I am really surprised at Royal Caribbean ......rotted life vests?

[Tonka's Skipper]

Majesty of the Seas

Nearly 3,000 passengers aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas woke up Tuesday morning still docked at Port Canaveral. The ship was supposed to set sail Monday night at approximately 5:00 p.m. for a four-night cruise to the Bahamas.

 

Aged life vests apparently held the ship at Port Canaveral overnight, and passengers were not able to disembark because U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had already gone home for the evening.

 

WFTV reported yesterday that “the U.S. Coast Guard conducted a routine inspection of Majesty of the Seas,” said Cynthia Martinez, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman. “They came across some technical issues, including some outdoor life jackets that were showing their age. We hope to have replacements join the ship today and we expect to address the other issues shortly,” Martinez said. “The ship stayed in port overnight until they arrive.”

 

 

 

The ship is expected to depart the port sometime Tuesday afternoon.

 

(End of article)

 

 

The vessel safety team needs retraining and the line should be fined big time.

 

 

 

This is a nono.................AKK

[ArthurUSCG]

You will not believe how often this happens. Although I haven't heard of a major cruise ship getting nailed in a long time.

It is common that the jackets fail from the sun bleaching the required markings.

 

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[NancyIL]

The ship just set sail.

[Shmoo here]

Just an example of where the cruise contract states that a cruise line "may in its sole discretion and without prior notice change, substitute, postpone, cancel or deviate from any scheduled sailing, itinerary or call at any port, and may substitute another vessel for the ship, and shall not be liable for any loss or damage incurred by a Guest as a result of any such change, substitution, postponement, cancellation or deviation."

[Loonbeam]

Only surprised because Majestic I thought was refurbed not that long ago...

 

But it happens along with delays for sanitation inspections and my personal favorite a 7 hour delay as they did a paperwork review for the entire crew with in person checks so they couldn't do their work...

[Tonka's Skipper]

You will not believe how often this happens. Although I haven't heard of a major cruise ship getting nailed in a long time.

It is common that the jackets fail from the sun bleaching the required markings.

 

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I agree Arthur, it does happen on cargo ships.............my point, like yours, was I would not expect it on a major Cruise Line!

 

 

AKK

[ArthurUSCG]

If the vests are in outside storage containers they might have been more decorative then functional designed and allowed water to enter and mold/ rot the vests.

 

A lot of companies and people use the anti tamper wire ties thru the container padlock holes and of they are in tact don't check the containers. And if they are using good containers has not caused an issue with the vests.

 

Hopefully RCCL are checking her sister ships while uw and will have replacement vests waiting.

 

*Most of my experience has been on small craft.

 

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[Steelers0854]

Thanks goodness for the Coast Guard and I am glad to see they are not afraid to hold cruise lines accountable for safety issues.

 

Kudos to the CG!

 

Royal Caribbean on the other hand should be ashamed.

[chengkp75]

Skipper;

 

You should know that many times there is quite a lot of "personal" in the decisions of USCG marine safety inspectors. What the officers and crew on the ship felt were fine, the inspector ruled "unserviceable". I don't know about you, but I've had one COTP inspection team write up an 835 deficiency, and when we correct it and have someone down to clear it, sometimes from the same COTP district, sometimes from another, the inspector will say "they wrote you up for that?"

 

Given that the Majesty went under a microscope last fall after her drydocking and change of company back to RCI (failed USPH inspection, first PSC inspection in several years by USCG), I'm surprised that anything was marginal at that time and was let go with an "observation", but it might have been "recommended" that the jackets be renewed "soon" and this was overlooked (forgotten), and now a new inspector has deemed them unserviceable.

 

I would also like to know how many were deemed US compared to how many were renewed, since the reports I've seen (thread on RCI forum has some CC members onboard) state that all the jackets were renewed. My feeling is that the company might have had a short detention to get enough jackets to replace the US ones, but decided to take extra time and renew them all, though just speculating. As you know, jackets are not normally renewed en mass, so they should not all have been "worn", and I see RCI taking a pro-active role in renewing them all.

 

My personal theory is that since the ship was under Pullmantur for several years, they might have run into that batch of "counterfeit" lifejackets, and these were not caught last fall, and this time they were.

[chengkp75]

Thanks goodness for the Coast Guard and I am glad to see they are not afraid to hold cruise lines accountable for safety issues.

 

Kudos to the CG!

 

Royal Caribbean on the other hand should be ashamed.

 

I will withhold my judgement until I see the report of the PSC detention, which should pop up on the USCG site in a couple months. If you read the thread over on the RCI forum, Capt_BJ, a former USCG officer, agrees with me that there is significant leeway in what one inspector deems fine and what another deems not fine. He states " IME any boarding officer worth their salt could rip the strap off a brand new life jacket during the inspection warranting an "unserviceable". "

 

And as I've said on that thread, I have personally "trained" USCG young, inexperienced, inspectors who come on my ship, in the proper way to inspect things, and received recognition from their "mentor" inspectors onboard at the time.

