Costa Allegra in trouble in Indian Ocean

[stevedonna]

Another Costa in trouble .

http://www.theage.com.au/travel/trav...228-1tzjq.html

[bazzaw]

Floating around without power in the area of the Seychelles - the area where P&O UK last week cancelled their upcoming March port visit to Port Victoria due to pirate activity!!

Barry

[bobhsv]

Originally Posted by bazzaw

Floating around without power in the area of the Seychelles - the area where P&O UK last week cancelled their upcoming March port visit to Port Victoria due to pirate activity!!

Barry

That was my immediate thought too. At least they are on 'watch'.

[cjm66]

Originally Posted by bazzaw

Floating around without power in the area of the Seychelles - the area where P&O UK last week cancelled their upcoming March port visit to Port Victoria due to pirate activity!!

Barry

One report stated that there are nine members of the Italian Anti Pirate force on board to protect the ship and repel pirates. Doesn't sound very pleasant - no lighting or cooked food!

Colleen

[NSWP]

Yes Pirate alley out there. Our Arcadia itinerary now misses Port Victoria - Seychelles, because of recent pirate activity.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Lets trust that help gets to them before the pirates.

At one stage wasn't Costa Allegra mooted as a replacement for Pacific Sun?

[rugbypopsie]

I hope so too 9 staff members are not able to fight off pirates with high speed boats and missile launchers..

For one of the very few times I am glad I am not at sea.

Sue

[NSWP]

Originally Posted by rugbypopsie

I hope so too 9 staff members are not able to fight off pirates with high speed boats and missile launchers..

For one of the very few times I am glad I am not at sea.

Sue

Not just 9 staff members, they would be Italian Defence Force Special operatives or Italian Carabineri (Para Military Police.) I am sure they would do a very good job of repelling pirates. They would be armed with more than sticks and stones, wink.

[johndon]

My money would be on the properly trained, para military personnel onboard as opposed to untrained, disorganised "pirates" who mostly take on unprotected, unguarded container or other cargo ships.
A group of nine or so pirate guards would be more than a match for half a dozen rabble pirates. Shipping companies are at last getting their acts together with anti piracy strategies and I would not expect the Companies to trumpet to everyone just what they are doing. I think most people would be surprised at just what measures companies like Princess, HAL, P & O and Cunard take in this regard.
Just consider the legal implications these companies would be exposing themselves to if no precautions were taken to a known threat let alone the future marketing threat in the event of an incident. (Look at Costa, different incident but very preventable)
It all boils down to "duty of Care" and what is done about it.

John

[finetuneit]

Originally Posted by Kiwi Kruzer

Lets trust that help gets to them before the pirates.

At one stage wasn't Costa Allegra mooted as a replacement for Pacific Sun?

No, not Costa Allegra (it's only 28,000 tonnes and was originally built in the 60's). Costa Victoria was being touted as a possible replacement for Pacific Sun.

Honestly, how much bad publicity can Costa take?

[Cruise ship fan]

Originally Posted by finetuneit

Honestly, how much bad publicity can Costa take?

I doubt it could take any more. As I am guessing after this they will have to really reinvent their image. The company has even become a sort of a joke. With even a local radio station here making fun of the company (not about the loss of life on Concordia) and how bad things are.

[jajabinks]

Hi All
We were in a similar situation on board the Costa Classica in Dec 2009, we were adrift in the sth china sea for 3 hours with no power. We had sailed on fri 4th midnight,we broke down 11.15am sunday 6th and had not done muster drill. we were charged 8 euro for bottled water (no other refreshments were available due to no power) at about 2pm the emergency sirens were activated and everyone (including crew) were clueless.We were trapped with a wheelchair pax in middle of ship. after approx 10 mins an anouncement came over that it was a false alarm and everything was Ok. We emailed a letter to Costa after the cruise and there reply was astonishing, they claimed we had done safety drill and the breakdown was part of the emergency drill .( I still have email correspondence). We were left stranded at sea, no maritime authorities were notified. This latest incident is just another case of mismanagement and lack of maintenance on there older ships, The disabled room on the Classica was unlivable.Ironically we were docked next to Allegra in Singapore , and many of us wished we could swap ships.The 14 of us on this cruise will never sail with, or trust, or believe anything this worthless poor excuse for a cruise company says.
Regards
JaJa

[kuldalai]

Allegra and Marina are old Container boats converted to cruise boats, thats why all the portholes, no promenade decks, and no balcony cabins .

Costa really should be retiring these older vessels which are way beyond their use-by dates .

[NSWP]

Originally Posted by kuldalai

Allegra and Marina are old Container boats converted to cruise boats, thats why all the portholes, no promenade decks, and no balcony cabins .

Costa really should be retiring these older vessels which are way beyond their use-by dates .

Costa Allegra, built in 1969 and had many name changes and face lifts. Not for me, who knows Carnival Corp might pass it on from Costa to P&O Australia to replace Pacific Sun, 'Pacific Allegra', stranger things have happened. We all know we get the 'hand me down' ships here. But then again we could kick off P&O New Zealand by giving them Allegra as the Kiwi flagship. LOL.