Venice to cruise ships: Get out please

by Chris Owen on

Venice is proud of its heritage. Home to beautiful architecture, canals, bridges, gondolas, the annual Venice Film Festival, the Basilica and many other churches along with museums like the Guggenheim, its probably no surprise that cruise ships are not on the top of their list of things to add to the mix. In the wake of the Concordia grounding, considering the threat of accidents, air and water pollution, and an additional 2 million more visitors a year into a city already maxed out with tourists, Venice has a plan to keep cruise ships away.

The city does not want cruise ships in their lagoon at all but as a first step to keep them away, wants to reroute ships arriving in Venice so they stay farther from St. Mark’s and other prominent monuments as a possible step toward keeping them out of the lagoon altogether.

“This is one of the hypotheses we’re working on,” Environmental Minister Corrado Clini told the Associated Press. “In the meantime we should take precautionary measures to progressively reduce risk.”

The Venice Port Authority opposes moves against cruise traffic saying the cruise industry employs thousands of Venetians and believes Venice is not a candidate for cruise ships to run aground like the Concordia did last month, not all that far away.

In addition, a team of 25 cruise ship captains work around the clock as pilots of a sort, assigned to board cruise ships outside the lagoon and oversee their passage through Venice, accompanied by a pair of tug boats.

To deal with the air pollution, the port is exploring a system that would let ships plug in to shore side power when docked, similar to how ships plug in to U.S. West coast ports, allowing them to turn off their engines. Like U.S. systems, a green shore side power system will be costly and seems to have stalled for that reason.

Unlike U.S. ports concerned about the impact of cruise ships though, Venice is a United Nations-protected UNESCO site and Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for culture, a Venetian himself, said longer-term solutions are needed.

“The city is a very fragile city. This is a city that comes to us from the Middle Ages,” Bandarin told the AP. “It is not designed for having that kind of traffic. It is designed to have ships, and we will always have ships around Venice, but not these kind of ships.”


Flickr photo by jastrow75

Cruise ships bring nearly 700 sick passengers to shore

by Chris Owen on

Between two cruise ships arriving in Florida and one in New Orleans, nearly 700 sick passengers were brought to shore over the weekend. Norovirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, hit passengers and crew causing hundreds to become ill, many to be quarantined and sailings to be delayed. Its a common ailment, magnified by the closed environment of a cruise ship, but avoidable for the most part with some basic precautions and help is on the way in the form of a new vaccine.

Investigators with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) went on board Ruby Princess and Crown Princess to monitor cleaning procedures said Princess spokesperson Julie Benson. “We’re working in close cooperation with the CDC to identify the cause,” Benson told CNN after 499 cases occurred between the two ships, both based out of Fort Lauderdale.

In New Orleans, WDSU-TV reported Royal Caribbean‘s Voyager of the Seas returned with 200 cases of the flu-like illness.

“At Royal Caribbean International we have high health standards for all our guests and crew,” said Royal Caribbean in a statement. “During the sailing, we conduct enhanced cleaning on-board the ship, to help prevent the spread of the illness. Additionally, when Voyager of the Seas arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, this past Saturday, February 4, we conducted an extensive and thorough sanitizing on-board the ship and within the cruise terminal, to help prevent any illness from affecting the subsequent sailing.”

The CDC notified officials in Louisiana Friday that a cruise ship might be coming in with a Norovirus outbreak, state epidemiologist Raoult Ratard said Sunday, reported CBS News. Putting the illness into perspective, Ratard said that on any given day about 10,000 people in the New Orleans area are likely to have diarrhea and about 30 percent of them because of the Norovirus.

“In a closed space like a cruise ship, in a nursing home, in a hospital, you want to be extra careful,” Ratard said.

On the horizon, new a new medical breakthrough might have the answer to cruise passenger concerns over Norovirus incidents.

“It is possible to prevent infection and illness with a vaccine for Norovirus,” Dr. Robert Atmar, a professor of medicine and molecular virology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told Medicine Plus. But many questions remain unanswered, he said. For example, “we have to figure out the best way to give it and how long protection lasts.”

