crimes on board?

[Kurby]

I know this post isn't all pixie dust but i was just wondering.

i watched this program last night about crimes on board cruise ships and how they are hard to prosecute because of jurisdiction of the ship, crew, ports etc.

i know the ones they were talking about are very serious crimes but they never mentioned Disney - they talked about all the other ships so i'm wondering if Disney is immune from these things or were they just left out of that program

not just the major crime but the minor ones too -

has anyone themselves had something happen to them. anyone had anything go missing from their rooms? if yes did Disney do something about it or ignore it like some of the other ships seem to.

 

[mommasita]

Hi There.

My mother telephoned me RIGHT after this show. She had a LOT to say. I did not see it, but feel as if I have..

Disney had had some bad events. http://www.cruisejunkie.com/ is somewhere I love to read, and find out things that perhaps I never would have heard about..

Personally, we have never had anything stolen. On the contrary, my FIL had left his camcorder rolled in towels near the pool, and the pool staff had thrown it into the dirty towel bin. Along came our head server and saw us all looking (as we did not know yet, what had happened to it). He promptly went to the phone and called Guest Services, and said that they did not have it yet, but when the laundry discovered it, they would certainly hand it in.
We went to our room, and not 30 minutes later, it was brought there by GS.

Our experiences have all been good, but surely there has been things go wrong..

 

[son3disfan]

I too saw highlights of the show , but didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing.
We are on our first cruise in March with 3 young children and I have to say, the thought of "no law" is a little frightning......

Ok , maybe not NO LAW, but certainly not the same laws we are used to.

Why would Disney be immune to this?
Better staff ??( so I've heard..)
Do they have a better system of sercurty?

Just wondering.

 

[gossipgirl]

I too saw highlights of the show , but didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing.
We are on our first cruise in March with 3 young children and I have to say, the thought of "no law" is a little frightning......

Ok , maybe not NO LAW, but certainly not the same laws we are used to.

Why would Disney be immune to this?
Better staff ??( so I've heard..)
Do they have a better system of sercurty?

Just wondering.

has a ship ever sunk.

 

[misseulalie]

Does the cost of the photos from shutters be considered a crime????

 

[misseulalie]

has a ship ever sunk.

I'm sorry, I know you're just a teenager, but

what?????

 

[gossipgirl]

has a ship ever sunk.

 

[djs113]

yes

smaller cruise ships have sunk - mostly due to freakish atlantic ocean major waves - i read about a 45 ft wave that rolled a ship once

and a few have had a big fire requiring evacuation

one big wave hit a cruise ship broadside going to NY a year or so back and broke thru some windows

can't mess with mother nature

there was one major issue a few years back where a disney staff member was released imediately due to an issue with a passenger

 

[SnowWhite2]

I've been on several different cruise lines. Only DCL with my kids. I will say that the clientele on DCL is different than the other ships. DCL has mostly families and Disney lovers. They tend to not spend hours in the bar getting drunk and it is usually hard to find a party going on after midnight. The ship almost closes up at midnight. The party-hardy crowd tends to cruise other lines. I feel that the party atmosphere and the drunk crowds tend to open the door to the possiblility of stupid behavior or worse. There are always exceptions, but the DCL crowd is a bit tamer. People don't jump off of the side of the ship in the middle of the ocean on DCL. Does DCL control it better than other cruise lines? Maybe, but I still think it has to do with the market that Disney attracts.

Does that mean that nothing bad will happen on a DCL cruise? Absolutely not. But I do think your chances on DCL are lower than on one of the party boats. You still must be vigilant about leaving valuables unattended and watch where you are and what is going on around you. I give my kids sign out privledges on DCL and I would not allow that on another cruise line.


Just my two cents.

 

[kcashner]

Ever--yes.

We've been on the Magic 15 times. One time, DD left a valuable item in the theatre (after Mom told her not to take it). We reported it to guest services, but never saw it again. Undoubtedly another guest is enjoying it.

