Brobbins246

My engineer husband rigged something simple on our cruise to give more "holding power" on the ceiling for a sorting thing we had stuffed with socks and underwear for four people.  While I was filling it on embarkation day using only one hook, it fell.  We ended up using two magnets with a screwdriver between them to hang the loop on.  (Yes, I brought a screwdriver, you never know what you'll need it for) ?  Worked great that way.

The lawyer seems to be using this logic a lot.  About the railings he said that without warning signs they were an invitation for people to "sit on them, do things on them".  "See railing must sit"

There seems to be a lot of smoke and mirrors being used for excuses in an effort to place blame.
I know much of this has been gone over or commented on before .
I have looked out these very same/type of windows before on several occasions.  There is a tint to them that even from a distance, its pretty easy to tell if one is open or not. It might be a bit more difficult for someone that is color blind but still, an open window would be brighter and a lighter shade than a closed window. Then there are other senses. Near the water there is often a breeze, a slight difference in temperature near an open window compared to the sun coming through the glass of a closed window. There are smells and sounds that are more pronounced at an open window compared to a close one. Sight, sound, hearing, touch, smell ... they all come into play. Then there is the psychological knowledge and experience of ones surrounding. You know where you are. You realize you are at a considerable height. A responsible adult would take this into consideration where a child might not as in the case of Eric Clapton's son who went out a 50 story window not realizing the danger.
Pretty much any but the most obtuse adult would sense and understand the danger in this situation.
It is somewhat a natural tendency at these windows to want to lean forward over the railing for a "better" view. Many people just want to see the  ground or water below. The want to see up and down the length of the ship. They want some perspective, to they lean out a bit, look down, look left and right, think 'wow!' to themselves and move on.
Hanging on to a child can be tricky business. Add that they do not necessarily understand the danger even being a few feet off the ground. I've held kids and dogs that just what to jump out of your arms and it can be a struggle to hang onto them. They don't understand that even falling 3 or 4 feet could hurt. Add that clothing can some times complicate the issue as it slides around the body making the job of holding on them even more of a challenge.
Put all of this together. An adult that exercises poor judgement, has a child in his arms, goes to look out the window, probably leans forward a bit, the child thinks its a grand adventure, wiggle or tries jumps out of his arms, the adult looses their grip, potentially complicated by loose clothing or slippery skin due to sweat or sun screen oils and possibly physical limitations of the adult.
Disaster.
Something along these lines is the most probable scenario.
No matter how many signs you put up or safety precautions you take or legislate (and there are probably a million of them that pertain to building and running a cruise ship), you can not keep everyone absolutely safe all the time, especially if they use poor judgement to begin with.
Does all this make the cruise line responsible? No doubt there are a few cases where negligence of the cruise line is a factor.  I personally do not think this is one of them.
 

My engineer husband rigged something simple on our cruise to give more "holding power" on the ceiling for a sorting thing we had stuffed with socks and underwear for four people.  While I was filling it on embarkation day using only one hook, it fell.  We ended up using two magnets with a screwdriver between them to hang the loop on.  (Yes, I brought a screwdriver, you never know what you'll need it for) ?  Worked great that way.

Pretty much everyone on this board knows what the ships are like.  In addition, we surround ourselves with people who have similar interests, and those people tend to think like we do.  
Since I'm off from work and quite handily putting off doing the work around the house I need to do, I spent some time doing Google News searches with various search phrases that I think a person totally ignorant of cruising would use.
Many of the stories on major media websites are very slanted against Royal Caribbean.  Some just throw in subtle pictures of the children's area, others blatantly print quotes like,  "This was an unsafe wall of glass that shouldn't have been there within feet of a children's play area" (https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/family-of-toddler-killed-in-fall-from-ship-sues-cruise-line/2187887/)  There is an interview with the grandfather where he says, "I just want them to fix the boat. Just fix it. Just fix the boat."  (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cruise-ship-death-salvatore-anello-grandfather-charged-death-of-chloe-wiegand-says-hes-colorblind/)
How about this headline?  'Kids are not supposed to die on cruise ships"?  (https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/12/11/kids-are-not-supposed-die-cruise-ships-family-toddler-killed-fall-sues-royal-caribbean/)

The lawyer is really going all out to make the public believe the ship is unsafe for toddlers.