[ArthurUSCG]

Yes the individual Boarding Officer gets a lot of leaway and power during a boarding. This is very high profile and with a big company. I suspect the final determination was done higher up the food chain at the sector or group level.

 

I am going to go look at the RCCL thread now.

 

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[Tonka's Skipper]

Hi Chief,

 

I agree..........what supersized me was that there were enough bad that the inspection Officer would risk the fall out from the ship being delayed over night. I don't think the line would be qiuk to hold her over night to replace them all .the bad *word or mouth* is never good and it would be easier to get a limited number that day and the rest the next port of call.

 

While I fully know the inspection Officers have a lot of leeway.........they also know to hold the ship would raise a lot of nasty emails.

 

AKK

[Tonka's Skipper]

Hi Chief,

 

I agree..........what supersized me was that there were enough bad that the inspection Officer would risk the fall out from the ship being delayed over night. I don't think the line would be qiuk to hold her over night to replace them all .the bad *word of mouth* is never good and it would be easier to get a limited number that day and the rest the next port of call.

 

The story say *outdoor vest showing their age, which to me means rotted.

 

While I fully know the inspection Officers have a lot of leeway..( much to me chagrin in the past).......they also know to hold a cruise ship would raise a lot of nasty emails.

 

AKK

[Loonbeam]

The inspector, especially if new, may not have realized the implications of their decision, but once rules unserviceable it cannot be rescinded.

 

I could very easily see the following conversation or a variant (assuming the damage was marginal and it wasn't patently obvious they were bad and had been for a while):

 

Inspector "These two sets of vests are unable to be used. Looks like something got in there and faded/rotted/ruined them."

 

Ship's Officer "Crap"

 

Inspector "What? Just 2 sets"

 

Ship's Officer "We only have one set of spares, rest will need to be shipped in and probably won't be here until tomm."

 

Inspector "Ah. Crap. Sorry, just doing my job."

 

Hi Chief' date='

 

I agree..........what supersized me was that there were enough bad that the inspection Officer would risk the fall out from the ship being delayed over night. I don't think the line would be qiuk to hold her over night to replace them all .the bad *word of mouth* is never good and it would be easier to get a limited number that day and the rest the next port of call.

 

The story say *outdoor vest showing their age, which to me means rotted.

 

While I fully know the inspection Officers have a lot of leeway..( much to me chagrin in the past).......they also know to hold a cruise ship would raise a lot of nasty emails.

 

AKK[/quote']

[Steelers0854]

Thanks for all your detailed insights. I had no idea there was so much leeway given to the inspectors. That's interesting to know and take into account when something like this happens.

[PopFla]

...and passengers were not able to disembark because U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had already gone home for the evening.

That part I really don't understand. The ship had never left the pier, much less the country, so why would CBP even be involved ?

[chengkp75]

[/size]

That part I really don't understand. The ship had never left the pier, much less the country, so why would CBP even be involved ?

 

Not sure if this has been confirmed or not. But depending on when the ship cleared CBP to leave, which they always have to, they actually had left the country, and were in the Bahamas (on the ship). In order to allow passengers back off the ship, the ship would have needed to clear back into the country.

[ArthurUSCG]

It is a weird legal thing. Basically the cruise line declared that the ship will not be stopping in US waters, and the passengers left US land. It is a weird CBP thing that they have to reprocess the passengers back to verify they didn't leave US territoral waters.

 

The same thing happens with airlines. Once the passages go thru CBP to board the plane, and the flight is cancelled, you have to go back thru CBP to leave the international terminal.

 

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[AmazedByCruising]

My personal theory is that since the ship was under Pullmantur for several years, they might have run into that batch of "counterfeit" lifejackets, and these were not caught last fall, and this time they were.

 

Whatever happened, RC did not see this coming. It feels like it's a bit of a gamble for the cruiseline each time a ship enters a port.

 

I wonder how the inspections take place. Is it possible for a company to ask for "horizontal oversight"? For instance, RC allows (and pays for) inspections to take place by a few inspectors that embark for a week every month or so. USCG can check more, like how the procedure to check lifejackets are actually conducted when the ship is at sea. They can also restrict the inspections to just the checkboxes that need ticking this month.

 

In return, checkboxes are also ticked at a regular pace, giving peace of mind to the ship, and RC is guaranteed that there won't be very costly surprises.

[chengkp75]

Whatever happened, RC did not see this coming. It feels like it's a bit of a gamble for the cruiseline each time a ship enters a port.

 

I wonder how the inspections take place. Is it possible for a company to ask for "horizontal oversight"? For instance, RC allows (and pays for) inspections to take place by a few inspectors that embark for a week every month or so. USCG can check more, like how the procedure to check lifejackets are actually conducted when the ship is at sea. They can also restrict the inspections to just the checkboxes that need ticking this month.

 

In return, checkboxes are also ticked at a regular pace, giving peace of mind to the ship, and RC is guaranteed that there won't be very costly surprises.

