IT’S not a scene easily forgotten . . . a sizeable cruise ship perilously positioned against a sheer rock wall, then only 15 hours later, the Sea Dind <$>is shown disappearing into the dark depths of Greece’s Santorini Bay.It’s just further proof that there is no such thing as an unsinkable ship!

Such a tragedy leaves many unanswered questions for cruise passengers. In fact, it’s still a main subject of conversation as this is being written cruising to Alaska aboard Regent’s Seven Seas Mariner in early May.

Once safely ashore or rescued onto another vessel, a long list of questions begin to emerge after original galvanising shock dissipates. First off, survivors are in such shock they’re simply thankful to be alive.But then they, like other cruise enthusiasts safely at home hearing about yet another disaster, start wondering . . . what’s the value of all those designer evening gowns that went down with the ship, your computer and other valuable electronic equipment, jewellery, cash, passports left in the safe while rushing for life boats? And on and on.BK>There<$> hasn’t been a day go by on board the Mariner that some questions of that sort haven’t entered into conversations. Suspecting that might be the case, we have our contract in hand, along with another from a previous Alaska cru via Crystal Harmony <$>in September 2004. Crystal transferred that ship to Japan, but it still has two other ships in service.We’re focusing on what these contracts have to say about passengers’ rights, since both companies like to proclaim they’re in the five- and six-star category. If they seem excessively restrictive, one can only imagine what some lesser star, more moderately priced lines’ contracts are like.

Only days out of San Francisco, passengers woke to televised national news scenes of another near disaster. The Empress of North<$>, a Delta Queen-like paddlewheeler, reminiscent of Alaska’s early gold rush riverboat days, was taking on water after running onto rocks on the Lynn Canal after departing from Juneau, Alaska’s capital.

First reports said around 240 passengers were in the process of being evacuated in the dark of night, surrounded by 45-degree water and snow-capped peaks.

And if the passenger list was anything like ours on this May 12 11-night sailing, a surprising number may be in wheelchairs, use walkers or need the help of canes to navigate. An officer confided that almost one of three of Regent’s 700 passengers was physically challenged.

Wonderful, of course, that they decide to enjoy travel despite handicaps, but frightening when one imagines them being evacuated in such an emergency.

Several days into our cruise, we actually encouned the Empress of the North looking quite fit and riding high in the water along Auke Bay’s shore outside Juneau.

“It’s in need of some repair,” confided another vessel’s captain. “It could have been a lot worse.”

In response to our “What happened?” query, he told us a third mate, fresh from training at the academy, was given night-time duty and made too sharp a turn coming around rocks lining an island’s shore, striking those rocks. He said: “It’s not the first time they’ve run aground.”

Back to the contracts, now being studied even more intensely. On both this cruise and via Crystal Harmony, my brother Jim had wanted to take his MacKenzie regimental kilt and all its assorted accoutrements for black-tie evenings he finds boringly confort. Until<$> he read the contract. Yes, both ships have wonderful walk-in-closets, but amazingly, their contents are insured for a total of $200. Since replacement cost of Jim’s fancy hand-knit stockings with their lattice top and flashes carried a price tag of that much alone at an Edinburgh kilt shop during our last visit there, he decided to opt for a MacKenzie black-tie outfit he had tailored in Hong Kong.Anyone who owns a genuine regimental kilt knows the whole outfit costs as much as a Dior original. What about jewellery? Or anything else in your safe for that matter? Two hundred is the total insurance value listed in the contract.

And if you leave valuables in the ship’s main safe — let’s say your grandmother’s vintage pearls or a diamond ring intended as a surprise for your wife celebrating a 25th-wedding anniversary — “regardless of their value, the limit is $2,000”.

In order to receive that much, you must declare their value in writing and pay “the declared value charge required by Company. In no event shall Company’s total liability for declared goods exceed US$2,000 regardless of the declared value.”

Help!

Yes, we definitely realised the only sharks one encounters while cruising aren’t in the water. There are predators on board, as well, and the cruise line does have to protect itself from those only too anxious to make excessive claims and file outrageous law suits.

But when you have paid $13,177 for 11 nights (ten days) in a Penthouse C category accommodation (exclusive of travel there and associated over night expenses, transfers, etc.) as we did, isn’t it more than just a little bit greedy to set such stringent limitations on your valued possessions, even if stolen?

