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In this hour long program it discussed fire, sexual misconduct and medical treatment onboard ships. Unfortunately,I feel it left people with a rather bad view of the cruise industry. I only watched the last half hour of the show.
The Carnival ships mentioned may hire 'less than fully qualified' medical personnel but that is not the practice of British Ships or HAL.
I thought the show was great as it helped us to be more aware of some of the problems on cruises, as rare as they may be. These things cannot be ignored.
It's easy for the media to pick an easy target -- and there are few easier than cruise ships -- and take a pop at them.
If it's done with a legitimate purpose, like a recent British TV exposure of airline pilots drinking before flying, backed up by solid evidence, then fair enough.
But if it was just a "could do better" attack dwelling on what service the producers ideally want rather than what they actually got, then they can cause immense, lasting damage.
Tell me, did the programme give the cruise line an opportunity to reply?
Just because everything included in a news item is true, that doesn't mean that the reporting was fair. Cruise ships are part of the real world. Like everywhere else, bad things happen. But to take all the bad things that have happened in an industry over a period of years and report it in a single hour is not balanced reporting.
How does the incidence of these bad occurrences compare to their occurrence in the general population? How about other vacation industries? Are the reported incidences common or are they isolated? How many thousands (millions?)cruise without ever experiencing these negative occurrences? Without supplying this information, even factual reporting can amount to a lie.
My own impression, based on my own limited experience and my exposure to the memories of hundreds of personal (and cyber) friends is that cruise ships are safer than most other forms of vacation (holiday for the Aussie/Canadian/Brits out there).
James
[This message has been edited by jmperry1 (edited 10-25-2000).]
The positive side to this is that the cruise company held a full formal enquiry into it, inviting customers to write, or attend the event and have input. As a result of actually listening to people who were there and not trying to cover anything up the company made a lot of very positive changes to their procedures.
Accidents can happen anywhere - it is how you then deal with them that counts.
A client of mine went to Disneyland in Cali and came back and said her pocketbook was stolen! This is supposed to be the happiest place in the world! The moral with this whole discussion is that wherever you go you need to stay on gaurd.
I did not return to the ship, our cabin was above the venue which was torched and was a bit of a mess! Not only that but I was suffering from smoke inhalation (I have asthma). The company put us up in a 5 star hotel until flights home could be arranged. They then paid for dry cleaning of clothes and generous compensation in addition to a full refund.
At the time I was in shock but I can laugh about it now. The fire started just before dinner so I had just had a shower and was dripping wet and my husband was in the shower when the alarm was raised. We left the cabin with just enough clothes on for decency. My husband had to drag me up the stairs as I couldn't get a breath for the smoke which black and acrid.
Up on the decks there were several people who were wet and half naked as they had been in the shower as well!
As I say I can laugh now but it was scary at the time.
I had to go on a cruise just 3 weeks later as I was going with my mum after my own summer holiday which was the best thing which could have happened - same principal as getting back on a bike when you fall off.
It's just like everyone picks on 'McDonalds' here in the UK and Europe. McDonalds is seen as the unstoppable corporate machine colonising the world. The funny thing is that they are not the only successful burger restaurant?
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