sparks1093

Possibly but you didn't allude to that in your post but I can now see where you're coming from.

So, not a myth but poorly understood and executed.

Actually he was investigated for his actions because every pilot is investigated for their actions when something goes wrong. And the computer models (and simulations) were correct- an immediate turn back toward the airport would have resulted in a landing on the ground (and even still the pilots in the simulators needed to practice the maneuver before they were successful). But as was pointed out (by Sully and others) no one had ever trained for dual engine loss at such a low altitude. I would think that since that fateful day this scenario is carried out in simulators regularly so pilots can be trained in this unlikely occurrence.

I would call it more of a mindset than a myth. Certainly not a mindset shared by all back in the day, but it was a prevailing one whenever disaster struck.

If you spend any time looking at most disasters they stem from a series of miscues that lead to the disaster happening or making it worse than it should have been. Usually the miscues are done by different people at different stages leading up to the disaster, but as pointed out the miscues in the case of the Concordia came from one individual- the Captain. This is the human element that most planners try to take into account but at the end of the day cannot be totally eliminated. With all of the redundancies built into modern aircraft it still took Captain Sullenberger to safely land a disabled jet on the water. Had he not been so skilled and competent all onboard would have been lost. As for calling the individual captain (I can't spell his name and don't want to take time looking it up), no- he was stripped of his ability to command a rowboat. In my view that puts him lower than a cabin steward or dishwasher (and putting him on the same level as them is an insult to them, since they still have their maritime credentials).

This has always been my understanding of the expression- that the Captain be the last person off after making sure everyone else has been evacuated and after doing everything he or she could to save the vessel.

I'm not sure one can tell from down on deck how long the line is (I couldn't, anyway), but certainly you can easily tell how many are on the course itself.

And it all comes down to the CD- he or she can decide to run Quest instead of the Adult game. (We did see some sort of Adult game on the schedule but there was something else going on at the time so we didn't go.)

Probably a good bet, but even if it is slow at one moment it could be very busy the next, while the teen is actually on the course. I'm not sure what "crowds" means to him but I never saw it too busy (but then there may have been people at the starting line that I couldn't see from down below waiting their turn).

They might seem understaffed but in reality there are only so many bodies that can move around back there efficiently. With the number of customers they are serving they most definitely have to hustle and I rarely waited more than 5 minutes at the bar for a drink last week, even when they were busy.

Very true. I used to have my email in my signature until a troll decided to respond there instead of on the board. Definitely not pleasant.

Another consideration in addition to the venue is what other activity gets axed so that Quest can take place? The Fun Squad was going all out all week as was the CD and the entertainment schedule was jam packed. From what we saw everything was well attended so choosing which one to eliminate raises its own set of problems.

If I recall correctly the cruise director chose not to have Quest last year when we were on Glory.

The idea of being crammed in a tiny space like that and being forced to participate is enough to make me cringe. A lot of people like to watch Quest and not having room for them is a good reason not to have it.

When we first started getting interested in cruising I found two forums, Cruise Critic and another. I joined both, but found CC to be intimidating with it's large volume of info each day so I spent more time on the other one. Then one day one of the moderators on that other board took me to task for an opinion I had about something, so I left that board and never looked back. Did a search for them the other day and they do not exist any longer.