Crime on RCI cruises??????

[sf2]

Just remember -

 

A security officer once told me that there was 270+ cameras onboard . . .

 

just look up when you're walking around - there's not to many public spaces that aren't constantly monitored - especially where there's valuables concerned (shops and casinos). The entire outside decks are all 'camera'd'

And where can you run, if you commit a crime?

[BonnieNYTX]

How many of you are running to cancel your cruise reservations based on the O'Reilly Factor show? None, I would venture. Of course he zeroed in on the negative. Unfortunately, that is what people want to read or watch on TV. It sells papers and raises ratings. Would he be as successful with an "expose" of the wonderful activities on a cruiseship? The lasting friendships made? What do you think??

[HazyDavey]

SF2 - while the number of cameras on the ship may be accurate (I have no idea), I question the information regarding cameras on the outside. If there were camera's there, then wouldn't you think that one of them would have caught this poor soul falling or being thrown off his balcony?

 

Bonnie, its not just O'Reilly. Most of the major news networks are reporting on this story.

[crowsnest]

Cruising is my favorite thing to do. I always want one planned no matter how far off it is. We were on the Mariner in March with a group of 22. We all noticed that the security was VERY lax. There were several younger women in our group in their mid to late twenties and it seems that the crew always goes after them. In every Port we were in and we ran into the girls...the crew members were there. Usually the waiters and asst. waiters.

 

There is no excuse that this cruise line cleaned the cabin for the next couple or group coming in. All of the evidence was wiped clean. How could this happen??? The guy in the cabin next door heard alot of loud voices and a thud but yet he was never questioned. I don't care which show you heard about it on...it should cause questions in anyones mind. The wife was found passed out in another section of the ship after the ship had arrived at their destination. She was briefly questioned and sent home. If that was my family member missing...I would be raising all kinds of HELL.

 

My husband and I are Crown and Anchor Members but unless this investigation is re-opened we will no longer cruise on this line. A crime is a crime whether it is in International waters or not.

[Merion_Mom]

So I shouldn't be doing that? Sometimes when my DH is sleeping and I am able to sleep, I go off to the library or Internet cafe on the ship until I feel tired. (No drinking or anything like that.) Honestly, it has never freaked me out to walk the decks even very late at night. Again, maybe I am naive. Do most of you think I should be scared and nix that behavior? :confused:

cbny, I do this all the time, too. I am not frightened, but then, I feel that I am always aware of my surroundings, and I'm a pretty tough cookie. Mess with me at your own risk. :)

 

Carol

[TahoeBob]

 

 

The captains take their job very seriously. I listened to O'Rielly tonight. If the stories were true as he says (I think O'Rielly is right more than he is wrong, and I'm a Factor guy)

 

O'Rielly talking about Sexual abuse now thats a funny one. Mr. Bill has a bad habbit of making things up on the fly, and when the facts come in he eats crow.

[Henrik_Keller]

The problem, as I see it, is not that thing that can be described as “crimes” happen on a ship. Of course they do.

 

 

The problem is that the cruise line tries to cover things up to protect them self.

 

[JTJ]

I think there should be some way knowing if registered sex offenders are on board with you. If they are on probation the probation officer should inform the cruise line, if not there needs to be a way. As of 2002 Florida has: 3,400 predators and nearly 28,000 sex offenders, chances are some go on cruises.

 

http://www3.fdle.state.fl.us/sexual_predators/Documents/SExPredLegalBrief.asp

[Seapup]

My best friend worked for Carnival (I think it was Carnival) in the late 1980s. She told me many stories of bad goings on. Since the ships were at sea and not American, lots of "cleaning up" would go on. So RCCL is not alone in that.

 

I agree with the other poster that you are on a ship with thousands of people that you know nothing about. You should treat being on a ship like you would a city you would visit and watch yourself.

[Nliedel]

Is there crime on cruise ships that is covered up? Common sense would say yes. Is a woman responsible if she gets assaulted? No. I don't care what your excuse is she is not. Should a woman go off with a man she does not know alone? Umm no there too.

 

Is it some HUGE conspiracy by the cruiselines? Again, no. The evidence is not there to back it up. It *would* be leaked. Do bad things happen on cruise ships? Yes and in small town America too. Because crime on cruise ships did not happen to the majority of people here does that mean it does not exist? Get real. It does and will and may even increase with more ships and more people cruising. You are not 100% guarenteed safety anywhere else so why anyone thinks a cruise is 100% safe is beyond me.

[kenandlaura06]

Is there crime on cruise ships that is covered up? Common sense would say yes. Is a woman responsible if she gets assaulted? No. I don't care what your excuse is she is not. Should a woman go off with a man she does not know alone? Umm no there too.

