Interesting thread with a first hand account of someone who works on cruise ships.
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Link to thread/article
Posted by Oglach:
I've worked on major cruise line. Deaths happen often. A lot of morbid stuff happens.
For example, if you're suddenly on the brink of death while in port, they're getting you off the boat. Doesn't matter if that port is a small Alaskan fishing village or Caribbean shanty town with no medical facilities. The point isn't to save you, it's to avoid a death on board. We often have far more advanced medical facilities on board. Often times the towns and ships will throw a dying person back and fourth instead of helping. Nobody wants to acknowledge the statistic.
Or the people who quietly whisk you away and lock you in quarantine with no ability to leave if you're found to be infected by certain viruses, like Norovirus.
Or my personal favourite, people who disappear. Obviously people fall off. Or jump. Or whatever. We know that, and we prepare. Doesn't matter if you're in the hot tub, on your balcony, or gambling. If you aren't completely inside your room or the restroom, you're being watched. You may not see the cameras, but they're there.
Why? Because people do odd things. A few years ago a teenage girl met a boy she liked on a cruise and found by some stroke of luck, he was next door. She was invited over to his room but she couldn't open to main cabin door without disturbing her parents. So what does she do? Tries to jump from her balcony to his. It was only a short way, but it's slippery. She fell from damn near the highest level, hit the water and nobody saw her again.
Later her family wanted to sue with a claim that the safety railing was the issue and they deserved compensation. It sounds terrible, but all the CL did was tap into the footage. It was all on film, every second of it. Her jumping right over the rail, slipping, and silently disappearing into the dark below.
Also we're all constantly wasted. There's that too.
"...and this is why I will never go on a cruise ship". Nope, not happening..
