Cruise ship Costa Allegra adrift off Seychelles

[Cheryl]

I went on a Carnival Cruise a few years ago. I think the ship was Freedom or some ****. It was by far the worst trip I've ever been on. I hate boats, like don't want to get on, don't want to go near the water just not my idea of fun. We hit rough seas about the 3rd night in, I threw up the entire time and for about the following day.

I won't be sailing after this.

I'm surprised you felt the rough seas on a ship of that size. May I ask where you were?

gonna be honest i was never really a boat person before but all these horror stories of recent times are making me want to avoid boats forever.

This is the exact view that the cruise companies need to change. I don't know how many ships there are owned by the major companies, at least 1000 with over 1000 passengers I would expect, therefore the odd incident is likely, but they are the ones that are going to impact on people's perception. I believe it's very much a fear of the unknown.

In my opinion cruises are the best way to see the sights of the world and to travel safely (not sure on figures, but I feel safer on cruise ships than planes and in many journeys cars)
Also the fact that a ship can have a fire and still be completely safe should be reassuring for people without cruising experience? Imagine a fire on a plane or even something like the London underground. Is that not how people see it?

[Chippiewill]

but I feel safer on cruise ships than planes and in many journeys cars

I believe it goes:

1) Planes
2) Cruise Ship
3) Car

Planes are actually incredibly safe.

[Cheryl]

I believe it goes:

1) Planes
2) Cruise Ship
3) Car

Planes are actually incredibly safe.

Im sure that's the way it goes in terms of crashes/journeys. How do people perceive the safety though, I'm sure most people feel safer in cars don't they, I was just wondering hitch way round people would perceive cruising and flying

[Chippiewill]

Most people assume cars to be the safest but they have a terrible safety record in comparison. Most people are scared of planes due to the bad press they get due to the high causality numbers in the rare event that a crash does happen, due to the high training of pilots they're pretty safe. Cars are normally only unsafe because of driver error e.g. Speeding, maintaining too small a space between vehicles, using mobile phone etc.

I reckon most would assume cruise ships to be pretty safe (Safer than flying in any case) because not much happens to them, problem is they tend to carry several thousand people so if something were to happen it could result in many casualties.

[Cheryl]

Indeed, but as with the bad press the Concordia got and the issues with the captain etc, I would assume people are more wary of cruise ships at the momentas there hasn't really been many plane crashes (in the news) recently.

[Chippiewill]

Well most people understand them as exceptional circumstances:

a) Stupid, reckless Sea captain who got away with it due to negligence of the company
b) Engine failure is freak coincidence
c) Only Costa will take on an image of "unsafe"

If anything this has made cruise ships safer as captains won't take as many risks.

[Cheryl]

They're all fair points.
Do you think the image of Carnival will take a hit due to the Costa incidents?
Indeed, the Concordia incident was such a failing in safety. If (as the Captain said) the rock formation it ran aground on wasn't on their maps, why weren't they, did they have outdated maps or was it a failing in the mapping? If it was unknown why did they take that route, that they claimed they had taken before to do the sail by?