Turn That Bloody Light Out
Passengers told to keep their lights turned off
By Mike Groves
This article is in response to the April 10, 2010 Daily Mail article stating, "Passengers on P&O's Aurora and Arcadia ships were told to keep their lights off and not venture out onto the promenade deck between the hours of 6.30pm and 7am while sailing through the Gulf of Aden. Despite the blackout, they were permitted to leave their cabins."
Folks I wish I could tell you that this is my idea of a belated April fools' joke but sadly not, because it is true and yet another example of Carnival Corporations idea of a ‘sick joke’ in my opinion. I also feel it is a decision that is driven solely by greed; to make even more money come hell or high water?
‘Turn that bloody light out!’ reminds me of the old black and white films about the London Blitz during WWII. You can only imagine it can’t you – those poor old passengers who paid a fortune for their dream vacation only to find themselves living in fear of the Air Raid Warden!
But am I laughing about this – no not really, I am pretty incensed to be honest! I am sick to the back teeth of the same offenders risking all to make money and in the process highlighting yet again that they don’t give a damn about their passengers, or crew for that matter.
Carnival made a very public fuss about pulling their Seabourn fleet from piracy waters and ‘oh, how they will do so much just to protect their guests’ - rubbish!!
They only pulled them because Seabourn ships are particularly small and having got caught with their trousers around their ankles before, when they cut the corner in 2005, it was for that reason they pulled them from the area once they could work around the issue of pre-booked cruises.
So what of the larger ships in their fleet – well its business as usual by the looks of things! Pathetic!
Pathetic because they actually believe we are hoodwinked by all this media bluster, we are not! It is corporate greed yet again in my book and no matter other cruise lines have pulled or are pulling their ships from the area, no mater that the IMO [International Maritime Organization], the IMB [International Maritime Bureau] and countless others are consistently calling for restraint and I would imagine, common sense, Carnival Corp just continues to ignore them. Why?
Rest assured if I was a passenger on a cruise ship that was then attacked by pirates I would soon be organizing a class action to sue the Captain and the company for gross negligence….Ummmmmmm, that reminds me?
So why are passengers being ‘instructed’ to keep their cabin lights turned off? Is it because the cruise operators are actually intent to sail so close to the coast that cabin lights could be seen by the naked eye, eyes firmly fixed inside the skulls of pirates bobbing around near the coast? Are they intent, yet again, to try and save time and money by re-jigging their nautical charts accordingly? I wonder how much fuel that would save?
For example if you drove your car to your favorite Aunties house but then opted to take the more scenic route, and which is a little out of the way, it would obviously cost you more in gas than if you just hit the motorway. I know you folks call it the highway but the point I am making is that often motorways offer a much more ‘direct’ route don’t they?
But of course this company, and her subsidiary cruise lines are run by a bunch of idiots! In fact I’ll take that back, because they [the idiots] will know only too well from their ‘wide eyed’ and highly qualified security advisors that pirates don’t give a damn about bright lights set against the evening sky, because some of them HAVE RADAR - YOU JERKS!!
Passengers on P&O's [owned by Carnival Corp] Aurora and Arcadia ships were told to keep their lights off and not to venture out onto the promenade decks between the hours of 6.30pm and 7am while sailing through the Gulf of Aden, but is this only happening while they are in the Gulf of Aden? God only knows! So with that in mind, I would be particularly interested to hear from anyone on board these ships or any others for that matter, to see if they are being required to do the same off the coast of Somalia or when sailing through other known piracy waters.
P&O's cruise ships sail from Southampton through the waters off the Somali coast - a pirate hotspot.
All that aside, and no matter these ships have not been attacked – as yet, did P&O/Carnival give any thought to the following……what of the psychological effects for their passengers and crew, and how are the young children on board coping with such public announcements to turn off the lights for fear or pirate attacks?
For sure the company will not whispering into the adults ears or telling the kids they’re just playing a game of 'hide & seek', which to be fair they are if you think about it, however the ‘very real’ issues surrounding this stupidity are this - blood thirsty pirates don’t play fair and will just prefer to shoot you in order to say ‘TAG’ where the rest of us prefer to touch the others arm before running away for our turn to hide!
A spokesman for P&O told The Telegraph: "Cruise ship security is the industry's highest priority." Whatever mate!!
Comments below are just a selection of many who also expressed shock and disgust –
"For heavens sake what are people cruising in such waters...nothing to see there excepting dumb stupid 3rd world pirates !"
"Well if they want to just put a few machine guns here and there...and don't ask questions first...just fire !"
Edouard, Toulouse
"It is silly question time. "If it is that dangerous, why are they taking cruise ships there at all"?"
Dave, Essex
"You can't fly with eagles if you are governed by turkeys."
Turn That Bloody Light Out
Cruise ship passengers told to keep their lights turned off to avoid attracting pirates!
By Mike Groves QGM
Cruise Bruise Security And Safety Advisor
April 12, 2010
Editor's Note: I think we all knew an explosion was coming on this topic, a British explosion of words. Mike is all fired up on this topic, with good reason.
Lights out? The only time I have heard of this in history is during a brown out, with electricity in short supply and in war zones. Did these passengers book these cruises to holiday in a war zone? If they were expecting romantic moon lit nights on deck, they were disappointed.
I think people need to turn their televisions off. Apparently, some people think reality is some Hollywood version and all pirates are sexy and smiling like Johnny Depp.
Talk to Mike about the reality of pirates off the coast of Somalia. He was up close and personal with them and can tell you they were anything BUT sexy.
On the plus side, passengers didn't have to worry about gorging themselves at the midnight buffet. No lights, no service, no extra weight gain.
