CoupleOfCruisers

So very heartbreaking. Just really aren’t any words. My thoughts and prayers are with those on board ship! We are a Royal Caribbean family and we are with you! So very sad. ? ? 

So very heartbreaking. Just really aren’t any words. My thoughts and prayers are with those on board ship! We are a Royal Caribbean family and we are with you! So very sad. ? ? 

Smokers seem to adjust. They tend to start off kicking and screaming but they adjust. When states all over the country started making smoking inside illegal. Smokers cried it would drastically hurt the bar & restaurant business but it didn’t. When cruise lines banned smoking first in cabins, then balconies and most indoor areas. The smokers still cruised. If they ban smoking in casino the smokers will adjust and still gamble. Only about 15% of the US population smokes any more. Non smoking casinos are coming just a matter of when! 

From NBCNY: 
"Puerto Rico's Justice Department said in a statement that it charged Anello with negligent manslaughter. San Juan Investigations Chamber judge Jimmy Sepúlveda determined cause for the arrest and set bond at $80,000, the Justice Department added. A hearing has been scheduled for Nov. 20."
So, not homicide. Negligent manslaughter sounds about right.

Oh, well, then, isn't it nice that we have this blog on which to meet!

I hope it doesn't hurt to mention here, but CC ie Cruise Critic Royal Caribbean Forum shut down all discussions numerous times

It appears to me that the Grandfather in question is at least the 2nd husband of the maternal grandmother.  According to the obituary there are 2 sets of maternal grandparents, with the 2nd set having the last name of the mother, nee making that set the mothers father.  Personally I can only see that as making accepting blame on the part of the subject grandfather even harder to comprehend.
I don't know all the facts and probably never will, but I cannot see where RCCL has any blame based on when we do know.
Also glad that this forum has allowed and open and civil discussion, I think we all know who shut it down and deleted all posts.

Royal's laxity? All the actual glass on Freedom is tinted blue. There is always noticeable noise and breeze/wind coming through the open windows if the ship is moving or not. The windows are not set up to have every other one open.
If you joined this site just to run down Royal Caribbean, you're not going to get a lot of support here. This is a fan site full of experienced RCCL cruisers that see how much of this story just doesn't add up to place blame on the cruise line. The grandfather made a horrible, unfortunate, fatal mistake, plain and simple.

I think deep down in his heart, grandpa knows whos fault it is, and it is something he will have to live with the rest of his life. The lawsuit is a way to deflect the blame away from him by his family. In todays nannie state that we live in, there is no personally accountability for anything. Everything bad that happens to someone is somebody else's fault.  

I think it's pretty obvious who is right and who is wrong.  If the grandfather set the baby on a railing on a balcony or an open area on one of the upper decks, same thing would have happened.  If the window had been closed and the baby fell into the window, it's likely the pane would've held the weight but not guaranteed.  A screen probably wouldn't have.  And the baby still could've been severely injured or killed. 
Their Today Show performance disgusted me.
I don't think this is anything more than trying to gin up public outrage against Royal Caribbean and pushing them to settle to shut them up.  It isn't about protecting other children, it isn't about restitution for Royal Caribbean's negligence, it's about taking advantage of self-inflicted tragedy to blame somebody else for their own stupidity and get a big check in the process.

No they charged him with negligent manslaughter which seems appropriate. 

It is only the dollars and cents keeping it this way. The gaming industry is powerful and has lobbied hard to keep it this way in every day life. This results in it being considered the norm so should apply to cruise life as well. Virtually every other workplace it is banned for health reasons. The staff are the ones I feel sorry for.
The good news for me is that most of my cruising is done out of Australia where the casinos are smoke free as the some of these big industries dont have as much clout with the Government.

Very interesting topic... I'm an ex-smoker (about 8 years now), however people smoking around me has never been an issue.

On our last Voyager cruise out of Singapore, I visited the casino quite a few times. My partner ( another ex-smoker, but she now hates smoke) did not visit anywhere as much as I did.

The smoke didn't put me off, however, by about day four, I had developed a cough. Didn't think much of it until my partner suggested it may be due to all the smoke in the casino.

