Russian riverboat tragedy highlights cruise ship safety

by Chris Owen on

The Russian river boat Bulgaria went down at 2 p.m. local time Sunday about 450 miles east of Moscow. While the exact cause is unknown, it was reported to be raining heavily at the time, the ship was maintained poorly and a lax implementation of safety rules look to be contributing factors in the Titanic-like sinking of the ship. The tragic accident highlights good reasons for some of the strict requirements major cruise lines have for passengers.

The ship was overloaded

The 56 year old ship had 208 people on board including 25 unregistered passengers and not enough life vests in Russia’s worst river accident in three decades.

“We have raised 41 bodies. There are 28 women, 10 men and the rest are children,” an emergencies ministry official in the central Russian republic of Tatarstan where the accident occurred Sunday told the Interfax news agency.

This is one reason why major cruise lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Princess, etc) have cabins rated to hold a certain number of passengers. While double occupancy is the industry standard, a limited number of cabins on most ships will accommodate more, but not all. U.S. Coast Guard ship inspections put a high emphasis on safety and ships not in compliance with standards are not able to sail. Period.

Children lost at sea

As many as 60 of the passengers may have been children, Russian media reported, and survivors said some 30 children had gathered in a room near the stern of the ship to play just minutes before it sank.

“Practically no children made it out. There were many children on the boat, very many,” survivor Natalya Makarova said on state television. She said she had lost her grip on her daughter as they struggled to escape.

Major cruise lines tag children with arm bands and know were children are. In order to board ships operated by major cruise lines, strict documentation requirements are in place that must be satisfied or boarding will be denied.

The Moscow Times reports that thirty-six children who died on the Bulgaria all had the same birth date, Dec. 30, 1999, on the passenger manifest, indicating that they were allowed to board without their identification documents, said ministry official Marat Rakhmatullin.

Safety is an ongoing issue with major cruise lines who are constantly working to make ships even safer. Royal Caribbean, for example, introduced a tagging system on Oasis of the Seas for three to 11-year-olds that uses an electronic device built into the wristbands that all children on the ship must wear. The system enables parents to locate children wherever they are among the ship’s 16 decks reports the Telegraph.

Safety not a big priority

Lax implementation of safety rules are responsible for many of Russia’s deadly accidents, from fires to plane crashes and mining disasters since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Major cruise lines hold safety drills at the beginning of each voyage so passengers know what to do in case of emergency.

‘It sank in two or three minutes, very fast,” Liliya Khaziyeva, a spokeswoman for the Rescue Service from the neighboring Udmurtia region, said by phone from a boat near the accident site. “We found dead people wearing life vests, people who were simply unable to leave the ship.” reports Business Week.

Last overhauled in 1980, the ship was running with a malfunctioning left engine and was not licensed to carry passengers.

One possible cause appeared to have been a lack of air conditioning which prompted the crew to open portholes that were then flooded by an incoming wave reports the Moscow Times.

Lessons learned

History will probably write that this ship sank over safety issues. From overloading the vessel with too many passengers to relaxed maintenance or simply attempting to operate a ship that was too old, the incident clearly points out how very important these issues are and what a good job major cruise lines do of answering the call for safety.

Safety drills at the beginning of each cruise on major cruise lines are mandatory, ships have ample life vests for all guests and oversight by government authorities keep the system in check.

Today’s Titanic

The Russian incident naturally raises some serious questions. Are today’s cruise lines operating as safely as possible? Is it possible to ever have another Titanic-like event?

Major cruise lines have set-in-stone rules regarding documentation needed to board a passenger ship. The requirements are strict and systems on board keep track of every passenger coming on or going off a ship. Behind-the-scenes activities performed by everyone from travel agents to embarkation staff at the pier help insure a safe voyage.

Cruise liners today are much bigger and better equipped. At 46,328 gross registered tons, Titanic was the largest and most advanced ship of her day. Today’s largest and most advanced ship, Allure of the Seas, is more than four times larger and carries almost twice as many people. Big ships are not nearly as “remarkable” as they were in 1912. Shipyards seem to crank them out as fast as they are ordered. Cruise lines deploy ships all over the planet now without hesitation to move one if an itinerary does not produce the anticipated results.

This Russian riverboat tragedy looks to be a totally preventable accident if common safety and maintenance procedures used by cruise lines world-wide had been followed. It is also a good reason to pay attention during those safety drills performed at the beginning of each cruise. Yes, odds are your cruise ship will not sink, but its a good idea to know what to do in case of an emergency and maybe have a little more patience with cruise line workers who insist on following the rules.

Flickr photo by mil8

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Video of the Day: Attack of the Blob

by Mike Barish on

Blobs are awesome. They’re big inflatable masses that you can use to launch people dozens of feet into the air and back down into the water. And, according to this video, the Blob has taken its aquatic mayhem to France, where these people were using it in Cergy. As summer heats up and we all look for ways to cool off (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), you can’t go wrong with the Blob. Unless, of course, you land as awkwardly as the person in this video. I imagine they might have enjoyed cooling off with a cold beverage rather than face-planting into this lake.

Stay cool out there!

Snore absorption room to give travelers restful sleep

by Chris Owen on

A UK trial of a snore absorption room by Crowne Plaza Hotels promises relief for travelers without medication or specialized equipment. The new room is a result of research revealing more than half of UK couples are losing between one and five hours sleep a night due to the snoring and snuffling of their partners with three in ten couples coming close to splitting up because snoring is coming between them.

“We’ve all been there. Lying wide awake at three o’clock in the morning burying our head under a pillow to drown out our partner’s snoring. There’s nothing worse than being kept up all night and that’s why we’ve designed this specific snore absorption room to help give our guests a great night’s sleep” said Tom Rowntree, spokesperson for Crowne Plaza in a release.