 

Is it some HUGE conspiracy by the cruiselines? Again, no. The evidence is not there to back it up. It *would* be leaked. Do bad things happen on cruise ships? Yes and in small town America too. Because crime on cruise ships did not happen to the majority of people here does that mean it does not exist? Get real. It does and will and may even increase with more ships and more people cruising. You are not 100% guarenteed safety anywhere else so why anyone thinks a cruise is 100% safe is beyond me.

 

Well said.

[Happy ks]

How many of you are running to cancel your cruise reservations based on the O'Reilly Factor show? None, I would venture. Of course he zeroed in on the negative. Unfortunately, that is what people want to read or watch on TV. It sells papers and raises ratings. Would he be as successful with an "expose" of the wonderful activities on a cruiseship? The lasting friendships made? What do you think??

 

This sums up what I feel about all expose' types of news programs, 60 Minutes being the Grandaddy of them all. While there may be some truth in the story, they only report the negative and only report the side of the story they want to report. I don't watch them any more, because they edit to senstionalize and all are slanted, in my opinion. Especially when the opposing side is bound by law not to talk about a case. These "yellow journalism" stories edit these people to make them look like they have something to hide and will not give an answer, when in reality they cannot talk and will go to jail if they do.

 

The media is not always to be trusted. Even though I'm a news junkie, I will sit back and let a story develop before believing first reports. Sometimes I think it is shameful how the TV news and special reports are handled.

 

I have no doubt crime happens on a cruise ship. The assaults we are reading about don't always include the crew, however, plenty of them are committed by passengers. What people need to realize is that when on a cruise ship, you are out of your country. The cruise ship is not bound by US law when at sea, crime that occurs onboard is handled by the country where the ship is flagged.

[Babs66]

Does anyone know for a FACT that the cruise line is covering up, we don't know what kind of investigation is going on behind the scenes only what is said by the media, the media does not always know all the facts. My DH who is a LT. Firefighter is constantley being misquoted or facts being incorrect when he is questioned by the media, it gets so bad that for the most part he will not even speak to them anymore. As for the woman, I would not want to stay in Turkey, I would want to be home with my friends and family if this happened.

[ckrobyn]

As much as we don't want to believe that crime exists on a cruise ship - I think we need to be as dilligent and proactive on a ship as we are on land. The potential for crime exists just as easily in the middle of the ocean as it does in our own cities.

 

The possibility of crime on a cruise ship would not deter me from cruising. The possibility of crime exists everywhere - it's about taking the necessary steps to protect ourselves wherever we are.

[ginadis2002]

Sure stuff happens. Friends of ours were robbed on a Mediterranean cruise. They were partying late night with the crew and discovered missing money and sundries. They were too embarrrassed to report it. They let their guard down and someone took advantage of them. Not unheard of in any segment of society in all parts of the world.

 

I do believe cruise ships cover things up. It's bad press for them and they're in the business of filling rooms. I believe that you go on a cruise as if you are going to a foreign city.....with your eyes open and your wits about you. You're a mark if you stumble around drunk anywhere.....and you're playing roulette if you leave a club with a man you don't know. Why would people think strangers on a cruise ship are any safer than strangers in a town/city?

[carmel]

I wouldn't go walking the decks at night by yourself (when it is dark). I started to do that and freeked myself out and when back inside.

 

I had to laugh at this. I had some time to kill before I was to pick up my daughter from Adventure Ocean (she gave me strict orders to not pick her up before 9 as she was 'having the time of her life')

 

Anyway, I wanted to walk up to the front of the ship. I got up there and it was pitch black (no moon, no stars) and windy. I was only able to stay about 20 seconds before all sorts of bad scenarios started racing through my mind. In hind sight, it was kinda stupid because I could have easily tripped and fallen overboard. I won't do that any more!

[nosnobunny]

I'm another poor sleeper who frequently walks the public areas at all hours of the night. On a cruise ship, you're hardly alone in these areas. There is an army of crew that you don't see during the day doing the cleaning. I tried to catch 40 winks in the solarium on night and couldn't due to the amount of crew traffic. It's a busy place even at 4AM. And remember that most if not all public areas are under camera surveillance. Yes use common sense by all means but don't blow it out of proportion.

