MSC Opera

[corrientes]

You will never please all cruise passengers all the time. That is human nature. To pick out a single adverse review is meaningless. After every cruise, regardless of company you will find a selection of reviews such as that above. C'est la vie. The thousands and thousands of returning cruise passengers world wide, lends a lie to such reviews.
MSC have had a recent run of misfortune, however, a little diligent research will show they are not by a long shot the only ones and to single them out is unjust. Many of the remarks I read on this and other forums condemning the training and professionalism of their masters come from those who have no knowledge whatever of the individuals concerned. I, purely by coincidence and through my own employment, have had the pleasure of knowing some of the current MSC masters since their cadet days and can state that they are of the highest caliber. There are exceptions everywhere ie. Costa Concordia but one should refrain from painting them all with the same brush. That is "unprofessional"!!

[Captain Kong]

I have attended an Official Admiralty Court of Inquiry and the results were Distorted, I was amazed.

[Red Lead Ted]

The reason is quiet simple really and like a load of other mishaps that are happening ashore. It all comes down to working with technology that has surpassed what anyone ever thought it would be. Couple that up with inadequatly trained crews and it is a recipe for disaster. Where are all those fecking idiots that where shouting their heads of about doing away with unions and the company would look after their employees. We not only have ships crewed from the old man down with tickets from corn flake packets but not paying good wages has the affect of no bloody loyalty to the company either.

Agree Les, What you have mentioned also brings the added problem of the language barrier, The crews today on most of these cruisers are a right mixture, Which brings its own problems especially in an event like this one where crews have very little time to react. If an order came down from the bridge on the focsl,e in our day we all understood what and why that order was given, Not todays crew, And in my opinion mooring a ship from below decks was never the best aspect in shipping especially aboard these liners of today, Eyes on the bridge bodies below the deck { focsl,e } Lets see how long it is before there is another real disaster because in my opinion they are all disasters waiting to happen. p.s. How did we ever manage

[John Arton]

According to this account the engines were "blocked", which I assume was they were not responding to telegraph orders. So why did he not push the emergency stop button which I would hazard a guess at as being near to the engine telegraph control, at it was on every vessel I sailed on irrespective of the propulsion means.
As for enclosed focsle heads, many of us would possibly longer for them back in the day as standing by with the anchor/mooring party on the focsle in howling wind/rain/snow in freezing weather or even baking under hot tropical sun, whilst the captain and/ or pilot took an age to choose exactly where to anchor or berth the ship, we would have prayed for a bit of shelter. Those enclosed focsle and aft, mooring stations are all covered by CCTV cameras so the bridge team has real time eyes on those areas at all times. It works as on one of my ships, due to the enclosed bridge and the arrangement of the twin funnels atop the all aft accommodation, there was no view of the aft mooring station so I was reliant on CCTV coverage to keep an eye on what was going on there whilst mooring.
Rgds
J.A.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/world-europe-48496412

[Red Lead Ted]

JOHN, I take on board your point, I still if I was on deck use a heaving line and half a dozen pairs of eyes, And the inevitable scream from the wing of the bridge, {Check the spring } Terry.

[Samuel Denton]

MSC shipping has had at least 5 major incidents in recent years, this week MSC Opera, Venice, last week MSC Matilda, vessel takes on severe list crew evacuated, Liverpool 24/5/2019,The MSC Orchestra and MSC Poesia smashed into each other outside the port in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 22/2/19,MSC Susana & MSC Ines 10/10 2017 ran aground leaving Durban, MSC Dalma Cadet dies in fall 31/3/2017,MSC Colombia, Cadet killed in elevator shaft 8/8/2007, MSC Napoli structural failure in heavy seas 18/1/2007. Certainly not a record to be proud of.

[Les Woodard]

John along with RLT I understand all that but like RLT would still prefer our old ways even though would curse them at times especially in winter but Oh how great it was once we where finished and supping on either a hot cuppa or cold can. Going back into the old memory banks? Remember how we would keep a close eye on our watches to see if we could break the hour for another hours O/T and how the bridge clock always was behind everyones watch when we demanded the extra hour would always be told that the bridge had informed the mate that we had not broken the hour LOL.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

After 16 years at sea on all kinds of ships not one was in trouble at sea owing to the crew, had a few scrapes sailing on rust buckets with shifting cargo in stormy weather but that was it. In the last ten or twenty years I have felt sorry for anyone who has to go to sea, I may not be correct and it could be that reporting is better; but it seems that there are more ships in trouble and seamen dying now than then.
Cheers Des

[Les Woodard]

Des how true when in rough weather being summoned down one of the hatches because some cargo had gone adrift and having to jump out of the way when it cam towards you. Recall having that problem with a car in the hold that had come adrift and how we would be hanging of the battens and then jumping down to get lines connected to the car. Yes the old rust buckets when you would have to carry a large hammer around to test the ring bolts as most of them where inadequat to do the job.

[happy daze john in oz]

Modern ships, very few crew, too much technology to go wrong, not enough fully qualified experts on board to deal with tech failures.
Apart from that they are good, providing of course the cargos, mainly containers, stay in place.