Elderly Couple Reported Missing from Carnival Paradise

[LauraS]

Cruise Critic has just posted the following news:

Elderly Couple Reported Missing from Carnival Paradise

Read the entire news article...

[vinsheer]

My husband and I just returned from the same cruise and had no idea anything like this happened, but I guess with the "Privacy" sign on the door the ship would not have noticed until well into debarkation. I don't understand Carnival's response that they may have disembarked in Catalina or Ensenada when everyone knows how carefully they "bing" your card on the way off the ship and again to get back on. The weather was great throughout this cruise although early Wednesday morning I went to the front of the ship, by the miniature golf course, to watch the sunrise and was met with some pretty fierce winds. I am finding it hard to imagine a 90 year old man and a 79 year old woman falling or even climbing over those high balconies. I really hope we find out more about this because it seems like these "overboard" incidences get very little press after the initial report. The article also says the FBI has been talking to passengers which I think is a little strange since I'm sure most passengers, like myself, had already left the ship before this was even discovered. Anyway, let's keep this elderly couple in our prayers and hope they can find out what happened to them.

[bepsf]

Seems to me a simple case of suicide - Two elderly people don't just "accidentally" fall off a ship.

[GSDsky]

Originally Posted by bepsf

Seems to me a simple case of suicide - Two elderly people don't just "accidentally" fall off a ship.

I would have to agree about a suicide.
But for the life of me I can't figure out a 90 and 79 year old on CARNIVAL!

[bepsf]

Originally Posted by GSDsky

I would have to agree about a suicide.
But for the life of me I can't figure out a 90 and 79 year old on CARNIVAL!

You never know about these things - It could be that they were frequent cruisers/travelers who had a fortune which was recently lost in the markets...
...and this was all they could afford.

[flashdog_1]

I disbelieve the Carnival statement that they did not know if the couple had gotten off the ship in port. You know how they scan cards! And they could not have double locked their cabin door if they were off the ship in port. There is only one conclusion here.

[karen116]

Originally Posted by flashdog_1

I disbelieve the Carnival statement that they did not know if the couple had gotten off the ship in port. You know how they scan cards! And they could not have double locked their cabin door if they were off the ship in port. There is only one conclusion here.

i thought the same thing exactly...........not only that, the article first states it was a three day cruise and then it goes on to say it was a five day cruise. think someone is confused here?

[goodml]

Originally Posted by GSDsky

I would have to agree about a suicide.
But for the life of me I can't figure out a 90 and 79 year old on CARNIVAL!

Good grief! IF it happened to be something they planned to do (and obviously we'll never know that) why on earth would it matter which line they're on?

By the way, my inlaws, who are well into their 70's and have sailed several times with Carnival, most recently on Conquest had the pleasure of dining with a couple celebrating their 70th anniversary.

Old stereotypes die hard.

My thoughts and prayers to the family.

[JustBill]

My wife and I were on an Oceania cruise this past November. One evening we shared a table with an older couple from California and the gentleman was 90 and his wife was 79. We were told they had met on a bridge tournament cruise and both were competitive players and had won a number of tournaments. I believe the husband said he was originally from Cuba, the wife really didn't look her age, more like an attractive 60 year old. Both very good talkers, very bright.

I know it's not likely the missing couple are the same ones we met but it still makes one wonder.

[mochuck]

Originally Posted by karen116

i thought the same thing exactly...........not only that, the article first states it was a three day cruise and then it goes on to say it was a five day cruise. think someone is confused here?

I don't see anything sinister in that. The press always get things wrong in their haste to get a story out. Fact checking doesn't come into it.

[mochuck]

More than likely one of them was sick and they decided to go together. They'll probably find out more when they check their house.

[kelly@]

Originally Posted by karen116

i thought the same thing exactly...........not only that, the article first states it was a three day cruise and then it goes on to say it was a five day cruise. think someone is confused here?

The three-day cruise I was referring to in the article was the next Carnival Paradise sailing which departed this Friday evening, January 16.

We had checked earlier in the day to see if there had been any delay to this sailing due to the investigation. Apologies for any confusion there.

