Cruise Ship Damaged in Storm

olderboater; I've heard different, and I think both 60min and 20/20 did exposes on the cruiseline industry.

I've never been on one, preferring one of my friend's boats, or a possible fixer-upper in the future. You find crime anywhere you go. But the reports seem to imply that cruiseships are more like big cities than resort havens, and I tend to agree with them given the incidents reported.

As for the storm; well, like I said earlier, that's really peanuts as far as storms go. I've driven and sailed in worse. I'm not sure why this is even a news story. It sounds like some passenger just felt like being a big shot, and so made a stink of the whole thing. Oh well.

Blue Ghost- you're being ridiculous. What few news articles are out there always paint THE worst picture. Why don't you go on a cruise and see for yourself, it's very different than your perceptions.

CaptJ- I have to agree with you on this one. I was curious after reading the posts and did some googling about those claims and what I read would not put me off going for a cruise.

My wife and I cruise, on average, once a year... never had anything less than a great time.

Would we prefer going where we go on a yacht? Obviously. However, unless someone's going to invite us to cruise the Caribbean with them on theirs, we're pretty much going to be on cruise ships for the foreseeable future.

You're making cruise ships sound like floating versions of Flint, Michigan.

That's kind of like saying that every commercial airline flight will end up like Asiana 214.

My point is it's somewhere in between. I am fully aware of cruise ship issues and find it distasteful that they aren't subject to US laws even though using US ports, but that's the way it is. I do not however think their employees are any worse that you'll find in a huge resort hotel. I'm sure the problems with theft exist in any Vegas hotel. You put the number of people together it takes to man a cruise ship and I don't care what country they're from, you'll encounter some less than trustworthy employees.

The only area, other than being on water, that I believe cruise ships have a real variance from large resort hotels is with the lack of a health department monitoring their kitchens and other areas. I'm not saying though that their standards are any worse than other places you might eat when traveling as they may be better. Then sometimes tied to that and often not, viruses such as norovirus spread quickly to a large percentage of those on the boat. However, to put this in perspective, norovirus is referred to sometimes as the Cruise Ship and Assisted Living virus. Why? What do they have in common? Communal dining. It's rare you have such issues, but if you do, you're stuck on a boat with a lot of very sick and very contagious people.

Now is any of that a reason not to cruise? Not, in my mind. I do think awareness is important. But if I had a desire to cruise, I would take care in selecting what line and vessel, but I'd cruise. With all the reports of bad things that happen, and I think in describing events the reports are accurate, everyone I know who cruises loves it. It's not for us, but that in no way means it's not for others.

I also don't like how the cruise lines generally handle problems. Now they do attempt to cover them and based on the reaction to this one, that's probably wise. I certainly wouldn't want the two men in the video as my spokesmen. Rest assured Vegas hotels cover up their issues too. They're just more generous with their customers compensation than the cruise ships.

Every choice we make in life involves some degree of risk. 6 Flags has accidents resulting in loss of life. People get accosted in five star hotels. Walking across the street though may be more dangerous. There is no denying cruise ship problems. But that doesn't mean it's unwise to cruise.

I don't cruise because I don't like the crowds. I also don't like giving up control to the cruise captain and others. But these things are my problem, not cruise line problems.

Regardless, I won't be going on a cruise anytime soon. I don't know, I also don't get the appeal of them, to be honest. Crime aside, you're not at the helm. You're not "near the water" so to speak. But, whatever.

Cruiselinesr are under the jurisdiction of whoever's flag they fly, from what I understand.

Again, my subtopic aside, I just don't see why this made the news.

Cruises are great for this, you wake up each morning and are at a different island and can see a lot of islands in a weeks time and choose whether or not to go back for an extended vacation. Also, they're hassle free, you just wander to whatever activities you want to, whenever you want to, have a wide variety of meal options, and all of the customs paperwork is done for you at each island.

The clutches mentioned are part of the steering not the propulsion itself

This is why cruiseships need tugboats