Seabourn defends debarking elderly couple for skipping drill

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Posted on: May 21, 2012 email the editors email a friend small medium large View Comments Home Topics Cruise By Donna TunneyThe most striking image to date in the saga of how maritime safety has changed since the Costa Concordia wreck might well be the sight of two elderly passengers standing with their baggage on a Lisbon pier, debarked for having missed a muster.

Seabourn, the line that booted them, is standing by its decision to force the California couple to disembark the Seabourn Sojourn on May 12, after the wife missed the ship's mandatory passenger safety drill before the ship departed from Lisbon.

And the agent who booked them said the lesson learned is simple: He will relate this experience to other cruise clients so they are fully aware what the ramifications can be if they don't show up at a drill.

The agent, Steven Shulem, president of Strictly Vacations, in Santa Barbara, Calif., said the couple had booked a 20-day, three-leg cruise from Rome to Hamburg, Germany, and had participated in the drill when the ship left Rome on May 4. At the start of the second leg, from Lisbon, another drill was announced and held, per industry policy.

But the 84-year-old woman wasn't feeling well, and since she had participated in the drill before leaving Rome, she decided to skip it, Shulem said. Her 90-year-old husband attended both drills.

Within an hour of the Lisbon drill, the two found themselves watching from shore as the Sojourn sailed off.

"I think Seabourn could have handled this differently," Shulem said. According to his client's account, when the elderly lady didn't show at the drill, a crew member was sent to her room. She told that person she wasn't well.

"Fifteen minutes later, an officer was at their door, telling her the couple needed to disembark," Shulem said. "The staff packed them up and put them off."

Passenger safety drills have taken on new urgency

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