Cruise 'story' on Huffington Post

[ElvisAndretti]

I have no first hand knowledge of cruising beyond what I read here and what my friends have told me. But this seems like a pretty feeble attempt at a hatchet job, thoughts?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01/never-cruise-vacation_n_1311464.html#s743940&title=1_Titanic_troubles

 

:eek::rolleyes::eek::rolleyes::eek::rolleyes:

[Quasar1011]

The Huffington Post isn't exactly the most reputable news source out there. :rolleyes:

[ElvisAndretti]

The Huffington Post isn't exactly the most reputable news source out there. :rolleyes:

 

Can you cite a specific example? You know, where they misrepresented facts or distored them in a significant way?

 

This link was emailed to me, I don't generally read it, but it seems that most of what they report is factually accurate.

 

This was an opinion piece so 'reputable' is kind of a moot point.

[paul929207]

Can you cite a specific example? You know, where they misrepresented facts or distored them in a significant way?

 

This link was emailed to me, I don't generally read it, but it seems that most of what they report is factually accurate.

 

This was an opinion piece so 'reputable' is kind of a moot point.

I would say this "report" on cruising is an obvious exaggeration. Yes, these things can happen. However, bad things can happen everywhere. At one point in December over 30 percent of a local elementary school was out with noro. Should everyone drop put of school?

[busmech]

Yes those things can happen, but then so can a car wreck, stuck by lightning etc. Wont stop me.

[ElvisAndretti]

Yes those things can happen, but then so can a car wreck, stuck by lightning etc. Wont stop me.

 

Well I thought my adventure days were over, frankly getting a little too old for back country skiing, solo backpacking and motorcycle touring. But reading this makes me feel like a real badass ... me and the other 'old folks at sea'. ;)

[RoofingPrincess]

Yes those things can happen, but then so can a car wreck, stuck by lightning etc. Wont stop me.

I wonder if Margaret Bristol ever drives (or rides in) a car. Her odds of getting hurt that way are far greater than any of those cruise calamities she mentioned. Over 20 million people took cruises last year, with incredibly few "incidents".

[CraftyEC]

If you look, this is not an actual editorial or a review, but a 'slideshow' which is designed to showcase a series of books which have sometimes tenuous links to cruising - such as a single cruise-related incident in an autobiography. That accounts for the rather strange mixture of fact and fiction.

 

So, as a realistic review of the supposed risks associated with cruising it's a non-starter. But, as a gimmick to get you to read some of the reviewed books it could work!

[boogs]

I wonder if Margaret Bristol ever drives (or rides in) a car. Her odds of getting hurt that way are far greater than any of those cruise calamities she mentioned. Over 20 million people took cruises last year, with incredibly few "incidents".

 

She probably owns stock in a land based resort company and is denigrating the competition so people will vacation at those resorts instead of spending their money on cruising. :rolleyes:

[mr green]

Lets put things in perspective.

I live in a small Canadian city of 35,000, which was voted three or four years ago as one of the six best cities in North America for older persons to live in retirement.

Two years before that it had the worst car theft ratio in all of Canada, but the topper was in 1998 when an entire family of eight persons were murdered, with the perpetrator committing suicide, two days later.

 

john

[Cru1s1ng2009]

The Huffington Post isn't exactly the most reputable news source out there. :rolleyes:

this just means less huffington post readers on cruises. good.;)

[Happy ks]

I just pretty much shrug when I read articles like these. While the stories are not exaggerated, the incidents are extremely rare.

 

I have people at work who will not take cruises because they read/hear these things. Just yesterday a co-worker told me she would never get on a cruise ship because she was certain she would be attacked by sharks. I told her I'd never seen a shark in 20 cruises, the closest I ever came to seeing a shark was in the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

 

It's like trying to tell people that flying in commercial airplanes is safe, some folks are just scared to death at the thought of it. I would fear a drive cross country more than a flight the same distance. I fear snakes, while others have them as pets, I may be unreasonable about it but that is my fear. So I try not to waste my time defending my love of cruising, just like no one could ever convince me to hold or pet a snake.

 

Oh, I once had a co-worker planning a cruise, I told her I'd be happy to talk to her about preparations, she never asked. She came back complaining she had the worst time ever. She didn't know until the day prior to the cruise she needed a B/C or passport (at least she looked at her documents before she left to drive to port and they had a day to scramble to find them!). She didn't know you were expected to tip the crew. She didn't know alcoholic beverages cost extra. She didn't know one of the ports was a tender port. She didn't know that people dressed for dinner and didn't have long pants (she nor her husband) so other than the first night, they ate in the buffet. She didn't know they had to pay for parking at the port...she knew nothing about it at all. I just shrugged and walked away...I could have told her all the above plus more.

[master_angler_dave]

Can you cite a specific example? You know, where they misrepresented facts or distored them in a significant way?

 

This link was emailed to me, I don't generally read it, but it seems that most of what they report is factually accurate.

 

This was an opinion piece so 'reputable' is kind of a moot point.

 

 

as a reputable news source, it is however widely recognized for it's virulent left wing propaganda. This hatchet job on cruising is very characteristic of it's tendencies to distort facts with harmful intent.

[thinfool]

I think criticizing this is all wrong.

 

If all those people got a good and accurate picture of cruising they would want to go. They would book a cruise. We all know what happens when bookings go up....so do prices.

 

If that article puts people off of cruising....we can all afford to cruise more often!! :p;)

[marco]

Yes, and add to the list: Never drive/ride in a car, you might be in an accident. Never fly, you might crash, never eat out, you might get food poisoning, never swim, you might get bit by a shark, never go out in the rain, you might get hit by lightening. I could go on..but you get my point.

[Davechipp74]

cruise ship s.o.s. looks very interesting, i think i'll put that in my nook, and read it on my next cruise :p

[MrsPete]

The Huffington Post isn't exactly the most reputable news source out there. :rolleyes:

 

True. When you log onto AOL and see the outlandish human interest stories -- things like a dog saving a family, a woman giving birth to her twin grandchildren, or anything to do with celebrities -- it's usually from Huffington Post. As for being a reputable source, it's right up there with Wikipedia.

 

This article is typical. Everything they're saying is basically true, but it's skewed in such a way as to give a false impression. Fr example, they imply in the opening frame that cruising is dangerous because of the Titanic and the two recent disasters. They ignore the fact that millions of people have cruised without incident and imply that these disasters ate typical.

[cruiserking]

I have no first hand knowledge of cruising beyond what I read here and what my friends have told me. But this seems like a pretty feeble attempt at a hatchet job, thoughts?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/01/never-cruise-vacation_n_1311464.html#s743940&title=1_Titanic_troubles

 

:eek::rolleyes::eek::rolleyes::eek::rolleyes:

 

I would take this story with a grain of salt. In the light of the Concordia disaster there is a lot of print bashing the cruise industry. There are thousands of cruise voyages every year with no disturbances whatsoever.

 

A cruise is a terrific vacation.

 

Jonathan

[Tyler80]

The "reasons to never" can be taken into many different avenues. Reasons to never drive a car, fly on an airplane. More people have died in auto accidents and plane crashes over the years then ever on a cruise ship. And that doesn't stop people from driving or flying.

 

Cruising obviously isn't for everyone. Land resorts aren't for everyone. Las Vegas isn't for everyone.