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Dateline NBC to Air an Update to “Man Overboard” Update January 6

Written by T.I. Cruiser on January 6, 2012 · Leave a Comment

On July 5th 2005, sometime around 4:30am George Allen Smith IV went missing from Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas. It was supposed to be a honeymoon cruise for him and his wife Jennifer Hagel who had been married in late June. Instead of being a week of celebrating the start of a new union this Mediterranean cruise onboard the Brilliance would be their final days together.

It has already been the subject of an episode of NBC Dateline, a basis of a Lifetime movie and a book entitled “Man Overboard: Inside the Honeymoon Cruise Murder“, written by Joan Lownds and the catalyst to the reformation of cruise industry safety standards. I dare say the coverage this happening received was one of the most important moments in recent cruise line history.

Although all of the details of the investigation aren’t vivid in my mind I can tell you this was one of the highest profile instances of cruise crime ever. As newlywed Jennifer Hagel lay unconscious in a stairwell of one area of the ship, her husband George went overboard never to be found. To this day no one knows for certain whether it was the result of an accident or foul play.

I don’t want to butcher the story by providing incorrect details but I do recall it involved lots of money, alcohol, 3 Russian nationals and an ominous looking blood smear. Even more sadly it also involved a business entity who seemingly did not care. Tune in to NBC Dateline tonight to see an update of the story that ran 5 years ago complete with new evidence and never before aired photos.

… I Just Have to Run Faster Than You

Written by T.I. Cruiser on August 23, 2011 · 1 Comment

Here is a little anecdote I heard many years ago. I no longer remember who I heard it from or even if he was the first person to say it but nonetheless it’s appropriate for the topic of how to avoid being a victim of crime while on a cruise.

Two guys are camping in the woods. At the end of the night they climb into their sleeping bags and within minutes both are sound asleep. Sometime in the middle of the night they get woken up by the sound of what sounds like a very large animal tearing their campsite apart. All it takes is the sound of one roar for both of them to quickly realize, it’s a bear, and he sounds hungry. In the moonlight the campers see the silhouette of the beast making its way towards them.

The first guy frantically crawls out of his sleeping bag yelling, “Run for your life, it’s a grizzly”. The second guy calmly rolls out of his bag and starts to put on his sneakers. The first camper asks, “What are you doing? Bears can run like 30 miles per hour, your sneakers aren’t going to help outrun him”. While finishing putting on his shoes the second camper emphatically states, “I don’t have to outrun the bear I just have to outrun you”.

Although I must have heard that story 15 years ago it’s always stuck in my mind because there is some real wisdom in that anecdote, which can be directly applied to behavior while in port. Particularly when talking about Caribbean travel you have to remember most of these areas are very poor. While relatively speaking as cruise passengers we have a fair amount of money. This in and of itself makes you an automatic target for anyone whose moral beliefs (or lack of) don’t preclude them from preying on others. So whether you realize it or not the minute you step off the cruise ship you have become a potential target.

Now anyone can be the victim of a crime while in a cruise port and if you cruise enough chances are you will hear stories of fellow cruisers who were those victims. The reason why is they never took the time to put on their sneakers. You see, when you dock in that cruise port you don’t exit the ship alone. Thousands of your fellow cruisers will also be flooding into the port and if it’s a busy day the number of ~~potential targets~~ cruise passengers can reach 10 thousand or more tourists. Just as a gluttonous campsite will attract wild animals, a busy port day will attract animals of the two legged variety who feed by preying on you.

While you can Google different things to do to protect yourself no amount of blog or message board reading will teach you to run faster than those bears. If the bear is hungry enough it will find something to eat. This leads me back to the point of the story which in a nutshell says you don’t have to be fully insulated against crime you just have to be savvier than your fellow cruisers. While it may sound heartless and self-centered the truth is learning to outrun your fellow cruisers may someday save you from being a victim.

Here are some behaviors you can adopt which will allow you to outrun your fellow cruisers.

Batten down the hatches… Hurricane Season is about to Pick Up

Written by T.I. Cruiser on August 3, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Could My Ship Be Diverted Due to a Hurricane

Yesterday Tropical Storm Emma the fifth named store of the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane season prompted watches and warnings throughout the Caribbean. Although hurricane season has been relatively quiet thus far as we enter late-summer “business” will surely begin to pick-up. In other words “Batten down the hatches” it may be a bumpy ride.

Obviously hurricanes are one of natures most destructive forces. Capable covering areas hundreds of miles wide, shutting down whole regions of the world and capable of causing unparalleled death and destruction; hurricane season is not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately if you are an avid cruiser hurricane season will eventually threaten to turn your vacation upside down. This isn’t to say it will ruin your vacation because it doesn’t have to, but it may alter things.

Although hurricanes are so darn destructive they do have one saving grace. No hurricane has ever snuck up on a cruise ship. For the most part hurricanes develop and move relatively slowly allowing cruise lines time to put in place contingency plans. The cruise industry is huge and the lines have billions upon billions of dollars invested in their vessels so it would be an understatement to say they leave no stone unturned.

While hurricane forced cancellations are a rarity in the cruise industry, one thing you have to realize when sailing during hurricane season is the cruise you book may not be the cruise you sail. What I mean by that is depending on the course a particular storm is tracking and the severity of that storm you may have booked a cruise to Saint Martin but ended up in Cozumel. This is probably the most common sort of diversion. In fact, several ships are experiencing that right now with Tropical Storm Emma.

Oftentimes these decisions aren’t popular and I have been on ships where the passengers nearly mutinied due to the changing of an itinerary. What you have to remember is these sorts of decisions are made back at the home offices and are necessary to not only protect the cruise lines billion dollar ships but also the thousands of passengers and crew on board those ships. So if you are ever faced with that situation keep in mind that everything being done is to keep human lives as safe as possible.