarriatravel.blogspot.com/ as well as us having the one at 
wordpress that is in my signature.
For a company who owns some of the world biggest names in the cruise line 
industry, from Holland America, Princess, Cunard (which is also in Europe 
the White Star Lines), are certainly making excuses for themselves.
Again, these are my own thoughts on the subject, and again, I will write why 
this is not all the captain's fault, and why you should not be afraid to 
cruise, I am still cruising, and probably always will, once you go you get 
addicted.
Anyway, if you haven't heard the updates, Costa Cruises, is announcing in a 
press briefing yesterday that it believes the captain of the wrecked "Costa 
Concordia" changed course from the ship's authorized route to sail closer to 
the Italian island of Giglio and greet local residents. Six people died in 
the accident, with 12 to 29 others still missing.
Again, this was a fluke in what happened.
But they are blaming the captain, and I say blame the company!!!
Why you may ask?
Well I will tell you why!!
Everyone from the dishwasher to the waiters, etc, should know the drills for 
the lifeboats (called the Muster Drills).  It seems even though that the 
captains and the officers abandoned ship instead of staying behind, 
(COWARDS!), to help everyone.  Left their staff in the lerch no one seemed 
to know anything, and was afraid to do anything without the guidance of the 
captain and the crew, can't blame them really, they didn't know themselves 
until others told them that they left the ship and that the staff was on 
there own.
God bless the ones that stayed behind and helped.
FYI, for anyone who is cruising or wants to cruise in the future.  Make sure 
you once you are on the boat, that the Muster Drill happens within 24 hours 
of sailing, I love NCL because they do this prior to sailing, before the 
ship even leaves the dock, you learn where your life jackets are and where 
you meeting station is.
For people who are blind, once you enter your room, your staff and the 
access department will show you where the life jackets are and what deck you 
are assigned to for the muster drill.
Also every ship will have enough life boats for passengers and crew.  On 
this ship, they did have them but because the ship was on it's side, many of 
the boats were not attached to the ship.
The cruise lines also are implementing doing another drill again, during 
rough waters, so that you know what will happen during this time, it is easy 
to do this when the ship is in port and during calm seas, but it should be 
done again while at sea as well.
Make sure you ask your travel agent, when does the Muster Drill happen on my 
cruise, and if they don't know they will find out for you.
Now my point on this is, they are doing a lot of the blame on the captain 
and his crew, and yes they did what they did, but the company needs to take 
the blame of lousy training of the staff.
When I have cruised in the past, all member of the staff are on deck to 
assist and to guide passengers in the Muster Drill.  There is no excuse why 
this should have happened.
Again, Just my own opinion.

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com

For daily updates read our blog at
http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com
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