Tested on 98 people who received the vaccine or an inactive placebo, all of the participants tested positive for a gene that makes them more susceptible to the Norovirus. But those who received the new vaccine were less likely to develop the illness than their counterparts who received the placebo, the study showed.

Administered as two doses three weeks apart via a nasal spray, there were no safety issues seen in the study and side effects were minimal.

“Further study is needed to answer questions such as who should get the vaccine and how long the protection lasts,” said Dr. Thomas Hooton, a professor of infectious disease at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine noting the Norovirus is “a mess and spreads like wildfire.”

When will this new treatment be available?

No timetable has been set but Atmar suggested the likely initial candidates would be people in nursing homes, health-care workers, the military and segments of the food industry.

How to avoid Norovirus while we wait for the new miracle medicine? Here are some tips to maximize your chances of not getting the Norovirus bug while on your cruise:

  • Wash your hands- Like on land, our hands contact all sorts of things and people, many of which may have horrible sicko germs, waiting to attack us. Do you know how to wash your hands? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the people that police these things, have instructions on how to do it.
  • Don’t count on the hand sanitizers– Those hand sanitizer dispensers all over the ship are mostly for show in the grand scheme of things. They help but there is no substitution for a good hand washing.
  • Avoid touching things– Hand rails on stairs, elevator buttons, walls are all things that some sick person might have touched before you.
  • Don’t pick your nose– I know, gross, but a really good way to get germs on your fingers into your body.
  • Avoid closed spaces– Cruise ships themselves provide the closed environment that the Norovirus needs to multiply and thrive. Elevators then, are almost like a closed environment within a closed environment and should be avoided. It won’t kill most people to take the stairs and get some extra exercise either.


Flickr photo by SCA Svenska Cellulosa Aktiebolaget

Nat Geo presents five cruise ship disasters that changed travel

by Kraig Becker on

Over the past week, the Costa Concordia story has been a prominent one amongst both the mainstream media and travel outlets alike. The sinking of a cruise ship is not a common occurrence and ranks amongst the worst travel nightmares imaginable. While questions about exactly what happened aboard that ship remain, it is clear that the accident will likely have far reaching consequences and bring change to the cruise industry.

With that in mind, our friends over at National Geographic have put together an interesting article, along with some very compelling images, of 5 cruise ship disasters that changed travel. Each of the entries on the list, and the Costa Concordia is not among them, left an indelible mark on how cruise ships operate today. For example, not surprisingly, the Titanic earns a place on Nat Geo’s roll call of infamy thanks to the fact that when it went down, there were only enough lifeboats for about half the passengers on board. As a result, 1500 people perished, and cruise ships were later mandated to begin carring enough lifeboats for everyone.

The four other entries on the list had a similar impact on the industry, although not all of them resulted in such a massive loss of life. It is an interesting study of how a disaster at sea can make a lasting change for the better, and end up making travel by ship a lot safer in the process.

Interesting indoor spaces around the world

by Laurel Miller on

I love the outdoors, to the extent that I tend to bypass or overlook exceptional indoor spaces when I’m traveling or recounting a great trip. Fortunately, Lonely Planet author/former Gadling contributor Leif Pettersen’s recent list on LP’s website has reminded me that—as many a grandmother has said—beauty is on the inside.

Pettersen says only in recent years has he developed a special appreciation for the indoors. He had ample time to contemplate his new interest “during two sadistically cold weeks last winter when I voluntarily confined myself to the Minneapolis Skyway System as a livability experiment for an article I was working on.”

He’s since started a list of “singular, practical” indoor spaces (traveloguebookdealforthewin!) of note, including (obviously) Minneapolis’ Skyway System (“The largest contiguous skyway system in the world, connecting what may be the largest contiguous indoor space anywhere.”); Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar; Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure; NYC’s Grand Central Terminal (aka Grand Central Station); St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, and the Queen Mary 2. Here’s to keeping warm indoors this winter.

[Photo credit: Flickr user davedehetre]

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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