 

You have to realize that the USCG inspectors do not only inspect cruise ships, but they try to inspect every foreign ship that calls at their ports at least once a year. There is no way that the CG has the manpower to place inspectors onboard a cruise ship for a week, even quarterly. The CG inspectors don't care how the jackets are inspected by the crew, no more than they care how the last set of USCG inspectors inspected the jackets. Even when they are inspecting a US flag ship for its annual flag state inspection, where they look at everything in even more detail than a PSC inspection, they are only there for the day.

 

Last September, after Majesty's drydocking, which was extended due to problems with USPH, the USCG came onboard for the first PSC inspection since the ship had gone to Pulmantur seven years ago. This is typically an intense inspection, being the first, and I can't believe that marginal jackets were let slide at that time, nor that so many of them deteriorated in 6 months.

[Loonbeam]

It's also worth noting that ships being so big, an inspection cannot cover every item in just a few hours. There are certain core items that are always checked, but inspectors also have their own key items that they tend to look at. It's possible the life jackets hadn't been looked at by USCG in quite a while.

 

Whatever happened, RC did not see this coming. It feels like it's a bit of a gamble for the cruiseline each time a ship enters a port.

 

I wonder how the inspections take place. Is it possible for a company to ask for "horizontal oversight"? For instance, RC allows (and pays for) inspections to take place by a few inspectors that embark for a week every month or so. USCG can check more, like how the procedure to check lifejackets are actually conducted when the ship is at sea. They can also restrict the inspections to just the checkboxes that need ticking this month.

 

In return, checkboxes are also ticked at a regular pace, giving peace of mind to the ship, and RC is guaranteed that there won't be very costly surprises.

[chengkp75]

It's also worth noting that ships being so big, an inspection cannot cover every item in just a few hours. There are certain core items that are always checked, but inspectors also have their own key items that they tend to look at. It's possible the life jackets hadn't been looked at by USCG in quite a while.

 

Not quite correct. Everything will get looked at every time, its just that some items will be looked at in more detail than others, as you say, depending on the inspectors personal hot button items. And, as I've said, Majesty's PSC inspection in September was a intense one, with several inspectors, because the ship had not been inspected in years. And lifejackets will always be at the top of any inspector's list.

[ArthurUSCG]

Agreed 100%, failing lifejackets is the one major item for all vessel classes.

 

I have been on multiple boardings where we have terminated voyages for insufficient or failing life jackets. Or the wrong size for the people onboard. Yes there are multiple sizes based on weight classification.

 

6 months of time soakings in a humid environment is long enough to degrade the foam. But counter fit life jackets would be very likely. Especially if the ship spent any time overseas.

 

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[AmazedByCruising]

You have to realize that the USCG inspectors do not only inspect cruise ships, but they try to inspect every foreign ship that calls at their ports at least once a year. There is no way that the CG has the manpower to place inspectors onboard a cruise ship for a week, even quarterly.

 

For a cargo ship it's probably costly to have to stay in port for an extra day when they want to sail, but IMHO cruise ships are special. Thousands of passengers demanding OBC and free cruises, and some of them will be interviewed on TV about narrowly escaping a disaster.

 

Again, I don't exactly know what happens during an inspection. But I can imagine that there's a list of 1000 things inspectors can check. And I can also very well understand that on any ship, at least 40 of those are not 100% OK and it's not even possible to achieve 100% without replacing half the passengers with more crew. Of which one would be responsible for preventing ceiling panels from falling on the floor which could make the captain trip over them while trying to reach the bridge in an emergency.

 

(this is where I look at you to see if these numbers make any sense. I'll continue as if you're not shaking your head in dispair)

 

And then, one of those 40 items is actually checked and not found to be 100% OK, but 80%. Coinciding with a grumpy inspector, or one whose claim to fame will be that "his" ship was on the news in 2017. In a lot of threads I'm told "you can't do that, think about the ambulance chasers", but this is a serious risk as well.

 

That's why I said that RC should actually pay USCG for horizontal oversight (which would be salary + an inside cabin + food) RC could prevent big problems by paying to find smaller ones that can be handled more easily. In this case, after one lifejacket seemed bad, having a week to find out the percentage of lifejackets that needs replacing, and another month to find a supplier that can't take advantage of a ship that cannot sail. USCG could simply hire more people just for the cruise industry.

 

Mutatis mutandis for USPH inspections. Having an OK immediately after installing a new dishwasher, instead of hoping the inspector likes it must bring peace of mind. Having 27 broken tiles in the galley is not exactly as it should be, but here's the official statement by USPH that replacing them can wait until the new ovens are installed in May except for the 8 tiles near the door that actually pose a threat.

[iceman93]

That's why I said that RC should actually pay USCG for horizontal oversight (which would be salary + an inside cabin + food) RC could prevent big problems by paying to find smaller ones that can be handled more easily.

 

 

I disagree. Their own staff should be checking and fixing items. It's not like the list of things to be inspected is any secret.