<p>My husband and I just went on our first cruise at the end of October. We loved it! It was a Carnival ship with about 2,000 passengers. We thought everything was top-notch. I loved the rocking sensation on board! It lasted for a couple of days for me after we returned. I can’t wait to go on another cruise!</p>
<p>Having spent a few years in the Coast Guard, a cruise holds no appeal to me. I prefer peace & quiet on a vacation. rather than sharing a pool deck and breakfast buffet with a few thousand of my closest friends. Someday, I do want to cruise the inside passage, however it will be on a small ship. The large ships look far too top heavy to me.</p>
<p>We did a generational cruise too and had a great experience even with rough seas. We went with my parents (not in great health and elderly), my sister, my niece and my kids. So we had 80 year olds, 50 year olds, a 20 something and two teenagers. We had a great time being together. Due to rough seas, one of our stops was cancelled which was sad but we had such fun playing cards and doing the cheesy shows that it didn’t matter. It was such an easy vacation. That being said, the ship (Carnival) did take the safety drills seriously and were very cautious with the severe rocking we encountered. I don’t want to cruise for every vacation but every once in a while it is a nice change of pace.</p>
<p>I do love a cruise. We took a cruise to the Bahamas on a Carnival ship in 2006 and had an absolute blast. There were 19 or 20 of us and we were celebrating DD’s and her BFF’s high school graduation. They took the muster drills seriously and we found everything to be well-organized. We sailed Norwegian Cruise Lines once for a fall foliage trip into New England and Nova Scotia. We will never sail them again as we found them to be extremely disorganized in almost every area of the cruise. Our very favorite cruises have been with SeaDream … once to the U.S. Virgin Islands and another time for a European cruise. I can’t imagine a more perfect cruise. They treat their passengers like royalty, the food is delicious, the staterooms are very comfortable and the staff spoils everyone.</p>
<p>I just can’t imagine being on a cruise where the captain disregards the safety of his passengers, staff and ship by deviating from the course. It’s such a tragedy that could have so easily been avoided.</p>
<p>The smaller, adventure/educational focused ships offer a very different experience. I loved visiting Alaska on this type of ship. When I find an extra $10,000 lying around I want to do the Tierra del Fuego-Antarctica cruise, too.</p>
<p>Cruises do not appeal to me at all, and I don’t ever see myself going on one.</p>
<p>My parents traveled on a Road Scholar (used to be Elderhostel) trip to Alaska several years back. We received word that my dad’s last sibling only had days to live; there was simply no way out of the part of Alaska they were in, so they continued the trip. Part of it was a cruise. The cruise line was absolutely wonderful in helping me to locate them so he could say his goodbyes via telephone, and then they updated my parents to the best suite on the ship. There was a dining room, large bathroom, all granite, living room and bedroom. They really bent over backwards to provide comfort to my parents, for which I have always been grateful.</p>
<p>I’ve been on three cruises. Two from LA to Mexico on Princess, one from FLA to the Carribean on Holland America. All three have muster instructions before leaving port. You were required to get your lifejacket from your cabin and be at the muster station. They took the whole thing seriously. On one of the Mexico cruises the weather got rough and they closed all outside decks. They weren’t taking any chances. There were ship personnel making sure people stayed off those outside decks. It was rocky and I was glad I don’t get seasick.<br>
The Carribean one was the best. It was a special jazz cruise. They kicked off all the regular entertainment, can you say Wheel of Fortune?, and brought on fabulous music. It was a younger hipper crowd than most cruises. In fact, halfway through the entire boat was out of limes! Yup we drank so much the bars had no limes till we hit a new port.<br>
I won’t go to Mexico anymore so that’s out. I’m not sure I would do another cruise.
