Man and woman "fall" from the balcony of cruise ship?

Question

HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- More than four hours after they fell from a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico, two vacationers were pulled from the water about 150 miles off the Galveston, Texas, coast early Sunday, according to the cruise line and the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 22-year-old man and 20-year-old woman apparently fell from a passenger's cabin balcony on the Grand Princess about eight hours after the cruise ship left the Galveston port, said Julie Benson, spokeswoman for Princess Cruises.

Coast guard officials "found the man nude in the water but he was then clothed and is now on the ship's deck in a wheelchair," Shaw said.

Huh...accident? you be the judge?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070325/ap_on_re_us/passengers_overboard

Answer 1

Some drunken idiot fell overboard last week - and they found him too!  I wonder if the cruise lines should simply offer people the opportunity to be trhown overboard.  Strap them to a life jacket, tie a rope around them, chuck them in the drink and drag them for a mile.

Answer 2

My guess either one or both were extremely drunk.  The cruise industry gets too much flack for, but these are adults who make their own choices.  When you are on a boat much like a plane you are going to hit some unforseen snags which may cause someone to be knocked off their feet, second many of the edges are about waist high so if that happens you could fall off especially when you are smashed.  It is good to see that they are still alive, but people need to understand that being extremely drunk on a cruise ship can be extremely dangerous.

Answer 3

No it was not an accident it was passenger stupidity.  I have been on that ship and had balcony cabin there and on many other ships and cruise lines.  A person has to actually climb up to get over a balcony railing.  You do not just walk up to the balcony or any deck railing and risk falling over.  

I was on a cruise ship last year and leaving Jamaica there was a couple sitting on the railing of the cruise ship up on deck 12 or 13.  The man had his back to the water.  Yes they were drunk.  The problem was no crew person came around and told them to get down.  I have a photo of them which I intended to send to Royal Caribbean but never got around to.

Whenever people fall over its because they did some thing stupid or intentionally jumped.

Answer 4

I'm sure the two individuals were drunk college students on spring break.  Now because of their poor behavior, all of the other passengers suffer the consequences......the ship will now be late to the next port of call.

Answer 5

I have been on five cruises.  Some individuals go on these cruises and do not think they have to behave and be accountable.

Answer 6

I'm sure it was a accident, no one in their right mind would want to fall that far off a ship.  They had to be a couple idiots, standing on the rail of their balcony or sitting on it.  I have been on cruise ships and it would be impossible to fall off, the railing is quite high. They had to be goofing off and it went wrong. They are very lucky to have survived it.

Answer 7

These stories are so terrible to hear, but worse yet is that before long the cruise lines are going to do something about it. I think before long the insurance companies are going to require something be done, somehow they are going to enclose basically any outdoor place to prevent this. I'm actually surprised that it hasn't been done already, because of children and/or adults falling over board. Personally, I will be very dissapointed if/when this happens, having the open areas and the fresh air is so nice, how much longer it will last, I don't know.

Alcohol seems to be the biggest culprit in these accidents. From what I heard, the gentlemen from last week had a reaction with some medication he was on and the problem started only after having one beer. So this was a situation that doesn't happen every day. But so many people go on cruises and do nothing but drink. I was on a cruise not too long ago and a woman did nothing but drink. I talked to her the firs day and she seemed just fine, I talked to her the next day and she had been sick the whole night and most of the morning, she claimed she wasn't going to drink anymore. By the time I seen her again toward the end of the cruise, she barely remembered me and was clearly in a bad state, especially on a cruise. A friend of mine went on a cruise a few weeks ago. Anytime they went into the night clubs there was a younger girls always causing problems, getting into trouble, one night she was even taking her clothes off. She got kicked out of just about every place she went on the cruise. Finally they discovered that she was 20 years old and wanted to drink, so her friends were buying her all the drinks. After they got in trouble for buying the drinks and stopped buying them, the girl didn't get into anymore trouble. Another person in the same party spent a day in the medical unit on an i.v. because of being dehyrdated. Another cruise not too long ago a passenger had to be airlifted off of the ship because they had been drinking too much, was messing around in the pool, hit their head and had to have surgery. Seems like one common factor to me!

In my opinion, cruises and excessive (really any drinking) just don't mix very well. I think that the cruise lines need to do something to limit the amount of drinking for each passenger before other passengers have to deal with the consequences. I understand that is how a lot of people relax and have a good time, but there just needs to be a limit, on a cruise of all places, it is just too risky.

I just hate to hear these stories, for so many reasons.