Obviously that other captain didn't ground his boat, probably because the other salute was planned.

Schettino was doing his navigation by eye.

From what I've seen of the recorded track from August, the ship was (critically) rather further away from the coast where the rocks are, even though she was a bit closer to the coast when she passed by the harbour. Without full investigation, it's impossible to know for sure; but this would be entirely consistent with a properly planned and executed close pass - the terrain avoidance would have been fully planned.

In contrast, if the reports about this captain's unplanned "hand flying" are correct, all of that planned margin simply ceases to exist.

You know... The more that comes to light about this... The more I slowly stand there shaking my head...

It is a tragedy for the families of those poor soles who have been taking so unfairly whilst on their vacation/holiday and I feel for them.

I am sure there will be more that comes to light in relation to this before it is over which will leave me even more speechless.

However, having watched "Cruise Ship Diaries" on some random Sky TV channel at some time, it did not instil me with confidence in Costa and certainly did not sell a safety conscious environment.

Either way, it is a terribly sad event, and whoever turns out to be to blame for this needs to be taken to task appropriately.

Two more victims found
 

The article also says that pumping of fuel from the stricken vessel can proceed in tandem with the search of the wreck.

There are definitely exceptions to this. Depending on the captain's discretion, it's sometimes possible to get bridge tours. I was able to tour the bridge of the Royal Princess a few years ago (and for that tour it was my wife and I and another couple), and all it took was a note to the captain asking about it. Now, that said, there were security people that stayed on the bridge the entire time we were there (didn't pay enough attention to tell if they were armed or not). This was on a sea day, so the ship was underway. We were allowed to explore the entire bridge (escorted of course), talk to various officers on duty, and take pictures of pretty much anything we wanted to (we'd been told ahead of times not to take pictures of anything we were told not to, but when we got to the bridge, we were never told not to take pictures of anything).

Princess and Carnival both do ship tours (for a sometimes hefty fee) that includes a trip the bridge while at sea. I did the tour on the Carnival Pride a couple years ago ($95 for about 4 hours), and it concluded with about a half hour on the bridge with the captain and a few other officers. We weren't allowed to take cameras on the tour, but they had a photographer who met us at various points of the tour and we got those pictures as part of the price. I had been on several cruise ship bridges but that was the only time while at sea. Even though I have been up on the deck on top of the bridge while at sea, it seemed like a totally different perspective while actually on the bridge. Not exactly sure why.

Also on the RCI Navigator of the Seas, (and I presume it's 4 sister ships) they had what they call the "Peek-a-boo Bridge" which is a window from the deck immediately above and behind the bridge which looks right down onto the center control console of the bridge. I was able to take several pictures zoomed down onto the screens to see speed, course, water depth, winds, etc.

It’s an offer they can refuse.

Carnival Corp. is pitching a tasteless “30 percent discount on future cruises” to survivors of its deadly Costa Concordia shipwreck off the Italian coast, in an apparent bid to stave off lawsuits.

The tactless move by Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival, came as rescuers pulled a 13th body from the crashed cruise liner, reports surfaced of possibly unaccounted-for stowaways killed in the disaster — and investigators hunted for a laptop computer hurriedly discarded by the disgraced ship captain.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/interna...#ixzz1kLB58dY4

Really who is doing their public relations, Daffy Duck?

I was on a Silversea cruise this past summer which offered a tour of the bridge during the days at sea. You had to sign up at least 12 hours in advance to attend (supposedly a security thing), but the tour was free (and quite interesting).

I saw this story written up in the Calgary Herald.. and was regarded by the passengers as a cheap way of trying to amends by the affected passengers..

Any legal basis, for the class action lawsuits brewing? Passengers are collectively seeking into the hundreds of millions for compensation..

Interestingly/strangely enough CCL's stock is up about 10% from its opening price last Tuesday. Granted Carnival is much larger and stronger than Costa but still...
I received an 'everything's okay' email from the Chairman of Royal Caribbean this morning. The entire industry is obviously effected by this.
There should be some tempting deals in the short-term. Speaking of which, I think I will check vacationstogo.

