twangster

There is a window every 15 to 20'. All cruise lines have them. These windows have been present on passenger ships for a very ling time. From ferries to cruise ships it has never been a problem until this week. People may have dropped their sunglasses, hats or phones out of them, but I've never heard of a child falling from one. On the Voyager class that have the cove balconies (opposed to glass) I don't think they can easily convert to glass nor do I think they need to. The metal is part of the ships overall infrastructure. When Navigator and Mariner were built they had the opportunity of addressing the overall integrity of the entire superstructure to facilitate glass borrowing from the Freedom class architecture with glass balconies. Retrofitting ship infrastructure isn't so easy and doesn't address the issue. The larger issue with balconies is chairs and tables. An unsupervised climbing toddler could easily climb onto a chair and then look over the balcony railing. If too much weight is put forth they could tumble over. One solution is for parents to always supervise their children. The other is to remove chairs from balconies.

I also noted how the attorney claims the "hidden danger" of opening windows has been fixed on newer ships. New ships like Quantum and Oasis class have similar windows that open in places, it seems he is trying to paint a picture through falsehoods and sway public opinion. Despite best efforts this glass is never perfectly clean. They do their best but sea spray and years of exposure to weather makes the glass wall anything but perfectly clean. I'd never take a picture through the glass because it is usually isn't clean enough to take good pictures through. An open window is distinctly different from the fixed glass areas. Further more, when a window is slid open where the sliding glass now sits right or left of the opening is double tinted, the tinting from the fixed pane of glass and the tinting of the sliding glass. This makes the contrast with the open section even more obvious. You can see this effect in the picture @coneyraven posted above. The ship viewed through the open window is very clear, the ship viewed through the double tinted area is blurry. It seems the accident happened port side. Isn't that the smoking section?

Empty suitcases go under the bed(s).

The attorney references a hockey rink and lifting her to the top of the boards so she could see through the glass. This is apparently critical to his strategy since they have distributed a photo of it and he has mentioned it several times. Yet the picture the attorney is distributing of her at a hockey rink shows her standing on the floor and leaning on the glass at the hockey rink. (Some news outlets have cropped the photo so you see just her upper body and hands on the glass.) The ship also has glass starting at floor level. She could have stayed on the floor on the ship, looked through the glass just like at the hockey rink and banged on it all she wanted to just like at the hockey rink, safely standing on her feet. There was no need to pick her up so she could see out the window. Why pick her up to place her on the railing so she could look outside when she could already see outside from the floor? It makes no sense. The view isn't any better from the railing than it is from the floor, unless she wanted to look out the open window in which case they knew the window was open and he simply lost his grip somehow. There is a lot that just doesn't add up with the story. How is it the local police as first responders came to the conclusion that they did? He must have said something or explained it in the anxiety of the moment that the police investigators picked up on. It will be interesting to see how local authorities handle this.

I agree on the deflection approach. This particular attorney has a practice built around suing cruise lines, he's not a defense attorney. A defense attorney would likely need to be local in San Juan.

There is no absolute rule that formal nights are on 2 & 6, it happens to work out that in many cases. They avoid day 1 and day 7 on 7 night cruises and they tend to avoid having two formal nights in a row so 2 & 6 is a logical pattern but anything is possible. Are there cruise compasses for a similar itinerary? https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compass

The bag deal is specific to shorts, t-shirts, bathing suits, socks and underwear. It's not a huge bag but you can cram a fair amount in the bag if you roll up your clothes. They must wash in super hot water and dry in super heated dryers because I've seen some hiking shorts come back with color faded and plastic buckles melted. I don't put in anything I really care about.

Not clear at the moment.

The US is very litigious by nature. It's very common to file lawsuits with intentions of an out of court settlement. Often it's less expensive for a company to settle rather than face prolonged legal battles that cost significant sums paid to lawyers to defend. This attorney has stated they ALWAYS have around 100 active cases in play against Royal. This is one firm. How many other firms have 100 cases filed? How many cases do they have filed against other cruise lines? It's a full time job for a firm full of lawyers. This attorney claims he is the reason why Royal has lifeguards on it's ships now. In this case the attorney has already started presenting his case in the press conference. He pointed out that there are no signs warning that a window might be nearby. He is also working hard to establish this occurred in a kids play area. Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/royal-caribbean-cruise-ship-death-indiana-family-of-girl-attorney-speaks-today-2019-07-09/ The father captured pictures and videos of the area before leaving the ship that the attorney was offering to the media. Attorney press conference :

Attorney has stated grandpa does not drink. He held a press conference and this question was asked.

The attorney also stated ...at any given time we have around 100 lawsuits going against Royal Caribbean.

The attorney is describing the family being in the H2O zone and that the windows are in this play area. He admits he hasn't been on the ship so he's basically taking what the family is telling him and proceeding on that basis.

I don't recall any ship having a kids play area near the windows. I suspect that is the media misreporting the deck plans. Typically the ships have seating areas along the windows, there is no specific kids play areas there. Sometimes these areas have tables and chairs for eating and sometimes it's simply chairs. The windows are tinted and it's very obvious when a window is open both from a visual perspective but also from sounds plus feeling of air moving through the window. It's apparent by many different sensory inputs. Let's face it, the glass and tinting is old and never so clean so that you can mistake glass from open window. I've never walked in this area and been surprised that a window was open. I've never thought to myself "I had no idea that window was open". I still struggle to understand how the grandfather didn't notice an open window.

Sony A7III shoots in 4K. So can their RX100M6 point and shoot.

This video was captured using an iPhone, a point and shoot and a mirrorless camera. The mirrorless camera has lens stabilization that with a long telephoto lens made capture some action invaluable. This video was captured with just a mirrorless camera: The way I figure it, one camera that do both stills and video means one less device to carry.

Hundreds of lawyers probably contacted them, the ambulance chasing type. Probably planted some seeds that may not be financially motivated in concept, except for the lawyer's motivation who will take a big cut of any settlement or award.

It gives the family a way to not blame the grandfather. In their minds it's not his fault if they can all agree to blame the corporation.

Annette blocked me. Didn't even get a chance to comment :(

I have a hard time understanding it as well. I can only imagine the guilt this individual is feeling.

Yes. It's part of the Voyager Class of ships. The Royal Caribbean Blog group cruise to Alaska went on Explorer of the Seas last year in June. We had a blast! See my blog:

Pictures or it didn't happen.

There go windows that open.

My next Navigator cruise is in August but I scooped up some deals on Empress and Majesty over the summer given the great prices they offered after the Cuba changes were made on short notice. Great to hear you like the new lens!

Oasis class has not traditionally sailed anything less than 7 nights so there isn't a lot of experience to draw from since it's only happened a few times. Booking a CP balcony on an Oasis 3 night cruise in 2020 the Royal website still shows the traditional perks.

Be careful with that claim, it's not actually Royal policy. They will typically reunite you with the ship at the next port of call by policy. If a returning Royal excursion is late by a short amount they will hold the ship, but that has it's limits. If you are on the other side of an island and it will take 4 hours to get a new bus and get you back to the port you'll likely be met by a very nice local port agent who will provide airfare and hotel reservations.