Beth

[MM27]

I saw the O'Reilly Factor last night and it seems like they are focusing on Royal Caribbean only because of the honeymoon investigation. The reporter from A Current Affair was also on. He did say that it wasn't just a Royal Caribbean problem, although they didn't mention any other line. When you consider the number of ships and passengers that cruise each month, does 2 sexual assault reports a month seem high? I didn't think so when I heard it. Factor in the fact that they also didn't mention if this statistic was just passenger assaults or also crew and you are now talking about many more people. They mentioned the cameras, but said the problem is they are in the public areas and not in the hallways (don't know if that is true or not). They also mentioned that when there are problems that are handled by security, many times they are passed off to another department to handle/cover up (their words not mine). I agree with what others have said about how much you should believe that you see on tv. I've seen the Current Affair reports and it is obvious that they are trying to break some big scandal. Hey, if they find some big information don't their ratings go up or something? While it's unfortunate that this occurred, fact is when people act in not so responsible ways, sometimes things happen. Will it stop me from cruising on RC? No way:D

[Smiling Hi]

I guess the reason for my concern is that the big case in the news (regarding the honeymooner) seems not to have been handled in a very responsible way by the cruise line, so it makes you wonder what else they are unresponsive to or are trying to cover up. :confused:

 

Carrie

 

I saw a recent news story on Court TV about the honeymooner - according to this show, the Italian police are saying this is a suspicious case, but the family of the honeymooner declined to fill out the necessary paperwork for them to investigate. Also, the cruise line did call in the FBI, so as far as this show was concerned, the cruise line did whatever they were supposed to do and did not cover anything up. This begs a very interesting question - why is the family not coming out in the media or offering a reward the way Natalie's (the Aruba case) family did? Why did they not fill out the forms to allow the Italian police to persue an investigation? The bride's behavior is very strange (you're a newlywed and you wake up in the morning and don't miss your husband???) and the case as a whole is strange.

[nosnobunny]

I saw a recent news story on Court TV about the honeymooner - according to this show, the Italian police are saying this is a suspicious case, but the family of the honeymooner declined to fill out the necessary paperwork for them to investigate. Also, the cruise line did call in the FBI, so as far as this show was concerned, the cruise line did whatever they were supposed to do and did not cover anything up. This begs a very interesting question - why is the family not coming out in the media or offering a reward the way Natalie's (the Aruba case) family did? Why did they not fill out the forms to allow the Italian police to persue an investigation? The bride's behavior is very strange (you're a newlywed and you wake up in the morning and don't miss your husband???) and the case as a whole is strange.

 

Italian police??? Am I missing something here or didn't this happen in Turkey? :confused: :confused:

Beth

[BonnieNYTX]

SF2 - while the number of cameras on the ship may be accurate (I have no idea), I question the information regarding cameras on the outside. If there were camera's there, then wouldn't you think that one of them would have caught this poor soul falling or being thrown off his balcony?

 

Bonnie, its not just O'Reilly. Most of the major news networks are reporting on this story.

 

HazyDavey like I said, the news people know what boosts ratings. Ship happens in hotels, in small towns, in malls and on cruise ships. It's a sad commentary on our society. Reporting it sensationalizes the crime. I'm not saying it should be covered up just stating WHY it's being reported. Do the cruise lines cover it up? Possibly. I didn't see any of the news shows so I don't know the facts. I do know that I feel safe and won't let these stories ruin my sense of well being whenever I take a cruise.

As Carol stated on an earlier post, the key is to know your surroundings.

Does anyone remember the old Columbo mystery TV show episode where Columbo (Peter Falk) spent his whole cruise looking for his wife? LOL

[lovetocruiserccl]

I feel safer on the ship than on land.

[kenandlaura06]

I saw a recent news story on Court TV about the honeymooner - according to this show, the Italian police are saying this is a suspicious case, but the family of the honeymooner declined to fill out the necessary paperwork for them to investigate. Also, the cruise line did call in the FBI, so as far as this show was concerned, the cruise line did whatever they were supposed to do and did not cover anything up. This begs a very interesting question - why is the family not coming out in the media or offering a reward the way Natalie's (the Aruba case) family did? Why did they not fill out the forms to allow the Italian police to persue an investigation? The bride's behavior is very strange (you're a newlywed and you wake up in the morning and don't miss your husband???) and the case as a whole is strange.

 

I myself haven't seen where this big supposed "cover up" by RCCL is--am I missing something?

[smeyer418]

Italian police??? Am I missing something here or didn't this happen in Turkey? :confused: :confused:

Beth

Now I know the problem---Turkey uses Italian police...maybe it was Columbo!

[Babs66]

Now I know the problem---Turkey uses Italian police...maybe it was Columbo!

 

The ships point of origin on this cruise was Italy. The Honeymooners got on in Italy that is why the Italian police are investigating. However I guess their laws are different that you have to actually fill out paperwork for an investigation??? Isn't that convenient, commit a crime and say no please don't investigate.