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My one safety warning regarding Breakaway


DGP1111
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< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

I'm on vacaaaation! :)

 

< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

Ahh, this drink is so deelicious!

 

< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

I don't have to work tomorrow!

 

< Step > . < Step > . < OOOF! > . < SPLASH > . < OUCH! >

 

.

What The F%@!!!??? :eek:

 

.

Fellow passenger nearby: "Oh, you did it too."

 

Too?? . What do you mean "too"?? . What just happened!??

 

Oh, those stairs are tricky. My husband fell, and a lady ahead of us also did.

 

Fast forward to muster drill . . .

 

Large mass of people heading down to their station, when suddenly one person falls at the bottom of the stairs causing two more to go down as well.

 

After the drill I'm getting ready to head to the cabin of good friends to watch sailaway. At the bottom of the nearby stairs is a small lady sitting on the floor and her friend assisting her up. She laughs off the fall and continues on. I mention the situation to my friends as we're enjoying sailaway, so that they'll be careful as well.

 

For those first two days I observed a large number of people either stumble or fall on a select few flights of stairs that are designed differently from the rest.

 

This is why . . .

Some doofus in the design/decorating phase thought it would be an attractive idea to add a "faux stair" at the bottom of the flight. The stairs are blue, and carpet on the main deck landing is a brown pattern.

Within the brown carpet is a strip of blue the exact dimensions of the stair, and completely even with the brown pattern.

That clearly makes it look likes there's one additional step.

 

Not cool. :(

 

Anyhoo . . . . for those of you boarding this ship in the future, please "watch your step on the step". It can be a total doozy early in the week.

 

.

Faux%20Stair%201-XL.jpg

 

.

Faux%20Stair%202-XL.jpg

 

This was brought to the attention of onboard management. Me discussing the process/result of those conversations would start controversy, so I'll just omit that part.

 

.

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< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

I'm on vacaaaation! :)

 

< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

Ahh, this drink is so deelicious!

 

< Step > . < Step > . < Step > . < Step >

 

I don't have to work tomorrow!

 

< Step > . < Step > . < OOOF! > . < SPLASH > . < OUCH! >

 

.

What The F%@!!!??? :eek:

 

.

Fellow passenger nearby: "Oh, you did it too."

 

Too?? . What do you mean "too"?? . What just happened!??

 

Oh, those stairs are tricky. My husband fell, and a lady ahead of us also did.

 

Fast forward to muster drill . . .

 

Large mass of people heading down to their station, when suddenly one person falls at the bottom of the stairs causing two more to go down as well.

 

After the drill I'm getting ready to head to the cabin of good friends to watch sailaway. At the bottom of the nearby stairs is a small lady sitting on the floor and her friend assisting her up. She laughs off the fall and continues on. I mention the situation to my friends as we're enjoying sailaway, so that they'll be careful as well.

 

For those first two days I observed a large number of people either stumble or fall on a select few flights of stairs that are designed differently from the rest.

 

This is why . . .

Some doofus in the design/decorating phase thought it would be an attractive idea to add a "faux stair" at the bottom of the flight. The stairs are blue, and carpet on the main deck landing is a brown pattern.

Within the brown carpet is a strip of blue the exact dimensions of the stair, and completely even with the brown pattern.

That clearly makes it look likes there's one additional step.

 

Not cool. :(

 

Anyhoo . . . . for those of you boarding this ship in the future, please "watch your step on the step". It can be a total doozy early in the week.

 

.

Faux%20Stair%201-XL.jpg

 

.

Faux%20Stair%202-XL.jpg

 

This was brought to the attention of onboard management. Me discussing the process/result of those conversations would start controversy, so I'll just omit that part.

 

.

 

I hope they fixed that on the Getaway, or I will spend all week worrying about my parents! :eek: What about those glass stairs? I've read lots of people were falling on those as well.

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Two weeks ago an "domino" effect occured just after the safety drill on the MS. Veendam.

An elderly lady at the bottom of the pile had 5 broken ribs, a broken tail bone and a fractured nose. She just was released from the hospital on Wednesday. Her one bit of advice is for the ships to dismiss the lifeboat stations a few at a time so as to avoid the mad rush down the stairway.

David

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I have such bad knees that I am a total wimp on stairs. I hold hard to the rail and look down at my feet the whole way! Otherwise I trip and fall. With DH's bad hip (hip replacement THIS Monday!) we always took the elevators but he should be good to go on the Getaway. Hope they change this by then !

