Breaking News: Costa Concordia Emergency

[penny3333]

This has made me so sad, because I truly love sailing Costa. I know this is seriously going to damage the line, if not put them under. I am thankful so many were rescued, but do not understand how the captain could have not taken his responsibility seriously. I can find no reason the ship was 4 miles off course, with today's technology, this is not something that would happen randomly. My prayers are with those missing and I hope they were among the ones that swam to shore.

I, too, do not understand why the ship took on water. I thought they had means to block areas, too.

[fredo]

Hi everybody.

All of us are of course very sad and worried for the Giglio incident.
Some day we will know what really happened.

By now, I'd like to hear you about this.



For no reason in particular, I'm a MSC cruiser.
I started cruising with them in 2007 and my next one will be my sixth.

Some months ago I got an email from MSC Club: "book now, cruise to Israel at a very low fare".
Choosing the "SuperBingo fare" you pay as for an internal and wait for the cruise line to assign you a stateroom: maybe an internal, maybe an external, maybe a balcony.
The worst, you'll get an internal.

I booked a SuperBingo fare for three (my wife, my elder son and me) on MSC Magnifica sailing from Venice to Bari, Greece and Haifa on March 15.


This morning my TA calls me on the cellphone saying "MSC is offering you a balcony and a gift if you accept sailing on March 6. Same trip, same ship ... they overbooked you and must reschedule you".
I take a look at the agenda, call out my wife, ask my son how's he with University exams from March 6 to 16 ... all right, 6 to 15 it's even better.

Then I check out the MSC site.
The cruise to Israel is really scheduled for March 6 ... but there's nothing planned for MSC Magnifica from March 15 on. A bit strange: I have a signed receipt for my first payment with every detail of the "original" cruise starting on March 15.

This afternoon I go to the TA and confirm the change. The girl at the counter says "you were overbooked, MSC needs you to move to another date".
I wasn't overbooked (and remember that my SuperBingo fare allowed them to put us in whatever stateroom they wanted to), it's the whole cruise that has been moved to March 6.

And all this just a couple of days after the Concordia incident ...


So,


can it be that Costa has picked up the phone and said "Hello MSC, we need a cruise ship for our costumers ... hire us your Magnifica, it will cost us less than refund them all" ?

Or can it be that Costa has transferred all the cruisers booked on Concordia to their competitor in the name of the common good of "cruising system" ?

Or can it be (... I don't think so) that MSC are black vultures that collect one by one the Concordia costumers as they get away from Costa ?


What do you think about this ?

[MCPayne]

Originally Posted by Casey & Kathy

What I find most troubling is with all the modern technology and improvements.the water tight doors and parts of the hull sectioned off, that in 2012 this could still happen. Had this been in Alaska with submerged ice this ship would be at the bottom of the sea and not resting on it's side. Not enough life boats for all the people in 2012. are you kidding me? I believe this is the exact same ship Carnival is sailing in the Caribbean.

Regarding the life boats, I think the issue with this particular emergency was that the ship was in such a position that they could not access some of the boats. I thought by law you had to have enough life boats for all the passengers. Then again, this is in Europe, and as Dave mentioned earlier in this thread, laws in Europe tend to me more of suggestions, and not really enforced.

[Cruise Fanatic]

It possibly can be any of the above. All segments of the travel industry (airlines, hotels, cruises) do overbook anticipating they will have a certain percent of no shows and cancellations.

[MCPayne]

Sorry, there was a typo in my earlier post. I meant to say laws in Europe tend to be more of suggestions, and not me more of suggestions.

[Dave]

As Svein pointed out, they all have to comply with SOLAS rules regardless of the country they are in. I wouldn't assume the ship would have sunk if in deeper water. I think the vessel would have been better off if the Captain had simply stopped, secured the lower decks, and then had an orderly evacuation. The ship would most likely still be floating.

As to the MSC question...perhaps that ship is simply going in for a refurbishment?

[Dave]

Now reports are saying the Captain claims he slipped and fell into the lifeboat. I'm waiting to see if aliens were involved at this point. Can anything surprise you now?

[MCPayne]

Originally Posted by Dave

Now reports are saying the Captain claims he slipped and fell into the lifeboat. I'm waiting to see if aliens were involved at this point. Can anything surprise you now?

I saw that too, but I don't know if I buy that. Not sure how the system works in Italy / Europe, if this ends up going to trial / courts. If it were in the states, I wouldn't buy that story if I was sitting on the jury.

[peter l]

Ya Dave, and he's so lucky that he landed in a life boat and not in the ocean !?

Peterl

[billybuzzy]

I think that the ship had enough lifeboats for all the passengers but,as has been stated,the fact that some of the lifeboats could not be launched (as can be expected to happen during a disaster at sea) it became necessary to launch the liferafts! This is why the liferafts are positioned on board. When a ship is sinking there is going to be tremendous panic by all aboard Her....The liferafts give greatly added capacity and security for one's survival! Fincantieri builds fine ships...but sometimes the people operating them at sea are not of the very best quality!!


BillyBuzzy