Be careful when the sea is calling

//Be careful when the sea is calling

sunset.jpgIt’s an all-too-familiar situation for many cruise passengers. The cocktail hour has just passed, and maybe one-too-many glasses has been downed at the end of a long and tiring day on an excursion ashore.
The dinner table beckons, but just look at that spectacular sunset! Must take a picture. Your camera is back in the cabin but no worries, you’ve got a mobile phone in your pocket. Dash to the ship’s rail, switch to camera mode, press the button, and . . . splash.
The iPhone is not your phone any more; Davy Jones says “That’s my phone” and adds it to the collection in his locker.
I’ve seen it happen myself, to an unfortunate colleague whose BlackBerry slipped from his grasp and into the wake mid-call. But it happens even more often than I had realised, according to research which claims that more than one in ten British passengers have lost a piece of high-tech kit overboard in the past year.
More phones than anything else are lost, but cameras and camcorders, MP3 players and mobile games consoles have gone over the rail. Even Kindle e-readers are going overboard – possibly in frustration at the latest chapter of 50 Shades of Greybeard.
Complex mathematical calculations – based on the fact that 1.7 British million passengers took a cruise last year, and the average item lost was worth £89.46 means that the total value of lost electronics adds up to an astonishing £16.7 million.
The research was carried out on behalf of online cruise travel agent bonvoyage.co,uk, whose development manager Steph Curtin said::
“This was really interesting research to conduct as it really brings home how much money is lost by simple mistakes when on board a cruise ship. Leaning over the deck to take a picture of the sunset can seem like a great idea- but it’s very easy to accidentally have your camera fall from your hand.
“I would strongly recommend that people check whether these sorts of accidents are covered by their holiday insurance provider before they cruise because unfortunately once it’s overboard, it’s gone. Many handheld items such as cameras and mobile phones have attachable straps that can be looped around your wrist or around your neck so be sure to use these if you have one.”

By | 2017-06-15T15:59:45+00:00 2 August 2012|Cruise News|0 Comments

About the Author:

John Honeywell is a travel writer specialising in cruise ships and cruise travel. Winner of CLIA UK's Contribution to Cruise award 2017.

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