 

Thanks for the heads up!

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This was brought to the attention of onboard management. Me discussing the process/result of those conversations would start controversy, so I'll just omit that part.

 

The probably thought the same I did. I even had to look at my cruise pictures to see that it has been different on other ships but seriously I have been on the Breakaway and used the stairs there a lot and never even noticed it while being on board.

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It does look a little odd for sure. Along with the fact most of us senior types wear glasses and can get a distorted view of things especially when navigating stairs.

Boy, you're not just whistling Dixie!! :eek: Even when pointed out to me, it took me a second or two to see it. Sometimes function is more important that fashionable decor.

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Why endanger your life with stairs when the elevators are always available!

 

I fully understand your intended point, LMB, but I personally think I'm attempting to extend my life through the regular use of stairs rather than always elevators (both on vacation and at my office building).

During my recent 7-nt Norwegian Dawn sailing I used the elevator for one single ride the entire cruise vacation.

 

It also gives me a false sense of entitlement to order the dessert that evening. :D

 

.

Edited by DGP1111
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I saw a different stairs hazard on my recent sailing on BA. It was in the Breakaway Theatre, near the top I think at around row P. Maybe. 6 rows up from the Haven reserved area. There is one tread that is roughly half the depth of all others and does not flow naturally with the rest of the steps. I saw several people, seniors I would say, lose their balance or outright fall. This is extra problematic since the lighting is not great in there to start and almost nil during a show.

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:eek: What about those glass stairs? I've read lots of people were falling on those as well.

 

Never once saw that to be a challenge. :)

 

When you get to the patterned tile floor, you've reached the obvious end of your journey.

Of course, if you did have an 'issue', you'd be right in front of Headliners, and could become the punchline for a bad joke. :p

 

.

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For people who wear progressive lenses as I do stairs like those pictured can be a nightmare. More than a few times I've had to remove my glasses to negotiate stairs are that striped or have heavy patterned carpeting.

 

I can understand that. I wear progressive lenses as well and I would love to blame it on them. However, I suffer more from clutz supreme :eek: and my mind be somewhere other than each step I take. Therefore, since the view of these stairs look to be an actual step, they would throw me way off of the natural flow I would be taking in decending the stairs when I reached the bottom.

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Thank you Don, for your post. Duly noted for my trip (no pun intended) this summer.

 

I remember Gambee saying those stairs were dangerous. Beautiful, but dangerous.

 

 

 

 

~Robin

Norwegian Breakaway 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

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For people who wear progressive lenses as I do stairs like those pictured can be a nightmare. More than a few times I've had to remove my glasses to negotiate stairs are that striped or have heavy patterned carpeting.

 

I cannot wear progressive lenses for this very reason. Gave myself whiplash twice by falling on steps/stairs. The extreme difference between my bifocal and distance is the culprit. With traditional lined glasses, I can see the line and know when to adjust the brain from far to near. However, stairs are still a major issue as the distance from my face to the floor is too great for a clear view from the bottom (the bifocal), and I cannot bend my neck that forward to use the top of my lens to see clearly. I also have too bad of vision to attempt the stairs without glasses.

 

I do stairs very slowly and carefully because of this. However, the last picture Don posted is my worst nightmare for stairs. People with vision issues such as myself, will often use pattern or color to determine the end of the stairs. The blue carpet on the stairs in this case tells me this is the step. The brown carpet tells me the level floor. I would then continue walking down and most likely trip because of the faux step.

 

NCL has been responding frequently the past few days. I hope they see this thread and do something before someone gets seriously injured or worse.

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Not from the photo, the hand rail follows right to the end of the blue carpet.

 

Yes it wraps around for the stairs going down to the next level. My eyes are not the best but it is super obvious that there can't be any height difference between the last blue piece and the start of the brown carpet.

 

I am not saying that people don't trip over and fall. I had a few missteps on stairs myself but never even thought of blaming anyone else than myself. Either because I went to fast, were drunk, did not pay attention or was looking at my mobile phone at the moment.

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Well, that's just stupid, Don! And definitely dangerous.
And simple to fix.

 

Would someone in charge at NCL correct this, please?

It'll take a few hours, no more.

Could be done anytime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. when few ppl are around!

 

.

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