Didn't visit the casino for the next two days and the cough disappeared.

Our next cruise is Radiance out of Sydney, so there is no smoking in the casino, and I'm actually very happy about that idea. All land based casinos in Australia have been non smoking for many years, and none of them have gone out of business.

 

If someone leaves their infant in a locked car and that child dies in the heat they will likely face charges.  They could be convicted or not.  If convicted they will face sentencing that can take into account the impact that has already occurred to everyone involved.  Some jurisdictions have minimum sentences and in some cases the court process can render a sentence deemed appropriate.  That could be a slap on wrist or incarceration.  
As parents our children are our responsibility.  Sometimes bad things happen that are out of our control.  That's not the case here.  When someone plays a role that results in death regardless if it's their own family or a stranger, it warrants a trial.  An investigator or district attorney should not solely be responsible to decide if that person has suffered enough or the level of guilt involved.  Sometimes a DA might decide there isn't enough evidence and a trial is not warranted.  That's not the case here.  No DA should become a judge and decide the extent of their suffering.  Let the court do that.
In this case he has refused to accept any responsibility.  "Not my fault, someone else left the window open".  That may have a played a factor in deciding to pursue charges since he apparently feels no guilt.  He claims no responsibility and refuses to accept he did anything wrong.  His family has taken the same position resulting in the lawsuit against the company.
If nothing else perhaps the trial will wake them up to the fact that his actions resulted in a loss of life.  
He needs to realize he did this, not the person who opened the window and not the company because they have windows.  

He's been charged, that doesn't mean he'll be convicted.  A jury of his peers can very easily choose not to convict based on lack of intent and compassion for his grief.
The other thing these charges mean is that the family's lawsuit against Royal is not likely to go anywhere since the police are clearly placing the blame on the grandfather not the cruise line.

Over the last couple of years the dress in the lounges has gotten really really bad and from some of the aforementioned comment they were some of the offenders.. Its Smart Casual.  But Royal isn't and hasn't done anything to stop or slow it down. On our last cruise we had multicable adults and teenagers in the lounge during the evening in swim wear, bare feet… Yes we are all on vacation but we should be able to honor the rules and accept that the lounges aren't your living room!!!!

Many DL do post a dress code for evening hours.  This can vary by ship though.  It is usually written on the diamond welcome letter in your cabin.  Here is a recent one:

Actually, Cookie10*, you are the one who is unreal. You have a total disregard for the RC pool rule of "no reserving deck chairs/loungers" as well as total lack of respect for fellow cruisers. My question for you is, what makes you so special? 

Let’s add against the rules to that list...

Everything you just said only reinforces why so many people find such conduct to be selfish, self-centered, boorish, and classless.... not to mention rude. 

 

 

Lucky for us we saw very few chair hogs on the Anthem last week.  The one I noticed was two older gentlemen staking out the whole front row of chairs and then walking away.  One thing we saw was people violating the no swim diaper rule.  Mom wasn't hiding it and lifeguard wasn't doing anything about it.  Yuck

I like to help the greater cruise community.  
I find a chair for myself that is available.  Then as I have observed an area for a while, I move chair hog stuff and return to my chair.  Some innocent person comes along and starts using the now empty chair.    Chair hog returns and confronts innocent person who can honestly claim they didn't do it, the chair was unused.  
Walking to breakfast if I notice a series of hogged chairs that are still hogged when I return from breakfast I grab the towel and drop it off somewhere.   Chair is freed up. 
I consider it a community service.  

On Serenade of the Seas, a crew member would walk around and any unused hogged chairs, he would fold up their belongings, put them at end of chair, wait 30 minutes, if no one returned, items would be taken to towel station.
yes, people were pissed, but only fair. We watched this go on the whole cruise, tipped the crew member $50!!! Well worth it!!

15 or 20 minutes talking with a couple of people in the pool.  Had she said "oh, sorry" or something I wouldn't had hard feelings.  It was the way she threw the towel down.  Ha ha though, after she left, I got out and gave my chair to someone else looking for one.

I wouldn't think a time limit would apply if you are close enough to monitor it. To me that's not chair hogging. The chair hog is nowhere to be found for long periods of time.