WEIGHING IN ON THE COSTA CONCORDIA

I don't claim to be a cruise expert.  However, I have been on enough cruises to know that the entire story of the Costa Concordia to be a total lapse in human judgement.

As anyone who has cruised knows, almost before you leave port, you have the official "lifeboat drill".  This is the often boring task of going to your cabin, finding your life vests, putting them over your head and clipping yourself in snugly...and then going to your particular meeting point ...IE the dining room or the aft deck or somewhere else on the ship where you receive training as to what to do in case of emergency.  Then everyone traipses to their particular life boat muster station to hear the drill from the captain.

In the case of the Costa Concordia, three hours into the cruise and no "lifeboat drill".....but instead the real thing and no one knowing what to do.   No Captain....announcements from crew members in various languages....total confusion reigned.  So where was the Captain of this ship?   Rumor has it that even an hour after the hull breach from his off course maneuver...he was having dinner with a pretty blond crew member. 

So human blunder no 1......going 2 and 1/2  miles off course to show his ship off to the inhabitants of Giglio Island (maybe he had relatives...or a girlfriend there?).
2nd human blunder....having a hull breach and not worrying about it.
3rd human blunder .....falling into a life boat with your blond dinner companion (what?)
4th human blunder...not having the ____'s to get back on his sinking ship and taking command.

I am sure there are more human blunders that we have not heard about...but I believe that the biggest human blunder of all is the lack of a background check by Carnival Corporation on the history of this particular captain.

For those of us in the travel industry, it has long been known that ships captains and crew live a somewhat cavalier life...going from port to port with liaison's everywhere.  It's almost like airline pilots who have a similar reputation in the business. Come now guys....sorry,...but how  many years have you denigrated the reputations of flight attendants?  Even now...the TV serial PAN AM puts a shady light on both the  men and women of those historic crews.

So no surprise that our Latin lover captain had his mind (and who knows what else) on something besides his ship, the Costa Concordia.

For me....I love solid ground where I can dance the Tango, or hike high mountains in Tibet, or photograph the wonderful Big Five in Africa.  After all....the Southern Hemisphere is my playground.
So if you are a cruise fanatic.....more power to you.  There is a lot to enjoy on those big behemoths....and know that not all crews are like that on the Concordia.