Saw an older couple on Dr. Phil today (I was at the nail place and couldn’t pick what to watch). There story was harrowing. They had been on something like sixty cruises and all I can say is the fact that they knew what they were supposed to do and the family of four stuck together is the only reason they made it. The father in particular kept his head. Apparently they were some of the last people off the boat.</p>
<p>20/20 is doing a special on cruises not - “Cruise Ship Confidential.” It is astounding how many people disappear off the ships every year.</p>
<p>^ if people fell out of planes the way they disappear off cruise ships nobody would fly.</p>
<p>Lots of drinking + a big, big ocean = missing people</p>
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<p>There’s a lot less drinking than one would think on a cruise ship, and, how to put it, the strength of most drinks as prepared leaves much to be desired. $9 for weak mixed drinks goes a long way towards sobriety 
and not everyone is accustomed to the, ehem, alternative ways of alcohol availability onboard :-)</p>
<p>If you figure a half dozen overboarders out of a company with a dozen ships running 24/7/365 with 3000 passengers each, that’s an incredibly good record. </p>
<p>There are other security issues in some of the less desirable ports, for example, or elderly people who manage to kick the bucket onboard, but overall, I don’t think it’s much of an issue.</p>
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<p>Many of the cruise ship “man overboard” incidents are people who either jump off or are doing something incredibly stupid (trying to get from one balcony to another, drunkenly posing for pictures by sitting on the top rung of a rail, etc.).</p>
<p>That said, one night I was sitting on my balcony late at night on a full moon, just watching the moonbeams on the water. The only sound was the “swish” of the waves as the ship churned through the water. I had a thought, “Man, if my husband decided he wanted to get rid of me right now, he could easily do it and no one would be the wiser.” Gave me goosebumps for a moment, but fortunately, DH seems to want to keep me around.:)</p>
<p>While many of the deaths have been suspicious, you have to admit that this would be one of the easiest methods to commit suicide.
(crossposted with Nrdsb4)</p>
<p>“If you figure a half dozen overboarders out of a company with a dozen ships running 24/7/365 with 3000 passengers each, that’s an incredibly good record.”</p>
<p>Just did a quick google search and found out cruise companies don’t have to record the statistics and no government agency tracks them. The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of 2009 never was passed into law. Surely a lot of people enjoy cruising. Some of the stories are pretty chilling though.</p>
<p>The newer ships have a majority of outside verandah staterooms and the handrails seem rather low to optimize views. This doesn’t help lower the missing passenger totals, either. </p>
<p>It is very chilling to watch the latest news accounts of the ship’s staff requesting passengers return to their cabins or telling the coast guard that things were back to normal, apparently only thinking that the power outage was the problem. We fellow crusers all know what even slightly rougher seas can do to a large ship, but scraping a ROCK and tearing a long hole in the ship? One would have thought that with so many passengers and crew someone would have known that this was much more than just “normal” movement that happens at sea and acted with more of a sense of urgency.</p>
<p>I think one is more likely to get sick from norovirus than fall overboard while cruising.</p>
<p>^^^^
eeewwy.
[Cruise</a> Ship Environmental Hygiene and the Risk of Norovirus Infection Outbreaks: An Objective Assessment of 56 Vessels over 3 Years](<a href=“http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/9/1312.full]Cruise”>Cruise Ship Environmental Hygiene and the Risk of Norovirus Infection Outbreaks: An Objective Assessment of 56 Vessels over 3 Years | Clinical Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic)</p>
<p>yup. Don’t go see the movie Contagion and then go on a cruise. I personally had a thing about the handrails. Decided that walking down the center of the staircases was better exercise. I avoided most all handrails on the boat at all times…lots of hand sanitizer everywhere too and I used it. Public restroom on a cruise ship? No thank you. There is a restroom in my cabin and the extra steps work off the extra food and alcohol.</p>
<p>Even the ABC special made the point that it’s more dangerous walking across the street than taking a cruise!</p>
<p>“I think one is more likely to get sick from norovirus than fall overboard while cruising.”</p>
<p>Oh definitely, and that’s no picnic either! Having had a rotavirus once, if it’s anything like that.</p>