How safe is cruising?

[Rhone Man]

Although the Caribbean as a whole has quite high rates of crime (not looking for an argument a la Bonaire, but just saying), but on the whole cruising is a very safe and sanitised way to visit. For obvious reasons, cruise ships tend to keep their guests away from anything likely to cause trouble. Incidents involving cruise ship guests are rare, and usually widely reported when they do happen.

 

[Oldbear]

Although the Caribbean as a whole has quite high rates of crime (not looking for an argument a la Bonaire, but just saying), but on the whole cruising is a very safe and sanitised way to visit. For obvious reasons, cruise ships tend to keep their guests away from anything likely to cause trouble. Incidents involving cruise ship guests are rare, and usually widely reported when they do happen.

If the ship doesn't brake down...

 

[DeputyDan]

Cruise vacations are very interesting discussion topics.

I don't care for them at all.
My brother in law loves them and it's the only vacation he wants to do.

Glad there is something for everyone.

 

[yardpro]

we cruise every year.. been on about 20.. (some years more than one).

I thought i would hate them, but i love them...VERY safe... good service, good food, great way to recharge the batteries.

I also get to dive a lot of places that i would not otherwise get to go (cruises are cheap).

I have dove grand cayman, st martin, grand turk, Nassau, roatan, Cozumel, key west, and Belize.

 

[Doc]

Glad there is something for everyone.

For me it's the 2 a.m. Ice Cream buffet. I'm lactose intolerant, but I figure if I didn't pay extra for it on the Cruise, so what the hell? Usually I just yack it over the side rail, so if any of those surveillance videos show up with John Stossell, I'll know pretty sure that it was me.

They say "the home" is the most dangerous place. FASTSTATS - Accidents or Unintentional Injuries Most people figure that's the case because you spend so much time there and if your wife's family has moved-in, that can go South pretty quickly especially if Cousin Roy drinks your beer.

I asked my neighbor to put some Marmosets in my house so I can worry about that. He looked at me as if I were nuttier than Squirrel crap, he might not do it, but just angsting about it does the trick for me.

What will I worry about today? It's only May 7 and I've pretty much-so gone through the list one time already.

 

[Roatan]

99 times out of 100, the people you hear about being a "statistic" on a cruise are idiots, drunks or both. Cruising is safer than driiving to the grocery store. It's a great way to see and sample places you might not have ever visited had you not been on a cruise. Carnival is the bottom of the barrel but it is what it is, WalMart Cruising. Royal Caribbean is a great way to sample Caribbean ports so you can THEN see if you would like to go back and stay longer.

 

[Doc]

.... a great way to sample Caribbean ports so you can THEN see if you would like to go back and stay longer.

No particular Cruise Ship (Carnival or Royal Caribbean, or any) would offer you any better vision if you were hoping to accomplish the above recon mission.

Also not sure what you could see from any Cruise Ship visit that would give you any sort of "sample", meter or indication as to which island would be good to spend a week, most especially Roatan... talking about a glimpse through a key hole!

Warning to visitors to Roatan: Them streets are not made of paver blocks and there are no other ski hills than what you see at the "port" of Mahogany Bay

 

[DocVikingo]

(From today's news) -- Two passengers vanish from Carnival cruise ship
Two passengers vanish from Carnival cruise ship - World News

September 1, 2012 blog/trip report on my latest cruise ship diving
Cruise Ship Diving?Going Down on More than Just the Food | Divers' Blogs

An old piece I wrote for Rodale's Scuba Diving magazine -->
An Orientation to Cruise Ship Diving
Doc Vikingo's Sea Sickness Remedies


Regards,

DocVikingo

 

[flots am]

99 times out of 100, the people you hear about being a "statistic" on a cruise are idiots, drunks or both. Cruising is safer than driiving to the grocery store. It's a great way to see and sample places you might not have ever visited had you not been on a cruise. Carnival is the bottom of the barrel but it is what it is, WalMart Cruising. Royal Caribbean is a great way to sample Caribbean ports so you can THEN see if you would like to go back and stay longer.

Pretty much.

One person going overboard is an accident, a murder or suicide. Two people going overboard together is "on purpose." the railings are really high (just about at sternum-height) and you have to work at it to go over the side.

OTOH, I really can't see how jumping off the ship into warm, calm water would be a great way to die. They'll be out there for a while.

flots.

 

[Skittl1321]

Warning to visitors to Roatan: Them streets are not made of paver blocks and there are no other ski hills than what you see at the "port" of Mahogany Bay

Roatan only looks like that if you go with a Carnival Corporation ship.

For us, we very much use the cruises to decide which islands to visit later, though we haven't yet gone for a land vacation (we keep pricing them out and they cost way too much...)

We LOVED Antigua and want so badly to go back. We enjoyed snorkeling Cozumel so much we decided to get OW certified so we can go back and dive there. This year we are going to Roatan, and plan to go to West Bay to snorkel (or maybe dive if we decide we are really hooked).

We do all our own day trip planning, we don't use cruise excursions except in rare instances (in San Juan we kayaked a biolumiscent bay, and owing to it being so far away from the ship, and not getting back until well after midnight, and just minutes before the ship would leave we took the safe route.)

Cruises are fabulous ways to enjoy many places. Besides a lot of people who 'go to the Carribean" go to an all inclusive and never step foot outside of the resort. They haven't experienced a place any more than the cruisers who don't leave Mahagony Bay. It's all in the kind of vacation you enjoy.


For the record, we've done 3 cruises with Carnival and always felt like safety was paramount to the crew. We decided to branch out and try something new, not because we've lost faith in the company but because 3 similar vacations (the onboard experience is 'consistent'- meaning, pretty much the same thing) we want something new.