A spokesperson from Carnival also told me yesterday that the couple do not appear to have disembarked in either port.

Kelly
U.K. Editor

[Parrot Mom]

Originally Posted by bepsf

Seems to me a simple case of suicide - Two elderly people don't just "accidentally" fall off a ship.

Seriously, the line would know if they had left the ship and returned..It seems death by cruise ship is what happened.. Why were they on a Carnival? Probably it was less expensive and close to home for them...As a 70 year old plus... and please don't think of this as "sick" I can see why they might of gone overboard on a cruise ship. Frankly, I think it was a suicide pact...

[jeaniebelle]

Originally Posted by GSDsky

I would have to agree about a suicide.
But for the life of me I can't figure out a 90 and 79 year old on CARNIVAL!

Cheaper than funeral costs ?!

[Parrot Mom]

Originally Posted by jeaniebelle

Cheaper than funeral costs ?!

YES, it is.... it may of been one o f them was ill, probably dementia or something incurable and perhaps an alternative to going into a nursing home or assisted living..which they could not probably afford

[bepsf]

Originally Posted by Parrot Mom

YES, it is.... it may of been one o f them was ill, probably dementia or something incurable and perhaps an alternative to going into a nursing home or assisted living..which they could not probably afford

I'd frankly much rather go by leaping off the verandah of my shipboard suite in my best tuxedo than be warehoused in a dreary nursing home year after year, drooling into my porridge and hoping someone will come change my soiled pants today and waiting for death to come...

...there's a certain dignity to the former which is completely lacking in the latter.

[Parrot Mom]

Originally Posted by bepsf

I'd frankly much rather go by leaping off the verandah of my shipboard suite in my best tuxedo than be warehoused in a dreary nursing home year after year, drooling into my porridge and hoping someone will come change my soiled pants today and waiting for death to come...

...there's a certain dignity to the former which is completely lacking in the latter.

ON a lighter side.. it probably saved their families funeral expenses.. and it's not a bad way to go...hope it's not a trend by the elderly

[Scubachick84]

They may have saved the expense of embalming, coffins and burials but if your parents jumped off a cruise ship wouldn't you still hold a service and have plots in a cemetery?

[Leejnd4]

Originally Posted by bepsf

I'd frankly much rather go by leaping off the verandah of my shipboard suite in my best tuxedo than be warehoused in a dreary nursing home year after year, drooling into my porridge and hoping someone will come change my soiled pants today and waiting for death to come...

...there's a certain dignity to the former which is completely lacking in the latter.

Uh...sorry but I have to disagree. This would NOT be a pleasant way to go. The jump is not so high that the impact would kill you, so you would be alive and probably awake for a pretty long time, alone, freezing cold, salt water stinging your every orifice...probably wishing you hadn't done it, but no way to back out now...and eventually running out of energy to stay afloat, sinking and in terror as the water fills your mouth and lungs and you can get no more air and your lungs explode...while the other one watches their beloved spouse die, knowing they're next...

As a scuba diver, I can assure you that it would be a horrific way to die. There are much better, quicker, less-painful ways to take one's own life. People who choose suicide-by-cruise-ship are condemning their families to the knowledge for the rest of their lives of the hell their loved ones went through in their final hours. Sad.

[Leejnd4]

Originally Posted by Scubachick84

They may have saved the expense of embalming, coffins and burials but if your parents jumped off a cruise ship wouldn't you still hold a service and have plots in a cemetery?

Yes to the first part...but, plots in a cemetary? What the heck for? Why take up precious land space...and what would you put in it? Most people who are cremated do not end up in cemetary plots, so why use one for someone whose body is lost at sea?

Personally I feel that ANY burial is a terrific waste of land...and money. When I go, I'm having my ashes tossed over the cliffs of the Via Del'Amore in Cinque Terre, Italy. If anyone wants to visit me, they can take a trip there, and contemplate the beauty of the view while they reflect on my life. I consider that a much more appropriate memorial than a depressing pile of dirt covering up my decaying body amidst hundreds of other decaying bodies. But that's just me.