And believe me, they do try and sell you extra insurance . . . and everything else endlessly, as though you’re imprisoned on a floating Wal-mart. The hustle never ends.

Years ago I’d been sent off to do a story on Carnival’s Jubilee for a travel trade publication and it was an endless hard sell every minute of the day. Videos, drinks, excursions, jewellery . . . the sound penetrated walls of my cabin even with the TV was off.

One doesn’t expect this sort of thing o ship in Mariner’s <$>price category. But it was very much the same. And if one turned off the TV to avoid the hustle, the daily ship’s bulletin had a heady dose of it.

This isn’t the way it used to be in the classier days of the grande luxe, truly multi-star liners remembered among those more than 60 ships on which we’ve sailed since childhood. But they were truly ships, not floating resorts with a laser focus on the bottom line.

And, no, we certainly aren’t in any way anti-insurance. Quite the contrary. Besides all our other assorted insurances, we carry a multi-million-dollar umbrella policy. But that’s our choice.

Here the line is limiting its liability, literally forcing passengers to buy more insurance from to enhance its own bottom line. Yes, bean counters are definitely in every imaginable aspect of the cruise industry.

Search the Internet some time and you’ll get an eye-opener on passenger law suits against cruise ships; www.cruisebruise.com is one.

Sitting here on deck with the advantage of lawyer brother Jim at my side, we were busy dissecting these two contracts together. But by now, passengers on our ship were regaling us and each other with “Can you top this?” adventures they’ve experienced at sea, and there were many very interesting interruptions.

One older couple, who seemed to have been absolutely everywhere, had a list of them involving the ship we were on.

“We ran into a hurricane off Argentina with 100 mph winds. That was really something. The experience was so terrifying, my blood pressure went through the roof,” confided the husband.

“Eventually I had to go ashore to a hospital to be checked out and they said I couldn’t fly home until it stabilised. But we’d bought our air ticket from the cruise line and they did a good job taking care of changing flights and other arrangements. They also gave us a deal on our next cruise.”

“We were on a cruise on this ship where we had to turn around over two days out,” yet another world traveller told us. Not in the least deterred by any adventure that ended well, they seemed to delight in the telling.

“We were headed for Hawaii when a passenger suffered a very serious heart attack and had to be taken to California for treatment. That meant cancelling two islands on the itinerary because of the incident.;But<$> again, Regent offered future trip compensation that pleased these travellers. Certainly such a delay was very understandable and any sympathetic person with empathy would definitely approve such a delay.“The one that scared me most was the last cruise when someone had to be airlifted off the ship via helicopter after a very serious heart attack the ship’s hospital couldn’t handle,” continued the world traveller.

“They lowered a basket from the helicopter and lifted the person up. That experience would have been enough to give me a heart attack,” he said.

And so it went. Some of the older fellow passengers seemed to literally go from ship to ship and could fill a book with their adventures and misadventures.

None fazed them unduly — in fact, as long as they survived, retelling their crisis seemed to actually revitalise their flagging energy.

“I’d taken out the cruise line’s special insurance but they didn’t cover the on-board doctor’s $800 bill when the hurricane sent my blood pressure to dangerous heights.”

The retired president of our bank, a lawyer, is still simmering over an incident involving a totally different cruise line, also upscale, where he had a major health incident and compensation he considered covered in his insurance contract was denied, even though he had taken out extra company-offered insurance to cover everything.

So read it very carefully.

Also in both contracts is a provision that “the doctors and nurses, even if designated officers of the vessel, are not agents for or employees of the company, but rather independent contractors”.

“Company shall not be liable for any aspect of medical treatment provided to the passenger including, but not limited to the consequences of any examinations, advice, diagnosis, medication, treatment, prognosis or other professional services which such doctors or nurses may furnish the passenger.”

In both contracts, you consent to treatments on board or on shore when the line deems it necessary. . . “ in countries in which a different standard of medical care applies than that which the guest may be accustomed”. And an officer confided they are quick to remove you to limit their liability.

If someone has the misfortune to not survive in a maritime accident, how much does the line consider a “reasonable” death settlement? We’ll tell you about that and more contract surprises next week.

[x] Next week:<$> Cruise contracts are not pleasant reading

Getting that sinking feeling