Never had anything disappear from a stateroom...but be smart--use the safe for your valuables.

On our last cruise, DD had an "incident" where she was inappropriately touched by an older teen on the cruise. She reported it to the teen counselor who contacted security. Seems this boy had been previously banned from The Stack due to his behavior and that DD's situation was minimal compared to the other stunts he's pulled during the cruise. DCL took the situation VERY seriously. The head of security met with my DD and me together and separately. He encouraged me to contact the authorities in Florida and paid for the ship to shore phone call to do so. When the ship docked, the local authorities were there to interview my daughter as well as some other guests who had worse experiences with this young man. While we were never told officially, my daughter reported that there was a security guard following her around on the ship....and there was definitely a security man on the teen beach at CC.

Bottom line--we were told that DCL has permanently banned all members of that sailing party from ever sailing on DCL again. The authorities in Florida reviewed the case and decided that no one incident was worthy of prosecution. Unfortunately they could not lump his actions together to make a case (supposedly that's not fair to him!). So...while they listed his touching my daughter as "sexual assult" (which makes it sound WAY worse than it was), that could not be combined with his more aggressive actions toward other young ladies. You get the picture. DCL also contacted the young ladies involved after they were home and offered counseling if the girls/parents felt it necessary.

I was very pleased with DCL. They made no attempt to sweep this under the rug. In fact, they encouraged me to report it. My temptation would have been to say that his actions were inappropriate but wouldn't be prosecuted. DCL security felt that his actions needed to be reported and it should be left to the authorities whether or not legal action was taken.

For what it is worth, DD wanted to return to Florida to testify against him. She feels that some day he's going to go much farther with a girl than he did on the ship and that she had to do everything she could to protect that girl.

 

[jajomo0118]

You should be so proud of your daughter...What a wonderful strong young women...well done mom!

 

[tvguy]

As I recall there was an incident with a castmember and a guest under age 18 on the Wonder that ended with the arrest of the castmember.
Doesn't matter where your child is, they need to be taught by you what is acceptable. Sadly, over half such incidents involving a child, the suspect is a parent, step parent or other close relative.

As for property loss, you have to be smart about what you bring and where you leave it or keep it. Lots of folks like to bring their laptops to download photos. I prefer to spend another $20 or $30 for extra memory sticks, and leave the $2500 laptop at home. I'd be angry if a memory stick was lost of stolen, but I would only be out a few dollars.

 

[oo138oo]

My husband and I are really careless. We've left cash, credit card, diamond earrings, camcorder and camera out before and they're all where they're suppose to be when we left it. Only thing we had missing was the DCL magnetic thingy we decorated the outside of our door with. I guess we trust the cast members much more so than the passengers

 

[frdeb1999]

Crime can happen anywhere. I think if you do the same things you do to protect yourself everyday you will be fine. And I do believe if something were to happen while on DCL that they would take care of it. Never had any problems, but they seem to be on top of most things.

 

[JsMom2]

I too saw highlights of the show , but didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing.
We are on our first cruise in March with 3 young children and I have to say, the thought of "no law" is a little frightning......

Ok , maybe not NO LAW, but certainly not the same laws we are used to.

Why would Disney be immune to this?
Better staff ??( so I've heard..)
Do they have a better system of sercurty?

Just wondering.

First off I wouldn't want to give the impression that I in any way believe Disney is "immune" to crime. However, the "no law" angle is only a problem when it's exploited by the cruise lines to avoid negative publicity. As you can see from one of the posts below, DCL takes any hint of crime seriously. If you read some of the events on sites like cruisebruise or cruisejunkie, you'll see that most problems on ships are alcohol related. DCL is the only line I've been on that doesn't push alcohol at you ALL the time. It's there if you want it, but its also very easy to avoid.

I've cruised 19 times on various lines (3 times on DCL so far) and I can tell you that the demographics on DCL are different than other lines. Families with children have different interest than the folks who are interested in partying all night. Also, price is a consideration. The cheaper lines attract the younger cruisers who tend to drink more than they can handle.

