Serious problem, need advice on whom to contact

[flahagan]

This wasn't an accident. No one goes down the slide until bottom is cleared. There will be a designated person sending down the guest when designated person says it is clear at the bottom. They had no one at the bottom giving the clear signal. This injury should have not happened if Carnival followed their own rules. That is not an accident.

 

Thank you for your clarity. You are absolutely correct. The person who went down before our grandson got stalled midway, which slowed him down. That's why he was still in the "exit" trough.

The crew member at the top of this slide has NO clear sight of the exit area due to the twists of the yellow slide and the "bowl" of the orange slide. That's why he has a walkie talkie in his hand and is supposedly waiting for an all-clear signal from the spotter at the bottom.

 

To clarify further, the other person involved, the man my grandson hit, gave a statement to Carnival security that there was no spotter at the bottom when he got down there and that it was "gross negligence."

This was no "accident" as it definitely could have and should have been prevented.

I just hope it never happens to anyone else.

[flahagan]

However, an injury like this wouldn't be anywhere near as stressful in their hometown. If you're in your hometown, you can go to your local hospital and then recuperate at home.

 

I can't imagine the stress these grandparents were under. They brought their 3 grandkids (without the parents) on a cruise out of the country and this happens on their first full day! They had to use the ship's medical facilities. They found out it may need surgery at home. They tried to have phone conversations with the trip insurance company and the parents, but they couldn't even hear. No doubt this threw a wrench in all their fun plans for the cruise which is a very expensive trip. And they'd probably all been looking forward to the cruise for a long time.

 

This was it, in a nutshell. Thank you for understanding.

[angiegal]

Thank you for your clarity. You are absolutely correct. The person who went down before our grandson got stalled midway, which slowed him down. That's why he was still in the "exit" trough.

The crew member at the top of this slide has NO clear sight of the exit area due to the twists of the yellow slide and the "bowl" of the orange slide. That's why he has a walkie talkie in his hand and is supposedly waiting for an all-clear signal from the spotter at the bottom.

 

To clarify further, the other person involved, the man my grandson hit, gave a statement to Carnival security that there was no spotter at the bottom when he got down there and that it was "gross negligence."

This was no "accident" as it definitely could have and should have been prevented.

I just hope it never happens to anyone else.

 

Not being a jerk, but maybe playing devil's advocate a bit... Just because the guy stuck at the bottom says it was gross negligence doesn't mean it was. And if you knew that there wasn't a spotter at the bottom, why let grandson use the slide? As far as ruining the trip, you could have used the vacation guarantee and gotten off the ship. Quite honestly, if it were my child, that's exactly what I would have done! I wouldn't wait a week for him to see an orthopaedic specialist.

Again, I agree that the customer service was lacking, to put it lightly, but if there aren't any out of pocket costs, what do you expect Carnival to do?

[tjlj]

Im very sorry that this happened on your cruise.. also on the breeze we had a trip to deck 0 after the dump bucket dumped, my 10 year old wasn't ready for it and the water pressure put her head into the rail.. bad cut on eye brow.. as I was carrying her bleeding bad, we got the bleeding slowed down and hit deck 0... they were great.. glued and stripped it together, gave a bottle of ibuprofen and extra strips... we fully expected to pay but it was no charge... every day somebody from medical or guest services called to see if we needed anything... they got the head of security to fill out an incident report and we took him to the spot to show where it happened at.. we were impressed... again it sucks to use the medical... sorry about your trip...

[moongal]

Does everyone realize that the Carnival vacation guarantee is only able to be invoked within 24 hours of your departure? I keep reading about how you always just invoke the guarantee and Carnival will fly you home from the nearest port. There is a caveat to that. You MUST let guest services know WITHIN 24 hours of your departure that you are invoking the guarantee. If something happens after the 24 hour mark you are out of luck.

 

I would imagine this would apply to people who were not happy with their stateroom, or found some issue with the food or something along those lines.

 

The guarantee would have probably been able to be activated this time since the op said it happened early in the am on their first full day. Perhaps they were not aware of the guarantee.

 

If it had been me I would have wanted off the ship ASAP. But I just wonder if people actually read the entire guarantee. It is only available to use within 24 hours of departure. Not just because someone gets hurt down the road. (Unless as in this case it did happen within the 24 hr mark I presume)

[loxley]

Thank you for your clarity. You are absolutely correct. The person who went down before our grandson got stalled midway, which slowed him down. That's why he was still in the "exit" trough.

The crew member at the top of this slide has NO clear sight of the exit area due to the twists of the yellow slide and the "bowl" of the orange slide. That's why he has a walkie talkie in his hand and is supposedly waiting for an all-clear signal from the spotter at the bottom.

 

To clarify further, the other person involved, the man my grandson hit, gave a statement to Carnival security that there was no spotter at the bottom when he got down there and that it was "gross negligence."

This was no "accident" as it definitely could have and should have been prevented.

I just hope it never happens to anyone else.

 

It doesn't matter what the man he hit said. Period.

 

I am calling it an accident. The fact you called carnival and they asked you what you wanted and you didn't know about says it all to me.

 

Go ahead and talk with a lawyer. My guess is you are not going to get anywhere, but what do I know.

 

I do feel bad for you and know it is a bummer, but maybe before you took all that on, you should have given the what ifs some thoughts. It sounds like you had your hands full.

 

Maybe you can work something out with the insurance. I think that is your best hope.

[sammee]

Unfortunately, she may be forced to get a lawyer, because of the insurance companies playing the point the finger game leaving the patient in limbo. I hope you can get the help from Carnival so it doesn't come to this.

[MsTabbyKats]

So with what you've written being said what do you propose would be the outcome needed to make this right? That's the rub. Does the grandmother sue for damages, medical costs, pain and suffering, future earnings, a lifetime of free cruises. And how much more is added to cover the thousands of dollars needed to pay an Attorney, fly back and forth to Miami where the suit would have to be filed, future medical costs etc. etc.

 

Seemingly preventable accidents like these are the worst because the scope becomes boundless. If the family has insurance that should be the first recourse, whether trip insurance or their normal insurance and these insurance carriers should then sue Carnival, not the Grandmother. If no insurance than the family needs to prove the negligence and that the operator knowingly sent her grandson down the slide fully understanding that the conditions were totally unsafe.

 

All of this becomes a very emotional time consuming roller coaster ride with a young boy caught in the middle (I'd hate to make my grandson testify or even give a deposition). Sometimes it is just best to chalk it up as an unfortunate (and probably pretty painful experience) and just one of those things that may happen when a child is active. Regardless, the vacation cannot be redone, the injury can't be undone.

 

Posts like the one I quoted is probably the reason why we don't all get treated better when incidences like this happen. Our society wants a scapegoat, someone to blame instead of just realizing the whole thing was a lot of unfortunate circumstances piling one on top of another. It would be wonderful if Carnival comped them all another cruise and made sure that any uncovered medical expenses were taken care of....that would be fair.

 

Carnival has an obligation to staff the sports area adequately. They didn't.

 

The lawyer gets a percentage of the recovery.

 

GM and GS deserve a lot more than a free cruise.

 

If more people were like you we would all be drinking chemical waste in our water. After all...the chemical companies "didn't know" that their toxins would infiltrate the water supply.