Cruise Talk Central

I have been fortunate to have always had fairly good sea conditions on every cruise I’ve taken. There have been a few days here and there where the water splashed out of the pools, or the cruise director asked people to take precautions when they are walking around, even advising women (or men) not to wear high heels due to the movement of the ship. On our Alaska cruise, we had slightly rough open seas the first night of the cruise, but the only noticeable effect was that the line was not offering table side preparations of dessert coffees.

These conditions were nothing like what the passengers experienced on the recent P&O cruise in the South Pacific. They had more than 20 foot swells and 42 passengers were injured. Reports say that that three passengers were taken to the hospital upon arrival in Auckland. Some passengers reported fearing for their lives and even thought that the ship might roll over. The NZ Herald has posted some photos of the damage to the inside of the ship.

Remarkably, some cruise veterans from Australia were pretty upbeat about the whole experience and seemed to shake off the ordeal as just a part of cruising. In a NZ TV Interview, cruise veterans acknowledged that it is a “Cruise” and that rough seas are one of the hazards of this type of trip. Another report shows the scarier sided of the incident with interviews with some of the injured passengers. While I hope that I never experience such rough seas, I hope that if I do I could be as chipper as the Australian passengers who shook off the incident. I also hope that the passengers who were injured in the incident have a speedy recovery.

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