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Original poster

The British on holiday

75 replies

percheron67 · 19/08/2018 22:18

Flip me! I have just watched the news and seen the item about the passenger who "fell off the back of the ship" whilst on a cruise. I am lucky enough to have cruised a great deal and there is no way you can just fall off! The barriers around the decks and cabins are very high. It seems that, as well as falling off balconies in Spain, people are managing to dive into the ocean as part of their holiday experience.

OP posts:
HostessTrolley · 20/08/2018 09:11

I was on a flight to Barcelona recently, a British chap asked the man seated across the aisle if he would swap seats so he could sit next to his partner. They swapped seats immediately, we were accelerating up the runway for takeoff at the time. The cabin crew were 😱😱😱😱😱

missbattenburg · 20/08/2018 09:14

It's obvious, isn't it?

She was leaning way over to see the uh, the uh, propellors. And she slipped.

It turns out is IS true what they say about women and machinery Grin

BarefootHippieChick · 20/08/2018 09:16

By the title, I thought this thread was going to be about Brits getting drunk in Ibiza or sunburnt on the beach in Spain.

Obviously not.

idonthaveatattoo · 20/08/2018 09:41

Well, there have been a few cases of people mysteriously vanishing from cruise ships, like Rebecca Cormier and Any Bradley.

cariadlet · 20/08/2018 09:48

I agree that 10 hours in the water would be exhausting and scary, but as others have said the water was warm and calm.

For something really impressive, read about Brett Archibald. He survived 28 hours in the Indian Ocean and had to cope with storms, jellyfish and sharks!

I listened to him talking about it on a podcast and it was unbelievable what he went through and how he kept going.

longwayoff · 20/08/2018 09:48

Helpme, me too. I envisage a cruise as being similar to being trapped in an ITV Saturday night. For weeks. Over the railings for me.

youarenotkiddingme · 20/08/2018 09:52

Hoof Thanks

She was cabin crew? Shock

youarenotkiddingme · 20/08/2018 09:56

Doh! I get it she's cabin crew - not if the boat though!

The bbc news article just confuses it even more!

onlyjustme · 20/08/2018 10:01

Perhaps we hear of British people falling off boats because we are in Britain?
In Spain there might me news of Spanish people falling off boats...
Etc

BarbaraofSevillle · 20/08/2018 10:01

I think (airline) cabin crew was what she did for a job, therefore, you would expect that she had survival training for plane crashes.

The BBC explains how to increase your chance of not drowning long enough for rescurers to find you, so it would appear a combination of favourable conditions (warm, calm sea) and knowing what to helped her not panic and not drown until they found her. Also floating rather than trying to tread water to conserve energy.

Yes, she's very lucky - what an ordeal.

Interesting what they say about women having better chance than men due to being more buoyant. I'm a relatively good swimmer and can effortlessly float or tread water - I'm slightly overweight but not massively so. DP is more overweight than me, but also very muscular, to the extent that he is actually negatively buoyant - he cannot float at all and it takes him an enormous effort to tread water and not sink - we're scuba divers so if we ever get lost at sea, I'll have to hope our buoyancy aids hold up, because I'm going to have a hell of a time keeping him afloat otherwise.

SerenDippitty · 20/08/2018 10:03

The BBC news article says she was a guest.

Did she work as airline cabin crew? If so she would probably have had some training in water survival techniques.

abacucat · 20/08/2018 10:33

I have been on a ship that felt massively unsafe at the rails. I kept well away from them, but would not have been surprised if someone had fallen over.
While it is true that most people who fall overboard do so because they are drunk - leaning over the side to vomit is the most common cause, or messing about on the railings, some do fall over accidentally when they are sober and not messing about.

youarenotkiddingme · 20/08/2018 17:01

What miraculous is she fell at midnight when it was pitch black and 7 of those 10 hours she was floating in the sea in the dark

Want2bSupermum · 20/08/2018 17:10

The conditions for crew are terrible. I went on a short cruise about 10 years ago and will never go on another. The staff were pretty much all exploited. The lady cleaning our room was from Grenada and had 7DC she was supporting. People were complaining about the tip whilst paying $700 USD for a 5 day cruise per person. We spent about $700 on tips between all the different staff who took care of us.

Want2bSupermum · 20/08/2018 17:15

Pressed post too early...

There are probably quite a few crew who jump off to commit suicide. I would imagine other passengers choose cruise ships as their choice of death (apparently this is a major issue on the Alaska route as the water is cold so if you don't die from jumping the cold water will do the job). Also, as a PP said, with the right conditions of wind and position, it's quite easy to fall off.

My family had a yacht growing up. Even at 100ft we had a surprisingly high number of people fall off when the weather was ok.

Beautifulblue · 20/08/2018 19:25

We have an answer

The British on holiday
birdladyfromhomealone · 21/08/2018 00:39

Kay is a friend of mine
A lovely vibrant kind beautiful women inside and out.
I hate the way we all speculate without knowing the facts.
We all have rows with our loved ones, we all drink too much on holiday, we all do silly things when had one to many.
Most of us , by the grace of god don't have a life challenging drama.
Its very hard as her friend or for her family who will read this, to read what people may think, who know nothing about her.
I had the press call me at 6am
please dont speculate about her life.

Theimpossiblegirl · 21/08/2018 02:11

Oh well if it's in The Sun, it must be true. Wink

Birdlady, you sound like a great friend, most posters are just glad she survived.

Want2bSupermum · 21/08/2018 02:14

birdlady I hope she gets some privacy and any help she needs. You do sounds like a wonderful friend. I hope she recovers from this.

notangelinajolie · 21/08/2018 02:18

I've been on a few cruises and there is no way you can just fall off a ship. She was either pushed, jumped or participating in something that would have her sitting on the rail.

Monty27 · 21/08/2018 02:34

What is with the judgie post OP? Hmm

cariadlet · 21/08/2018 07:05

She might be a lovely kind woman and she certainly showed great appreciation for her rescuers, but I still don't see how you could fall over those rails without being very drunk or very stupid and her accident inconvenienced thousands of people.

I'm glad that she didn't suffer any serious injuries and that it all turned out well but I'm still a bit judgy about what happened.

notaswarmtomorrow · 21/08/2018 11:31

Climbing off the back of a cruise liner certainly falls under the category of 'silly' things to do whilst drunk...

Birdsgottafly · 21/08/2018 11:56

""We have an answer""

Not totally we don't and in truth, we don't need an answer.

They same people that reported the drunken rows, also said that she was sobbing at the back of the ship for quite a while. It's a shame that they never went and asked her if they could help/she talk to them/tell a crew member etc.

Luckily she survived, but if she hadn't have, they would have missed the opportunity to save her life.

There's been two people jump of bridges to their death, not far from me. Again their are witnesses reporting seeing them in a distressed state, but they didn't speak to them, or report it to anyone.

Yet we are all supposed to be on the lookout for potential suicides.

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