Tamara Lush
Journalist Given Free Cruise For Two Day Smooze
RCCI Majesty Of The Seas - February 23, 2007
Tamara Lush notes she has seen postings in cruise forums that refer to the smell of human urine in some areas of the ship. We have seen that too in one review of Majesty Of The Seas by a doctor on November 24th, 2006.
To understand the problem more clearly, this ship is home based in Miami Florida. It does Caribbean cruises with primarily U.S. passengers. The stores on this ship are boarded in Miami. This is not a ship with a home port in a third world country, loading ship stores from third world country warehouses.
Though, with USCDC citations for urinals overflowing onto the deck in the crew galley, the situation onboard Majesty Of The Seas at some points in time has seemed very third world. We can only imagine how bad things get, when the crew is not expecting an inspection.
The duty of the crew, according to the CDC is to have a pest management program that outlines and enforces the complete checking of all stores loaded onto the vessel for rodent and pest presence. If this is done correctly, the pest management problem then become a process of diligent cleanliness in the gallies and proper monitoring of the pest activity, which includes rigorous inspections at night when rodents and cockroaches are most active.
This is the same vessel Debi King recently reported to Cruise Bruise, when her children were trapped in their cabin after the cabin door got stuck, which happened after their toilet overflowed, with feces pouring onto the floor.
The crew refused to clean the cabin for hours, and ultimately the kids were trapped in the cabin overnight when the door jammed. They went without food that evening through to lunch the next day, the feces still on floor.
For the crew of the Majesty Of The Seas, feces on the floor in a cabin for a complete day is not a major issue. This tells us alot about their priorities for hygiene in the galley as well.
This should give you are pretty good idea why Royal Caribbean would do such a heavy-handed sales pitch, while they had the media and travel agents trapped onboard a ship Cruise Bruise had nicknamed Cesspool Of The Seas, for two long days.
Tamara says, "The Miami-based company has been under assault lately." This is deservably true. We reported at Cruise Bruise the cover-up of real crime statistics, that she refers to in her article. The line reported diluted crime statistics to congress. Then later, internal company documents presented in a lawsuit, showed much higher numbers.
Lush says, "They spent $40 million refurbishing the ship, then offered New Times, other local media, and about 1,200-plus travel agents and their guests an all-expense-paid, free, two-night trip to celebrate the "relaunch" from the Port of Miami. (The company spent a fortune — a similar, three-night cruise is about $300 per person, excluding booze. You do the math.)"
Her article gives the impression the cruise line was trying to buy some favorable press for Majesty Of The Seas. They plied them with unlimited booze, lush gifts in their cabins and gourmet dishes of high end food. Lush says that trays full of mimosas and champagne were not in short supply.
After what she calls a "mimosa binge, er, press conference", Erik Lewis of Royal Caribbean took everyone on a tour of the ship. That was followed by a trip to Coco Cay. When they arrived back at the ship, the media was "corralled in the back of the room, shoveling in the free escargots and prime rib."
The second day of the cruise, it was more than obvious to Lush the real agenda at hand, saying, "The hard sell came at 9:00 a.m. the first morning. Called Common Ground, the hour-and-a-half-long program in the Chorus Line theater urged travel agents to "ride the wave," that is, sell three- and four-night cruises to the "time-starved consumer."
Lush realized this was much more like a sales rally at some large multi-level marketing operation, saying "Royal Caribbean's senior vice president for sales Lisa Bauer unleashed a wave of propaganda on the crowd."
The journalist says she questioned others onboard about the history of the ship. They all seem to have no idea how bad things had been. This is a strong indication, that before Cruise Bruise, the cruising public had no idea at all that some of the vessels were in themselves sanitation-starved, third world countries behind all the glitz and glamour.
While our message has reached some, we have a lot of work to do, before the real truth about cruising, is heard over the top of the travel industry screaming that cruising is the perfect vacation. It is only perfect, if you think an inspection score of 86 on a ship having a cockroach infested galley is the perfect vacation.
Cruise Bruise applauds Tamara Lush for her unbiased opinion of the company motives surrounding this voyage. She could not be bought with booze, gifts and high end food.
Her attendance on the relaunch cruise, and her article indicates to us the efforts of Cruise Bruise and our partner the International Cruise Victims (ICV) organization, are making a big impact on consumer awareness of cruise related crimes, and the cruise industry is taking note that we will not let them continue to sweep incidents and sanitation failures under the carpet. As ICV says, "We are making a difference".
Read the entire article, The Ship's Shape It ain't majestic, but it floats." by Tamara Lush, Miami New Times, February 22, 2007
Miami New Times is owned by Village Voice Media. New Times, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, has newsweeklies in eleven major cities throughout the United States. The company has won numerous awards.
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Tamara Lush
Journalist Given Free Cruise For Two Day Smooze
RCCI Majesty Of The Seas - February 23, 2007
Tamara Lush
Journalist Given Free Cruise For Two Day Smooze
RCCI Majesty Of The Seas - February 23, 2007
