Thread: How Safe is That Cruise Ship?

I read articles like this one and, while they do help people think about their safety on a cruise, the overwhelming theme is extremely negative, which is not unusual for today's press and does not present the true story.

Overhead Bin - How safe is that cruise ship anyway?

What irritates me the most is that first they prefer to promote the 'unsafe' factor, which is extremely low, instead of promoting the 'safe' factor, which is extremely high.

Yes, you need to be aware of your surroundings while on a ship. Yes, you need to use common sense while on a ship.

But why over stress the negative?

They do have several facts incorrect in the article, which is also nothing new with today's reporters as they never verify their facts or research beyond the surface. They state norovirus is contracted via fecal-oral contact. This is false! It's a virus!!

Also, they stated 10-12 million people cruise each year. This is understated by 50%. In fact, over 16 million people cruised in 2010.

When you consider that there are over 5.3 million people in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, that represents only half of the number of people who cruise each year. And when you look at how many murders, rapes, robberies, burglaries, etc. that occur in this area, I feel much safer on a cruise than I do driving around this city.

I'm not saying that cruises are 100% safe. That would be an irresponsible statement. But what I am saying is that cruises are very safe. And yes, passengers should take certain precautions while cruising as they would in any city.

It would have made for a more 'correct' article had they concentrated on the overall safety record with precautions about some of the problems. This would have gone along with the factual statistics. And as my statistical analysis professor once said, you can make statistics say whatever you want them to say - it depends on where you want the focus.

In other words, if something is 10% bad and 90% good, you simply slant your story towards your intended focus, such as saying 'you have a one in ten chance of having problems' if you want to concentrate on the negative. Of course, if you're an optimist, then you could say, 'you have a 9 out of 10 chance that you'll have a positive experience'. Of course, the 9 out of 10 story doesn't sell papers.

What I am saying is that negative reporting like this is irresponsible and unprofessional as it focuses on the extremely small statistical facts. 100 alleged crimes per quarter? Really? So if we use their figures that 12 million people cruise in one year and there were only 400 crimes reported we should all run scared? According to my calculation, that's 3.33 crimes per 100,000 passengers (in other words, 1 crime for every 30,000 passengers). By comparison, Washington, DC has a crime rate roughly 1437 violent crimes per 100,000 people and 5100 property crimes per 100,000 people for a total of 6537 crimes per 100,000 people. So you have a much MUCH higher chance of being involved with crime in a regular city than you do with crime on a cruise ship.

So I have to ask myself when I read a story like this; is the purpose of the story to educate or to scare people? If it's to educate, then provide statistics to show how safe or unsafe cruising is and compare the two. If it's to scare, then write the story in a one-sided slant, as the case of this one, and concentrate on the negative without comparing the two.

In other words, why not let the facts tell the true story instead of the story being told by a reporter with an agenda. (And I'm willing to bet he's probably never even been on a cruise!!!)

I'm just saying......

Pete

Unfortunately over dramatizing sells stories. Some TV news programs tend to do that more than others.

Reading some of the responses is equally as scary! Some of those people have absolutely no idea what they're talking about, some firmly believe everything they read is the truth, some consider themselves to be experts because they've been on one cruise, and others are just downright idiots!

I noticed one source is the cruisejunkie man. While his site is very interesting (one of my cruises made his list), he does have some bias against cruising. I think the lawyer also quoted is the one behind cruise bruise, another anti-cruising site.

And I can just guess (from my experience working in broadcast news while working on my degree) that if a reporter goes to the news director and says "I want to do a piece on going on cruises," some directors will want a negative take on it. The exception would be if the reporter is doing features on different types of vacations. Then the emphasis would be more about the positive side.

The story does make some good points regarding using common sense when cruising. It is too bad that the author feels a need to start out with a misleading headline followed by equally misleading "facts".

The cruise industry is continually required to report situations that other industries do not. I agree that parasailing can be dangerous, I have done it a couple times. About the only time a parasailing accident makes the news is if the person happens to be traveling by cruise ship. I wonder what the crime and accident rates are at various resorts in the Caribbean.

Originally Posted by Blizzard

I wonder what the crime and accident rates are at various resorts in the Caribbean.

Yeah, now that would be something to compare it to! I'd be interested in hearing those statistics.

I've only heard of a few times when cruise passengers had stuff stolen out of their cabins, but I've heard many times when stuff has been taken out of hotel/resort rooms. But that's just petty theft - haven't heard of anyone jumping off the roof into a pool - must be something exclusive to cruise ships!

