Integrity First, Compassion, and Excellence in All We Do
Late last week, a 24-year-old man aboard the Anthem of the Seas took his own life when he jumped overboard. This is the second intentional overboard accident this month, raising concerns over the safety of cruise ships and the potential need for mental health counseling at sea.
When you set out on a cruise, the last thing you want is to have your journey end early because of the behavior of other passengers. However, this is exactly what happened on the P&O Pacific Explorer when a group of passengers got into a fight while waiting to use the bathrooms. Some believe over-consumption of alcohol may be to blame.
When Danielle and Brant Aymond embarked on their honeymoon to Honduras aboard the Norwegian Pearl, they had high hopes for what the journey would bring. Unfortunately, the trip became a painful nightmare, when Brant sliced open his foot on the coral reef and the cruise doctor sutured his foot–leaving pieces of the reef inside. Brant required emergency surgery to save his foot after the wound became infected. Now the couple is speaking out about the issue of insufficient standards for cruise medical professionals.
Unfortunately, death at sea is not as uncommon as you might hope. Although not the most common incident to take place aboard a cruise, the cases of cruise passengers falling to their death are growing in number. Late last week, a woman aboard the Carnival Elation fell two floors, from her 14th floor balcony to her death on the 11th floor deck below. Investigators were immediately called onto the scene, but the cause of her fall is still unknown.
When a storm is projected to interfere with a cruise line’s itinerary, most people would assume that the cruise line would re-route the ship in order to keep passengers and crewmembers out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, this was not the case with the Norwegian Breakaway, which spent two days sailing directly through winter storm Grayson. Conditions aboard the ship were dire, with many wondering if they would make it to dry land.
For most people, the idea of a mutiny is straight out of a pirate movie! However, late last month, a passenger aboard a Costa ship staged a very real mutiny at sea, when several ports of call were cancelled due to health concerns.