The new hotel room features sound proofing on walls to absorb the loud frequencies, a special sound absorbing head board, an anti-snoring bed wedge which acts as a body pillow, an anti-snoring pillow which uses magnets and a white noise machine which is proven to help drown out the droning snoring noise and help sleep and relaxation.
“Snoring is a common problem and whilst it’s thought of as a male problem, women can suffer from it as well. Snoring is made by vibrations of the soft palate and tissue in the mouth, nose and throat. Whilst there is no cure for snoring, Crowne Plaza is trying to reduce the impact of snoring by trialing a snore absorption room.” said Dr Chris Idzikowski, sleep expert.

Crowne Plaza is big on the whole idea of sleep. Their Sleep Advantage Program features dedicated quiet zones, luxurious bedding and pre-sleep in-room Aromatherapy that includes a lavender pillow spray and eucalyptus pulse oil to help you relax, breathe easier and sleep well.

That’s good news when traveling with a stranger who snores but chronic snorers are encouraged to take a look at other, more permanent, remedies which often treat the cause. Sleep Apnea, says the Mayo Clinic, “is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. You may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly and you feel tired even after a full night’s sleep” urging “If you think you might have sleep apnea, see your doctor. Treatment is necessary to avoid heart problems and other complications.”

Flickr photo by Perfecto Insecto

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The Polish Spa Town That Time Forgot

by David Farley on
Set in the pine-laden Beskid Sadecki mountains in southern Poland and not far from the Slovakian border, Krynica attracts hordes of tourists. The town’s long promenade is the center of action: flanked by the usual 19th-century Central European spa town Art Deco and neo-classical architecture, the promenade is frequented by water-sipping strollers, purple-haired geriatrics who like to pass out on park benches, and mustached men trying to convince passersby that they really want a photo-op with a sad-looking monkey on a chain or a depressed miniature horse. There are no backpackers or even flashpackers or jetsetters here.

Nearly all of the hordes of tourists in Krynica come to parade their diseases down the promenade, sipping the apparently healing mineral water that bubbles up from springs, and awaiting their next spa treatment. The reason? This town of 11,000 people is one of Poland’s most popular heath resorts. The Polish spa town that time forgot.


How many Poles does it take to make a spa town flourish? In the case of Krynica, the answer is just one. When Jozef Dietl, the father of Polish balneology (the science of the medical application of baths) declared in 1856 that the town’s natural mineral springs were curative, Krynica became the center of sanative relief for this Central European country. It’s not a place for the young, or even the young at heart. The nightlife scene, for example, is mostly limited to several dancehalls, where visitors party like it’s 1949.
I didn’t have a disease, but I did have an assignment from a magazine editor who was working on a European spa package article. When she found out I was going to be in Poland for another assignment, she came to me with orders: “Just go to Krynica and spend the day getting spa treatments.” I’ve never been into spa travel. I usually go somewhere for a singular reason: to eat (and then write about it) or just because I’m curious about the place, but I never gravitate toward this kind of pampering.

But here I was, sitting on a bench reading a brochure about what was in store for me. Krynica-Zdroj, as it’s officially called, is historically known for treating illnesses of the stomach, diabetes, menstrual cycle disturbances, and, according to the brochure, “states after conservative operations of genital organ.” As I watched geriatric spa goers limp by on the promenade, I feared the worst.

Taking my editor’s orders, I marched into the spa at the ’70s theme park Panorama Hotel and steeled myself. I scanned the menu of treatments, many of which seemed incomprehensible and some almost seemed like a threat. Measurement of Pressure? The President’s Armchair? The Scottish Whip? I didn’t want to ask. Instead, I blindly pointed to a small handful of treatments on the list.

A frumpy women in her early 60s whisked me into a white-tiled room and fired a slew of Polish orders at me. I only understood her hand gestures: disrobe. When I got down to my boxers, she put up the palm of her hand to halt right there and then waved me to stand against the wall. Ten seconds later, this granny was blasting two high-pressured water streams at me. I felt less like I was getting treated for a disease and more like I was a victim of the Sluzba Bezpieczenstwa, the communist-era secret police. After a few more minutes of punishing high-pressure water, I was escorted into a massage room. The strapping, blond Zoltan explained he was going to give me a “sport massage,” which in Polish massage speak meant he’d be punishing my back and shoulders for 45 minutes. As Zoltan pounded and punched away, grunting and breathing heavy, his sweat dropping on me, I wondered who was getting more out of this: me or him. When he was done abusing my back, he let me go to a hot whirlpool so I could soak off the pain that was just inflicted on me by the water-firing granny and Zoltan. Eventually, my spa day ended with the President’s Armchair: a leather chair with what felt like a bowling ball inside moving up and down my back, as speakers in the headrest blasted Polish rock.


Celebrating the end of my day’s worth of torture, I ate surprisingly artery hardening, yet delicious pork-stuffed potato pancakes and cheese-filled pierogis.

I hopped back on the bus to Krakow early the next morning hoping that I never come back to Krynica. Or, rather, that I never have a real reason to come back.

Photo of the Day – Copenhagen canal

by Jeremy Kressmann on

As we noted earlier this week, Summer is a glorious time in Scandinavia. The region’s normally chilly temperatures have mellowed, and activities like cycling, boating and swimming are in full swing. If you need more visual proof, just check out this idyllic scene captured by Flickr user justchuckfl, in the Danish city of Copenhagen. Like many Scandinavian capitals, Copenhagen is an urban center inextricably tied to the sea and its many canals. If you find yourself walking the streets of this colorful capital, you’re likely to encounter a scene much like this one – a scenic canal ringed by brighly-hued buildings and bobbing sailboats.

Taken any great photos during your own travels? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.