The thing about resorts is that they are governed by the local laws and often these are taken very seriously because the area can't afford negative press. Look at what happen when the press erroneously reported Swine Flu in Cancun. The place was a ghost town and there was never one case of Swine Flu there. Just using Cancun as an example, but from our experience, they respond quickly to tourist's complaints because they know how hungry the American press is for negative stories. Look at the two ladies killed in Aruba. All the press does is concentrate on the negative, which gives Aruba a bad image. Neither of these horrible crimes had to do with the Aruban people, who are wonderful. But it has really had an affect on tourism.

Just wish the press would give the story without trying to slant it. After all, isn't a report suppose to be fair and unbiased? Yeah, right!

Originally Posted by Blizzard

The story does make some good points regarding using common sense when cruising. It is too bad that the author feels a need to start out with a misleading headline followed by equally misleading "facts".

The cruise industry is continually required to report situations that other industries do not. I agree that parasailing can be dangerous, I have done it a couple times. About the only time a parasailing accident makes the news is if the person happens to be traveling by cruise ship. I wonder what the crime and accident rates are at various resorts in the Caribbean.

Originally Posted by Cruise Planner

Yeah, now that would be something to compare it to! I'd be interested in hearing those statistics.

I've only heard of a few times when cruise passengers had stuff stolen out of their cabins, but I've heard many times when stuff has been taken out of hotel/resort rooms. But that's just petty theft - haven't heard of anyone jumping off the roof into a pool - must be something exclusive to cruise ships!

The thing about resorts is that they are governed by the local laws and often these are taken very seriously because the area can't afford negative press. Look at what happen when the press erroneously reported Swine Flu in Cancun. The place was a ghost town and there was never one case of Swine Flu there. Just using Cancun as an example, but from our experience, they respond quickly to tourist's complaints because they know how hungry the American press is for negative stories. Look at the two ladies killed in Aruba. All the press does is concentrate on the negative, which gives Aruba a bad image. Neither of these horrible crimes had to do with the Aruban people, who are wonderful. But it has really had an affect on tourism.

Just wish the press would give the story without trying to slant it. After all, isn't a report suppose to be fair and unbiased? Yeah, right!

Just spent many minutes reading the comments and agree many are ridiculous. I just posted a couple of comments of my own (including a reply to the person who was told by their "cruise consultant" to carry their baggage after they had a theft (I suggested that they put their valuables in their carry on). It sounds like that Shari had a major issue, but seems to be like the others I've mentioned above, trying to dissuade people from going on cruises.

I agree about headlines often being misleading. Often those billboards (the "coming up on the news at eleven...." promos) are misleading too. Drives me crazy.

Oh, I do have a jumping off a roof type of story. When we were in Miami, post-cruise, in March 2001, there was a story on the local news about some college students partying at some hotel during spring break. One of them decided to jump off his landing or balcony into the pool and missed.

I agree with you Pete. The media has a bad habit of slanting the "news" based on the writers own bias or those of the publisher. Bad and ugly usually sells more. Waste of a good writers talent.

Originally Posted by Cruise Planner

Yeah, now that would be something to compare it to! I'd be interested in hearing those statistics.

I've only heard of a few times when cruise passengers had stuff stolen out of their cabins, but I've heard many times when stuff has been taken out of hotel/resort rooms. But that's just petty theft - haven't heard of anyone jumping off the roof into a pool - must be something exclusive to cruise ships!

The thing about resorts is that they are governed by the local laws and often these are taken very seriously because the area can't afford negative press. Look at what happen when the press erroneously reported Swine Flu in Cancun. The place was a ghost town and there was never one case of Swine Flu there. Just using Cancun as an example, but from our experience, they respond quickly to tourist's complaints because they know how hungry the American press is for negative stories. Look at the two ladies killed in Aruba. All the press does is concentrate on the negative, which gives Aruba a bad image. Neither of these horrible crimes had to do with the Aruban people, who are wonderful. But it has really had an affect on tourism.

Just wish the press would give the story without trying to slant it. After all, isn't a report suppose to be fair and unbiased? Yeah, right!

Yep, I know all about that first hand. We were in Cancun/Riviera Maya during the height of the Swine Flu Outbreak, and we never came down with the disease. What the Press declined to state was that he Swine Flu epidemic was concentrated in Mexico City, which was shut down two days after we landed in Cancun. I know many travel agents who told me they had clients cancelling their Mexico bookings left right and center. Then when I told them I was there at the height of the epidemic as were tourists from many foreign countries, and nobody in Cancun/Riviera Maya came down with the flu, they were fuming.

Since 2004, I've cruised 16 times and never had a problem. So too did thousands, or, should I say millions of other people.
Oh well, Press wil do that to ya.

The thing is, I'm convinced that the media [in some circles, that's a dirty word, you know ] works on the principle that "no one is at all interested in anything unless it's bad!"

Have you watched the local 11:00 pm news recently? I don't care where! One of these days, I swear, I'm going to count how many murders, rapes, burglaries and other crimes are reported every night!

SWR