Centrale de Bespreking van de cruise

Wow, dit is vrij een jaar voor dalende schepen geweest! Eerst, daalt de Overzeese Diamant van Santorini, Griekenland toen de kapitein sommige rotsen onder water, en toen Ontdekkingsreiziger raakte, die door de reizen van GAP, gootsteen weg in werking wordt gesteld van Antarctica. Twee Franse passagiers worden nog gemeld zoals missend van de Overzeese Diamant en dood verondersteld, terwijl iedereen het weg veilig van de Ontdekkingsreiziger maakte, hoewel sommige passagiers voor blootstelling en milde hypothermie moesten worden behandeld.

Aangezien een ervaren kruiser, geen van beiden van de incidenten me omschakeling aan een land - gebaseerde vakantie heeft, echter, dienen zij als een goede herinnering van dingen die wij als passagiers zouden moeten doen onze veiligheid beschermen.

• Weet dat zelfs het meeste overzeese waardige schip kon dalen. Bij alle rekeningen, de Ontdekkingsreiziger, zou een bewezen werkpaard van een dubbele geschilde ijsbreker immuun moeten geweest zijn voor het dalen door ijs, maar zelfs stevigst van schepen kan worden vernietigd. De rapporten zeggen dat het water binnen kwam en de bemanning niet tot het gebied van de schil kon toegang hebben die was overtreden, zodat kon het gat niet worden hersteld. De water strakke deuren en de pompen schenen slechts om het dalen te vertragen om veilige evacuatie van de passagiers toe te staan, eerder dan samen het verhinderen van het dalen allen. Zelfs kon de Overzeese Diamant, een vrij nieuw schip niet op zee blijven zodra zijn schil werd overtreden.
• Ken het veiligheidsverslag en de reputatie van de cruiselijn u met reist. Doe wat onderzoek, kom te weten als uw cruisebedrijf om het even welke belangrijke veiligheidsschendingen heeft gehad. Probeer ook om te weten te komen hoeveel aandacht om uw lijn te detailleren op elk aspect van de cruiseervaring betaalt. Meer dan waarschijnlijk, zal een cruiselijn die hun keuken, huishouden, verrijkingsprogramma en activiteitenplanning op een eerste klassenmanier in werking stelt, zo veel aandacht aan veiligheid eveneens ook besteden. In recent years, when there has been less than professional behavior by the officers and crew, the ships in question were often sort of “second tier” cruise lines that cut corners. Reports were that the Sea Diamond crew were less than professional when evacuating the ship. When I looked at the Sea Diamond’s web page shortly after the incident, I could see that they packed a lot of people onto a fairly small ship, and did not even offer full service dining, only buffet service. In the case of the Oceanos, which sunk off of South Africa in 1991, the line was using an older ship and an the crew actually made a mistake by cutting corners in a repair effort, which actually resulted in the ship taking on water. Then, many of the officers abandoned ship, leaving only the entertainment staff and low ranking crew members to evacuate the passengers. One survivor of the cruise said that she had booked the cruise because “TFC (cruise operator) advertised a really cheap cruise.” Luckily, during the recent Explorer incident, reports seem to indicate that the crew and officers were very professional and the the emergency evacuation was handled rather smoothly. The fact that their web site has been proactive about posting updates on the incident seems to indicate professionalism.
• Have an emergency plan for your group. Seriously participate in the ship wide muster drill. After that, discuss emergency plans with your group. Most cruise lines suggest that your plan should be to meet at your muster station. Most cruise lines have the kids wear bands at all times with their muster station on the bands. They will take your kids to the muster station so that you can meet them there. I have never had an emergency, but this does seem like it would work well as long as the children’s staff does their job. When you check your kids into to the program, find out if the program does an additional muster drill to have the staff practice with the kids. If your kids are old enough to find their way around the ship, have an additional family muster drill with each of you starting at a different place and then meeting at your muster station. This also might be a good idea if you are traveling with any elderly passengers in your group. That could help you determine if you would need to provide assistance to any of the older people in your group. Depending on the severity of the emergency, you may or may not have time to go to your room, so find out how to get a life jacket if it is not possible to go to your room. If you do have time to return to your room, you may want to have an emergency bag or two ready to grab. This would need to be small like a camera bag or a purse. You would probably want to have your camera, lap top, cell phones, pass ports, credit cards and cash in there. These are the things that you would most need when you reach dry land.

If you are interested in reading more about these incidents directly from the people involved in them, I’ve found the following sites that feature commentary from the passengers involved.

• Oceanus Blog
• GAP Tours Forum
• Sea Diamond Blogger

Categories: Blog, Planning
Tags: cruise, cruise ship safety, Explorer Sinking, Oceanos Sinking, Sea Diamond Sinking