This story is being widely reported. But some reports include a statement from Costa which is rather more believable: the full refund plus 30% discount on a future cruise is being offered to those who were booked on subsequent Concordia cruises which have now been cancelled as a result of the accident, and not to those who were on the accident cruise itself. That is broadly in line with common industry practice when a cruise has had to be cancelled.

Time will tell whether there has been straight misreporting, or whether Costa's clarifying statement is not true, or whether Costa staff have been mistakenly offering this to people who were on the accident cruise.

Admittedly I've done no research on this, but I'd bet my hat the folks on the ill fated cruise get a full refund and at least 30% discounts in the future, as will everyone else who had a cruise scheduled and canceled due to the sinking. This is not to try to stave off lawsuits, this is common practice when something goes wrong on a cruise which then affects future voyages.

But it's a good headline when the media can suggest they are trying to do this to wipe the slate clean.

They have said multiple times that everybody was getting a full refund, that's not at all even an issue.

A week and a half after the Titanic-like cruise disaster off the coast of Italy, Costa Cruises is offering all passengers who were aboard the Costa Concordia on Jan. 13 a full refund, including travel expenses “incurred both reaching the port of embarkation and on the homeward journey.”

The company said Monday that on-board expenses will be refunded, and that it “will reimburse any medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident,” according to a statement issued by a Miami public relations firm representing Costa Cruises North America.

The problem is once again their PR people don't have a clue what they were doing. The 30% off deal has changed it's tone at least five times since it was reported, partly because each official spokesperson is saying something totally different. The simplest thing of the PR firm handling all communications and making sure all the official spokes people are saying the same thing just isn't happening.

Even if the media got it wrong (despite them quoting a Costa spokesperson) there was no attempt by Costa or their hiding under the rocks PR firm to set the record right, it's dribbling out in bits and pieces. Carnivals missing CEO needs to get on a plane, go to Italy, and stand in front of the ship and say what Carnival will do for the people.

No wait, they can't do that as they are trying to pretend Carnival and Costa have no connection.

They also said yesterday

Costa Cruises also said that “every effort will be made to return the valuables left in the cabin safe.”

but apparently have backed off from earlier statements they would reimburse people for things they lost.

It's been well over a week now, there should be a very clear statement saying what they will and won't cover by now.

I'd say that's all pretty normal. With Princess, on the Crown tilt cruise, entire cruise fare was refunded (but not onboard expenses, which to me was fairly reasonable in the circumstances). Travel expenses home were covered (and no real quibbling over that, I ended up with first class tickets because it was about all that was available last minute, and had no problems with that - of course, my FC tickets were cheaper than some of the coach tickets I was hearing about). Hotel and cab fare for the night we arrived back in NY from the flight before we could pick the car up the next day. In that case, Princess also covered damaged property (at least we didn't have any problems, but our claims weren't that high, a cell phone, camera, and a library book that were water damaged, but the covered all that without an argument).

They probably won't come out and publicly announce what compensation they're giving those on the cruise. I'm guessing partly so they don't set a precedent for future incidents, and partly because quite honestly, it's going to vary some by the individual circumstances - I know people on our cruise that got injured received different compensation packages than those that didn't. Also, I know that people that helped out with first aid in the dining room were compensated differently (we had numerous EMT and doctor's on board from NY, my wife helped out because she at least had first aid training, and they were looking for all the help they could get). So just based on my experience, there won't be a blanket answer to how they compensate people.

I agree. Look at during hurricane season when a ship is delayed a day, and the compensation they offer. In the early 2000's there was a rash of ship propulsion problems with a particular brand of azimuth pods, and several ships had to go in to drydock for emergency repairs (Celebrity comes to mind on this), and offered pretty generous compensation packages to people who's cruises had to be re-scheduled. Our Sept 2001 cruise from New York was moved to Boston because of 9-11 and Carnival offered is $200 each on board credit to keep the cruise or would let us cancel without penalty.

Also not sure about the previous poster's statement about Carnival distancing itself from Costa. I have seen many tweets from Mickey Arison about this, and Carnival Cruise Lines have had many updates on their Facebook page, even though it's not a Carnival Cruise Lines ship.