I had never cruised until not too long ago.  Up until then, I was 100% ignorant about cruise ships other than my memories of watching "The Love Boat".  Had I seen this story before I actually knew what cruising was like, I bet that my ignorance combined with my being a father would have put me in the "evil cruise ship" side of things until I did some actual research on my own.  Luckily, I am very skeptical of what I see in the media, so I feel that I eventually would have learned the truth. There are so many people out there who take what they see on CNN. MSNBC, FOX, etc as gospel.  They're not going to dig any deeper.

The lawyer may be a sleeze, but he's a smart sleeze.  He's trying to get the public to exonerate the grandfather to pressure RC.
 
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A few of the numerous Google News searches I did:

https://www.google.com/search?q=baby+dropped+from+cruise+ship&rlz=1C1AJZK_enUS807US807&sxsrf=ACYBGNTKJg7MM2Xlca_aDV1_fJTSMBd3ZQ:1576260090970&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjWqq62mrPmAhWQuVkKHZ7vB7kQ_AUoAXoECAsQAw&biw=1920&bih=937
 
https://www.google.com/search?q=freedom+of+seas+baby+death&rlz=1C1AJZK_enUS807US807&sxsrf=ACYBGNT6cg-inJO9SJ-WXQakYeMaSRU1ag:1576258624138&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiisfb6lLPmAhVwU98KHSOwAU8Q_AUoAXoECA4QAw&biw=1920&bih=937
 
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1AJZK_enUS807US807&biw=1920&bih=937&tbm=nws&sxsrf=ACYBGNQPVd2HN9bf4DzL3ECJps8c5RD3IA%3A1576258643276&ei=U8zzXc60EOSMggeEt4KoDg&q=toddler+dropped+from+ship&oq=toddler+dropped+from+ship&gs_l=psy-ab.3...1693956.1699440.0.1699875.29.26.2.1.1.0.219.2366.18j4j2.24.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..3.11.805...0j0i131k1j0i3k1j33i299k1.0.VuSJ2YsVUY4

Also, of all the window panes to approach, he chose that one to look out, so he knew something was different about that one.  His story would have made more sense if all the windows had been open and looked and felt the same, then he could say he thought that's how all closed windows looked and felt.

Just found this tonight and read all the way through.  Great info, thanks for sharing!  We'll be on this trip (except with St. Maarten instead of St. Thomas) in April, 2021.

I'm not colorblind but I was always under the impression that color blindness caused certain colors to be diminished or appear to be a different color.  Maybe red appears yellow while blue is blue sort of thing.  However there remains the concept of levels of light intensity even absent of all color.
In grayscale the intensity or brightness of an open window versus a tinted window versus the double tinting effect of the open window overlapped with the fixed tinted window creates at least three shade levels. 
An open window would appear much brighter than the fixed tinted glass and where the tinted window was slid over the fixed tinted glass next to it that double tinting is evident even in grayscale.  

Then there are the other senses. 
The movement of air through an open window is undeniable.  Wind against the massive sides of a building or ship exerts pressure and when it finds an opening such as a window air moves through the window.  This effect occurs even on a relatively still day.
The sounds of a busy port like forklifts loading luggage, trucks moving around, the beep, beep, beep of backup alarms on various equipment, dock workers yelling at each to be heard over all the noises of a busy dock.  All that sound isn't heard on the pool deck except if you are near an open window.
Put it all together, the different light intensity, the movement of air and the sounds of a busy dock when all put together are data sources that provide clues to the brain. 
Diminishing one sensation shouldn't prevent the conclusion that something is different, the window is open.
Put on a pair of sunglass like the ones that make everything look rose colored, or everything appear bluish and you can still discern an open window from a fixed tinted pane of glass.
Try holding your phone and taking a picture through the fixed tinted glass.  No problem.  Take a step in front of an open window and you have an involuntary reaction that causes a death grip on your phone for fear you might drop it through the open window.  You don't need to tell yourself "The window is open, there is a danger".  It's an involuntary reaction and awareness that there is a danger present near an open window.  

