If you were taking your very first cruise on the Costa Concordia – the luxury cruise liner that stuck a coral reef and sank last Friday – I wonder if you would ever cruise again.
Photos of the shocking incident will send shivers down the spines of anyone who has taken a cruise or is planning to – my wife refuses to look at them for fear that she’ll never be able to cruise again. To see that gigantic ship on its side brings to mind images of the movie “Titanic”.
This wasn’t a small vessel – there were more than 4,200 passengers and crew attempting to evacuate – but mistakes can happen, especially if the captain doesn’t follow procedures, as is being reported initially with this captain.
It sure is a mind-boggling concept – floating cities that defy logic by their sheer size and volume, just floating like a canoe.
However, mother nature has been known to cause trouble with sudden giant waves. In 2010 two people were killed and 14 injured when 26-foot high waves slammed into a cruise ship off the coast of Spain. There are other, minor incidents that can certainly change your point of view about cruising.
Back in 2005, when Tuula and I took our very first cruise, we had the perfect, magical experience. It was in the Caribbean and there had been a storm reported ahead, but our captain chose to go around it, delaying arrival at the next port by an hour or so.
I spoke to a woman who had friends on another ship that was travelling the same route. Their captain decided to head through the storm. She said they reported more than half the crew and passengers got seasick as the ship became a rollercoaster. Food went flying off the tables and they had to put ropes out in the gangways for people to pull themselves along. I’m thinking if that was my first experience, I wouldn’t have been so keen to cruise again. In that one and the latest one, human error is the cause. That said, I’m willing to cruise again anytime.