Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

silvercar

Wheezy wrote: »

Anyone else found the comparisons to the Titanic highly annoying?
"It was just like the Titanic"
No it wasn't
My heart goes out to the people who have perished on the Concordia, but it was nothing like the Titanic.

It was a big boat.

Its bust.

People died.

End off. In Daily Mail terms at least.

vivatifosi

purch wrote: »

Sinking ??

...looks more like it's fallen over :eek:

A tragedy that anyone would die whilst on such a vessel, but in such circumstances the word tragedy doesn't begin to cover it....

Ok, maybe not the right word, but I don't really know the word for half-sunk!

neverdespairgirl

Wheezy wrote: »

Anyone else found the comparisons to the Titanic highly annoying?
"It was just like the Titanic"
No it wasn't
My heart goes out to the people who have perished on the Concordia, but it was nothing like the Titanic.

I spluttered a lot when I first heard that. Well over half the people on Titanic died, in the middle of the north Atlantic, not a few people (less than 1%, I think) just offshore in the Med.

neverdespairgirl

vivatifosi wrote: »

I'm very, very angry with the Captain. As DH who works in airline safety says "can you imagine what it would be like if we left the safety briefing until after the meal service?"

I wouldn't be, yet. Because there isn't enough known, and the company's eagerness to blame him to quickly troubles me.

lostinrates

Capsized, innit? I do not sail so not sure of watery terminology and unlike viva hate the idea of a cruise.

purch

As DH who works in airline safety says "can you imagine what it would be like if we left the safety briefing until after the meal service?"

I know that I'd be pretty worried if I felt a little turbulance and then saw the Pilot strapping on a parachute and jumping out :eek:

vivatifosi

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I wouldn't be, yet. Because there isn't enough known, and the company's eagerness to blame him to quickly troubles me.

The company will almost certainly be shown to have a role in this. I'm also a member at Cruise Critic (another forum) and it as been said over there that the company has sanctioned such deviations before and that a previous one (last year) the GPS shows positioning far closer to shore than declared, so this isn't a one off. Costa ships have a tradition of making such manouvres. If Costa didn't want that to happen, surely they could have done something before now.

The company is also being roundly slated for not offering a refund to those who had cruises booked on the ship, only a credit for an equivalent value cruise with the same company.

However I do expect a captain to stay with his ship until the passengers are off. Unless the recording is proved to be a total fake (which is unlikely because by now his defence lawyer would have come out and said so) he will almost certainly be found guilty of abandoning ship, which is aiui still an offence in Italy.

Further I expect the maritime rules to be changed so that everyone - even where people board in more than one port - gets a lifeboat drill before leaving their point of embarkation. Now this last point isn't Costa's fault or the Captain's - neither did anything illegal - but it isn't good practice.

PasturesNew

I'd go on a cruise, but the single person supplement would make it ridiculously expensive ... and as the cheapest cabins don't even have a window I wouldn't be able to whistle up any enthusiasm whatsoever.

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd go on a cruise, but the single person supplement would make it ridiculously expensive ... and as the cheapest cabins don't even have a window I wouldn't be able to whistle up any enthusiasm whatsoever.

One cruise line has designed what they like to call "staterooms" but in reality are cabins for single travelers. They are a bit weird though, like Wheezy's space shower:

http://solofriendly.com/norwegian-epic-studio-staterooms/

LydiaJ

I have Windows 7 at work, and on my kids' computers (both of which were second hand but have been reformatted and had Windows reinstalled) but Vista on my own laptop (which I've had for ages). Until recently I had XP at work. I have Office 2010 (is that right?) at work, and at home I have most of Office 2007 but Outlook 2003. TBH I don't notice much difference and swap between them without thinking about it.

DS, however, is disgusted with the new version of Windows Movie Maker that came with W7. He had Vista on his computer until last week, when it got a v nasty virus. He had nothing stored on it that he wanted to keep, so my IT friend (who happened to be babysitting over the weekend) reformatted his HDD and reinstalled Windows - but Windows 7 this time. DS says the new Movie Maker won't do what he wants it to do, and it's useless, and he can only possibly do his school history project (a lego animation about Victorian inventions) if I let him use my Vista laptop for it. What I think I need is someone who's good with it who can help him adjust to the changes and learn how to do things on the new package, but I'm not sure where I'm going to find one of those.

(Perhaps I should explain that the history project is to do some kind of presentation about some aspect of Victorian Britain. The lego animation format was his choice, enthusiastically encouraged by the rest of his class who loved the lego animation he did about the Blitz last term.)