Hi everyone! I pride myself on being very social when I meet people in person, but online, I’m a certified lurker ?. I read the message boards, take notes ?, and have learned so much from everyone on this blog (thanks @Matt for this awesome platform) but I rarely make a post or comment.

Maybe it’s because everyone has already said what I was thinking (and y’all don’t need to see my “ditto” response ?)... Maybe it’s because I can’t come up with any interesting new questions or topics that are worth posting ?... Maybe it’s because I’m afraid that my post will be the equivalent of the kid sitting alone at the lunch table in a crowded middle school cafeteria ??...

Soooooooo... This post is dedicated to all of the lurkers out there just like me! Say hi, hit like, or drop a comment of your choosing below! Or don’t. ? You are still loved and welcomed here!
 

It's all computerized I'm sure!  No people paying any attention to this. ?

It's all computerized I'm sure!  No people paying any attention to this. ?

It's all computerized I'm sure!  No people paying any attention to this. ?

I know it's rough on the CC bill the month you book a cruise, but I'm glad it's high enough to keep non-serious cruisers from booking all the cabins and dumping them at the last minute.  

I know it's rough on the CC bill the month you book a cruise, but I'm glad it's high enough to keep non-serious cruisers from booking all the cabins and dumping them at the last minute.  

I know it's rough on the CC bill the month you book a cruise, but I'm glad it's high enough to keep non-serious cruisers from booking all the cabins and dumping them at the last minute.  

I know it's rough on the CC bill the month you book a cruise, but I'm glad it's high enough to keep non-serious cruisers from booking all the cabins and dumping them at the last minute.  

I know it's rough on the CC bill the month you book a cruise, but I'm glad it's high enough to keep non-serious cruisers from booking all the cabins and dumping them at the last minute.  

I've gotten this before, and it's surf & stream.  My husband wanted a soda package, and I wanted our family of four to have at least one access to surf & stream in case we needed a little extra boost for internet while on the ship, so that was a good deal.  For the rest of the family, I bought the surf voyage (the non-steaming one) for three devices so we'd all have at least some form of WiFi at all times.  We swapped the streaming one around as needed.

I hate reading comments on social media pages of people who obviously have never been on a Royal Caribbean ship and maybe have never cruised all their life so I made this...
 

@RWDW1204 Govvacationrewards

https://wgntv.com/2019/10/28/northwest-indiana-grandfather-charged-in-puerto-rico-cruise-ship-death/
Link says everything needed to say 

If the unthinkable happened to this woman, her family would hire a lawyer to ask, "Why would there be an unsecured area on a balcony where people can fall off?" Why would you have the danger without any warning, sign, or notice?”  (I'm looking at you, Mr Winkleman)
Then people who know nothing about cruising would rant all over social media demanding Royal to put up barriers on open decks and balconies!
The family would post pictures of her hanging from monkey bars saying how much she loved doing it.

Have a plan but stay flexible.  We had all our shows booked in advance, but on our last sea day we realized there was a teen rock wall competition that my 16yo son wanted to do that conflicted with a show.  We ditched the show for some spontaneous fun, and I had to stop myself from feeling like we lost out on our plans.  You just can't do everything and that's ok.  BTW, my son won the rock climb and his joy was worth the change in plans. ?

Have a plan but stay flexible.  We had all our shows booked in advance, but on our last sea day we realized there was a teen rock wall competition that my 16yo son wanted to do that conflicted with a show.  We ditched the show for some spontaneous fun, and I had to stop myself from feeling like we lost out on our plans.  You just can't do everything and that's ok.  BTW, my son won the rock climb and his joy was worth the change in plans. ?

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/freedom-of-the-seas/deck-plans/2008/15
 
playmakers is on deck 4