I am really surprised at Royal Caribbean Line......rotted life vests???

Tonka's Skipper

Tonka's Skipper

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Majesty of the Seas
Nearly 3,000 passengers aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas woke up Tuesday morning still docked at Port Canaveral. The ship was supposed to set sail Monday night at approximately 5:00 p.m. for a four-night cruise to the Bahamas.

Aged life vests apparently held the ship at Port Canaveral overnight, and passengers were not able to disembark because U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had already gone home for the evening.

WFTV reported yesterday that “the U.S. Coast Guard conducted a routine inspection of Majesty of the Seas,” said Cynthia Martinez, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman. “They came across some technical issues, including some outdoor life jackets that were showing their age. We hope to have replacements join the ship today and we expect to address the other issues shortly,” Martinez said. “The ship stayed in port overnight until they arrive.”



The ship is expected to depart the port sometime Tuesday afternoon.

(end of article)

The vessel safety team needs retraining and the line should be fined big time.



This is a nono.................AKK
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
What speaks volumes to me, besides the obvious safety issue, is that there seems to be nothing to do on that ship other than eat and gamble. This doesn't sound very appealing to me and makes me want to try Royal Caribbean even less.
 
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EOD K9

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
Wow, not only do you potentially lose port time....you are stuck. I'd still have fun docked on a DCL boat if that was the case. If it was DCL, and people could disembark, but the ship would not depart til the next day, I could see them shuttling and comping a park hopper for the day. But wow...fail.
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
Tonka's Skipper said:
Aged life vests apparently held the ship at Port Canaveral overnight, and passengers were not able to disembark because U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had already gone home for the evening.
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If I'm a United States citizen, and I'm on a ship that is still moored at a dock in Florida, and I were told that I wasn't permitted to leave the ship because customs agents were not available, I'd be rather... upset to stay the least. Why should I have to go through customs again if I've never left the country? As a citizen, why is my freedom of movement able to be restricted in that way? At the very least, someone should be waking up someone at customs and getting them back to the port to take care of the matter.
 
EOD K9

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
@Tom P. I'm totally making this excuse up and my sarcasm font is on.
You cannot go ashore because technically you left dry land, crossed over a small sliver of water and are no longer on dry land. You left your rights behind. US Customs have no idea what you may or may not have received from a crew member upon embarkation. Therefore, everyone is a suspect until cleared.
 
pilka214

pilka214

Active Member
Tom P. said:
If I'm a United States citizen, and I'm on a ship that is still moored at a dock in Florida, and I were told that I wasn't permitted to leave the ship because customs agents were not available, I'd be rather... upset to stay the least. Why should I have to go through customs again if I've never left the country? As a citizen, why is my freedom of movement able to be restricted in that way? At the very least, someone should be waking up someone at customs and getting them back to the port to take care of the matter.
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So, I used to work on a cruise ship, and in my experience if CBP, Coast Guard or USDH came on board and flagged something, you are held up for a few hours at a minimum, if you have a late departure time, that could mean not leaving port that day... It was a huge deal that the ships are VERY clean and properly stocked, an inspection can happen at anytime without prior warning, honestly it's the bane of crew members existences.

Also, there's terrible strict laws regarding times you can and can't leave a port depending on traffic around you, lots of terribly superfluous logistics
 
Tonka's Skipper

Tonka's Skipper

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tom P. said:
If I'm a United States citizen, and I'm on a ship that is still moored at a dock in Florida, and I were told that I wasn't permitted to leave the ship because customs agents were not available, I'd be rather... upset to stay the least. Why should I have to go through customs again if I've never left the country? As a citizen, why is my freedom of movement able to be restricted in that way? At the very least, someone should be waking up someone at customs and getting them back to the port to take care of the matter.
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Tom you make sense, however, as EOD K9 pointed out.....technically.......you left the US the second both feet were on the deck of the vessel and off the gangway. With DCL vessels, you were in the Bahamas. Customs, USCG , etc.is like dealing with the IRS............you lose!

The practical issue, is If the vessel let people go ashore......they have to account for them getting back on board...the same check as when you came on onboard the first time. If anyone misses the vessel, according to the government they be off the vessel and uncounted for.

It would create a big ball of problems.

AKK
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
Tonka's Skipper said:
Tom you make sense, however, as EOD K9 pointed out.....technically.......you left the US the second both feet were on the deck of the vessel and off the gangway. With DCL vessels, you were in the Bahamas. Customs, USCG , etc.is like dealing with the IRS............you lose!

The practical issue, is If the vessel let people go ashore......they have to account for them getting back on board...the same check as when you came on onboard the first time. If anyone misses the vessel, according to the government they be off the vessel and uncounted for.

It would create a big ball of problems.

AKK
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While I understand what you're saying, and I understand that maritime law is complex to say the least, I'm not sure that's 100% true. The ship in question had never left its original port. It was still moored in the internal waters of the United States. It wasn't even out far enough to be in territorial waters, let alone international waters. Just because the ship is flying the flag of another country doesn't mean that I lose all my rights as a United States citizen when it is sitting inside the United States. There should be no reason that a United States citizen, on a ship that has never moved one inch from its Florida dock, should be prohibited from disembarking if they choose to do so.
 
EOD K9

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
Here is another point. If you were leaving port the next day after the fiasco, weren't you not prepared to be on the ship anyway that night?
 
rob0519

rob0519

Well-Known Member
How often are ships "routinely" inspected? When was the last time these life jackets were inspected and in what condition were they at that time? I find it hard to believe that the jackets "show their age" overnight.
 
Tonka's Skipper

Tonka's Skipper

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tom P. said:
While I understand what you're saying, and I understand that maritime law is complex to say the least, I'm not sure that's 100% true. The ship in question had never left its original port. It was still moored in the internal waters of the United States. It wasn't even out far enough to be in territorial waters, let alone international waters. Just because the ship is flying the flag of another country doesn't mean that I lose all my rights as a United States citizen when it is sitting inside the United States. There should be no reason that a United States citizen, on a ship that has never moved one inch from its Florida dock, should be prohibited from disembarking if they choose to do so.
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Tom, I gave you the reasons.............I would only strongly suggest you never leave the vessel without proper authorization...AKK
 
EOD K9

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
Also, if they don't lower the gangway, you would kinda be joined to another object, by an incline plane wrapped helically around an axis.
 
D

DisneyJoe

Well-Known Member
Tom P. said:
While I understand what you're saying, and I understand that maritime law is complex to say the least, I'm not sure that's 100% true. The ship in question had never left its original port. It was still moored in the internal waters of the United States. It wasn't even out far enough to be in territorial waters, let alone international waters. Just because the ship is flying the flag of another country doesn't mean that I lose all my rights as a United States citizen when it is sitting inside the United States. There should be no reason that a United States citizen, on a ship that has never moved one inch from its Florida dock, should be prohibited from disembarking if they choose to do so.
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This may not be solely an issue of maritime law. You sign a cruise contract for every cruise that you sail, and that contract can be restrictive. It puts you under the rules and procedures of the ship and its crew.
 
pilka214

pilka214

Active Member
rob0519 said:
How often are ships "routinely" inspected? When was the last time these life jackets were inspected and in what condition were they at that time? I find it hard to believe that the jackets "show their age" overnight.
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"Inspections" happen every week by crew members, but honestly not all life vests are routinely moved and inspected, since a lot of cruislines no longer require guest to don them for muster drill. A coast guard inspection will happen periodically, and at random, but even then your talking a couple officers coming on board and checking whichever list points they hit that day, because the list is long.
 

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