Keep tabs on your kids, but don't worry. I believe that once you're on board and you see how secure the kids programming is you'll feel much better.

 

[dragonflydreaming]

Crime can happen anywhere. I think if you do the same things you do to protect yourself everyday you will be fine. And I do believe if something were to happen while on DCL that they would take care of it. Never had any problems, but they seem to be on top of most things.

I totally agree with you. Take all the same precautions with your valuables and even more so with your children.

I know no one ever likes to go there but although Disney does have that wonderful innocent family feeling and environment, the reality is that a pedophile can be anywhere and they are drawn to settings where children are and parents may have their guard down or may not be as attentive as normal.
Things can happen very quickly.

I'm always amazed here at the number of people that leave their kids alone in the children's section of bookstores to amuse themselves while the adult goes to seek out whatever literature they are looking for.

It's no different on a cruiseship or anywhere else. Minor children should be in the care and sight of a responsible adult at all times. On more than one occasion I saw young children (I consider under 10 to be young) being allowed to "run back to the room" or somewhere else alone to get something. We were amazed at the number of people that let their kids go to the washroom alone while they stayed by the pool.

This is a floating city like any other. Although there are cameras, great security etc. If something happens, it's done and can't be undone.

I'm not paranoid, just a parent that believes you should always error on the side of caution when it comes to your kids.

Just my 2 cents..

 

[kharris]

I wasn't feeling well one morning, so I went out to walk around. I suprised a
couple of guys that were smoking pot they bought in Nassau. I think they
were more suprised than I was, that smell carries a long way. As soon as I
walked by, the filpped the joint into the ocean, and began trying to explain
themselves. Sea-sick............right.
I never thought about people sneaking that kind of crap back on board.
A Bahamian did try to sell me some once, but you had to go with him
to his "farm" to get it. Even if I wanted it, I would NOT take a ride with
a stranger anywhere to do something against the law.

I did talk to a couple of the crew, but never saw the 2 guys again.
Not even at the food court.

 

[TinkerbellTris]

We took our first cruise a few months back. One of the nights my Dh and I went up to the cove, Dh wanted a beer and I wanted some fresh air. Our DS was in the Kids club. We sat by the Goofy pool, it was about 9:30p.m. When we noticed a little boy sitting by himself at a close by table. We saw his mom run over to get some towels. Then it happened.... a guy about 28 years old, very odd looking was lingering around the little boy and was like rehursing to himself what he was gonna say to this little boy. And it made myself and my DH very uncomfortable. He was starring at the little boy and touched himself, not realizing we were watching. My DH sat and watched the situation while I ran and told a Cast member and got the kids mother and told her. She ran back to the table and went in side to get on an elevator. The guy followed them. I did find out cast members intervened. However I saw the guy the next day and was disgusted that he was allowed to walk around the ship. We stayed far away from him. He still has no idea we even saw him. The little boy was about 7 years old.

 

[tidoublegger]

I totally agree with you. Take all the same precautions with your valuables and even more so with your children.

I know no one ever likes to go there but although Disney does have that wonderful innocent family feeling and environment, the reality is that a pedophile can be anywhere and they are drawn to settings where children are and parents may have their guard down or may not be as attentive as normal.
Things can happen very quickly.

This is a floating city like any other. Although there are cameras, great security etc. If something happens, it's done and can't be undone.

I'm not paranoid, just a parent that believes you should always error on the side of caution when it comes to your kids.

Just my 2 cents..

Well said...I second this!

 

[ZXDAD]

I think it's like @ the parks you see people leave there valuables in there strollers BECAUSE it's disney. I love disney but common sense people jsut because it's disney does not make it any safer. I will admit though DCL is very good at keeping the ship in tow & I have never really heard about that much bad stuff...Other than those dang teens early in the morning running around pushing all the buttons on the elevtors & making noise in the halls & even then security usually catches up with them!